There were just two qualifying events that concluded on Friday at The Festival in Malta. The first of these was the €250 Open Face Chinese, one of the longest single day events on the schedule. By the time they reached the final three, both Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk and Ville Hakala were still in the mix.
Ville Hakala busted in 3rd place and Franke took the runner up spot. Both went on to enter the final starting flight of the Main Event, but neither progressed to Day 2. By outlasting his rival, Franke has extended his lead at the top of the table from 6 points to 9 points, moving up to an impressive 148 point total. Hakala is on 139 points and these two are well ahead of third placed Barrie Dear, on 112pts.
Barrie Dear also went deep in the Open Face Chinese, but bubbled, hurting not just his wallet, but his chance of staying in touch with the top two on the leaderboard. The players in positions 4, 5 and 6 remain unchanged since Thursday’s update and none of them added any further points to their totals. Kare Hallamaa skipped the OFC and the Big O, instead opting to play in Day 1e of the Main Event, but failed to make it through to Day 2.
The only significant new entry in the top ten is Fabian Bartuschk, winner of the OFC. He moves up from 33rd place to 7th on the leaderboard, on 81 points. The other qualifying event that took place on Friday was the €125 Big O (PLO8), which was won by Joakim Olin. Last year Joakim won the Seniors event, which was a back-to-back victory, as he had also previously won the Seniors at The Festival in Rozvadov.
None of the top ten players in the race have made it to the second day of the Main Event, with the highest placed player left in being Sander Wesemael. He sits in 19th place on the leaderboard and bagged the 6th largest stack from the opening flights of the Main Event. However, even if he wins the Main Event, he will still be trailing the top two and he won’t have much opportunity to play any further side events if he does go deep.
There are just seven events left that count towards the Player of the Series race, which is by no means over. The top two may be well clear, but anything can still happen. Last year Scott Kenyon had a vast lead, but the improbable happened and he was pipped to the post by a strong finishing Alexsiy Baranovskiy.
A sober Franke is a formidable force at the tables and he will be hard to stop, but will he hold on to take down the title of Player of the Series?
Player of the Series Top 25
| Position | Player | Points | Events Played* |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin "Franke" von Zweigbergk | 148 | 11 |
| 2 | Ville Hakala | 139 | 10 |
| 3 | Barrie Dear | 112 | 10 |
| 4 | Kare Hallamaa | 98 | 8 |
| 5 | Benjamin Sweetman | 88 | 6 |
| 6 | Peder Behr | 86 | 5 |
| 7 | Fabian Bartuschk | 81 | 4 |
| 7 | Martin Schamaun | 81 | 4 |
| 9 | Frank Visser | 78 | 8 |
| 10 | Lars Johansson | 77 | 6 |
| 11 | Eva Jiretorn | 75 | 6 |
| 11 | Yurii Rassamakin | 75 | 7 |
| 13 | Benedict Kaiser | 73 | 6 |
| 13 | Scott Kenyon | 73 | 9 |
| 13 | Wouter Schuurbiers | 73 | 7 |
| 16 | Egi Adriaans | 68 | 4 |
| 17 | Quinten Spyckerelle | 65 | 4 |
| 18 | Glenn Hasselberg | 54 | 7 |
| 19 | Sander Van Wesemael | 53 | 6 |
| 20 | Andreas Holmsten | 51 | 2 |
| 20 | Peter Kepplinger | 51 | 7 |
| 20 | Ville-Matti Keränen | 51 | 8 |
| 23 | Oliver Kubalek | 50 | 4 |
| 24 | Fabio De Francesco | 49 | 4 |
| 24 | Jonas Rosqvist | 49 | 3 |
Read More: Full details on how the leaderboard points are awarded for the Festival in Malta
There are four events concluding on Saturday 20th September that count towards the leaderboard:
- €350 10-Game at 12.30pm
- €125 Sportsbook tournament at 1pm
- €125 Bomb Pot Madness at 8.30pm
- €125 Slots tournament at 9pm
Follow the action throughout the day on the live blog and The Festival’s social channels.
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