It’s finally arrived, the first outing for The Festival is soon about to get underway at Kings Casino, Rozvadov in the Czech Republic. It may be almost June but 2024 hasn’t properly started until The Festival hosts its opening event of the year. And now that time has come, happy new year everyone!
This is the first time that the series has visited Kings Casino Rozvadov and it’s the most ambitious event that The Festival has staged in its short history. There are over 60 events on the very unique schedule that the tour has become known for. If you’re expecting i find a program of non-stop Hold’em tournaments you might be disappointed, as The Festival is about so much more than just poker games with two hole cards.
The Festival’s Unique Tournament Schedule
There are of course plenty of No Limit Hold’em events on the schedule, but unlike many poker festivals, non-Hold’em games are more than just an afterthought. The Festival doesn’t just chuck in one or two Omaha events to tick the non-Hold’em box, it elevates the status of non-Hold’em games and puts them at the very centre of the tournament schedule.
There are non-Hold’em tournaments every day and on some days there are more of them scheduled than Hold’em ones. This is to the delight of many poker enthusiasts and an older generation of players who discovered poker when it wasn’t so heavily focused on Texas Hold’em.
Kings Casino Welcomes The Festival
Kings Casino is the biggest and busiest poker venue in Europe and this year it celebrates its 21st birthday. Owner and high stakes player Leon Tsoukernik has a dedicated team of staff that keep the venue running all year long, with tournament series running for most of the year.
There are in fact very few ‘regular’ weeks at Kings Casino, as there tends to be a significant event taking place almost every week. The venue has hosted the WSOPE every year since 2017 and has hosted many other major tours and events. Leon had a dream over twenty years ago to build the biggest poker venue in Europe and he achieved that many years ago, as Kings Casino has been the number one poker venue in Europe for well over a decade.
Such a well equipped casino with very experienced staff is the perfect location for The Festival to start the 2024 season.
Festival Highlights
One of the wonderful things about poker festivals is the ability to make your own personal schedule of poker events that you wish to play. The Festival in Rozvadov is a perfect example of an event where no two players might have the same playing schedule. With 6-8 events starting every day in a wide variety of poker variants, players have the opportunity to create unique personal schedules that simply wouldn’t be possible at any other poker festival.
Where else can you start your day with a bit of PLO, progress to a Mystery Bounty, then fire a roulette tournament and finish off with another PLO competition? Don’t send any answers to this question, its rhetorical, as there is obviously no other poker events anywhere else on the planet that has such an eclectic mix of games.
KEY EVENTS
These are the key tournaments taking place at The Festival in Rozvadov
Opening Weekend Key Events
The €250 Hendon Mob Championship gets the Festival in Rozvadov started at 11am on Friday 31st May, with the first of five starting flights. The second starting flight of the €200,000 guaranteed event is also on Friday, at 6pm. There are two further flights on Saturday and a final turbo structured flight on Sunday before those who make it through to Day 2 recommence play.
The Hendon Mob Championship Schedule
The first day of The Festival in Rozvadov also features the Mixed Games Main Event, with a H.O.R.S.E.S format and a €550 buy-in. For those not familiar with it, it’s the same as H.O.R.S.E, but with Sviten Special added into the rotation.
Emphasising how important mixed games are to The Festival players, the H.O.R.S.E.S event has three starting days, with the second flight starting on Saturday afternoon and the third on Sunday. Those who make it through the starting days will reconvene on Monday for the second and final day of the event.
H.O.R.S.E.S Schedule
Sunday sees the start of another marquee event on the schedule, the €300 Mystery Bounty tournament with a €100,000 guarantee. It has its first starting day at 6pm on Sunday evening, with a further three flights taking place over the next few days. This tournament will be the main focus of the early part of next week, concluding on Wednesday, side by side with the start of the Main Event.
Non-Hold’em Tournaments
In addition to the Mixed Games Main Event, there are several other non-Hold’em tournaments scheduled for the first weekend of The Festival in Rozvadov. This includes Sviten Special and Crazy Pineapplw, which both take place on Friday. Pot Limit Omaha is Saturday’s non-Hold’em offering while Sunday’s schedule includes an 8-Game tournament.
Other Sides and Satellites
But of course those who prefer No Limit Hold’em are also very well catered for at The Festival in Rozvadov. The Hendon Mob Championship is the main Hold’em option all weekend, however there is also a €125 Bounty side event on Saturday evening and a Win The Button tournament on Sunday.
There are also satellites to the Main Event, the H.O.R.S.E.S and the Mystery Bounty on the opening weekend schedule.
Live Streamed Cash Game Challenges
Live streaming on Kings Casino’s state of the art feature table begins on Saturday, with four cash game challenges scheduled for the opening weekend.
Franke’s Flip Flops
Franke’s Flip Flops has become a popular tradition at The Festival events. Within the hospitality lounge area at the back of the main poker arena, three-handed fast paced flips on-demand flips tournaments will take place every evening between 20.00 and 22.00. They will be rake free and there’s a prize package valued at €1,600 for the player who wins the most flips throughout the festival.
Perhaps even more sought after than the prize, is the trophy, Franke’s actual flip flops, framed!
Off the Felt Activities
The Festival has always been about more than just poker. Yes, there are casino game challenges and rake free flips, but it’s also about more than just competition and gambling games. This is a very serious and very important part of the Festival and it is defined by fun! Whether it’s drinking games, excursions, sports activities or even treasure hunts, the off-the-table activities are one of the key defining features of The Festival experience.
Franke and the team have been hard a work this year preparing a stellar schedule off-the-table activities for The Festival in Rozvadov.
Friday’s Schedule at The Festival in Rozvadov
