The Festival Series Bratislava: Recap Day 1
The opening day of our event at Banco Casino in Bratislava was nothing short of exciting, featuring nine events on the schedule. Highlights included the opening flights of The Hendon Mob Championship and the H.O.R.S.E.S. Mixed Games Main Event. Additionally, our newest addition to the line up, the Pot-Limit Razz Progressive Knockout, made an impressive debut with 80 entries!
To be back in Bratislava feels like coming home to us, being welcomed back with open arms by the staff of the Banco Casino every single time. Players from all around Europe and beyond found their way already to Bratislava as well it seems, as it was booming from the moment the very first card was dealt yesterday!
| Hendon Mob Championship Day 1/A |
| Mixed Games Main Event - HORSES Day 1/A |
| NLH U25 (Under 26 years old) |
| Super Satellite to Main Event |
| Cash Game Challenge (€2/2 NLH) |
| PL RAZZ Progressive K.O. |
| NLH Monday Knockout |
| Cash Game Challenge (€2/2 PLO4) |
| Franke's Flip Flops |
The Hendon Mob Championship Sets the Tone!
The opening day at Banco Casino in Bratislava was an epic start to our event, with nine diverse tournaments/events kicking off the action. The Hendon Mob Championship stole the spotlight, setting the tone for the rest of the day with a whopping 64 entries, incredible! With two more opening flights to go for this event, it shows once again that The Hendon Mob Championship is rising in of popularity among the players.
Roland Boothby and Hans Kleinsman, representatives of The Hendon Mob, are also present in Bratislava. Although they usually play their event as well with a bounty on their head, they didn't fire a bullet yesterday as The Hendon Mob Championship Grand Final is coming up in the next couple of days in Cape Town, South Africa. However, it didn't stop them from showing their poker skills anyhow as both ed the felts in the NLH Knockout tournament. It would become a tournament of mixed feelings for the pair as you can see below!
Fun Fact: Rolant Boothby is actually one of the leaders in the ranking for most cashes in The Hendon Mob Championship history! Check out this ranking right here!
Here is an overview of the 7 players who survived Day 1A:
| Rank | Country | Name | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 |  |
Tommy Roland Karlsson | 454,000 |
| #2 |  |
Albert Charles Rowbotham | 300,000 |
| #3 |  |
Martin Bartos | 296,000 |
| #4 | |
Kenny Burke | 205,000 |
| #5 |  |
Patrick Maxime S. Jowa | 201,000 |
| #6 | |
Jessica Margareta Pettersson | 196,000 |
| #7 |  |
Athanasios Kechagias | 185,000 |
Mixed Games Action!
The mixed games also kicked off on the opening day of The Festival Bratislava. The Jon Kyte, who won the event last year in Bratislava when it made its debut on our schedule. A whopping total of 29 entries were made in the opening flight, with Day 1B kicking off on Tuesday at 13:30 local time.
| Rank | Country | Name | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |
Barrie Michael Dear | 177,500 |
| 2 |  |
Arto Ilmari Loikkanen | 112,500 |
| 3 |  |
Fabio De sco | 98,000 |
| 4 |  |
Frank Visser | 90,500 |
| 5 |  |
Lachezar Tsenov | 60,500 |
| 6 | |
Jarkko Juhani Suokas | 52,000 |
| 7 |  |
Paddy Schmidt | 49,500 |
| 8 | |
Ville Tapani Hakala | 47,000 |
| 9 | |
Lena Anita Bjoern | 46,000 |
| 10 | |
Aki Taisto Olavi Pyysing | 44,000 |
| 11 |  |
Pierre Olivier Jean Jandaud | 36,000 |
| 12 |  |
Robert Varga | 27,000 |
| 13 |  |
Alexander Freund | 21,000 |
| 14 | |
Dennis Clarence Weiss | 8,500 |
Side Event Action
The Pot-Limit Razz Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournament definitely made a strong impression early in the series! Razz is already a unique variant of poker, where players aim for the lowest hand, and adding the progressive knockout element spices things up even more. The early buzz around it likely had a lot to do with how different and engaging the format was, as well as it's one of the 'easiest' mixed games to master, so the Hold'em players were excited as well to in! A massive 80 entries were made, and we got a grand winner in the likes of Lars Olav Hole.
One of the contesters for the top spots in the Player of the Series ranking, Scott 'Pokerbrahs' Kenyon, started off well in this series with a 3rd place in this event.
Knockouts everywhere!
Another tournament was completed with the NLH Monday Knockout tournament, attracting 95 entries. It was eventually Tomi Suikka who would be victorious in this event, pocketing €1,290 excluding the needed bounties gathered along the ride. It would turn out to become an epic coincidence as the tournament ended on table number 72, with Suikka winning the last hand with.... Seven-Deuce off suit!
Cash Game Challenge
The Cash Game Challenge is being held every single evening of the event until Saturday. With the first session starting at 20:00 local time, the second session is scheduled later on for 22:30, being respectively Hold'em and PLO. While the challenge is trying to accumulate as many big blinds in net profit as possible, the Livestream is aired to follow all the action live! Do you want to be part of this challenge? Make sure to yourself in the cash game area, or let anyone know of The Festival crew.
Franke's Flip Flops
Want to play some rake-free games? The Franke's Flip Flop games are an excellent way of gathering yourself some extra bullets for the tournaments. With a buy-in of €25, every day at 20:00 local time you can find players battling it out at the flips table, which is located right in between the two largest poker areas of Banco Casino on the first floor. Come try it out tonight and perhaps as well for some 'tea time' starting from 19:30 at the same area, available to all players!
