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• Winners Galore on Day 5 of The Festival Bratislava

Winners Galore on Day 5 of The Festival Bratislava

Across Day 5 of The Festival Series here at Banco Casino Bratislava, a total of six winners were crowned across a wide range of games and formats. The Festival crowned a new Queen in the Ladies Event, the €250 8-Game resulted in an incredibly even ICM Chop, plus two winners in the Hold'em side events; the €125 €15k GTD and the €125 Turbo Madness. Not only that, the Main Event field saw its biggest influx of the week so far, and a winner was found in the 2-7 Double Draw. Here is a look at what happened.

€250 8-Game

A field of 96 Mixed Game fanatics took to the felt across the afternoon. The bumper field was a who's who of Festival regulars: Scott Kenyon, Matteo Crapanzano, Barrie Dear, and Wouter Schuurbiers are just a finger short of a handful of the total entrants. Festival first-timers Ari Engel and Matt Kelley took to the felt once again, with the former looking for a second Festival title in as many days.

Unfortunately for Engel, he fell short of the money, as he was the victim of the bubble in a PLO pot. The field then condensed at a decent pace before the final table was reached, and it was Jyri Merivirta who narrowly missed out on final table play.

Jakub Janosovsky and Dieter Kuehnl had been building big stacks before final table play, and they came into the showdown with a commanding advantage over the field. And that's how it remained until heads-up. With the stacks equal, the players decided to chop it up. They couldn't share the trophy, however, and it is Kuehnl who will receive a beautiful hand-drawn trophy courtesy of Modernoise. Below are the payouts.

Position	Player	Payout	Country
1	Dieter Kuehnl	€4,595*
2	Jakub Janosovsky	€4,595*
3	Aaron Thiel	€2,750
4	Reinis Kluss	€1,975
5	Dinesh Khatri	€1,405
6	Quinten Spyckerelle	€1,000
7	Jyri Merivirta	€730
8	Oliver Tot	€570
9	Jona Boman	€570
10	Nathan Ruell	€490
11	Scott Kenyon	€490
12	Grzegorz Iskra	€450
13	Kenneth Wiik	€450
14	Robin Panholzer	€450
		*ICM Deal

€550 Main Event 1/D and 1/E

1/C saw 196 total entrants into the day's flight, and 25 made the cut for Day 2. Of the players, Markus Gaulhofer bagged the biggest of them all and is likely to be remain atop the counts the overall all flights conclude. Click here to see the full list of players progressing through to Day 2 from 1/D. In the first turbo flight, nine went through. Dmitry Golushko topped the field there and Jo Kim will also be joining the Day 2 field. Below are the top nine through the first turbo flight.

Overall Rank	Player	Chips	Flag
1	Dmitry Golushko	868,000
2	Eran Lin	630,000
3	Ante Zvono	604,000
4	Daniel Halon	518,000
5	Polyvios Polykarpou	403,000
6	Heon Jo Kim	316,000
7	Alexey Shilov	170,000
8	Louison Vincent	104,000
9	Stefan Raschbauer	8,000

€60 The Festival Queens

Friday night was Ladies' night, and a new Queen was crowned in The Festival Queens. Anne Bedzak topped a field of 18 lovely ladies who took to the felt across the course of the afternoon.  This is her second ladies' title of the year, having won the €250 Queens event at The Kings of Tallinn earlier this month for €3,540.

Position	Player	Payout	Coutry
1	Anne Bezdek	€430
2	Rosa Sapere	€255
3	Jenny Westerlund	€170

The €125 €15k GTD represented crazy value for players of all bankrolls. After a surprisingly slow start to proceedings, players came to their senses and registered in their droves. The tournament saw 142 total entrants. Niclas "Flushiisback" Thumm was in pursuit of his first-ever Festival Series title, but could only manage the first podium spot. Ultimately, the title went to Reinhard Faltejsek, along with a generous score of €3,809 for the win. Faltejsek won €18,450 in an ICM deal heads-up in January in the €230 King of Cards at Casino Baden. Below are the payouts in full.

€125 NLH €15k GTD

Position	Player	Payout	Country
1	Reinhard Faltejsek	€3,809
2	Robert Bruil	€2,375
3	Niclas Thumm	€1,855
4	Mikko Juntunen	€1,410
5	Christian Kempf	€1,115
6	Peter Belis	€890
7	Ye Wang	€670
8	Artem Berliand	€520
9	Igor Gorej	€410
10	Toni Sarkama	€335
11	Giorgi Nersesov	€335
12	Jan Dziedzic	€335
13	Mehmet Sarigoz	€260
14	Ole Karlsen	€260
15	Filip Pilic	€260

€125 Turbo Madness

Finns dominated the payouts in the €125 Turbo Madness, which saw 68 players take to the tables in the late-night event. Komil Khamidov and Mladen Stojanovic were the only non-Finns in the payouts, and the Finn who finished highest of them all was Markus Volk.

Position	Player	Payout	Country
1	Markus Volk	€2,631
2	Komil Khamidov	€1,565
3	Mladen Stojanovic	€960
4	Jari Kaerkkaeinen	€675
5	Joni Limatta	€495
6	Jari Rattya	€425
7	Viacheslav Sultanov	€355

€250 2-7 Double Draw

Despite one less draw phase, the 2-7 Double Draw ended up being a marathon session at the tables for those who ran deepest. It eventually resulted in an ICM deal between Lachezar Tsenov and Nicolas Bokowski as the sun came up this morning. Barrie Dear claimed the first podium spot and a four-figure payout. Tsenov and Bokowski decided the title winner with a five-card 2-7 flip with no draws, and it was Tsenov who made the best of the worst hand. Tsenov's best run in the Player of the Series leaderboard came in Rozvadov back in 2024. With this victory, he has leapt into the lead in this year's Player of the Series leaderboard.

Position	Player	Payout	Country
1	Lachezar Tsenov	€1,950*
2	Nicolas Bokowski	€1,950*
3	Barrie Dear	€1,070
4	Kent Wulff	€825
5	Eva Jiretorn	€650
6	Gilles Lamy	€510
7	Matthew Kelley	€400
8	Carlo Braccini	€315
9	Michael Schmitz	€250
10	Rowan Harley	€220
11	Mickael Lacaze	€220

Today's Schedule

Time	Event Name	Buy-In
11:00	Main Event Day 1/F hyperturbo	€550
12:00	NLH Mystery Bounty	€250
13:00	Sportsbook Tournament	€125
14:00	Flip Finals - Cash Game Challenge & Franke´s Flip Flops	–
14:30	Big O	€250
15:00	Main Event Day 2	–
18:30	The Festival 10-Game Mix Day 1	€1,100
20:00	NLH Turbo Madness	€110 + €15
22:00	PLO5 Turbo P.K.O. Madness	€60 + €50 + €15