2025 The Festival Malta Day 7

Marcelo Genna has won the Mystery Bounty, besting fellow countryman Mattia Festa heads-up for the title. Festa won’t be too upset with second place, as his bounty haul and second-place cash mean he comes away as the tournament’s big winner. Below are the payouts, inclusive of bounties.

Mattia Festa and Marcello Genna are heads-up in the Mystery Bounty. The floor staff are currently dismantling the poker tables across the tournament floor, and the room is the quietest its been since the start of the week.

Newly crowned Player of the Series Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk and Tobias Hausen are heads-up in the OFC High Roller. Below are the payouts so far.

Nuno Morais has become the Main Event Champion, besting Damir Savio heads-up. Savio moved all in with king-six and ran into king-queen.

Morais’ superior kicker saw him hold across the J 9 8 3 7 runout to secure the victory and a whopping €61,001! Below are the final table payouts.

Nuno Morais has around 85% of the total chips in play currently. Damir Savio has moved all in multiple times but has not been called in any spots.

Sod’s Law dictates that as I write this post, Savio secured a full double up from 2,400,000 to 4,800,000. Morais’ advantage still remains sizeable.

There will be no successful title defence for Fabian Bartuschk as he fell in eighth place. He was the reigning Festival Series Open Face Chinese High Roller champion.

Play is currently three-handed, and its only The Festival Founder and newly crowned Player of the Series Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk, Tobias Hausen and Johan Gauchy left battling it out for the final High Roller title of the series.

Coincedently, ‘Franke’ won the final High Roller event of the Sviten Special Weekend.

The OFC is still in progress, but when Ville Hakala was eliminated in 10th place, a delighted Franke was confirmed as the Player of the Series. The operator and owner of The Festival Series was nine points clear at the start of the day and the Finn needed to cash, with Franke failing to do so, in order to claim the title.

Sportingly, both players agreed not to enter the Mystery Bounty, which had its final flight this morning. Franke joined the game from the start, while Hakala waited until the final level for late entry to make his entrance. With five places being played, making the money was no easy feat. Hakala fell short, ending the POS race, however at the time of writing With 3 players left, Franke is still in and chasing victory in the event as well!

We’ll fully total up all the remaining events and deliver the final scores in the next day or two, but we can confirm that Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk is the Player of the Series at the 2025 Festival in Malta! Congratulations!

Here are the counts in the Mystery Bounty and the payouts thus far, inclusive of bounties.

Julius Jelenius and Dimitrios Chalasa have departed in third and fourth, respectively. This leaves Nuno Morais and Damir Savio heads-up. Morais has over a 3:1 advantage over his opponent.

Morais has a stack of 26,175,000 and Savio has 7,100,000.

Only four are left in pursuit of Main Event glory here at the Portomaso Casino in Malta. Nuno Morais has a 2:1 advantage over second place occupier Julius Julenius. Below are the counts and the final table payouts so far.

Salvatore Ritrovato has won the Seniors Event here at the Portomaso Casino, besting a field of 41 total entries. Below are the payouts.

Nuno Morais min opened from the button and Olli Kovalinen defended the button. He check-called a bet on K A 6 before leading the K turn. Morais called. Kovalinen then led the river 10 before Morais moved all in. Kovalinen hated the spot but made a crying call.

He had K 6 for a full house, and Morais had A A for the nut boat.

Here is the lineup in the Seniors Event. The remaining field are in the money. Here is the lineup and the payouts.

Over in the Mystery Bounty, the top bounty has been pulled by Hendon Mob Championship winner Egi Adriaans. He pulled a bounty worth €9,191, and has a total haul exceeding €10,000.

Mattia Desta pulled the €5,686 bounty, as well as the €3,148 bounty. The biggest bounty left in play is just just over €4,000.

The Festival Main Event is currently being streamed on Instagram @TheFestivalOG. Visit the page to check out the cards down action as it unfolds.

Action was picked up with Damir Savio all in and at risk versus Nuno Morais in a button v big blind all in preflop situation. Morais flopped the nut flush draw on 5 Q 6 but couldn’t find another heart, king or ace across the 9 turn and 2 river.

Thomas Jakobsen has a slight advantage at the top of the counts, and there is a decent bit of breathing room between the top two and the rest of the pack.

Here are the payouts in the Mystery Bounty from the normal prize pool. The bounty prizes will be released in due course.

