The Festival Malta Day 2

Jack Holland won €637 during the late night €2/€2 PLO Cash Game Challenge session to make him the big winner at the table with 318.5 big blinds. This was miles behind the current leaderboard captain in The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke”von Zweigbergk who miraculously won €6,300 for 3,150 big blinds on Monday in the €2/€2 pot-limit Omaha Cash Game session.

The player that wins the most big blinds during any Cash Game Challenge session will be crowned the Cash Game Challenge champion and also be awarded a €1,600 package to The Festival Series Bratislava on Nov. 27 to Dec. 3 at Banco Casino.

The €125 Win the Button is an amazing tournament if you are running hot as every time a player wins the hand they earn the button for the following hand. The event attracted 88 runners to generate a €9,292 prize pool.

Coolbet’s Svien Olav Eidsaeter continues to strut his stuff at The Festival Series as he won the event after defeating Fuad Gotovusa heads-up to win the €2,380 top prize.

Mikael Gronvik joins the ever-growing list of The Festival Series champions after he defeated Angelica Andersson heads-up in the €125 Half and Half for €2,045. This event boasted one level of no-limit hold’em followed by a level of pot-limit Omaha. Rinse and repeat until a winner was crowned.

The tournament attracted 70 players to create a €7,084 prize pool. Here is a look at all the players that cashed for at least a €215 min-cash:

Colin Lovelock leads the final 53 players in the PokerListings Championship. A total of 354 entries ponied up the €250 buy-in to create a €76,764 prize pool. All players have locked up at least a €450 min-cash when the action resumes at 1 p.m. on Wednesday with the eventual champion going home with a tasty top prize of €16,300. Blinds will start at 2,000/4,000 with a 4,000 big blind ante when the final day begins.

The €250 Heads-Up Tournament is down to the final four players from the original field of 28 players. Here is a look at the semi-final match-ups.

• Peder Behr vs. Raoul van Wersch
• Sven Lysebo vs. Mantas Petrauskas

The final four players have each locked up €614 with Wednesday’s winner going home with a €2,480 top prize. Good luck to the final four!

It is time for this reporter to call it a night. However, the Day 2 blog will still have more posts with the events still running to be updated in the morning.

Until then, sleep well, and see you tomorrow!

Day 1a of The Festival Series Malta €550 Main Event attracted 84 entries to add €43,680 to the prize pool with four more opening flights to come over the next three days. Just 24 players bagged chips into Saturday’s Day 2 with Beka Kopaleishvili parlaying a 30,000 chip stack into an impressive Day 1a chip leading stack of 253,500. Here is a look at all of the chip counts from the 24 surviving players.

The legend of Totti Lind continues. Sometimes he is a legend for the entertainment value he provides when I am reporting various events including The Festival Series. Other times, he runs deep in events and keeps players on their toes. This was one of those times as he defeated Erik Risberg heads-up in the two-day €250 Sviten Special tournament for €5,200.

The Sviten Special event broke a new The Festival Series attendance record with 79 entries coming out in full force to generate a €16,353 prize pool. Yesterday’s opening day ended after Ivo Petkov busted on the money bubble with the final 11 players returning the following day with at least a €550 min-cash locked up.

Joshua Stewart began the final day with the chip lead and was able to leverage that to a podium third-place finish, while Oystein Brenden, Marco Sgura, Niklas Borg, Nathaniel Brown, Allan Arjut, Maxime Chilaud, and Philippe Laval all finished in the money.

Here is a look at all of the payouts in the €250 Sviten Special.

Mirko Romeo defeated Sami Pulliainen heads-up in the €250 PLO Championship to win the €5,150 top prize. The event attracted 75 entries for a healthy €16,200 prize pool.M

It was a fun event with many interesting players at the table including runner-up Sami Pulliainen, who used to call Malta his home, Dutch poker beast and all-around good guy Sander van Wesemael, Coolbet streamer Ylva Thorsrud, and Juuso Pariainen all at the final table and Malta Poker Fish Admin Antoine Degiorgio, friend of The Festival Series Bjorne Lindberg, and Kristian Bodingh also finishing in the money.

Meanwhile, The Festival Series Founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk likely created the most entertainment. He disappeared for a while with a big stack once the final table began. He eventually did come back to the table but not after a few jokes were made.

“This was the best final table performance I have seen by Franke,” commented Sami Pullianen.

“His plan appears to be to win a few big hands, leave the table, and come back to repeat the process,” shared Sander van Wesemael.”

“I am guessing Franke will come back to battle with just three players remaining,” added Coolbet streamer Ylva Thorsrud.

Franke did come back to the table when there were just six players left and perhaps Thorsrud was onto something as Franke did eventually bow out in third place for another impressive performance during The Festival Series Malta.

