The Festival Malta Day 6

Oystein Brenden bagged a massive stack of 2,240,000 on Day 2 of the The Festival Series Malta €550 Main Event and will lead the final 16 players at the start of the final day which will commence at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Gytis Juskevicius, Andreas Holmsten, Stian Nostdahl, Balazs Somodi, Dario Barone, and Luigi D’Alterio all bagged at least 1 million in chips. Meanwhile, Mischa Wieten, Annika Haaviste, Clausin Sanz, Shimon Hagay, Matthew Micallef, Jelmer Schuurmans, Andras Balogh, and Kerrien Clement are also still in the hunt for the title.

Bags were passed around in the Main Event as the action ended when there were just 16 players remaining from the 617 entry field. We will post the chip counts and final table seat draw shortly for when the action resumes on Sunday at 2 p.m. In the meantime, here is a look at the payouts thus far.

Our blog will change a little for the final day. Instead of reporting what is happening everywhere we will focus on the key hands of the Main Event and provide some detailed coverage until The Festival Series Malta Main Event champion is crowned.

Come by where the tournament registration desk as the final session of Franke’s Flip Flops begins. This will feature some rake-free flips where the player that wins the most flips of the week will win a framed pair of Franke’s Flip Flops along with a package valued at €1,600 to The Festival Series Bratislava on Nov. 27 to Dec. 3.

Sami Korpula currently leads the leaderboard but there is still some time to knock him off his perch. Here is a look at the leaderboard going into today:

Congrats to Jonas Engedal for winning the €250 The Hendon Mob Championship for €6,100 after defeating Danielle Coroneo heads-up en route to both The Festival Series and The Hendon Mob glory. Engedal earned both a framed-sketch of himself as a trophy from The Festival Series on top of the trophy provided by The Hendon Mob for all their Championships.

Engedal, who is originally from Norway but calls Malta his home, was over the moon about his win. Soon after finding the winner’s circle he was interviewed by The Festival Series Malta presenter Andreas Hoglund. We will share the interview once it is published on YouTube.

The two-day event attracted 102 entries to create a €22,032. Here is a look at all of the payouts:

OK, the title is super long. But the message is clear. Saturday is the final day of Franke’s Flip Flops where players will flip in Omaha hands rake-free for as many games as players wish from 9 p.m. until 11 p.m.

The player that wins the most flips not only wins a bit thanks to running hot but will also win a package valued at €1,600 to The Festival Series Bratislava at Banco Casino on Nov. 27 to Dec. 3, 2023.

You might be thinking what might be better than a package to The Festival Series Bratislava. My answer would be not much. However, we did give away a spoiler in the title and the winner will also get a pair of Franke’s actual flip flops he was wearing all week long at The Festival Series Malta.

This author will likely be down on the main floor commentating the flips whether there is a camera on me or not. So come join in on the fun at 9 p.m.

The following players booked slightly more than €1,000 min-cash. Instead, they will go home with €1,100 with the rest of the remaining field guaranteed at least a €1,250 payout.

The following players cashed in the Main Event for the minimum prize of €1,000:

The two-day €250 Mystery Bounty has attracted 108 entries and counting. This is a fantastic result thus far for the new addition to the schedule.

Gerhard Brimmers was the first on the rail followed by Binjam Mesfin to leave 106 players remaining including Mesfin as he re-entered.

Have fun and good luck to all of the Mystery Bounty players!

The initial results are in for The Festival Series Malta Player of the Festival leaderboard. ACR Stormer Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon has been grinding the mixed games all week long and is on top of the leaderboard after managing three final table performances. Salvatore Ritrovato, The Festival Series Founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk, Sander van Wesemael and Balazs Somodi are also in the top five.

We know that van Wesemael won’t climb any further and likely will drop down a few spots as he just dropped by to say goodbye as he will be heading to Las Vegas early for the WSOP.

This also doesn’t take into account events running today and tomorrow including the Main Event but congrats to “Pokerbrahs” for his impressive performance at The Festival Series Malta.

The two-day €250 Mystery Bounty is a new event on The Festival Series schedule. It is about to kickoff with 44 players already registered including Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk, Sascha Manns, and The Chip Race podcast co-host David Lappin.

Lappin just busted in seventh place in the €250 The Hendon Mob Championship for €900. He hasn’t had enough poker yet today and immediately hopped into the Mystery Bounty event.

Meanwhile, Antoine Degiorgio and Sami Pulliainen dropped by for a chat on the break of the €250 PLO Freezeout, which grew to 66 entries by the time late registration closed for a €14,256 prize pool. They were both asking about how a mystery bounty tournament works. I quickly explained and they said if they bust the PLO Freezeout they now have a back-up plan.

In case you are wondering how a mystery bounty event works, it is quite simple. Part of the prize pool, in this case €100 per player entered, will be placed into a mystery bounty prize pool. The action on the first day will play as normal with no bounties collected. Each player that advanced to Day 2 will have a mystery bounty on their head and will collect a random prize based on how much is collected for each player they eliminate. This is in addition to the normal prize pool and adds a fun element to tournament poker.

Players are in the money for at least a €1,000 min-cash with just 71 players remaining in the €550 Main Event. Unfortunately, Jarmo Luokkala won’t be one of the players snagging a pay-slip as he lost a flip when his big slick bricked against his opponent’s ladies.

