Last 16 of the €550 Main Event Finalised on Day 6 of The Festival Bratislava
The penultimate day of this instalment of The Festival Bratislava saw the 110 returning players in the €550 Main Event whittled down to the final 16, plus a myriad of side events, ranging from the €150 Mystery Bounty, the €125 Sportsbook tournament, €250 PLO Freezeout, and the €125 PLO5 PKO. Here is a rundown of the action.
€550 Main Event
The 110-strong field that took to the tables in the premier Hold'em event of the week was whittled down to just 16 players. The field was flush with players from across the continent and further afield. As a certain poker blogger was in the field, the blog suffered from a lack of updates. However, he can now offer his perspective on the Main Event experience. The players were generally in fine spirits, all of whom aimed to achieve Main Event glory.
The field thinned at a decent pace, as returning short-stacks fell victim to the variance of tournament poker. Somehow, the blogger managed to secure 21st place, and his winnings were halved as The Festival Founder Martin "Franke" von Zweigbergk won him the ticket in one of the flips. He witnessed some exciting hands and was on the receiving end of having aces cracked in back-to-back hands to the same player. Joakim Alstig (below) was all in and at risk versus the blogger with ten-deuce suited for half a big blind. Alstig flopped a deuce and rivered trips to survive. The very next hand, aces again cracked by Alstig, who had seven-eight suited. He flopped a flush, and aces were drawing dead. Unfortunately for Alstig, his run came to an end shortly after, and he couldn't complete a dramatic spin up the counts. A pure statistical anomaly in every way it could be, it has been calculated that losing with aces in consecutive hands to the same player is approximately 1 in 2,170,000, or 0.000046%. This shows that anything can happen in poker.
Blogger spent most of the time sandwiched between Andrej Tekel (below left) and Maximillian Meier (below right), two solid opponents. They played out a massive pot, and Tekel had chipped up from short-stack to near the top of the counts. Tekel opened the button with pocket threes, and Meier defended the big blind with king-jack off suit. Meier check-raised the jack-jack-three flop, and Tekel called. The turn saw another round of betting, before Meier moved all in on the river. Tekel snap-called with his full house. All the jacks in the deck were out as the blogger folded one preflop.
Ultimately, it ended with the home team 1-2-3 atop the counts, and Tomas Stvrtecky sits in pole position. He has $37,574 in live tournament earnings according to thehendonmob.com, and he cashed in the Main Event in Bratislava last year, finishing in 75th place. There are two Bratislava Main Event champions in the field: the 2023 Champion Gabriel Rymar and the defending champion Sebastian Kotowicz. They will both be looking to make Festival Series history by becoming the first player to win two Festival Series Main Events. If either Rymar or Kotowicz are successful, they will be at the top of the All-Time Money list at The Festival Series. Below are the counts of the final two tables.
| Rank | Name | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tomas Stvrtecky | 7,790,000 |
| 2 | David Urban | 5,320,000 |
| 3 | Andrej Tekel | 5,040,000 |
| 4 | Jari Maehoenen | 3,700,000 |
| 5 | Michal Hamacek | 3,290,000 |
| 6 | Filip Pilic | 3,070,000 |
| 7 | Daniel Marek Gumula | 2,870,000 |
| 8 | Rikard Lars Olov Larsson | 2,520,000 |
| 9 | Maximilian Meier | 2,080,000 |
| 10 | Daniel Koloszar | 1,850,000 |
| 11 | Sebastian Kotowicz | 1,670,000 |
| 12 | Joel Fritz | 1,540,000 |
| 13 | Siamak Tahmoresnia | 1,430,000 |
| 14 | Bas de Laat | 995,000 |
| 15 | Gabriel Rymar | 920,000 |
| 16 | Rakel Dahle | 240,000 |
€250 Mystery Bounty
A field of 256 took to the felts in pursuit of bounties in the ever-popular Mystery Bounty format. The top 31 found the money and the chance to play for the bounties. Fellow Brit Miles Rees pulled the biggest bounty of them all, which was worth €5,000. He went on to finish third overall in the event and was the second biggest winner in the tournament. In the end, Hayk Manasyan (above left) of Armenia took down the title and a score just shy of five figures. Below are the payouts, inclusive of bounties.
| Rank | Name | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reinout Jan van Ekeren | €9,700 |
| 2 | Lee Huntingdon | €7,005 |
| 3 | Miles Rees | €9,250 |
| 4 | Asle Bloemacher | €2,740 |
| 5 | Ott Kaarli Toome | €3,545 |
| 6 | Daniel Hoey Nielsen | €3,170 |
| 7 | Hans Christopher Andersson | €2,280 |
| 8 | Johan Patrik Amren | €2,080 |
| 9 | Gunnar Solvang | €675 |
| 10 | Risto Olavi Ponnio | €575 |
| 11 | Marco Ferdinand Carolina Herman | €895 |
| 12 | Ondrej Necas | €3,060 |
| 13 | Timo Heikki Koivusalo | €2,100 |
| 14 | Thomas Lechner | €450 |
| 15 | Reinout jan van Ekeren | €450 |
| 16 | Rolf Arne Bechstrom | €400 |
| 17 | Amit Cohen | €400 |
| 18 | Karl Gustav Andreas Lundin | €350 |
| 19 | "Doncologne" | €670 |
| 20 | Bengt Christoffer Loof | €350 |
| 21 | Jostein Groedum | €300 |
| 22 | Arjen Cornelis Witteveen | €300 |
| 23 | Simon Kuntz | €1,580 |
| 24 | Jyri Petteri Tapani Laitimo | €275 |
| 25 | Marco Gamba | €275 |
| 26 | Nicolas Sievers | €275 |
| 27 | Sten Rune Mienna | €250 |
| 28 | Simon Svinth | €250 |
| 29 | Vilde Bystoel Fagerbakke | €250 |
| 30 | "Lollolollo66" | €250 |
| 31 | Maans Anders Lennermo | €250 |
What's Next?
The Main Event will dominate the focus of the blog today, so stay tuned for updates from the final two tables and more action from across the tournament floor.
That's all for now, folks.