The first session of the Cash Game Challenge is in the books with Tobias Bollman winning the most after booking a profit of €610 good for 305 big blinds in the €2/€2 no-limit hold’em session.

While isn’t good enough to vault him to the top of the leaderboard. It will be tough, however, for any player to do that after The Festival Series Founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk took things to a different level last night by winning €6,300 in the Cash Game Challenge €2/€2 pot-limit Omaha for a huge score of 3,150 big blind profit.

The player that wins the most big blinds in a single Cash Game Challenge session throughout the week will win a package to The Festival Series Bratislava on Nov. 27 to Dec. 3 at Banco Casino valued at €1,600.

The second and final Cash Game Challenge is underway with the game changing to €2/€2 pot-limit Omaha. Here is a look at the best player at each Cash Game Challenge session thus far.

The first Cash Game Challenge session is underway with stakes at €2/€2 no-limit hold’em. You can check out the action by clicking on the stream tab in our coverage.

Later in the evening, the action changes to €2/€2 pot-limit Omaha.

As a reminder, the player that wins the most big blinds during any single Cash Game Challenge session throughout the week will be declared the Cash Game Challenge champion. The champion not only will be awarded a hand-drawn portrait but also will be heading to The Festival Series Bratislava on Nov. 27 to Dec. 3 at Banco Casino with a free €1,600 package.

Players have their work cut out for them thanks to the sick run by The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk, who won €6,300 for 3,150 in the €2/€2 PLO Cash Game Challenge session last night.

The €250 pot-limit Omaha Masters has reached the final table. We went down to check out the action with just six players remaining and noticed one player had a massive pile of chips but nobody was in the chair.

We quickly learned that Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk was the missing player. He has done this before at a final table but this isn’t something we normally see in poker.

Apparently, Franke left the table shortly after the final table photo was taken.

“This was the best final table performance I have seen by Franke,” commented Sami Pullianen.

“His plan appears to be to win a few big hands, leave the table, and come back to repeat the process,” shared Sander van Wesemael.”

“I am guessing Franke will come back to battle with just three players remaining,” added Coolbet streamer Ylva Thorsrud.

Thorsrud’s comment rings home as we have a funny story about Franke from the past. A new of years ago, Franke had a massive chip lead in the PLO event and wanted to take a break to have a beer with this reporter. We enjoyed a quick beer before Franke decided to register to that festival’s Main Event. He made it through an orbit but apparently decided he wanted more time away and had another beer before finally heading back to the final table about 40 minutes after he left. Franke still had the chip lead at this point and asked for an even chop. Both players declined and Franke busted one player the next hand. Another deal was offered and again Franke was denied. Franke then took out this player as well and went on to win the event for around €6,600.

Franke left a generous tip and then bought around 200 beers for everyone that was nearby. What a legend!

The final six players each locked up at least a €860 payout with tonight’s winner slated to be rewarded a healthy €5,150 top prize. Best of luck to everyone and let’s hope Franke makes it back to his seat before losing too much of his big stack.

Meanwhile, here are some photos by Mairo Toom of the PLO Masters.

The €125 Half and Half is about to begin. This is one of my favorite events as it is a level of no-limit hold’em followed by a level of pot-limit Omaha all the way through the event.

We ran into PokerCity’s Tim Bakker. Normally, he will report the atmosphere for PokerCity but today was a day off with his wife.

“I had an amazingly relaxing day seeing Malta,” Bakker said. “We walked around and also relaxed with amazing massages.”

The field has a couple of dozen players before the official kickoff with Mark Adams, Calum Bagnall, Holger Bruck, Maria Evans, Joseph Jackson, Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon, Sascha Manns, and Soner Vanelderen among the players battling it out.

Drop by the media desk if you need some advice as this is the only live poker event in which I have officially won a trophy.

Players visibly had a blast on the stage playing in the €125 Roulette Tournament. Martins Geiba shipped the event for a cool €1,000, while Milan Mjubisic and Rune Johansen also cashed. Congrats to all three players and we look forward to the €125 Blackjack Tournament tomorrow.

Here is a look at the payouts of the Roulette Tournament:

€250 Sviten Special
Level 16: 6,000/12,000
Entries: 11/79

The Sviten Special has resumed for its second and final day. Players are already in the money with a €350 min-cash. The winner will go home with much more with a €5,200 top prize on the line making it one of the biggest international-open events in Sviten Special tournament history.

