The Festival Malta Day 7

The Festival Series Malta boasted a fantastic festival for poker players, casino enthusiasts, and guests at Portomaso Casino on May 15-21. However, all good things must come to an end. Oystein Brenden capped off a fantastic week after defeating Balazs Somodi heads-up 2023 The Festival Malta €550 Main Event to win the €60,900 top prize.

The Main Event was just one of 50 events this week at The Festival Series Malta. There was something for everyone with many different poker variants, casino-style events, and cash games running nonstop. Despite no guarantee on the Main Event, it was still the third-largest in the tour’s history and only behind the two events hosted at Banco Casino in Bratislava with 617 entries creating a €296,610 prize pool.

Brenden was near the top of the pack most of the way. He entered Day 2 in second place and was the chip leader to start the final day with just 16 players left. However, it wasn’t smooth sailing from then on as Brenden lost a chunk of his stack with two tables left before taking a bad beat to be left short on chips. Brenden kept his composure and eventually took the chip lead with three players remaining and never looked back.

Congrats to Brenden for entering his name into The Festival Series history books and read on to learn more about the final day.

2023 The Festival Malta Main Event Final Table Results

The Main Event witnessed 71 players earning at least a min-cash of €1,000 for nearly double the €550 buy-in.

Final Day Action

Oystein Brenden began the final day with the chip lead and was on the live-streamed feature table broadcasted on TheFestivalOG Twitch and TheFestivalOG YouTube channels throughout the entire day by George Sandford and Jacob Dideriksen-Nilsen.

By the time the final table was reached, Brenden was near the bottom of the pack but things got worse for the eventual winner. Andreas Holmsten came in as the short stack with around six big blinds and immediately delivered a bad beat to the initial final table chip leader Dario Barone with his ace-nine got there against ace-jack to put eventual runner-up Balazs Somodi in the chip lead. Holmsten then delivered an even bigger bad beat to Brenden when his nines got there against cowboys and Brenden was left with just nine big blinds and in jeopardy of being the first player out at the final table.

However, Brenden won a crucial flip to gain some breathing room when his sevens were good against the ace-queen held by Mischa Wieten. Soon after Wieten lost another flip to hit the rail when his king-jack didn’t get there against Somodi’s tens.

Gytis Juskevicius was ousted by Stian Nostdahl immediately after Wieten’s elimination when his eights didn’t win a flip against ace-queen. Soon after, Brenden continued his momentum when his ace-queen held against ace-jack to eliminate the final local Maltese player Matthew Micallef.

Time eventually ran out for Holmsted, who managed to ladder up three places at the final table, when jammed his ace-trey unsuccessfully into Somodi’s queens to further extend Somodi’s lead. Somodi then amassed more than half the chips in play with four players remaining after his big slick proved to be no problem against ace-queen to eliminate Nostdahl.

Barone doubled through Somodi when his ace-ten held against ten-eight. Those chips went over to Brenden shortly after when his ace-nine didn’t improve against tens. Brenden held the chip lead after the hand. Shortly after, Luigi D’Alterio got his short stack in with ace-seven and was eliminated on the podium in third place when he didn’t improve against Brenden’s ace-queen.

Brenden began the heads-up affair against Somodi with a small chip lead. Brenden won a huge pot with cowboys after Somodi bricked some draws with queen-trey suited. Somodi jammed the short stack he had left with eight-seven only to run into the dominating king-seven held by Brenden and fell one player short of the title. Regardless, it was a tremendous effort by Somodi who collected the €40,500 runner-up prize for his efforts.

Congrats once again to Oystein Brenden and we look forward to seeing you at The Festival Series Bratislava from Nov. 27 to Dec. 3 at Banco Casino to defend your title.

€550 Main Event
Level 32: 100,000/200,000 (200,000)
Entries: 1/617

The Festival Series Malta €550 Main Event is in the books with Oystein Brenden claiming the trophy and the €60,700, while Balazs Somodi collected the healthy €40,500 runner-up prize.

Brenden entered Day 2 in second place and had the chip lead to start the day. However, he didn’t have a big stack at the final table and took a bad beat to leave him short soon after.

He rebounded and was crowned the latest The Festival Series Main Event champion after the following two hand:

Brenden opened for 450,000 with K K from the button and was called by Somodi with Q 3 from the big blind.

Somodi check-raised his flush draw on the 5 6 8 flop from 400,000 to 1,400,000. Brenden three-bet his overpair to 2,400,000 and Somodi called.

The 2 turn also gave Somodi a gutshot straight draw on top of his flush draw with one more card to come.

Somodi checked before Brenden fired out for 2 million. Somodi called for more than half his stack and the 3 river completed the board to give Somodi bottom pair. This wasn’t enough and Brenden won the hand and had Somodi down to just 7 big blinds after taking down the pot.

The next hand, Solomi jammed his short stack with 8 7 from the button and was up against the K 7 held by Brenden after he called from the big blind.

The 5 3 7 9 K board improved Solomi to a pair but he was out of chips as Brenden improved to two pair to win the tournament.

A massive congrats to Brenden for winning the Main Event for €60,900! Here is a look at the final table payouts:

This brings us to a conclusion of our reporting of The Festival Series Malta. We will post the full payouts of the Main Event shortly. Tomorrow, The Festival Series will publish an article about a recap of the Main Event with an overall recap of The Festival Series Malta coming later in the week. Thank you for tuning in and until the next time at The Festival Series Bratislava at Banco Casino from Nov. 27 to Dec. 3.

€550 Main Event
Level 31: 80,000/160,000 (160,000)
Entries: 2/617

Luigi D’Alterio hit the rail on the podium in third place for €27,900 shortly after Dario Barone exited in fourth place. Both Italian players were victims of Norway’s Oystein Brenden.

D’Alterio jammed for 1.9 million from the small blind and Brenden called from the big blind.

Luigi D’Alterio: A 7
Oystein Brenden: A Q

Both players had an ace but Brenden’s kicker came to play on the 3 9 5 J 3 board to eliminate D’Alterio and extend his chip lead.

Brenden and Balazs Somodi went on a five-minute break after the hand.

Oystein Brenden – 10.4 million
Balazs Somodi – 8.1 million
Luigi D’Alterio – 0

€550 Main Event
Level 31: 80,000/160,000 (160,000)
Entries: 3/617

Dario Barone jammed for 3.2 million from under the gun and was called by Oystein Brenden from the small blind.

Dario Barone: A 9
Oystein Brenden: 10 10

Brenden’s tens were not only good, but he further improved to a set on the 10 J K flop. Barone still had some thin hope with a gutshot to Broadway but this wasn’t meant to be with the 3 turn and 6 river completing the board.

Barone’s fourth-place finish was worth €20,300. Meanwhile, Brenden, who began the day with the chip lead, snagged the chip lead for the first time at the final table with Somodi not miles behind.

Oystein Brenden – 8.9 million
Balazs Somodi – 7.4 million
Luigi D’Alterio – 2.2 million
Oystein Brenden – 0

€550 Main Event
Level 31: 80,000/160,000 (160,000)
Entries: 4/617

Balazs Somodi min-raised from under the gun and was called by Oystein Brenden from the big blind.

Brenden check-raised a bet of 160,000 to 350,000 by Somodi on the 5 10 5 flop.

Somodi called and the 8 followed on the turn. Brenden led out for 750,000 and won the hand after Somodi folded.

Somodi had a mystery hand on the stream but Brenden held the Q 10 for two pair and a flush draw.

Balazs Somodi – 7.5 million
Oystein Brenden – 3.4 million

€550 Main Event
Level 31: 80,000/160,000 (160,000)
Entries: 4/617

€550 Main Event
Level 30: 60,000/120,000 (120,000)
Entries: 4/617

Balazs Somodi jammed for 11 million from the small blind. Dario called off his stack of 1.6 million from the big blind and the cards were turned over with Barone at risk.

Dario Barone: A 10
Balazs Somodi: 10 7

Barone was in good shape to double up and that was what he exactly did after the K 9 8 3 Q ran out on the board.

Balazs Somodi – 9 million
Dario Barone – 3.2 million

€550 Main Event
Level 30: 60,000/120,000 (120,000)
Entries: 4/617

The hand seemingly started simple enough as the action folded around to Stian Nostdahl, who opted to limp from the small blind. Things picked up after Balazs Somodi three-bet to 520,000 from the big blind. Nostdahl four-bet jammed for 3,300,000 and Somodi called with Nostdahl at risk in the biggest pot thus far in the Main Event.

Stian Nostdahl: A Q
Balazs Somodi: A K

Nostdahl needed some help but none was on the way with the 5 4 K 10 5 on the board. It was an impressive run for Nostdahl despite missing out on the title and will go home a little richer with a €14,560 fifth-place payout.

Meanwhile, Somodi ousted back-to-back players since the break and had more than half the chips in play when four-handed action began.

