The Festival Series Bratislava: Recap Day 2
The second day of The Festival Series in Bratislava has been epic from the beginning until the end. The Hendon Mob Championship got a massive number of 156 entries, with one more opening flight planned for Wednesday, so it seems that this event will get a new personal high here in Banco Casino. The Main Event also kicked off with Day 1A, while another whopping 12 events were played throughout the day, including the first Madness event of the week!
The €550 Main Event kicked off yesterday, drawing in 54 entries for its first flight. By the end of the day, 12 players had managed to bag and tag their chips, securing their spots for Day 2. Among the survivors are familiar faces like Ashley Scott and Frank Visser, both known regulars in the live poker scene. With Day 2 not scheduled until Saturday, these players, together with the rest of the survivors, now have a couple of "days off" to recharge or jump into some of the side events happening in the meantime. Speaking of which, another s side events are planned for Wednesday, as well as Franke's Flip Flops!
Everyone started the event with 30,000 chips, but it was Ilya Smolko who made the biggest splash. He managed to bag over 10 times the starting stack, putting him confidentially at the top of the leaderboard. That’s an incredible result, and while it’s likely someone will surpass his total in the remaining five flights, it’s clear he crushed it in this first round. Well done to Ilya— you are off to a fantastic start!
€550 Main Event (€500K GTD) Day 1A chip counts:
| Rank | Country | Player Name | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Ilya Smolko | 312,000 |
| 2 |  | Kenny Burke | 196,000 |
| 3 |  | Lukasz Sajnog | 196,000 |
| 4 |  | Frank Visser | 182,000 |
| 5 |  | David Kozma | 165,000 |
| 6 |  | Theodore Nils Magnus Sjoeblom | 143,000 |
| 7 |  | Igor Brimus | 108,000 |
| 8 | | Ashley Leslie Scott | 105,000 |
| 9 | | Martin Bartos | 93,000 |
| 10 |  | Athanasios Kechagias | 64,000 |
| 11 |  | Arto Ilmari Loikkanen | 33,000 |
| 12 |  | Espen Gundersen | 32,000 |
€550 H.O.R.S.E.S Mixed Main Event - 17 entries on Day 1B
The true mixed games fanatics consider this tournament as one of the toughest of the week. You can compare the H.O.R.S.E.S Mixed Games Main Event with Athletics, where one of the headliners at the Olympic Games consists of ten different disciplines. One of the players who made it through to Day 2 is our own good old Martin 'Franke' von Zweigbergk! Who would have guessed he would finally make it to the second day of this event...
Matteo Crapanzano is leading the dance, chipping up to 129,500, taking him to the second place in the overall leaderboard. The second and final day of the event will start on Wednesday at 13:30 Local Time, and the players will be hunting to reach the money spots!
- €6,250
- €4,400
- €3,300
- €2,650
- €2,100
- €1,750
- €1,400
| Rank | Country | Player Name | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Matteo Gerolamo Crapanzano | 129,500 |
| 2 |  | Franke Von Zweigbergk | 106,500 |
| 3 | | Scott 'Pokerbrahs' Kenyon | 62,000 |
| 4 | | Dario De Toffoli | 59,000 |
| 5 |  | Jeremy Trojand | 52,000 |
| 6 | | Sandeep Arun Nene | 46,000 |
| 7 |  | Blaz Zerjav | 46,000 |
| 8 | | Igor Piotr Narajczyk | 9,000 |
The Hendon Mob Championship - 156 entries on Day 1B
It's not the end of the chip counts just yet! The Hendon Mob Championship is one of the three flagship events this week, having multiple opening flights. Yesterday, an incredible 156 entries were made, and it was eventually the Czech Ondrej Necas who gathered a whopping 21,5 starting stacks. Will the total amount of entries go over 500 in total? Let's see!
| Rank | Country | Player Name | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Ondrej Necas | 649,000 |
| 2 | | Vegard Granli | 513,000 |
| 3 | | Marc Gork | 334,000 |
| 4 |  | Kaloyan Filchev Travlev | 311,000 |
| 5 | | Viktoria Lucenkova | 296,000 |
| 6 | | Ziga Klopcic | 287,000 |
| 7 | | Petri Juhani Juurikkala | 283,000 |
| 8 | | Jaanus Kippel | 261,000 |
| 9 | | Matas Gerdziunas | 252,000 |
| 10 | | Jan Erik Larsen Iversen | 239,000 |
| 11 |  | Aleksiy Baranovskiy | 237,000 |
| 12 |  | Eduard Bagrov | 167,000 |
| 13 | | Vasileios Tsaknis | 128,000 |
| 14 | | Paddy Schmidt | 125,000 |
| 15 |  | Giorgos Christou | 104,000 |
| 16 | | Bas de Laat | 92,000 |
| 17 | | Kare Hallamaa | 79,000 |
| 18 | | Jari Kaerkaeinen | 70,000 |
| 19 | | Georgios Livanos | 68,000 |
| 20 | | Lovisa Styrenius | 61,000 |
| 21 | | Geir Hanssen | 41,000 |
Side Events - A Plethora of Tournaments!
Imagine you are in Bratislava, not sure what to do, and thinking of playing some live poker. Well, yesterday a whopping 10+ events were played here at Banco Casino. Many of the events were one-day tournaments such as the Seniors tournament, Win the Button Madness, Heads Up, H.O.R.S.E, and the always popular Half 'n Half tournament. It would turn out that many of these events gathered so many entries that there weren't many empty chairs left in the poker areas.
Besides the flagship events such as The Hendon Mob Championship, Main Event, and the H.O.R.S.E.S Mixed Main Event, and all the side events, it was time for the Cash Game Challenge to continue! On top of all this, Franke's Flip Flops games ran as well throughout the evening. The action was epic throughout the entire casino, making the overall vibe absolutely amazing.
We have listed here the event winners of the side events yesterday:
| Tournament | Participants | Prize Money (€) | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Win the Button Madness | 79 | 2,355 | Toni Matias Sarkama |
| HORSE | 47 | 1,341 | Giorgio Savignone |
| Seniors | 32 | 1,865 | Jari Pekka Hurri |
| Satellite Main Event | 136 | 14 tickets | |
| Half n Half | 92 | 2,267 | John Ingemar Backman Trast |
| Heads Up | 32 | 3,240 | Jaroslaw Falkowski |
Live Stream & Social Media
All the Social Media Channels of The Festival Series will bring you daily exclusive insights, results, and important tournament information. Make sure to give us a follow, and stay up to date about everything that is happening here in Bratislava! Part of all the content that is being created here at Banco Casino is the player interviews. Marc Gork has been playing quite the tournaments already, as well as the Cash Game Challenges on the live stream, what did he have to say to Andreas while being interviewed? Check it out below!