Oystein Brenden, Niklas Borg, and Totti Lind also bagged decent stacks with Erik Risberg, Renato Messina, Maxime Chilaud, Nathaniel Brown, Philippe Laval, Marco Sgura, and Allan Arjut also still in contention. Here is a look at all of the final day chip stacks of The Festival Series Malta €250 Sviten Special at Portomaso Casino:

If you are looking for a bargain basement price to get into the €550 Main Event, now is your time with a €70 satellite to tomorrow’s Day 1b is about to begin on the same floor as the Main Event is currently taking place.

Three seats are guaranteed and there is still plenty of time to hop into the action with late registration open for eight levels. The structure is amazing for a satellite with a 15,000 starting stack and blinds increasing every 20 minutes.

Best of luck if you hop into the satellite!

There are just six players remaining in the €125 Roulette tournament including Martins Geiba, Daniel Hong, Rune Johansen, Sami Korpela, Milan Ljubisic, and Erik Risberg.

Half of these players will go home with a payday in this event with the top three players guaranteed at least a €320 min-cash for a huge return on their €125 buy-in. The runner-up will be bumped up to a €580 payout while tonight’s champion will go home with a cool €1,000.

Best of luck to the final six and may the ball spin your way!

The €125 Roulette Tournament has kicked off on the stage where the Main Event is taking place. There were 18 unique players getting into the action. We learned that while late registration is closed, existing players can re-enter if they lose their stacks.

The first round of 15 spins features players allowed to bet anywhere from 1 to 100 chips with the action increasing after that.

The Festival Series Founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk was noticed betting big on the very first spin and managed to chip up a little on one of his bets. Meanwhile, Iulian Belau, Tobias Bollmann, our Hospitality Host Anastasia Bukstynovic, Paul Ensink, Martins Geiba, Daniel Hong, Rune Johansen, recently “leid” Bjorn Jonsson, Sami Korpela, Imre Leibold, Milan Ljubisic, Joachim Olaussen, Erik Risberg, Daniel Sahlin, Andrea Stellato, Ian Vertfeuille, and Kristoffer Winterstein are also in the mix.

We will have some photos of this event later in our coverage. In the meantime, you can head to our Roulette Tournament landing page to learn more about the rules of this event.

€250 PokerListings Championship Day 1c
Level 1: 100/200 (200)
Entries: 50/50

The final opening flight of the PokerListings Championship kicked off with 50 entries. This will continue to grow with late registration open for 10 blind levels.

Andras Balogh, Luca Delfino, The Festival Bratislava Main Event runner-up Gerianne Dijkstra, Fuad Gotovusa, Younes Jarir, Peter Kovacs, Ave Lepik, Angelo Patane, ACR Stormer Oskar “DeckFlow” Ojaveer, and Jari Porkka are among the early entries on Day 1c.

Players are back from the bowling outing and we will have some photos later. What we did learn was Bjorn Jonsson won the event and now needs to wear the lei you see in the photo below for the entire day. He also won a €20 flip for Franke’s Flip Flops.

Please don’t judge my photography skills but now you can clearly see why we have Mairo Toom, Dominik Demcak, and Damiano Nigro normally taking the photos.

Congrats to Jonsson for getting leid and allowing me to use lei in a verb form and rest assured that official photos from Mairo Toom will be coming in the next hour or two.

The Festival Series Hospitality Host Anastasia just let us in on a little secret which won’t be a secret at all after this post. The Franke’s Flip Flops, which typically open at 9 p.m. will open for a special session at around 3:30 p.m.

As a reminder, the player that wins the most rake-free flips to various events will be crowned the Franke’s Flip Flops champion and will be awarded a framed pair of Franke’s actual flip flops along with a package valued at €1,600 to The Festival Series Bratislava at Banco Casino on Nov. 27 to Dec. 3.

€550 Main Event Day 1a
Level 4: 200/400 (400)
Entries: 62/65

Day 1a has attracted 65 entries thus far and will still grow as it is only on its first break. Here is a look at the structure for the opening flights. Blinds increase every 40 minutes on Day 1a through Day 1d and every 20 minutes on Day 1e.

Damiano Nigro travels around the globe to poker events where he both plays and takes amazing photos at the venue and the surrounding locations. He joined up with us at The Festival Series Nottingham and returned once again in a partnership with PokerFirma for The Festival Series Malta.

We will share his photos throughout the week as they provide a unique view of the event and of Malta. This is in addition to Mairo Toom and Dominik Demcak who will be providing mostly photographs of the poker and hospitality events giving you as complete a view as possible of The Festival Series Malta.

€250 PLO Masters
Level 1: 100/100
Entries: 33/33

The €250 PLO Masters kicked off with a field of 33 entries. This figure will continue to grow with players allowed to late register and re-enter for the first eight blind levels. Players start off with 20,000 in chips with blinds increasing every 20 minutes.