Balazs Somodi – 10 million
Stian Nostdahl – 0

€550 Main Event
Level 30: 60,000/120,000 (120,000)
Entries: 5/617

Luigi D’Alterio opened for a min-raise from under the gun with K 10 before Andreas Holmsten opted with A 3 to three-bet jam for 1.7 million. Balazs Somodi four-bet shoved from the small blind for 4.5 million with Q Q and it was a heads-up showdown after both Dario Barone and D’Alterio folded.

Holmsten came into the final table as the short stack and doubled up twice while behind. He bricked the 8 3 6 9 9 board. He managed to ladder up three spots from a ninth-place €5,150 cash to a sixth-place €10,950 payout and was all smiles despite hitting the rail. 

Balazs Somodi – 6.6 million
Andreas Holmsten – 0

€550 Main Event
Level 30: 60,000/120,000 (120,000)
Entries: 6/617

The Main Event players are back from dinner. Blinds have increased to 60,000/120,000 with a 120,000 big blind ante. You can check out the action on the stream by clicking on the stream time while also reporting the biggest hands in the blog.

The €250 Seniors 49+ was a fun event invented by The Festival Series. The main reason it was created is that Franke is just one year shy of 50. So while this was a seniors event there were several players including Franke that were a mere 49 years old.

Franke managed a good run. He built up a big stack and left the table for a period of time to play Day 2 of the €250 Mystery Bounty simultaneously. Eventually, Franke bubbled the event and the title a little while later went to Gerhard Brimmers after he feated Dieter Falzon heads-up. Both Leif Iversen and Jari-Pekka Rattya also cashed in this fun event.

Players are on a one-hour dinner break. We will also snag some food so see you in an hour.

€550 Main Event
Level 29: 50,000/100,000 (100,000)
Entries: 6/617

Stian Nostdahl opened for 225,000 with Q Q from the button and was called by Balazs Somodi with K J from the small blind.

Somodi improved to top pair on the 8 K 7 flop. Both players checked to see the 6 turn. Somodi fired out for 275,000 and Nostdahl called.

The Q river gave Nostdahl the perfect two-outer for a set of ladies. Somodi still with the top pair led out for 550,000. Nostdahl went into the tank for about a minute before he opted to just call.

Somodi still held the chip lead after the hand but it wasn’t as big as before.

Balazs Somodi – 4.6 million
Stian Nostdahl – 3.6 million

€550 Main Event
Level 29: 50,000/100,000 (100,000)
Entries: 6/617

Dario Barone opened for 200,000 from under the gun with 8 8 before Andreas Holmsten with A 9 three-bet to 525,000 from the cutoff.

Balazs Somodi woke up with Q Q from the big blind. He jammed his table-leading stack and extended his chip lead after both his opponents folded their cards.

Balazs Somodi – 5.6 million
Dario Barone – 3.1 million
Andreas Holmsten – 1.3 million

€550 Main Event
Level 28: 40,000/80,000 (80,000)
Entries: 6/617

Luigi D’Alterio opened for a min-raise from early position with 10 8 before Oystein Brenden three-bet jammed for 1.5 million from the cutoff with A Q .

Matthew Micallef quickly called off his stack of slightly less from the small blind with A J and D’Alterio folded.

Micallef was the final local Maltese player in the Main Event. The title won’t stay at home in Malta after ace-jack wasn’t able to push ahead of ace-queen on the 7 K 7 3 5 board to send Micallef to the rail in seventh place for €8,350.

Oystein Brenden – 3 million
Matthew Micallef – 0

€550 Main Event
Level 28: 40,000/80,000 (80,000)
Entries: 7/617

After three short-stacked doubles, the next two hands left players on the rail. First, Mischa Wieten hit the rail before Gytis Juskevicius headed to the locker room as follows:

Stian Nostdahl opened for 225,000 from early position before Juskevicius three-bet shoved for 800,000 from the lojack. Nostdahl called after the action was folded around to him and the players turned over their hands with Juskevicius at risk.

Gytis Juskevicius: 8 8
Stian Nostdahl: A Q

Juskevicius snowmen weren’t good enough and he was out in eighth place for €6,250 after Nostdahl’s ace found a partner on the 3 9 K A 10 board.

Stian Nostdahl – 3.1 million
Gytis Juskevicius – 0

€550 Main Event
Level 28: 40,000/80,000 (80,000)
Entries: 8/617

Balazs Somodi opened for 160,000 from the cutoff before Mischa Wieten three-bet jammed for 1.1 million from the big blind. Somodi called and it was a heads-up showdown with Wieten at risk.

Mischa Wieten: K J
Balazs Somodi: 10 10

Wieten was unable to win the flip and hit the rail in with place for €5,150 after he got nowhere on the 8 2 10 9 9 board.

The final eight players each locked up at least €6,250 after Wieten was eliminated by Somodi. Meanwhile, we had our first lead change at the final table with Somodi becoming the final table captain after the hand.

Balazs Somodi – 4.7 million
Mischa Wieten – 1.0 million

€550 Main Event
Level 27: 30,000/60,000 (60,000)
Entries: 9/617

Mischa Wieten opened for 125,000 from the button. Oystein Brenden three-bet jammed for 635,000 from the big blind and Wieten called.

Oystein Brenden: 7 7
Mischa Wieten: A Q

The start of the day chip leader just lost more than half his stack when his kings didn’t hold against Andreas Holmsten’s nines. However, this time he was able to win a flip to stay alive after his opponent bricked the 7 8 2 5 J board.

Oystein Brenden – 1.3 million
Mischa Wieten – 1.0 million

€550 Main Event
Level 27: 30,000/60,000 (60,000)
Entries: 9/617

More fireworks were launched two hands after Andreas Holmsten got a lucky double. Mischa Wieten opened for 130,000 from the lojack with Q J . Holmsten three-bet jammed for 760,000 from the hijack with 9 9 .

Oystein Brenden woke up with K K from the cutoff and jammed for 1,300,000 and Wieten quickly got out of the way.

Holmsten was behind again. This time by a much further margin with Oystein holding an overpair. 

However, the poker gods are on Holmsten’s side early in the event with the 6 10 7 8 3 running out on the board and once again doubled despite being behind when the chips went into the pot.

Andreas Holmsten – 1.7 million
Oystein Brenden – 545,000

€550 Main Event
Level 27: 30,000/60,000 (60,000)
Entries: 9/617

Dario Barone raised to 130,000 from the lojack before Andreas Holmsten three-bet shoved for 335,000 from the button. Barone called and the cards were turned over.

Andreas Holmsten: A 9
Dario Barone: A J

It was looking like showers for Holmsten as he was a 2:1 underdog. He fell further behind on the 3 7 5 flop. However, everything changed after the 9 spiked the turn to improve Holmsten to a pair. He still had a sweat as the same card also gave Barone the nut-flush draw and his jack was still live as well.

The 9 river paired the board for Holmsten to get a lucky double with trip nines instead of hitting the rail in ninth place.

Dario Barone – 3.6 million
Andreas Holmsten – 760,000

The final table is about to kick off on the stream. Here is a look at some of the photos from the final table:

€550 Main Event
Level 27: 30,000/60,000 (60,000)
Entries: 9/617

The final table of The Festival Series Malta €550 Main Event has been reached with Dario Barone kicking the action off with the chip lead. You will be able to watch the final table play out by clicking on the Stream tab in our coverage. We will also be reporting all of the key hands of the final table here in the blog. In the meantime, here is a look at the final table seat draw:

The €1,100 OFC High Roller has kicked off. This is usually the tournament that The Festival Series Founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk plays but in this case, he is already playing both the Mystery Bounty and the Seniors Event. While you can miss hands in those events at times, this is not the case for OFC. Therefore, time will tell whether Franke gets into the action.

Meanwhile, the €250 OFC champion Aaron Kupin, Sascha Manns, Mati Pirn, Pierre Joubert, Kornel Kielbik, and Thibaut Yoccoz are all in the field.

This is the final event to kick off and we wish the six players in the field the best of luck.

Check out some photos from the final day of the €250 Mystery Bounty.

One of the two €2,000 envelopes and the €5,000 envelope have already been claimed on Day 2 of the €250 Mystery Bounty.

Marcel Fandre was the lucky recipient of the €5,000 bounty prize. Anastasia plans to interview him during one of the upcoming breaks of this event.

Congrats to Fandre and the action still continues in this event with 21 players remaining.

Three players have already hit the rail on the final day of the Main Event leaving just 13 players remaining. Andras Balogh, Kerrien Clement, and PokerStudie’s Jelmer Schuurmans all hit the rail for a cash of €3,000 with the remaining players each getting a pay jump to at least a €3,500 payout.

The second and final day of the €250 Mystery Bounty kicked off at 2 p.m. with 30 returning players each locking up at least a €200 min-cash. This is not all as the bounty element of the tournament has kicked in. If a player eliminates another player they will choose an envelope containing a random prize from €200 all the way up to €5,000!

