The Festival Series Announces the REAL Main Event for Poker Players!
Of course, the Festival Series will also offer another game they also call the main event, which will only offer the chance for players to hold two cards at a time. But Franke likes to keep his brand at the cutting edge of all things gamble, and he has come up with a real frontrunner with the invention of HORSES! This is a new concept in mixed games and The Festival Series is putting it right out there as the Mixed Games Main Event in the Banco Casino, Bratislava leg of The Festival Series in late Autumn 2023. The tournament will carry a buy-in of €500+€50.
This will be a real test of poker skills, with participants having to shift their mindsets from one game to another every orbit. This is perhaps the poker players’ championship of the festival: the winner will have proven themselves across a range of poker disciplines and will need to be able to play high, low, high-low and high-high variants! Let us take a look at the Mixed Games Main Event in more detail…
What is This New Mix of Games?
The Mixed Games Main Event at the Festival Series stop in Bratislava 2023 will feature six poker games, all of them played with a fixed-limit betting structure. Mixed games players are very familiar with the rotation of games known as HORSE, and this mix will include all the games included in that rotation, plus a sixth game that is very popular in Europe… Sviten Special! This is why this new combination of poker games is being named HORSES.
This event will be a subtle but big improvement on the traditional HORSE mix, which has often been criticised as a test of poker because there are three stud variants that occur one after the other. The complaints mostly centre around the fact that players can miss the change of games and misplay a hand because they think they are playing Razz but are involved in a game of Seven Card Stud: or they mistakenly focus on that latter game after the next change of games has occurred and Seven Card Stud Hilo 8-or-Better is in progress.
Some say if people don’t pay attention to the change of games, they get what they deserve, that is part of the challenge of playing these mixed games. But in my opinion, someone with this kind of limited attention span will be found out anyway. The poker games themselves provide all the test of skills and attention required without the structure of the event adding an extra banana skin on which they can slip.
The addition of Sviten Special to the mix provides an opportunity to have each stud game be preceded and followed by a flop game, and vice versa. The order of games in HORSES that will be operated in the Mixed Games Main Event in The Festival Series Bratislava will be:
- Omaha Hilo 8-or-Better;
- Seven Card Stud
- Texas Hold Em
- Seven Card Stud Hilo 8-or-Better
- Sviten Special
- Razz
This is a great way to run the order of games: as well as separating the stud variants, the two hilo games are separated maximally and within those important confines the split pot games are separated as much as possible.
Note that every time the game changes, the player will receive a different number of cards. This provides a very clear prompt that they need to think about a different game to the one they played the previous hand.
Mixed games poker players throughout Europe and beyond will gather in big numbers to put their skills to the test and aim to become the first winner of the Mixed Games Main Event at The Festival Series.
Mixed Games Main Event – Other Key Facts
The starting stack for the Mixed Games Main Event will be a very playable 30,000 chips and tournament levels will last 30 minutes.
As stated above, all games will play out using a fixed-limit betting structure. Tables will seat a maximum of seven players.
There will be three starting days for the tournament as follows:
- Day 1A, Sunday 26 November, start time 18:00 CET.
- Day 1B, Monday 27 November, start time 19:00 CET.
- Day 1C, Tuesday 28 November, start time 12:30 CET.
Each day 1 will play out for ten levels. There will be two re-entries allowed on each starting flight.
Day 2 will be held on Tuesday 28 November and start at 20:00 CET.
Note that Day 1C, with ten 30-minute levels and some break time, will finish in good time for players to eat, rest a little, take a breath of air, and freshen up ready for day two starting at 20:00.
Multiple Mixed Games Tournaments
As well as the Mixed Games Main Event, fans of more than two cards will be able to get involved in these juicy events:
- Sunday 26 November, 21:00 CET, Event #4, €110+€15 NL Crazy Pineapple.
- Monday 27 November, 14:00, #5, €225+€25 Sviten Special (Pot Limit).
- Tuesday 28 November, 19:00, #13, €110+€15 “Half ‘n Half” (Texas &PLO)
- Wednesday 29 November, 14:00, #19, €225+€25 8-Game
- Wednesday 29 November, 17:00, #22, €1,000+€100 PLO Highroller
- Thursday 30 November, 13:00, #28, €110+€15 HORSE
- Thursday 30 November, 19:00, #32, €225+€25 PLO 4/5/6 Cards
- Friday 1 December, 13:00, #37, €225+€25 Open Face Chinese
- Friday 1 December, 17:00, #39, €225+€25 PLO Masters
- Friday 1 December, 21:00, #42, €110+€15 PLO / PLO8
- Saturday 2 December, 14:00, #46, €225+€25, PLO Freezeout
- Saturday 2 December,22:00, #50, €110+€15 Saturday 5 Card PLO Turbo Midnight Madness
- Sunday 3 December, 16:00, #54, €1,000+€100 OFC Highroller
So, as well as the Mixed Games Main Event there is plenty for everyone who enjoys mixed games poker to get involved with in the tournament schedule at The Festival Series Bratislava!
As always with The Festival Series there will be cash games running all week and these will feature plenty of variants beyond boring old Texas Fold Hold Em! Even the Cash Game Challenge will include a PLO table every day from Monday to Saturday.
Looking forward to seeing you all in Bratislava!
The article is written by Martin Smith, who is a recognized mixed-game poker player and has also published several books on mixed-game strategies.
Qualify to Bratislava: Franke 50 Summers Online Tournament
