Looking Back at Bratislava 2026
The Festival Bratislava 2026 concluded one week ago, on March 1st, and we can now look back on a very successful first Festival edition of 2026. Despite not having a guaranteed prize pool in the Main Event, a great number of 505 entries were still accumulated across six opening flights. As a result, the event created a very nice, comfortable, and competitive atmosphere.
Monday, 23th of February, 2026
The first day of the event is usually the calmest day of the week, but that turned out not to be the case this time. With the TORSES Mixed Main Event and The Hendon Mob Championship hosting their opening flights, quite some tables were already occupied throughout the day. The Seniors Event then kicked off in the afternoon, and during the later hours one of the most popular mixed games tournaments was scheduled — the Razz PKO. For Hold'em players, the NLH Knockout Madness was on the schedule as well.
But on top of all this, perhaps one of the most prestigious trophies of the day was awarded during the Heads-Up tournament, mano v mano. It was eventualy Hungarian player Antal Mezei who outlasted a field of 25 players and took home €2,668 and the trophy after busting Estonian Ralf Mikk in the final heads-up battle.
Another outstanding achievement was the one of Thomas Udness, who is the organiser of the Norwegian Poker Championship on Norwegian soil. He outlasted a field of 23 players to take home € 2,456 for his efforts. This makes the head-to-head score with Martin 'Franke' von Zweigbergk: 1-1. As Franke had managed to win a tournament during the Championship in Norway at the end of last year.
| Tournament Name | Winner |
|---|---|
| NLH Heads-Up Tournament | |
| NLH Seniors Event (50+) | |
| PL RAZZ P.K.O. | |
| NLH Knockout Madness | |
Tuesday, 24th of February, 2026
The day of glory arrised. The day that the Main Event would have its first opening flight with Day 1/A, and which would be a great indicator of how the Main Event would be received, without having a guaranteed prize pool. It turned out to be a very decent amount of entries on the opening day, and not just that, the TORSES Mixed Main Event had its final opening flight and that reached a whopping total of 52 entries.
Of course, The Hendon Mob Championship had it's second opening flight, but all eyes were set on the trophy events. This time, the HORSE, Half 'n Half (with bombpot feature), and the NLH Win The Button tournaments were the ones that would play down to a winner. The vibe was absolutely amazing throughout the day, and great champions were crowned.
Bartlomiej Heberla, or Bartek as they would say in Poland, won the Half 'n Half tournament, which had attracted a cool total of 96 entries. Eventually he had made a heads-up deal with Scott Kenyon, and walked away with €2,454 in prize money. The H.O.R.S.E tournament, one of the pearls of Mixed Games, was won by Ivo Petkov, who outlasted 63 entries, and collected €2,083 for his win. In the late hours, there was also a victory for Ukraine, when Yevhenii Ivanov bested a field of 62 entries for a €2,199 payday.
| Tournament Name | Winner |
|---|---|
| Half ’n Half (NLH/PLO) Bomb Pot Feature | |
| H.O.R.S.E. | |
| NLH Win the Button Madness | |
Wednesday, 25th of February, 2026
Wednesday, half way through the series let's say! And boy, did it not dissapoint! The TORSES Mixed Main Event got another Norwegian winner, and this time it wasn't Jon Kyte, who was not present at the event, but it was Thor Morstoel who took the first 5-figure score of the week with €10,365. An outstanding performance from the Norwegian player, who would also note a min-cash in the NLH Main Event later in the end of the week.
But the Wednesday didn't went into the books at Norwegian Day, because The Netherlands dominated the results on Wednesday, as well as the poker media news. Flaghunter Koen Roos, who collected a whopping total of 50 different flags on his Hendon Mob profile in 2025 (50 tournament cashes in 50 different countries), received an official The Hendon Mob Award for his awesome achievement, which turned out to be an official World Record as well!
To round it off, it was Bas de Laat who took down the third Bomb Pot tournament in The Festival history. De Laat, usually playing much higher stakes as during The Festival events, came down to Bratislava once again, and not without success this time. He collected €2,442 for his win, but that wasn't the most important for him, as he really wanted to win a Festival trophy, and this he finally managed!
| Tournament Name | Winner |
|---|---|
| Mixed Games Main Event – TORSES Final Day |  Thor Morstoel |
| Open Face Chinese Pineapple |  Koen Roos |
| PLO High Roller |  Samuiel Stan |
| Bomb Pot Madness (NLH/PLO) | Bas de Laat |
| NLH P.K.O. Madness |  Jari Pekka Rattya |
Thursday, 26th of February, 2026
To continue The Hendon Mob streak, it was time for the final of The Hendon Mob Championship event. A grand total of 330 entries were made in this €250 buy-in event, and it was eventually Greece who would walk away with the title as Andreas Paliogiannis took down the event for €13,567.
We don't see very often that a player from France wins an event at The Festival, mainly as the amount of players from France is rather fragile at the event. Gilles Lamy however, took down the first edition of the Baby TORSES event. And what a success that was with 68 in total entries.
