T.O.R.S.E.S For Courses: Barrie Dear Wins T.O.R.S.E.S Main Event at The Festival Series Malta
After an action filled day in the tournament area at Portomaso Casino on the beautiful island nation of Malta, winners have been crowned across a range of Mixed Game Events, namely the €550 T.O.R.S.E.S Main Event and the €350 Sviten Special. The final flight to the Hendon Mob Championship, the 1/C Turbo Flight saw the Day 2 field be completed, plus the first flight of the €550 Main Event. Let's have a look at what happened throughout the tournament floor.
€550 T.O.R.S.E.S Main Event
The final table was reached at a decent pace due to the shallowness of the stacks in play in relation to the blinds, bring-ins and completions across the six-game mix. EPT winner Christer Johannson and Martin Schauman were the unlucky couple to miss out on final table play.
Home team representative and friend of The Festival Antoine Degiorgio was the first to fall during final table play, despite coming into the final table second in chips. Quentin Spyckerelle came into the final table on short-stack duties, but he chipped up to bring himself back into contention for the title.
Matteo Crapanzano was next to depart, having lost a decent pot in a Razz hand to Rozvadov Player of the Series runner-up Ville Hakala. It wasn't much longer until The Festival Founder and four-bullet firer Martin 'Franke' von Zweigbergk was next on the chopping block, and he pat three draws in 2-7 versus Ben Sweetman. He drew three, pat twice, and made the second nuts to eliminate The Boss.
Quinten Spyckerelle was eliminated in fourth, and shortly after, Hakala then scooped a Stud 8 hand versus Barrie Dear as he made a flush to crack Dear's trips.
Dear had trended down slightly, but he managed to re-spin up his stack when he sent Hakala to the rail during a Sviten Special hand.
Heads-up play began, and it was an English 1-2 left battling for the title. The stacks of Sweetman and Dear were fairly close at the start, but Dear quickly extended his lead. It was shortly after the Englishmen were dealt the exact same hand during PLO8 that Dear had all the chips in play.
Dear sealed the deal in a Razz hand. All of Sweetman's chips were in the middle before third street, and Dear made an eight lo with A 2 4 6 8 to become T.O.R.S.E.S. Main Event Champion. Sweetman hopped into the 2-7 Double Draw Event later on in the evening, and he cashed in third place to take him to the top of the Player of the Series rankings. To find out more, and to see the current top 25, click here.
€550 T.O.R.S.E.S Main Event Payout
| Rank | Name | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barrie Dear | €9,901 |
| 2 | Benjamin Sweetman | €6,450 |
| 3 | Ville Hakala | €4,540 |
| 4 | Quinten Spyckerelle | €3,440 |
| 5 | Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk | €2,640 |
| 6 | Matteo Crapanzano | €2,040 |
| 7 | Antoine Degiorgio | €1,550 |
| 8 | Christer Johansson | €1,214 |
| 9 | Martin Schamaun | €1,000 |
€350 Sviten Special
Sviten Special is proving increasingly popular, with a total of 101 entrants taking to the felt at Portomaso yesterday afternoon. Despite the early start time, the event ran into the wee hours of this morning. The event generated a decent total prize pool of €29,745.
The field attracted many familiar faces: Sviten Special Weekend Main Event Winner Ville Keranen took to the felt but couldn't find the money, as did newly crowned Mixed Game Main Event Champion Barrie Dear, and, former Mixed Game Main Event Champion Sascha Manns, who fired six bullets.
Andrea Krantz was the unfortunate victim of the bubble. She made two pair against Andre Larsen who made an inferior two pair, but he had trips in hand so was freerolling to the scoop. He boated up on the turn and Krantz missed out on the min cash.
Ultimately, it was Martin Schamaun who had all the chips in play when all was said and done. Here is a look at the payouts.
| Position | Player Name | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Schamaun | €8,001 |
| 2 | Karl Gialanze | €5,210 |
| 3 | Jordan Dumas | €3,550 |
| 4 | Frank Visser | €2,810 |
| 5 | Emil Solheim Ulleberg | €2,250 |
| 6 | Benedict Kaiser | €1,780 |
| 7 | Pasi Olavi Trollhjaerta | €1,440 |
| 8 | William John Lynch | €1,150 |
| 9 | Christer Johansson | €913 |
| 10 | David Stuart Mccoy | €720 |
| 11 | Andreas Sanden | €720 |
| 12 | Andre Larsen | €600 |
| 13 | Eva Anna Marie Jiretorn | €600 |
Hendon Mob 1/C and Main Event 1/A
The third and final flight of the Hendon Mob Championship attracted a total of 139 entrants yesterday evening. Of that total field, only 17 progressed to Day 2, all of which are now in the money.
Win the Button champion and Rozvadov Main Event Runner Up Oliver Kubalek made Day 2 by the skin of his teeth. Still, Isac Ekstrom's rollercoaster ride yesterday evening came to an unfortunate end just shy of the money. During the flight, he had Aces cracked by Kings, ran ace-jack into aces versus a button open, before scoring a triple up with ace-ten offsuit versus Aces and Kings.
Here are the 17 progressing to today's final day.
Hendon Mob Championships 1/C Turbo Results
| Position | Name | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Angelo Vietti | 522,000 |
| 2 | Krystian Piotr Nalepka | 490,000 |
| 3 | Even Røste Kristiansen | 420,000 |
| 4 | Sebastian Lund Mortensen | 355,000 |
| 5 | Giuseppe Tredici | 354,000 |
| 6 | Shaun Decesare | 285,000 |
| 7 | Wilhelmine Helena Connolly | 268,000 |
| 8 | Egi Adriaans | 209,000 |
| 9 | Niklas Johan Sundstorm | 193,000 |
| 10 | Halvor Dahlberg | 182,000 |
| 11 | Matias Otto Vanttinen | 177,000 |
| 12 | Alen Bakovic | 172,000 |
| 13 | Eamonn Francis Connolly | 143,000 |
| 14 | Calum James Bagnall | 136,000 |
| 15 | Wang Kwan Chan | 98,000 |
| 16 | Christophe Stammet | 87,000 |
| 17 | Oliver Samo Richert Kubalek | 80,000 |
In 1/A of the Main Event, only 8 progressed from the 65 total entrants that took to the felt in the first flight of The Festival Series marquee Hold'em event. Leading the pack so far is Erik Lindqwist (pictured), who has a stack of 760,000 when Day 2 commences on Saturday. The Festival Series Malta Main Event Winner Victor Gil-den Houting fired two bullets but couldn't land a blow. Below are the counts of the first progressors.
Main Event 1/A Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Erik Lindqwist | 760,000 |
| 2 | Matthew Micallef | 625,000 |
| 3 | Oskari Kulju | 576,000 |
| 4 | Jose Martin | 565,000 |
| 5 | Claudio Muller | 284,000 |
| 6 | Dimitrios Chalasa | 186,000 |
| 7 | Pablo Molina | 134,000 |
| 8 | Kiril Bakalov | 120,000 |
What's Next?
Today will see the prestigious Hendon Mob Championship play to it's conclusion today from 12 p.m, which is what the blog will be predominantly focused on today. 1/B of the Main Event commences at the same time. Additionally, €350 8-Game starts at 12.30 p.m. before the Blackjack Championships start at 4 p.m.
The first High Roller, the €1,100 PLO, kicks off at 5 p.m. and the last tournament of the day will be the €125 NLH Crazy Pineapple PKO at 8.30 p.m. Click here to see the full schedule.
That's all for now, folks, until later on. Stay tuned to The Festival on the website and social media platforms.