All Arjut, Antoine Degiorgio, Leif Iversen, Vakhtang Kavakhishvili, ACR Stormer Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon, Bjorne Lindberg, William Lynch, Vallo Maidla, Sascha Manns, Stian Nostdahl, Coolbet streamer Ylva Thorsrud, Mark Vella, and Frank Visser are among the early entrants.

The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk is also in the field. Let’s hope he lasts longer than he did on the first of the three bullets he fired in the Sviten Special yesterday as he lasted just one hand on each of his first two bullets. Franke had much better success in the evening when he took a commanding lead in the Cash Game Challenge after booking a profit of €6,300 (3,150 big blinds) in a €2/€2 pot-limit Omaha affair.

“How soft are all the fields?” Franke joked. “I am in the lead in the Cash Game Challenge while our Head of Photography Mairo Toom took runner-up in the Texas Knockout last night.”

Franke has won PLO trophies before but never at The Festival Series where his claim to fame is winning OFC and Sportsbook events.

Best of luck to all the players!

Franke’s Flip Flops kicked off yesterday with eight flips taking place. The player that wins the most rake-free flips will win a package valued at €1,600 to The Festival Series Bratislava on Nov. 27 to Dec. 3.

Sami Korpula won the first flip yesterday and was interviewed by our very own Anastasia. He is currently tied after winning a second flip with Coolbet’s Svein Olav Eidsaeter on top of the leaderboard with Eidsaeter also magically winning two flips.

€250 Heads-Up Day 1
Level 1: 100/100
Entries: 28/28

The heads-up event is one of the more fun events on the schedule as it isn’t often these types of events run at festivals. Players start with 10,000 in chips with blinds increasing every 20 minutes. There is no late registration permitted in this event for obvious reasons.

“I just arrived last night and won’t hop into the Main Event today,” said Dainius Antanaitis this morning. “I am looking forward to playing the heads-up event as I haven’t played this format in years.”

Antanaitis may not have played a heads-up event in a while but has had some good experience playing heads-up recently as he has won multiple events in the last few months.

Meanwhile, Antanaitis is obviously not the only player in the field. Here is a look at the first-round match-ups:

• Theo Baldanza vs. Peder Behr
• Mikael Viggander vs. Giulio Sampinato
• Milad Rad vs. Marthijn Lakerveld
• Mark Adams vs. Sven Lysebo
• Raoul van Wersch vs. Rami Amuri
• Mircea-Catalin Foraru vs. Peter Nordin
• Aharon Arbeli vs. Daniel Smith
• Koen Meutstege vs. Linus Lauermann
• Mantas Petrauskas vs. Jeremy Grodin
• Cory Demond vs. Beka Ksovreli
• Hugo Loustau vs. Dainius Antanaitis
• Erik Lindqwist vs. Michael Hamann

Fabian Jarmer, Clausin Sanz, Christopher Cunliffe, and Noelia Ivars all already gave a bad beat to the rest of the field as they all randomly “earned” a first-round bye and were asked to come back at 4 p.m. for Round 2.

€550 Main Event Day 1a
Level 2: 100/100 (100)
Entries: 45/47

Two players didn’t survive the opening level in the Main Event with Carlo Solazzo hitting the rail first followed by Eugene Ulanov. Both players haven’t re-entered yet but will have plenty of time to do so either today or later in the week.

€550 Main Event Day 1a
Level 1: 100/100
Entries: 41/41

The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk welcomed the Main Event crowd to The Festival Series Malta. Shortly after, cards were in the air with 41 entries thus far.

Lars Eklund, Karl Gialanze, Annika Haaviste, Imre Liebold, Kairit Leibold, Sean O’Donnell, Ilona Sibold, and Laur Sibold are among the early entries in the field.

Best of luck to all of the Main Event players!

Yesterday was an amazing start to The Festival Series Malta and we expect the action to be even bigger. More players are arriving today and today is also the start of the €550 Main Event with Day 1a kicking off at 12 p.m.

The Main Event is a deep-stacked affair with starting with 30,000 in chips during each of the five opening flights on May 16-19. The first four flights feature 40-minute blind levels while the final opening flight is a turbo-charged affair with 20-minute blind levels. Players will have plenty of chances to build a big stack with two re-entries permitted during each opening flight and again on Day 2 until late registration closes after the second blind level of Day 2.

Those surviving the opening flights or late register on Day 2 will compete for two more days until the inaugural The Festival Series Malta Main Event champion will be crowned.

The Main Event isn’t the only party in town as there are plenty of other events on the schedule including the €125 Roulette tournament at 4 p.m. This is a unique chance to play something a little different than you will see at other gaming festivals around the world.

Of course, the Franke’s Flip Flops will continue from 9 p.m. until 11 p.m. and cash games will run nonstop throughout the event. Here is a look at today’s full schedule: