…Incorporating highlights from Day 1a of the Main Event, Day 1b of the Blackjack and Roulette Championships, and Ylva Thorsrud’s glorious victory in the €8,000 Acroud Charity SNG.
…Incorporating highlights from Day 1a of the Main Event, Day 1b of the Blackjack and Roulette Championships, and Ylva Thorsrud’s glorious victory in the €8,000 Acroud Charity SNG.
Today saw the commencement of the Main Event at the The Festival in Bratislava. Day 1a of the €500 + €50 event attracted 108 entries, with local player Pavol Melichar topping the chip counts at the end of play with 225,000. Other notable players who survived Day 1a include Jon Kyte and JJ Hazan; please find full chip counts below. A total of 38 players made it through Day 1a and will proceed directly to Friday’s Day 2, where they will presumably be joined by many more once tomorrow’s Day 1b and Thursday’s Days 1c and 1d have played out. Day 1b will start tomorrow at the slightly earlier time of noon.
Meanwhile in the side events, the Sviten Special was won by George Sandford for €2,882 after he bested long-time chip leader Rolf Galaasen heads up. Ylva Thorsrud took down the Acroud Charity Tournament, as documented below, and the PLO Masters continues as I type, with 7 players remaining from a total 48 entries. Day 1b of the utterly delightful Blackjack Championship saw Ilmari Sukanen and Elias Hesikanen both progress to Day 2; as regards the Roulette Championship, there are still three players with chips in Day 1b and 30 spins still to go.
Today’s Main Event supersat has smashed the five seat guarantee, just like yesterday – there are currently 107 entries and rising – and we’re fully expecting the fields for Days 1b and 1c/d to dwarf today’s. See you then!
Those are the final counts for the first starting flight:
| Player | Chips |
|---|---|
| Pavol Melichar | 223,000 |
| Kristian Roeysland | 158,800 |
| Viktor Tobias Aakerlund | 153,500 |
| Jon Kristian Kyte | 150,600 |
| Robert Gustav Svediv | 148,800 |
| Patrik Ciklamini | 148,500 |
| Erik Steffer | 133,000 |
| Jozef Krajan | 124,200 |
| Daniel Koloszar | 115,100 |
| Jeraint James Hazan | 112,500 |
| Gerald Karlic | 107,700 |
| Joni Juhani Salo | 106,100 |
| Julian Herold | 105,900 |
| Yaron Zeev Nisim Malki | 104,100 |
| Dimitri Thierry Przybyl | 94,200 |
| Dominik Znasik | 93,800 |
| Panagiotis Chantzaras | 92,500 |
| Mark Joa | 84,400 |
| Jiri Noga | 81,900 |
| Ville Jyrki Santeri Pohjalainen | 75,500 |
| Szerhij Danasevskij | 75,200 |
| Rasmus Joakim Aadjers | 69,100 |
| Samuel Stranak | 63,600 |
| Erich Schiel | 61,300 |
| Tibor Tamas Bartha | 60,900 |
| Peter Behr | 60,200 |
| Giuseppe Davide Saitta | 59,600 |
| Tor Anton Myvold Welo | 51,200 |
| Thomas Schoonjana | 46,400 |
| Tamas Gyori | 42,200 |
| Shane Demsey | 40,000 |
| Karl Erik Drakenberg | 33,400 |
| Martin Bartos | 32,800 |
| Pavel Chalupka | 30,300 |
| Tamas Grabics | 30,200 |
| Stanislas Kolento | 28,000 |
| Andries Jacob Swart | 22,400 |
| Jacub Krzystof Ojzynski | 20,200 |
Play is over for Day 1a of this, the inaugural Festival in Bratislava Main Event, and there are 38 players remaining from a field of 108 entries. Chip leader as they bag and tag is local player Pavol Melichar on 225k, head and shoulders above the next man. Other players of note who made it through include JJ Hazan and Jon Kyte, both on very respectable stacks. We’ll have full chip counts with you soon, plus a bit more news from the various side events…
The tournament director Gerard Serra just announced that the last 5 hands of this evening will be played in the main event. All remaining players will return on Friday to play day 2. At least all players that chose to. Because players have the option to surrender their stack and re-enter again tomorrow or Thursday if they feel their stack is too small to continue playing with it.
We will update all the chip counts once the players finished playing the last hands and have bagged their chips.
Austria is only a stone‘s throw away from Bratislava. Meaning: there are a lot of players from Austria in the event. One of them is Gerald Karlic, who’s a force in the poker world for more than 10 years now.
He just doubled up in one of the latest hands this evening when he was all-in with Ace-Queen against 7-7. Karlic spiked an Ace on the flop and doubled up to over 130k chips – almost twice the average stack.
The clock’s just been paused on the Main Event and five last hands have been declared; please stand by…
With two levels to go before the end of play, and 52 players of 102 entries remaining, these are the biggest stacks currently in the Main Event:
Pavol Melichar – 168k
Jon Kyte – 160k
Robert Svedin – 145k
Dominik Znasik – 125k
Jozef Krajan – 120k
Smauel Stranak – 100k
JJ Hazan’s Main Event roller coaster continues with a double up to 75k in an AK v QQ coinflip – one king on the flop, and a second one on the river for emphasis.
We’re well into Level 6 in the Main Event (blinds/BB ante 400/800/800), and it’s getting towards do-or-die time for a lot of the shorter stacks. Two players who have survived their latest brush with fate are Jack Hardcastle at Table 35 and Juho Heiska on Table 34.
Jack Hardcastle won a coinflipwith J J against Zsolt Zanati’s A Q ; Hardcastle tried to provoke the poker gods by calling out “Diamond!” on the flop, but it didn’t appear; instead the board ran out 8 2 10 5 7 and he safely doubled up. He and Zanati are on 35k apiece now, although obviously moving in opposite directions.
Meanwhile Juho Heiska, reduced to less than 10k, took a gamble on J 10 preflop and got a call from Dominik Znasik holding A K . A jack on the turn of the 2 6 5 J 2 board secured him a double up to 20k or so – still significantly below his starting stack – while Znasik didn’t look happy but in reality barely felt it and is still riding high on 110k.
We will need more beer here. We just did some more counting and we can report that the number of beers at the tables is way too low.
Out of currently 58 remaining players we counted the following stats:
That’s only 0.16 beers per player in the room. That number is way too low, especially considering the low prize and the decent quality of the beer served here!
We’re in level 8 of the Main Event and we have reached the threshold of 100 entries. That is quite a bit higher than we anticipated. We’re certainly not complaining, and it sure looks like this event is right on track to smash the 300k guarantee after all 4 starting flights are set and done.
Today we’re playing 2 more levels in the Main Event and registration remains open until the first two levels of day 2 are in the books. Thus late arrivals will be able to join until Friday early afternoon.
After 6 levels the players are on another break and we eyeballed the biggest stacks:
| Pavol Melichar | 175k |
| Roman Okolicany | 150k |
| Daniel Koloszar | 115k |
| Jon Kyte | 90k |
| Joni Salo | 80k |
| Yaron Malki | 71k |
| Rasmus Aadjers | 70k |
| Szerhij Danasevszkij | 67k |
| Jozef Krajan | 66k |
| Martin Bartos | 65k |
With that we will leave for a short dinner break. We’ll be back as soon as possible!
Clash of the big stacks on Table 31 as local player Roman Okolicany check-called a bet from Jon Kyte on a 7 6 8 flop, and then check-called a bigger – 4.4k – bet on the 2 turn. He checked for a third time on the 6 river and this time Kyte checked behind. Okolicany flipped his cards first – 2 5 for the bottom end of the straight draw that had turned into a humble pair of deuces on the river. Kyte somewhat reluctantly showed A 9 for just the top end of the straight that never came in, and dropped to 90k – still more than double the average stack right now. Okolicany meanwhile is up there with the chip leaders on roughly 150k.
Meanwhile, JJ Hazan’s heading in the opposite direction after smacking his flush into a bigger flush in a 70k pot – he’s right back down to 26k now. Photo courtesy of the man himself.
The Main Event ploughs on, and the latest player to hit the rail is Poland’s Jakub Ojrzynski, his A 3 no good against Rauno Viljarand’s A J on a 7 9 6 4 Q board, the chips presumably having gone in pre. Viljarand – the gentleman previously crippled down to just 200 chips after a run-in with JJ Hazan before doubling up five hands in a row – is now up to over 50k.
Right now, we have 60 / 79 players in the main event. We did some minor counting:
We’re hopeful to welcome more woman at the tables in the coming days.
More updates from JJ Hazan in the Main Event – in his own words:
“Estonian Rauno Viljarand (lost with the AA against me earlier) has made an incredible comeback. From 200 (2/3 anti), he has won 5 all-ins in a row and is now on starting stack of 30k!! He even had AA the hand after the AA…”
Impressive work!
Thanks to our roving reporter/Main Event contender JJ Hazan for providing me with updates from the field – your blogger is already tired. Most recently, he tells me via Facebook Messenger, he found himself on the button with 9 6 and called a raise, as you do. The flop came down 7-8-T, and the original raiser, sitting on roughly the same chips as our hero, bet out 1.2k. Hazan raised to 3.2k, Original Raiser reraised to 10k, and Hazan, despite admitting he was a bit worried about the possibility of his opponent holding J9, shoved. Original Raiser called with pocket aces, and Hazan is now up to 70k with the average stack at 38k or so.
Meanwhile the main event is up to 75 runners in the 5th level which is already more than we expected for day 1A. We have players here from all over Europe – quite a lot of players from Hungary, multiple Brits, Polish and Austrian players as well as players from all over Scandinavia. But the biggest fraction today is the local fraction – roughly a quarter of the of the players are from Slovakia.
With 49 / 59 players the main event goes into the first break. We counted some chips and those are the biggest stacks at the tables (eyeballed counts):
| Antonio Pezzia | 85k |
| Andras Halasi | 72k |
| Amanda Sidark | 70k |
| Rasmus Aadjers | 70k |
| Robert Svedin | 68k |
| Daniel Koloszar | 60k |
| Juho Heiska | 54k |
| Peter Zolnai | 50k |
| JJ Hazan | 45k |
Back to the Main Event, and Finland’s Rikard Andersson has doubled up through a gentleman we believe is called Hans Hansson. I only caught the very tail end of the hand, but it was enough to establish that Andersson had been holding A K for top pair, top kicker on a 5 J 2 6 A board. Judging by the look on Hansson’s face, I suspect he’d been ahead until the river.
Andersson’s now up to 40k, Hansson down to 26k.
The Festival head honcho Franke von Zweigbergk has just exited the Main Event, shouting, “I bluffed myself out,” over to the media desk on his way out of the door. Franke has now played all four events so far, and has yet to make a Day 2. An example to us all.
The Main Event is up to 47 entries, and we are delighted to share that Matias Alenko is responsible for two of those. We didn’t catch the hand he busted out on, but to be honest it really doesn’t matter as he re-entered immediately and is back at the tables now like nothing ever happened. A quick reminder – you’re allowed up to two re-entries on each start day of this Main Event, so no need to panic if you have a bit of an accident with your first buy-in.
Main Event entries have crept up to 38 so far, including 2019 Irish Open Seniors champion JJ Hazan – whom it’s particularly good to see back at the felt, after he almost died from covid earlier in the year. Now fully recovered, he’s taken an early lead at his table after raising with 10 6 and hitting a 3-4-6 flop with two spades on it. He rivered the flush while his opponent could only manage a straight, and now has a modest lead of 40k and is threatening to do his impressions of Boris Johnson and Margaret Thatcher for our entertainment later.
Good morning and welcome back to Banco Casino, where the Main Event is now underway! Registrations are modest so far, but we expect the numbers to swell exponentially over the next three days/four starting flights.
A bit of general info on the Main – the buy in is €500 + €50, two rebuys are allowed on each start day, starting stacks are 30,000, and all the Day 1’s will consist of 10 x 45-minute levels, except for Day 1d which will have a turbo format.
Meanwhile, the final table of the Sviten Special is underway downstairs in the casino – more updates soon!
Gentle reminder: the easiest way to stay up to date with everything that is happening in the casino (including starting times, delays and vital information and updates) is to use our app. You can find it in the App Store and Play Store via this link:
The app is free (or course) and we’re even running a tiny give away among all users.
The tables in the main event area are set and we’re slowing ready to start the first poker main event of The Festival Series.
The scheduled start of 12 pm was postponed one hour due to a public health inspection. The play will begin shortly after 1 pm.
The Poker Main Event of the inaugural Festival Series will start Tuesday, September 21st at 12.00pm. The first event, our Sviten Special, will begin on Monday at 4pm.
» Check the full schedule here: Schedule The Festival Bratislava
If you have not done so, download our Festival App (available in Play Store and App Store) to stay up to date with the event. For all new users we even have a small give away.
We’re looking forward to seeing you at the tables!