The biggest news of the day was perhaps the arrival of Canadian pro Ari Engel. The lord of the rings, came with his girlfriend Heon Jo Kim (MeetJoKim), all the way to Bratislava for to enjoy their time at our event. It doesn't happen often that a player of such caliber joins the ranks at The Festival, let alone that he managed to win his first-ever Sviten Special tournament! For Engel it might be just another win, but if you consider that Sviten Special is usually dominated by the Northern part of Europe, and the field in Bratislava was mainly consisting out of Finnish, Swedish, and Norwegian players, you can imagine how tough crowd it must have been.
| Tournament Name | Winner |
|---|---|
| The Hendon Mob Championship Final Day |  Andreas Paliogiannis |
| Sviten Special |  Ari Engel |
| NLH High Roller |  Martin Ilavsky |
| Baby TORSES (Supreme) |  Gilles Lamy |
| Bratislava Deepstack Day 1 | Georgios Sourlas |
| NL Crazy Pineapple Turbo Madness |  Jaroslav Stulhofer |
Friday, 27th of February, 2026
The Friday was all about the amount of tournaments offered. A whopping six champions would be crowned, and in the results we could already see that the Austrians started to find their way to Bratislava. Christian Jung and Reinhard Faltejsek, both Austrians, went back to Austria with a trophy under their belt.
It wasn't the only topic of the day, as the Player of the Series came down to its conclusion as well, with just the final weekend ahead. Lachezar Tsenov, took important points on the hunt for the win in the Player of the Series. Anne Bezdek, a regular at The Festival, managed to secure the title in the Ladies Event.
| Tournament Name | Winner |
|---|---|
| 8-Game Mix |  Dieter Kuehnl |
| The Festival Queens | Anne Bezdek |
| PLO 4/5/6 Cards |  Christian Jung |
| NLH 15k GTD | Reinhard Faltejsek |
| PL 2-7 Double Draw |  Lachezar Tsenov |
| NLH Turbo Madness | Markus Volk |
Saturday, 28th of February, 2026
The sportsbook tournament was the only non-poker tournament offered at The Festival Bratislava. This, of course, because of the recent change in regard to the regulations in Bratislava, which doesn't allow casinos anymore to offer any other games besides poker. Sportsbook however, is a format that does get accepted. A total of seven tournaments had to be predicted by the record-breaking field of 42 entries, and it turned out to become a very close game in the end, thanks to unheard results in the selected matches. The final game, Inter Milan versus Genoa, was the deciding match that gave Michal Zielinski the top spot in the tournament, the title, €1,800 in prize money, and thus the trophy.
Kare Hallamaa, known for chasing the Player of the Series during the last several Festival stops, decided it was time to lay low this time. Instead of hunting for points, he tried to do something that he didn't do often before: winning a tournament. The NLH Turbo Madness was won by the Fin, and it almost became two victories on Sunday, as he finished runner-up in the Lowroller.
Poland, very well represented in Bratislava thanks to online qualifiers on WPT Global and KKPoker, had two events winners on Friday with the earlier mentioned Michal Zielinski, and Wiktor Marcinkowski, who won the NLH Mystery Bounty tournament for €9,509 including bounties.
| Tournament Name | Winner |
|---|---|
| NLH Mystery Bounty | |
| Sportsbook Tournament |  Michal Zielinski |
| Big O |  Julius Jurksaitis |
| NLH Turbo Madness | Kare Hallamaa |
| PLO5 Turbo P.K.O. Madness |  Eleftherios Sinnos |
Sunday, 1st of March, 2026
The last day of the event, the day that the Main Event winner would be revealed. Petros Theodosiou from Cyprus had the hottest streak of them all, and went on to win the Main Event for €39,490, after having made a heads-up deal with Zbigniew Wieczorek from Poland, who took home €34,810 for his efforts. In the end, not having a guaranteed prize pool, made it all a lot more comfortable. With 505 entries, in a €550 tournament held in Bratislava, it can be concluded that it had been a great success. Once again, our congratultions go out to Cypriot Petros Theodosiou, what a wonderful winner!
Then there was the conclusion of the 10-Game Mix event. Eventually 44 players laid down €1,100 for the buy-in of the event, and Sergii Baranov from Ukraine defeated Sascha Manns and Marc Gork in the absolute final of the tournament to take it all down. It's for the second time that that Sergii won a prestegious tournament at The Festival, as he had won the TORSES Mixed Main Event in November 2025.
Last but not least, the OFC Pineapple Highroller. Martin 'Franke' von Zweigberk, OFC-specialist from origin, managed to get a podium place in this tournament, which eventually was taken down by Eran Lin for €8,350, who defeated Ilkka Heikkilae in the final heads-up match.
| Tournament Name | Winner |
|---|---|
| Texas Lowroller (1600€ package ADDED) |  Bo Lindahl |
| The Festival 10-Game Mix Day 2 |  Sergii Baranov |
| Main Event Final Day | Petros Theodosiou |
| OFC Pineapple High Roller |  Eran Lin |
Bratislava Done - Road to Rozvadov Started!
Now that The Festival Bratislava officially came to an end, it's time to point the arrows towards Rozvadov, where the second edition of The Festival Rozvadov will be held from June 9-15. Online qualifiers are up and running on various platforms, and on April 13 it's the iPoker Network that will come with a special online qualifier campaign for our event in Rozvadov. However, not before The Fetival Online is being played at the same network from March 29 to April 13.
We hope you all enjoyed our event in Bratislava, and we are looking forward to see all of you at the King's Resort in Rozvadov!
