The Festival Bratislava: Ondrej Chlapek Wins The Hendon Mob Championship – Ville Keranen Tops Field in Record Breaking Sviten Special on Day 4
The Festival Series Bratislava is in full swing at Banco Bratislava, and winners were crowned in a wide variety of events across the tournament floor in Slovakia's capital over the last 24 hours. The 467-runner The Hendon Mob Championship played to its conclusion, and The Festival Series broke new ground and records by holding the €250 Sviten Special, which saw 131 entrants take to the felt, setting a new world record in the process. The Player of the Series leaderboard is also taking shape, and it's a Finnish 1-2 at the top of the counts so far. Let's have a look at what happened over the course of the day.
€250 Sviten Special
Sviten Special is quickly becoming one of Sweden's most popular exports in recent years, as evidenced by the bumper fields that are taking to the felts in these tournaments at The Festival Series. The Festival Series Malta saw 101 take to the felt, and this time, 131 entrants tried their hand at this split-pot game, which set a new world record for the most entrants in a Sviten tournament, according to thehendonmob.com.
Within 45 minutes of the tournament start, 74 total entrants had already made their way to the tables, setting a good pace to break the record. The record was set at the Kings of Tallinn in a €250 Pot Limit Six Max event.
Riku Koivurinne won that tournament in Estonia, and he was in the field here in Bratislava. He was made aware that history and prestige were on the line, as he would hold one of, if not the most unique title in poker history, if he were to win the two biggest Sviten tournaments in poker history thus far.
Koivurinne got his shot at glory. He made it to the final table of this event after a marathon session at the tables. He had some work to do to catch the current POS leader, and Sviten Special Weekend Main Event champion Ville Keranen, if he was to take down the title.
The two Finns ended up heads-up, and Koivurinne had clawed back some of the deficit. However, it was Keranen's day, and he managed to take down Koivurinne within an hour of head-up play to deny Koivurinne his unique accolade, and Keranen secured his place at the top of the POS Leaderboard and his third Festival Series title. Below are the final table payouts.
Sviten Final Table Payouts
| Place | Name | Country | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ville Keraenen | | €5,826 |
| 2 | Riku Koivurinne | | €4,075 |
| 3 | Yurii Rassamakin | | €2,975 |
| 4 | Fabio Bianchi | | €2,250 |
| 5 | Marc Gork | | €1,775 |
| 6 | Bambi | NA | €1,425 |
| 7 | Carlo Braccini | | €1,175 |
€250 The Hendon Mob Championship
A field of 58 returned for the final day of The Hendon Mob Championships. Returning short-stacks quickly departed, and there were 14 eliminations within the opening frames.
The field continued to thin, and the three-table redraw was nearly reached three hours into the day's play. Ondrej Chlapek, who bagged the biggest stack from the opening flights, sat in third. Eventual final tablists Leo Hourtoulle and John Lausch were also in the top 10.
Chlapek was then atop the counts come the final two tables, and it wasn't long after that until the final table was reached.
Tore Pedersen, Urmas Lepik and Siamak Tahmoresnia were the first departures of the final table play. After an hour and a half from that point, play was then three-handed, and Chlapek, Laush and Greek national Asterios Kokompelis had a substantial advantage over their opponents. He came into the final table in the middle of the pack, but spun up to have over 50% of chips in play at one point. Kokompelis peaked at around 70% of the chips in play.
Lausch was next to depart in third, and Chlapek had a mountain to climb. A deal was briefly discussed, and Chlapek declined. The Czech national was resilient, and he managed to complete a comeback in the small hours of this morning to take down The Hendon Mob Championship title, a career best score, and a package to Cape Town. Below are the final table payouts.
The Hendon Mob Championship Final Table Payouts
| Place | Name | Flag | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ondrej Chlapek | | €19,346 |
| 2 | Asterios Kokompelis | | €12,875 |
| 3 | John Lausch | | €8,850 |
| 4 | Arjen Witteveen | | €6,375 |
| 5 | Tony Danielsen | | €4,725 |
| 6 | Leo Hourtoulle | | €3,625 |
| 7 | Tore Pedersen | | €2,900 |
| 8 | Urmas Lepik | | €2,325 |
| 9 | Siamak Tahmoresnia | | €1,925 |
Player of the Series Update
The Player of the Series leader board is taking shape now that we are over the halfway point of this Festival Series. It's a Finnish 1-2 at the top of the counts, and it's set to be a tale of two Ville's for the title, unless one of the chasing pack lands a big win. Below are the top 10, and for the top 100, check out this piece from the Player of the Series scorekeeper, Jonathan Raab.
| Position | Player | Total Points | Events Played |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ville-Matti Keränen | 113.5 | 5 |
| 2 | Ville Hakala | 100.5 | 14 |
| 3 | Miles Rees | 86.25 | 8 |
| 4 | Bambi | 82 | 6 |
| 5 | Fedor Stadtrucker | 78.5 | 9 |
| 6 | Jonas Jurksaitis | 76.25 | 5 |
| 7 | Krystian Nalepka | 74.75 | 3 |
| 8 | Giorgi Mevlupishvili | 73 | 6 |
| 9 | Jarmo Salonen | 72.5 | 8 |
| 10 | Matteo Crapanzano | 71 | 5 |
What's Next?
A winner will be crowned in the first Chicago European Championships today, as will a Queen in the Ladies event. In the evening, there will be a mix of games available in Hold'em, PLO and 2-7 Double Draw.
That's all for now, folks. Stay tuned to the blog, The Festival Series on Facebook and Youtube, as well as @TheFestivalOG on instagram.
