T.O.R.S.E.S Main Event Breaks The Festival Series Record on Day 2 – Chicago European Championship A Smash Hit, Becomes Biggest Ever Chicago Tournament
After another electric day of action at the Banco Bratislava, the €550 T.O.R.S.E.S. Mixed Game Main Event became the biggest Mixed Game Main Event in The Festival Series' history after the second of two flights drew 55 total entrants. The €550 Main Event held its first flight of the week, and qualification to Day 2 of the €250 The Hendon Mob Championships continued with Flight 1/B. And a certain Swedish home-game spiked in popularity with players at this instalment of The Festival Series Bratislava. Let's take a look in more detail at what happened over the course of the day.
€550 T.O.R.S.E.S. Main Event
The second and final flight of €550 T.O.R.S.E.S. Mixed Game Main Event drew a bumper field of 55 total entrants, taking the overall total number of entrants across both flights to 102. This smashed the previous best turnout of any Mixed Game Main event held in The Festival Series' history by a wide margin. Before this event, the largest field in a Mixed Game Main Event field was assembled in the previous stop in Malta, which attracted 69 entrants. Before that, a field of 67 came together to play the H.O.R.S.E.S. Main Event at this venue in 2023.
Of the players who took to the felt today, it was Sergii Baranov who bagged the biggest, and he will return to the tables tomorrow with a healthy stack of 243,000. Mixed Game enthusiast JJ Hazan will return with 173,000, and an anonymous player who goes by "Bambi" claimed the last of the podium spots. Tomorrow, Mixed Game crusher Jon Kyte will return as the overall chip leader, as he bagged 325,000 chips yesterday evening. Below are the counts of the 17 returning players.
T.O.R.S.E.S. 1/B Chip Counts
| Place | Name | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sergii Baranov |  | 243,000 |
| 2 | JJ Hazan |  | 173,000 |
| 3 | “Bambi” | N/A | 152,000 |
| 4 | Mattia Ruebenstrunk |  | 138,000 |
| 5 | Marc Gork | | 127,000 |
| 6 | Aaron Thiel | | 117,000 |
| 7 | Philipp Krieger | | 99,000 |
| 8 | Barrie Dear | | 93,000 |
| 9 | Alexander Dovzhenko |  | 91,000 |
| 10 | Toomas Maekikokko |  | 90,000 |
| 11 | Paddy Schmidt | | 89,000 |
| 12 | Alexander Freund |  | 88,000 |
| 13 | Imre Leibold |  | 61,000 |
| 14 | Martin Staszko |  | 49,000 |
| 15 | Matteo Crapanzano |  | 48,000 |
| 16 | Verneri Hakkinen | | 44,000 |
| 17 | Lars Hole |  | 36,000 |
€250 The Hendon Mob Championship
The second of four flights to the prestigious The Hendon Mob Championship attracted 114 total entrants. Of the 114, 14 progressed to Day 2, where they will return in the money, a chance of winning the beautiful Hendon Mob trophy, a five-figure score, and a package to the next Festival stop, which will be in Bratislava in February.
Estonian national Ott Kaarli Toome had the chip lead at one of the final breaks of play, but ended on a downtrend and had to settle for a fifth-place finish. He will return with 287,000 for Day 2. Polish national Krystian Nalepka bagged the biggest and will return with just shy of half a million chips. Below are the counts in full of those progressing.
1/B The Hendon Mob Championship Chip Counts
| Place | Name | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Krystian Nalepka |  | 499,000 |
| 2 | John Lausch |  | 385,000 |
| 3 | Rogillio Reijme |  | 341,000 |
| 4 | Stribor Gruicic |  | 302,000 |
| 5 | Ott Kaarli Toome | | 287,000 |
| 6 | Jonathan Christensen |  | 240,000 |
| 7 | Asterios Kokompelis |  | 224,000 |
| 8 | Siamak Tahmoresnia | | 222,000 |
| 9 | Simon Kuntz | | 204,000 |
| 10 | Patrik Chrast | | 158,000 |
| 11 | Joel Fritz | | 154,000 |
| 12 | Freddy Rolland | | 154,000 |
| 13 | Tony Danielsen | | 126,000 |
| 14 | Michael Morrissey |  | 118,000 |
€125 Chicago European Championships
This mornings Flight 1/C of the Chicago European Championships saw four entrants, and it was Dutch national Bas de Laat, who qualified for Day 2. After that came the second Hospitality event of the week, which was a Chicago school hosted by our very own hostess with the mostess Christel Natri and interviewer extraordinaire Andreas "Wiseguy" Hoglund. The event proved a hit. Over 30 players participated, and those in attendance came from the UK, Estonia, and everywhere in between. As expected, there was a strong Scandinavian presence at the tables, as Chicago originated in Sweden, and has been a staple in the homes of families across the nation for decades. The players were in good spirits and eager to learn this popular Swedish family home game-come-poker tournament. Fast forward to 11 p.m. the same day, the 1/D Flight saw 24 runners, a massive turnout for the first instalment of this tournament. It also means The Festival, once again, breaks new ground and records, as this will be the largest ever Chicago tournament in the world in terms of entrants.
Want to get involved? Fear not, as there are still two flights a day, one at 11 a.m. and one at 11 p.m. until Saturday, which is when the final day will play to it's conclusion, and a first Festival Series Chicago Champion will be crowned. Below are the players progressing through the 1/D Flight.
Chicago 1/D Qualifiers
| Name | Country |
|---|---|
| Johan Amren | |
| Erland Blom | |
| John Boine | |
| Scott Kenyon | |
| Joonas Lyttinen | |
| Antti Tiainen | |
What's Next?
Today will see a T.O.R.S.E.S. Champion crowned, The Main Event and The Hendon Mob Championship will continue to grow through flights 1/B and 1/C respectively, The first Open Face Chinese tournament of the week will run at 12.30 p.m. CET, and the first High Roller of the week, the €1,100 PLO, will kick off at 5 p.m. That is only a teaser of what is to come, as you can see from the today's schedule picture below.
That's all for now, folks. Until next time.
