Welcome to the Final Day of The Festival in Malta
The final day of The Festival in Malta is now upon us. It’s not been as long a festival as the previous edition of the series in Rozvadov, but with the Vamos Poker Tour running for a few days prior, this is now the twelfth consecutive day of live poker at Portomaso Casino in St Julians.
We’ve had many winners here this week already, but the victor of the biggest prize of the week is still unknown. The Main Event winner will leave the venue this evening €55,000 better off for their efforts and will have outlasted 574 players, as the tournament had a total of 575 entrants, generating a prize pool of €268,850! There are now 16 players left in the Main Event, which resumes at 2pm.
Schedule of Play
| Start Time | Event # | Buy-In | Tournament |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00 | 42 | €60 | Texas Lowroller |
| 13:00 | 43 | €250 | Seniors 50+ |
| 13:30 | 44 | Closed | Texas Mystery Bounty Day 2 |
| 14:00 | 8 | Closed | MAIN EVENT DAY 3 (Final 16 players) |
| 15:00 | 45 | €1,100 | OFC High Roller |
| 17:00 | Extra Event | €125 | Sunday KO Masdness |
Main Event Down to the Last 16
Play stopped at 3am on the second day of the Main event, just after Julie Whitworth from the UK had busted out in 17th place. She was not the last-standing lady in the tournament, as Haven Taylor earns that distinction, but that will be far from her mind, as she is second in chips and will have her eyes firmly set on the top prize. Austrian Mario Eder is the one to catch at the moment, with just over 2m chips, with Festival Series partner casinotogether's Milan Ljubisic in third place. Here are the chip counts and seating plan for today's third and final day.
| Position | Player | Chips | Table-Seat |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mario Eder | 2,005,000 | 15-7 |
| 2 | Haven Taylor | 1,545,000 | 10-1 |
| 3 | Milan Ljubisic | 1,430,000 | 14-1 |
| 4 | Mathias Jordi | 1,405,000 | 14-3 |
| 5 | Bart Dil | 1,400,000 | 14-4 |
| 6 | Jesper Lucas | 1,385,000 | 15-4 |
| 7 | Dragan Ignjatovski | 1,145,000 | 14-5 |
| 8 | Victor Gil Den Houting | 1,055,000 | 10-4 |
| 9 | Pasquale Grimaldi | 1,040,000 | 14-7 |
| 10 | Oliver Mihajlovski | 1,035,000 | 10-6 |
| 11 | Krystian Nalepka | 765,000 | 15-1 |
| 12 | Lucas Liljegren | 730,000 | 15-2 |
| 13 | Jordi Ribatallada Ruiz | 650,000 | 10-3 |
| 14 | Ivo Petkov | 510,000 | 10-5 |
| 15 | Svensson Linus | 440,000 | 15-6 |
| 16 | Stefanos Michalidis | 320,000 | 14-6 |
Sunday’s Sides
The Main Event is not the only thing going on here today. There are always multiple events at every day on The Festival Series and obviously this is no exception today.
One of the traditional events that takes place on the last day of every Festival Series event is the €1,100 Siarhei Narohnzy. Scott Kenyon took third place in that one and he will not be here today, as he’s on his way home to Gibraltar right now.
It’s also very doubtful that Narohzny will be able to play in this today, as he is the overwhelming chip leader in the €250 Mystery Bounty, which sees the last 18 players return at 1.30pm for its final day, when the bounties also come into play.
The other events on today’s schedule are the €50+€10 Texas Lowroller at midday, the cheapest tournament of the week, which should be a cheerful affair. At 1pm the €250 Seniors begins and if I wasn’t writing the blog, this is the one i’d be playing. Apologies for not adding my dead-money to the prize pool.
Thee final tournament of the day is an added bonus, as it was not on the original Festival in Malta schedule. Starting at 5.00pm, the Sunday KO Madness has a €125 buy-in, of which €60 is the bounty, €50 goes to the prize pool and €15 is the fee.
Event Coverage
There are multiple ways to follow the action on the final day of the series. The live blog on The Festival Series website will largely be covering the story of the Main Event today, although we will also report briefly on the other events taking place.
The Festival’s YouTube channel is the home of highlights videos and interviews, with Andreas ‘Wiseguy’ Hoglund fronting the coverage.
The Festival’s social media pages on Instagram, Twitter/X and Facebook is home to a variety of informative and irreverent content, produced by Melvin Schroen, Nekit Helljesus, Aleksandr Pljuw and Vaclav ‘Lemon’ Dusek’ who’s infectious energy would surely give the Duracell bunny a run for its money.
Also check out the galleries for the event, with amazing photos taken by the Mairo Toom.
Access The Festival Series' OG Social pages using the following icons.