The Mystery Bounty has been a massive hit with 201 entries coming out in full force to collect a €24,120 prize pool. Jari Porkka and Santo Sidoti began the final day with the biggest stacks. Meanwhile, Franke has a decent stack in this event and is also the chip leader in the ongoing Seniors Event. So we expect to see him running back and forth. He shared he might enter the Low Roller as well. This might be enough to push him ahead of Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon on the Player of the Festival leaderboard but time will tell if that will be the case.

The action has resumed in the €550 Main Event. The live stream also began and you can check that out starting at around 2:30 p.m.

Andreas Sanden agreed to a five-way deal with Sami Pulliainen, Peder Behr, Toomas Orm, and Julien Teissedre before being crowned the champion in the €125 PLO Midnight Madness on Saturday evening to win €1,600. Two players in Orm and Teissedre collected more but Sanden was crowned the champion.

The €60 Low Roller has kicked off with a tasty Sunday field of 53 entries. Of course, this will grow throughout the day but this is an amazing start.

Lisbeth Sunde, Sascha Manns, Vadim Gercev, and Monica Larsson are among he early entries.

Daniele Marchesani defeated Sami Turunen heads-up to win the €4,480 top prize in the €250 PLO Freezeout. The Freezeout attracted 66 unique players to create a €14,256 top prize. The final table of this event was live-streamed on our TheFestivalOG Twitch channel.

Here is a look at all of the payouts and congrats to all of the winners!

The €125 Sportsbook Tournament of The Festival Series Malta attracted 12 participants on Saturday. Their job was to predict the outcome of five British Premier League games and two Italian Serie A games.

There were some upsets among these games. Therefore, it is natural that nobody was able to predict all the games correctly.

When the dust settled we had two winners with the same result with five correct predictions/points, and the decider was then the total number of goals made during these seven games which they also predicted with the total adding up to 20 goals.

Sami Korpela won the top prize of €526 after picking the goals figure exactly correct while Kenneth Heinsvig collected €280 for his runner-up performances after predicting 14 goals.  

Behind these winners, we had a lot of players on four and three points, and dead last with only one point, the self-proclaimed Sportsbook Pro and founder of the Festival Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk. “Franke” has won this event before so this is just a small needle to the man that created The Festival Series from the ground up.

Thank you to all that participated and we look forward to hosting this same event at The Festival Series Bratislava at Banco Casino on Nov. 27 until Dec. 3.

The €250 Seniors 49+ has kicked off with a tidy field of 11 entries, which includes The Festival Series Founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk, Sturla Hiller, Sean O’Donnell, Gerhard Brimmers, and others.

Late registration will be open for eight blind levels and this event is open to anyone at least 49 years old.

The current Player of the Festival leaderboard captain Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon doesn’t have to worry that Franke will gain points here as any event that isn’t open to everyone does not count towards the leaderboard standings.

Best of luck to all of the kids in the Seniors Event!

It has been a fantastic week at Portomaso Casino but all good things eventually do come to an end in life and such is the case with The Festival Malta as we are on our final day.

Goodbyes have already been said to many that left this morning but many more are still around to play in two ongoing events and three new events.

The €250 Seniors 49+ is a one-of-a-kind event as this author doesn’t remember a Seniors Event where the minimum age was 49. We will see some “kids” in the field that are just 49 years old including The Festival Series Founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk. Franke will be busy as he also bagged chips in the €250 Mystery Bounty Day 2 which kicks off at 2 p.m. He has already shared he plans to play both events and perhaps also the €1,100 OFC High Roller that Franke has claimed the title at The Festival Series in the past.

Everyone can enjoy the Low Roller at 1 p.m. as it features only a €70 buy-in, while the €550 Main Event takes center stage as it is down to just 16 players. Our coverage will focus on all of the events until a final table is reached. However, the final day will be live-streamed from the beginning until the end and you can follow the coverage by clicking on the Stream tab in our coverage or by heading to TheFestivalOG on Twitch. We will also change things up where we will be posting the late results from yesterday’s event in today’s coverage.

Norway’s Oystein Brenden heads into the final day of the Main Event with the chip lead with 2,240,000 in chips. Gytis Juskevicius, Andreas Holmsten, Stian Nostdahl, Balazs Somodi, Dario Barone, and Luigi D’Alterio all advanced with 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.

Main Event Final Day Seat Draw

May 21st Schedule