The Festival Series Returns To Bratislava For The First Stop of 2026
The Festival Series will be gracing the felts of the venue where it all began back in 2021, Banco Casino Bratislava, in the Slovakian capital. This is now the sixth collaboration between The Festival and Banco, and our second home is ready to welcome players from around the continent and afar to the tables. Here is a look at the two debutants to the schedule, the Baby TORSES and 10-Game Mix, as well as Franke's flips, the Cash Game Challenge, and the Player of the Series.
€125 Baby TORSES
The first of two debutants to the Bratislava schedule will run at the midway point of the week. The €125 Baby TORSES (Supreme) will kick off at 7 p.m. local time on Thursday, 26th February, and will offer players a taste of The Festival's marquee Mixed Game tournament, the €550 TORSES Main Event. The tournament offers players unlimited reentries for the first eight levels, and blind last for 20 minutes each.
For those who want to dip their feet into the Mixed Game waters, this is the tournament to do so, as players can potentially get exposure to six games, provided they play their cards right. The €125 buy-in places it at the lowest end of the buy-in spectrum, and it is sure to attract newcomers to the Mixed Game scene to the tables.
The games that will be played are as follows:
- 2-7 Triple Draw
- Omaha Hi-Lo
- Razz
- Stud
- Stud Hi-Lo (also called Stud Eight or better
- Sviten Special
To learn more about the TORSES games, click here to read our Festival Explains piece.
€1,100 10-Game Mix
The second debutant is one of the top end of the buy-in spectrum - the €1,100 10-Game Mix. Think of it as the €550 Mixed Game Main Event on steroids, with the four additional games being Fixed Limit Badugi, Pot Limit Omaha, Big O (Pot Limit), and Pot Limit 2-7 Double Draw. Here is the lineup in full.
- Fixed Limit 2-7 Triple Draw
- Pot Limit Omaha
- Fixed Limit Stud High-Low 8 or Better
- Fixed Limit Badugi
- Big O (Pot Limit)
- Fixed Limit Stud
- Pot Limit 2-7 Double Draw
- Fixed Limit Omaha High-Low 8 or Better
- Fixed Limit Sviten Special
- Fixed Limit Razz
For the experienced Mixed Game players, this is the tournament to play. The two-day event comes with a €15,000 guarantee and a 40-minute clock for Blind levels. The tournament will kick off at the end of the week, at 6.30 p.m. GMT on Saturday, 28th. Play will then resume on the final day, March 1st, at 12 p.m. GMT. Players have access to unlimited entries until the end of the second level of Day 2.
Check out this article to learn more about the new addition to The Festival Series.
Franke's Flips
It wouldn't be a Festival Series without the famous Franke Flips. Often dubbed by the man himself as "the easiest way to win a package to the next Festival Series stop", the flips are full-ring four-card PLO flips, with each player revealing one card preflop, then one more per street postflop. Whoever wins the most flips that day then progresses to the final flip-off on the final day of the series.
Up for grabs at the final flip-off is a package to The Festival Series worth €1,600! Each flip costs €25, and they will run daily at 8 p.m. in the area by the cash desk on the main floor. Additionally, they are entirely rake-free, and tournament credits are also up for grabs. Try flipping your way to a package in Bratislava; the atmosphere is lively, and the vibes are great!
The top prize, of course, is a pair of Franke's match-worn flip flops, a prize in a complete league in its own. He got to keep them on foot last time out in Bratislava, as he flipped his way to victory and won himself a package to the upcoming Festival stop!
Cash Game Challenge
The Festival Series isn't just about tournaments, as the Cash Game Challenge proves. This gives the cash game grinders a chance at a package through a series of cash game sessions. The premise is simple: win the most big blinds. The players who win the most big blinds each session then go on to a final flip, where the winner will receive a package to the next Festival stop, which would be
For NLH players, the challenge begins at 8 p.m. on Monday, the 23rd, where the blinds will be €2/€2, with a minimum buy-in of €200. The second running of the Cash Game Challenge will commence at 10.30 p.m. on the same day. The stakes and the buy-in remain the same, but the game will be PLO.
The same stakes and games run at the same time on the 24th and 25th, before the stakes increase to €5/€5 with a €500 minimum buy-in on the 26th and 27th. The final flips will take place at 10.30 a.m. local time on Saturday, 28th. This includes the showdown of the Franke's flips.
Player of The Series Leaderboard
The Player of the Series (POS) rankings return and will be on the minds of a lot of the players in attendance. One of those will be Ville Hakala, who broke his streak of back-to-back runner-ups to become Player of the Series in Bratislava last time out. He will be looking to defend his title over the course of the week, and the Finnish national will be firing anything and everything to take it down.
It was a close-run affair in Bratislava, with Poland's Krystian Nalepka finishing just short in second place. Bambi was just a point adrift in third. Below is the top 10.
Final POS Leaderboard Top 10
| Position | Player | Total Points | Events Played |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ville Hakala | 156.25 | 29 |
| 2 | Krystian Nalepka | 150.5 | 8 |
| 3 | Bambi | 149.5 | 13 |
| 4 | Miles Rees | 148.5 | 12 |
| 5 | Fedor Stadtrucker | 133.75 | 16 |
| 6 | Ville Keränen | 129.25 | 7 |
| 7 | Jarmo Salonen | 123.75 | 15 |
| 8 | Paddy Schmidt | 119.75 | 16 |
| 9 | Asterios Kokompelis | 117.25 | 9 |
| 10 | Martin "Franke" von Zweigbergk | 111.25 | 16 |
To learn more about the Player of the Series race, click here to find out all the additional information.
What's Next?
The Festival Series is about to get underway! Best of luck to those in attendance. We hope you enjoy your time at The Festival and Banco Casino Bratislava.
That's all for now, folks. Until later on.