“Super” Mairo Toom was once again on the ball capturing the photos of the bubble action of the Main Event. The man is everywhere at once!

Frank Visser bubbled the €250 OFC Tournament yesterday before things got much better when he won the €125 PLO/PLO8 Event for €2,220.

Unfortunately, Visser just hit the rail three away from the money in the Main Event and it is now hand-for-hand on the money bubble.

We have a special stream for you this afternoon as a bunch of streamers opted to play a special match today on our TheFestivalOG Twitch channel hosted by Jacob Dideriksen-Nielsen.

There are hundred of viewers already joining in on the entertainment. Check it out by clicking on the Stream tab in our coverage.

The Festival Series Bratislava Main Event runner-up Gerianne Dijkstra will unfortunately not make another deep run in The Festival Series Malta Main Event as she just hit the rail in 77th place. The Festival Series streamer Joseph Jackson also won’t be able to brag about a title as he also recently hit the rail.

The bubble is getting closer and closer with 73 players remaining and 71 slated for at least a €1,000 min-cash. Best of luck to all of the remaining Main Event players for getting to the money and beyond and in the meantime enjoy some Day 2 photos by Mairo Toom.

The Main Event is down to 95 players out of the original field of 617 entries. The top 71 players will walk away with at least a €1,000 min-cash with tomorrow’s winner going home with a €60,700 top prize.

Here is a look at all of the Main Event payouts:

The Hendon Mob Championship payouts have been released with all the 15 returning players guaranteed at least €500 payout with today’s winner going home with the €6,100 top prize and two trophies. One of the trophies will be the official The Hendon Mob Championship trophy that The Hendon Mob rewards at all of their events while the other one will be a personalized framed sketch of the winner.

Colin Lovelock, Kevin Malone, Dukai Csongor, and Andreas Simml all hit the rail for a min-cash leaving 11 players remaining in the hunt for both The Festival Series Malta and The Hendon Mob Championship glory.

The €250 PLO Freezeout kicked off with a field of 28 entries.

The Festival Series Founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk entered this event. Several players joked that this wasn’t the event for Franke as he loves to re-enter.

Mark Adams, Allan Arjut, Guiseppe D’Angelo, Karl Gialanze, Mikael Gronvik, Keimo Suominen, Philippe Laval, Imre Leibold, Totti Lind, Kevin Malone, Sean O’Donnell, Rita Paus, Erik Risberg, and Soner Vanelderen are all in the PLO Freezeout field from the start as well.

Good luck to all of the four-card players!

Late registration is now closed for the €550 Main Event. A total of 617 entries came out in full force to create a €296,160 prize pool. Payouts will be announced shortly for the 143 players still in contention.

Best of luck to all of the Main Event players.

The €125 Sportsbook Tournament takes just a few minutes to enter. This is something players can do on the break of any event they are in. Registration and entry submission is open. Just head down to the casino floor and The Festival Series Presenter and Sportsbook Host Andreas “Wiseguy” Hoglund will assist you.

Check out the video below to learn the rules. Spoiler alert, they are simple.

Day 2 of The Hendon Mob has kicked off. The Hendon Mob’s Social Media Manager Hans Kleinsman put together a list of all the 15 survivors live tournament earnings for events tracked by The Hendon Mob.

The Main Event has already blossomed to 600 entries with nearly an hour of late registration to go. There were 173 active players when the 600 entry-count was reach.

Best of luck to all of the Main Event players.

The €125 Sportsbook Tournament kicks off at 1 p.m. The Sportsbook Tournament host Andreas “Wiseguy” Hoglund outlines the rules in the video below.

Day 2 of the Main Event has kicked off. A handful of new players came into the field to grow the field to 591 entries already with 193 players battling it out.

Many players were asking yesterday what the surprise element was in yesterday’s €125 Texas Surprise. We just learned from The Festival Series Founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk that there will be a surprise within a surprise.

Salvatore Ritrovato won the Texas Surprise for €2,230 but this is not all as Franke just announced that Ritrovato also will be surprised with a free €250 Mystery Bounty ticket for tonight’s event at 6 p.m. Additionally, the bubble boy Juuso Parviainen won’t go home empty-handed that player will also have a chance to run it up in the Mystery Bounty as well. It would be amazing if one of these players runs deep and/or collects the top Mystery Bounty prize to be announced later.

Today is another big day with it starting off with a bang with both the Main Event and The Hendon Mob Championship progressing to their second day. The Hendon Mob Championship is down to 15 hopefuls in the money and will play down to a winner while the Main Event is planned to play down to 16 players. Late registration for the Main Event will still be open for the first two blind levels of the day but the five opening flights attracted 579 entries with 181 players finding a bag.

Laila Hawaszedeh will kick things off in the captain’s seat after bagging 382,500 from her starting stack of 30,000. Oystein Brenden was too far behind with 369,000, while Adam Briggs was the only other player over 300,000 in chips with 329,500. Day 2 will feature 45-minute blind levels instead of the 40 minutes featured during most of the opening flights.

• Main Event Day 2 Seat Draw Link
• The Hendon Mob Championship Day 2 Seat Draw

There are plenty of other events on tap today including the €125 Sportsbook Tournament and the two-day €250 Mystery Bounty. Here is a look at the entire schedule: