We will be back on the floor tomorrow for the final day. Be on the lookout for an article recap on the front page early tomorrow! Good night and good luck if you are still playing.
Rickey Cheung and Kathy Pheonix Poker came all the way from Hong Kong to check out The Festival Series and The Hendon Mob Championship at Dusk Till Dawn.
Now we get to see them in action as they will play the final Cash Game Challenge live-streamed feature table with stakes at £2/£5 no-limit hold’em. You can watch the action by clicking on the Stream tab within our coverage.
Tom Demaine just ended the early Cash Game Challenge with the biggest win at the table after notching up a 204 big blind profit (£408) at the early £1/£2 no-limit hold’em table.
Next up is the final Cash Game Challenge table of The Festival Series Nottingham. If nobody wins more than 1,103.6 big blinds, Daniel Hong will be crowned the Cash Game Challenge champion and win a package valued at €1,600 to The Festival Series Malta at Portomaso Casino from May 15-21.
Main Event Day 2 Level 26: 200,000/400,000 (400,000) Entries: 9/609
The unofficial final table has just kicked off in the Main Event. The action will stop for the day after one more player is eliminated and resume tomorrow at 3 p.m.
Main Event Level 25: 150,000/300,000 Entries: 14/609
Sascha Manns appeared at the final table at the last two The Festival Series Main Events in both Tallinn during the summer and Bratislava during the autumn.
The trifecta seemed alive for a while despite Manns not being able to get much going. Unfortunately, his run came to an end on the final two tables instead of the final table when his ace-queen ran into queens. It was still another impressive run for Manns and we look forward to welcoming him to Malta in hopes that he resumes his final table runs.
How often do you see a PLO Hi/Lo tournament in Europe? This author has thought this through and hit a mental block. Maybe you can remember your last time.
The good news is that the £230 PLO Hi/Lo just kicked off. The field is at 24 players to start and is likely to grow before late registration is closed.
Coolbet streamer Oskar Wedde, a friend of Betfred Mick Smith, PLO Masterclass host JJ Hazan, The Festival veteran Barrie Dear, PLO 4/5/6 champion William Lynch, Marko Keskel, Gregor Larsson, Guts qualifier Soner Vanelderen, Ole Wasenius, Coolbet’s Ylva “Jevakim” Thorsrud, and Brenden Oystein are among the early entrants.
The £1,100 High Roller proved to be popular as it attracted 65 entries. A total of 30 players remain including Simon WIlson, Tom Hall, Jamie Holland, Tarique Imam, Robert Nur, Garry Spinks, and John Whetton.
The Hendon Mob Championship Day 1a Level 11: 2,500/5,000 (5,000) Entries: 79/195
Late registration for Day 1a of The Hendon Mob £120 Championship is now closed with the field reaching 195 entries! This means that the £25,000 guarantee will be smashed as there are already 66 entries pre-registered into the second and final opening flight kicking off in a few minutes.
Maxine Collins, Chris Cooper, Alexandru Grigorie, Colin Lovelock, and Anthony Napolitano are among the players still in contention.
Day 1a will conclude when the action is down to just 29 players (15% of the field). All players that find a bag into tomorrow’s Day 2 will already be in the money.
Best of luck to all of The Hendon Mob Championship players.
Last night featured the highest stakes offered thus far at the Cash Game Challenge. Richard Barridge came out on top after notching in a profit of £3,625 or 145 big blinds.
Near the end of the night, Barridge nailed a straight with nine-five and got paid off big by Jakub Linden. The action then moved off the stream into the Simon Trickett VIP room where players played until the early morning.
The player that wins the most big blinds throughout the week in designated Cash Game Challenge tables will be crowned the Cash Game Challenge winner. This player will be lavishly rewarded with a package to The Festival Series Malta valued at €1,600 at the beautiful Portamaso Casino from May 15-21.
Currently, Daniel Hong is on top of the leaderboard after winning 1,103.6 big blinds in €2/€5 no-limit hold’em earlier this week. There are two more Cash Game Challenge sessions to go tonight after which we will know who wins the challenge.
The following players cashed for £1,000 in The Festival Series Nottingham Main Event. The final 45 players managed a pay jump and will each collect at least a £1,250 prize.
Main Event Day 2 Level 19: 40,000/80,000 (80,000) Entries: 42/609
Optibet streamer Gatis “OptibetPoker” Reigass started the day with a healthy stack of around 2 million. The day has gone well thus far and he is the chip leader with more than 11 million in chips.
A few minutes ago, Jamie Holland jammed for about a dozen big blinds from early position and was looked up by Reigass.
Jamie Holland: 10 8 Gatis Reigass: 9 9
Holland’s eight connected with the 6 5 5 J 8 board to improve to two pair. However, his two pair was as good as the two pair held by Reigass and he was eliminated in 43rd place.
You saw photos of the Players’ Party and can understand how some people maybe needed something to soak up last night’s mayhem. This is why The Festival Series took hospitality package players to Fish & Chips for brunch today at one of the oldest shops in the country.
We heard from several players (without naming names) that this helped them recover from last night. Here is a look at the photos from the Fish and Chips.
High Roller Level 3: 1,000/2,000 (2,000) Entries: 28/30
The High Roller continues to grow and is up to 30 entries. Two players hit the rail and have already re-entered for a fresh stack of 150,000 for their £1,100 buy-in including George Demetrious and Barry Grime.
The Hendon Mob Championship Day 1a Level 6: 800/1,600 (1,600) Entries: 137/170
We caught up with The Festival Series Founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk and poker dealer Russell Bowman on the break.
We learned from Franke, that his The Hendon Mob Championship first bullet didn’t last long. That being said it was a little bit of a roller coaster ride. Franke shared that he doubled through JJ Hazan when his king-five suited got there against jacks with all of Franke’s chips committed preflop. He then lost most of his chips with an open-ended straight draw to an opponent’s top pair before dusting the rest of his stack off.
Meanwhile, Bowman also struck out on his first bullet. He plans to have some lunch before hopping back into the action. Franke plans to do the same after making some announcements during the first break of the Main Event, which is down to just 56 hopefuls.
Not only is today a big day for The Festival Series with the Main Event playing down to a final table, The Hendon Mob Championship and High Roller kicking off, but it is also our friend Jake O’Leary’s birthday!
O’Leary plans to play The Hendon Mob Championship Day 1b flight at 6 p.m. In the meantime, he is having some pre-game drinks with his old-time friend James Price!
Why not buy O’Leary a drink? He won’t turn it down and you can join in on the celebration!
Main Event Day 2 Level 17: 25,000/50,000 (50,000) Entries: 63/609
The following players cashed for a min-cash of £800 in the Main Event. Keep in mind that despite already min-cashing, Carlo Solazzo is still alive as he bagged chips twice during the opening flights.
The final 63 players have each locked up at least a £1,000 payout in the Main Event.
High Roller Level 1: 500/1,000 (1,000) Entries: 19/19
The £1,100 High Roller kicked off with a field of 19 players. This is just the start of the event, so expect the field to grow with Main Event players busting out left and right.
Waheed Ashraf, John Bassett, Rupinder Bedi, Fraser Bellamy, Philip Clarke, George Demetrious, Ian Gascoigne, Barry Grime, Tom Hall, Johnny Hofseth, David Ledden, Jonathan McCann, Jonas Rosqvist, Garry Spinks, Michael Stweart, Nathan Watson, Michael Wehner, John Whetton, and Simon Wilson are the players from the start in the field.
The Franke’s Flip Flops ended last night. Alexandru Talica was sweating the flips while also working his way to the final table at the £230 PLO Freezeout.
His six flip victories, which he notched up after Wednesday’s flip session was the most out of any of the players at The Festival Series Nottingham at Dusk Till Dawn.
Not only did he win buy-ins to many events during this festival but also won a package valued at €1,600 to The Festival Series Malta at Portomaso Casino from May 15-21 but will also take home a frame pair of Franke’s actual flip flops as a trophy.
Congrats to Talica for out-flipping the competition and see you in Malta.
The Hendon Mob Championship Day 1a Level 1: 200/500 (500) Entries: 99/99
The Hendon Mob Championship featuring a £120 buy-in kicked off the first of its two opening flights with nearly 100 players in the field.
Tom Baker, James Broomhead, Lukasz Grabowski, Alexandru Grigorie, James Harcourt, and Mark Hayes are among the players in action.
As a reminder, there is some extra value in this event. If you eliminate a player where a Hendon Mob patch, you will also collect gear as a bounty.
The Hendon Mob’s Roland Boothby will eventually be one of the entrants. Knock out Roland, and this author will buy you a beer on top of the normal bounty if you come see him.
Main Event Day 2 Level 14: 15,000/25,000 (25,000) Entries: 91/609
The Main Event has just kicked off its penultimate day. The plan for today is to play down to one table of eight players with the action playing down to a winner tomorrow on the live stream.
Today is a big day at The Festival Series Nottingham at Dusk Till Dawn as not only has the £450 Main Event progressed to its second day already in the money but today is also the day that the two-day The Hendon Mob €120 Championship kicks off both of its opening flights.
The Main Event attracted 609 entries to generate a £236,292 prize pool. A total of 91 players bagged stacks into Day 2 with Carlo Solazzo finding two bags thus collecting a min-cash of £800 already on the stack not being brought forward.
Michael O’Brien leads the way with 4,120,000 in chips with Marian Dumitrache (3,565,000), Ali Ayub (3,420,000), and Satnam Sandhu (3,045,000) also bringing in more than 3 million to Day 2. Just behind this group is Sascha Manns with 2,965,000 in chips. Manns appeared at back-to-back Main Event final tables in both The Festival Series Tallinn in the summer and The Festival Series Bratislava in the autumn and now is looking for a trifecta with a cherry on top with a victory which comes with a £42,500 top prize.
Main Event Payouts
Place
Prize
1
£42,500
2
£27,250
3
£18,250
4
£12,592
5
£9,250
6
£7,000
7
£5,500
8
£4,500
9
£3,500
10-12
£3,000
13-15
£2,500
16-18
£2,250
19-22
£2,000
23-27
£1,750
28-36
£1,500
37-45
£1,250
46-63
£1,000
64-92
£800
The Hendon Mob Championship and More
Today also features the two opening flights of the two-day £120 The Hendon Mob Championship with Day 1a kicking off at 1 p.m. and Day 1b starting at 6 p.m. The Hendon Mob’s Roland Boothby and Wes McKenzie are on site to provide support. They are both super approachable if you have any questions about the event or The Hendon Mob in general. They will also be patching up a handful of players. Eliminate a patched player and collect a bounty for some cool The Hendon Mob gear.
Also scheduled today is the £1,100 High Roller at 2 p.m. and the £230 PLO/PLO Hi-Lo at 7 p.m.
Best of luck to all of the players and stay tuned to our blog for all of your updates for the day.
