The Mixed Main Event Tournament – Meet Mixed Games Specialist Tobias Leknes
One of Norwegians' finest Mixed Games players is Tobias Leknes who is the President of the Norwegian Poker Association, 13 times WCOOP Winner, and 3 times Norwegian Champion. It will be an extremely hard quest to find anyone else where the love for mixed games is as big as with Tobias. The law and poker in Norway do not go hand-in-hand, and the Norwegian Poker Association tries to optimize the current state of Norwegian poker by lobbying around and to get it legalized. To have an all-time legend of the mixed games community running the show is something which can only be adored. With The Festival Series, we recently opted for the experience of Tobias and he gave his advice about the upcoming and newly introduced Mixed Main Event in Bratislava.
The Festival Series recently introduced a new Mixed Main Event and will be part of the upcoming stop in Bratislava. With the debut of this mixed event, having a H.O.R.S.E.S format, it is once again a great unique addition to our series. When organising live events it is from utmost importance that structures will be of the highest possible quality, and what better way of going towards this level than to ask one of the world's biggest mixed games fanatics around? The Mixed Main Event will have multiple starting days and one final day. With a fully packed schedule, taking into account the casino possibilities related to dealers etc, listening to other mixed games players and taking their opinions as well, it can be a hard topic to come to the most ideal tournament structure possible.
Tournament Structure Mixed Main Event
With all this in mind, we came to the idea of asking Tobias Leknes and we have now a tournament structure which meets all criteria! What made me as a writer curious is to get to know what is important to come to such a conclusion and what played key roles in the decisions. Tobias started off with: ''Mixed Games is something that I love to play and be involved with. I am a bit Nerdy when it comes to structures, and I am more willing to help out when it comes to tournament structures so that that players will have the best possible gaming experience''. And when we asked what subjects played a main role in coming to this structure he said: ''We chose to make the beginning of the limit games blind levels a bit higher as usual. To have the starting levels low, the games become a bit of nonsense. But in the same time, we wanted to make the stretch a bit longer as it's being played as a two-day event of course.''.
Starting Stack: 30,000 chips
| LVL | ANTE STUD | BRING IN | BLINDS LIMIT | COMPLETE/SMALL BET | BIG BET | CLOCK |
| 1 | 100 | 200 | 300-500 | 500 | 1 000 | 30 |
| 2 | 200 | 200 | 300-600 | 600 | 1 200 | 30 |
| 3 | 200 | 200 | 400-800 | 800 | 1 600 | 30 |
| 4 | 200 | 300 | 500-1,000 | 1 000 | 2 000 | 30 |
| BREAK | 15 | |||||
| 5 | 300 | 400 | 600-1,200 | 1 200 | 2 400 | 30 |
| 6 | 300 | 500 | 800-1,500 | 1 500 | 3 000 | 30 |
| 7 | 500 | 700 | 1,000-2,000 | 2 000 | 4 000 | 30 |
| 8 | 500 | 1 000 | 1,500-2,500 | 2 500 | 5 000 | 30 |
| BREAK - End of latereg - Chip race 100s | 15 | |||||
| 9 | 500 | 1 000 | 1,500-2,500 | 2 500 | 5 000 | 30 |
| 10 | 1 000 | 1 000 | 1,500-3,000 | 3 000 | 6 000 | 30 |
| 11 | 1 000 | 1 500 | 2,000-4,000 | 4 000 | 8 000 | 30 |
| 12 | 1 000 | 1 500 | 3,000-5,000 | 5 000 | 10 000 | 30 |
| End of day - Chip race 500s | ||||||
| 13 | 1 000 | 2 000 | 3,000-5,000 | 5 000 | 10 000 | 30 |
| 14 | 2 000 | 2 000 | 3,000-6,000 | 6 000 | 12 000 | 30 |
| 15 | 2 000 | 2 000 | 4,000-8,000 | 8 000 | 16 000 | 30 |
| 16 | 2 000 | 3 000 | 5,000-10,000 | 10 000 | 20 000 | 30 |
| BREAK | 15 | |||||
| 17 | 3 000 | 4 000 | 6,000-12,000 | 12 000 | 24 000 | 30 |
| 18 | 3 000 | 5 000 | 8,000-15,000 | 15 000 | 30 000 | 30 |
| 19 | 5 000 | 5 000 | 10,000-20,000 | 20 000 | 40 000 | 30 |
| 20 | 5 000 | 10 000 | 15,000-25,000 | 25 000 | 50 000 | 30 |
| BREAK - Chip Race 1000s | 15 | |||||
| 21 | 10 000 | 10 000 | 15,000-30,000 | 30 000 | 60 000 | 30 |
| 22 | 10 000 | 15 000 | 20,000-40,000 | 40 000 | 80 000 | 30 |
| 23 | 10 000 | 15 000 | 25,000-50,000 | 50 000 | 100 000 | 30 |
| 24 | 15 000 | 20 000 | 30,000-60,000 | 60 000 | 120 000 | 30 |
| BREAK | 15 | |||||
| 25 | 25 000 | 25 000 | 40,000-80,000 | 80 000 | 160 000 | 30 |
| 26 | 25 000 | 30 000 | 50,000-100,000 | 100 000 | 200 000 | 30 |
| 27 | 25 000 | 40 000 | 75,000-125,000 | 125 000 | 250 000 | 30 |
| 28 | 30 000 | 50 000 | 75,000-150,000 | 150 000 | 300 000 | 20 |
| BREAK | 15 | |||||
| 29 | 50 000 | 75 000 | 100,000-200,000 | 200 000 | 400 000 | 30 |
| 30 | 50 000 | 75 000 | 125,000-250,000 | 250 000 | 500 000 | 30 |
| 31 | 75 000 | 100 000 | 150,000-300,000 | 300 000 | 600 000 | 30 |
| 32 | 100 000 | 150 000 | 200,000-400,000 | 400 000 | 800 000 | 30 |
The option to re-enter (2x) played a key role as well; ''The idea is that players will have plenty of time to spin up their stack and to have a great shot at victory on the second day. With plenty of time for re-entries, players have this opportunity.'' By asking for other key factors he said: ''You have to take into consideration that it is a two-day event (see schedule). Add to this that the available timeframe and the casino possibilities and that, this is really the best you can get in my opinion.''
| Date | Tournament Name (Online) | Buy-in | Rank | Prize Money |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09/24/2023 | WCOOP 67-H: NLO8 | $2,100 | 1/46 | $55,006.07 |
| 09/03/2018 | WCOOP-10-M: NLHE | $215 | 1/1105 | $44,064.08 |
| 05/10/2018 | SCOOP-17-H: FLHE | $2,100 | 2/68 | $37,060.45 |
| 09/28/2023 | WCOOP 87-H: 8 Game | $2,100 | 1/28 | $33,775.01 |
| 09/21/2022 | WCOOP 76-H: 5-Card NLO8 | $2,100 | 2/53 | $32,522.96 |
Norwegian Poker Association and Poker Life
At the moment we spoke to Tobias he was actually in Brazil, trying to get some trophies in mixed games events such as HORSE, ROSE, and 9-game (a 3-day event!). ''Unfortunately, I cannot make it to Banco Casino Bratislava this time, but it seems that this city is becoming the main hub for mixed games in Europe, I like it! I was actually at a previous stop of The Festival Series in Nottingham, where I won one of the side events which was a No-Limit Hold'em this time. The Festival is doing a great job by promoting mixed games and offering games which usually are not included in any tournament schedule in the live circuit. I definitely aim to visit other of your events in the future, but I have to take the SCOOP and WCOOP and other online events in consideration.''
To come back on his position in the Norwegian Poker Association he stated the following when I asked him how busy it was lately as quite some changes have been implemented in the law of Norway when it concerns poker: ''Yeah, recently one of the biggest operators pulled the plug in Norway regretfully. With the NPA we try to lobby around and hopefully we can contribute on making possible changes in the years ahead of us. Recently we had the Norwegian Championships in Norway and it has been an outstanding success. The main goal of the NPA remains the legalisation of poker.''
Player Profile
As a content writer and poker journalist, it is safe to say that there are numerous personalities in the poker community which stand out from the rest. Tobias Leknes fits right in that group of players in my opinion. A player who has his heart at the right place, and tries to make the poker world a better place. Besides all this, he is one of the world's best online mixed games players out there. The name ''Seknel92'' must sound familiar to any other poker fanatic like myself. When I got the permission of making an interview with Tobias, I felt honoured to be in such position. Have a look on his live results even. With the help of the best poker search engine The HendonMob, of which we are proud to collaborate with, we took the most notable live poker results of Tobias. Add to this his results of his online career, and then you have quite a complete all-round player!
| Year | Format | Buy-in | Rank | Prize Money |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 8-Game | € 1,100 | 1st | €19,600 |
| 2016 | Stud Hi/Lo & Omaha Hi/Lo | € 550 | 1st | € 10,500 |
| 2017 | No-Limit Hold'em | € 2,200 | 7th | € 26,600 |
| 2017 | No-Limit Hold'em | € 500 | 5th | € 33,000 |
| 2018 | Limit Hold'em | € 440 | 1st | € 13,925 |
| 2019 | Limit 8-Game Mix | € 880 | 1st | € 22,745 |
| 2022 | PL Omaha | € 1,110 | 2nd | € 31,910 |
| 2022 | H.O.R.S.E | € 550 | 1st | € 15,870 |
| 2023 | No-Limit Hold'em | € 120 | 1st | € 1,520 |
| 2023 | Deuce to Seven triple draw | € 250 | 1st | € 4,410 |
| 2023 | H.O.R.S.E | € 550 | 1st | € 7,140 |
| 2023 | PL Omaha | € 2,150 | 1st | € 23,766 |
| 2023 | PL Omaha 8 or Better | € 1,100 | 3rd | € 16,250 |
| 2023 | 8-Game Mix | € 1,100 | 2nd | € 14,650 |
Photo Credits: Mairo Toom (The Festival Series) + Elisabeth Nordskog (Norgesmesterskapet I Poker)