Action was picked up with Emmanuel Houssais jamming all in over an open from Olli Kovalainen, who snap-called and had Houssais covered.

Kovalainen had A A and Houssais had Q Q . The 10 J 6 5 10 runout was clean for Kovalainen and Houssais departed in ninth place. Here are the payouts so far from today’s session.

Action was picked up in a single raise pot with Arttu Myllys leading out for 250,000 from the big blind. Nuno Morais then moved all in for around 2,350,000.

During the hand, I approached Melvin Schroen to predict what hand Morais had. I believed he had a set of sevens, but Melvin opted for king-jack. Myllys was in the tank and ultimately folded. Morais then tabled the 7 and the 7 .

Here are the payouts for the Seniors Event. Joakim Olin, pillar of the Swedish Poker community, is in contention for his second title of the week.

Here is the full line-up of the Mystery Bounty field ahead of the second and final day here at Portomaso Casino in Malta. Jose Gomez leads the way and has cashed once more this week, adding to cashes in the Main Event, 10-Game, Pot Limit Double Draw 2-7 and PLO 4/5/6.

Julius Jelenius opened to 160,000 from middle position. Dimitrios Chalasa three-bet to 550,000. Jelenius called. He check-called a bet of 275,000 on the monotone board of 8 Q 7 , before the 2 turn was checked back. Jelenius checked again on the 10 river. Chalasa then bet 1,000,000 and was called by Jelenius, who had A K for the second nut flush.

Chalasa had 6 5 and bet to try and push Jelenius off a potential chop.

A field of 22 are left in the one and only seniors event here at the Portomaso Casino in Malta. Johan Ekdahl appears to be the chip leader in this event. The payouts will be confirmed in due course.

At a blistering pace, the final table has been reached here at the Portomaso Casino. Play will resume at 3.20 p.m., so the chip race, counts, photos and interviews can be conducted. Here is the lineup and chip counts.

Here are the early entrants in the Open Face Chinese High Roller. Razz Big Bounty Winner and Sportsbook joint-second Wouter Schuurbiers is in the field, as is Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk, who is currently leading the POS rankings.

Angelo Vietti has been eliminated after jamming A 2 blind v blind into the covering stack of Olli Kovalainen who had A K . He made two pair across the 8 K 7 A J .

On the adjacent table, Jon Persent was eliminated by Thomas Jakobsen in a button v small blind preflop all in. Jakobsen had Q Q which held against Persent’s A 9 across the 3 4 7 6 J runout.

The final Day of the Main Event is underway! Good luck to all who are taking part in the pursuit of Main Event Glory!

Of the 32 Seniors that entered the Seniors event, only 26 remain. Big O winner Joakim Olin and Gia Carnestrom are just two of the notable names in the one and only Seniors Event.

Concurrently, 22 remain of 69 entrants in the final Flight to the Mystery Bounty, the 1/D Turbo. Day 2 is scheduled to start at 4.30 p.m. local time. Here are the counts from that Flight.

There’s one day left of The Festival in Malta and the race for the Player of the Series title is still in the balance. On Saturday four events that count towards it were completed, however full results of the sportsbook and slots competitions have not yet been processed. The 10-game and Bomb Pot tournaments have now been included and there is no change in the top two, with Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk maintaining his nine point lead over Ville Hakala. 

Franke and Ville played both played in each of the poker events on Saturday, but neither managed to make the money. Franke now has 153 points to Ville’s 144 and they are well clear of third placed Benjamin Sweetman on 118 points and 4th placed Barrie Dear on 117.

Kare Hallamaa remains in 5th place on 100 points, while fellow Finn Ville-Matti Keranen moves up to 6th on 91 points. He won the 10-game event, in which Sweetman finished 3rd. None of the players in the money in the Bomb Pot tournament feature in the top 25 on the leaderboard.

Player of the Series Top 25

Read More: Full details on how the leaderboard points are awarded for the Festival in Malta

In addition to the sportsbook and slots tournaments, there are three further tournaments concluding on Sunday that count towards the leaderboard:

• The Main Event
• The Mystery Bounty
• The Open Face Chinese High Roller

The Main Event and the Mystery Bounty have no players left that can usurp either of the top two on the leaderboard, so the destination of the Player of the Series award will likely be decided in the Open Face Chinese High Roller. Will Franke cling on for glory, or will Ville overtake him on the final straight as they race towards the finish line?

Follow the action throughout the day on the live blog and on The Festival’s social channels.

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