The Festival Series Malta: Barrie Dear Heads into Day 2 of T.O.R.S.E.S With The Chip Lead, Kubalek Wins The Button
The first full day of tournaments has elapsed here at the Portomaso Casino on the beautiful Mediterranean island of Malta. The Hendon Mob Championships continued with Flight 1/B, as did the Mixed Game Main Event - T.O.R.S.E.S. Both events saw new overall chip leaders emerge in each respective tournament, and, the first tournament win of the week took place in the Win the Button Event. Let's have a look at what happened.
€250 Hendon Mob Championship
A field of 149 total entrants took to the felt yesterday afternoon for the second and penultimate flight of the Hendon Mob Championships. When all was said and done, it was South Korean Robert Kim who took to the top of the counts, partly helped by eliminating Brit Robert Garratt, who became this Flight's bubble boy.
Kim usurped North Macedonian Oliver Mihajlovski (pictured below) at the top of the counts, and the latter was at the top of the tree twice during yesterday's sessions when the chip counts were made during the breaks.
Garratt built a stack early on and was one of the first reported chip leaders, but unfortunately for him, he couldn't keep it up and find a bag for tomorrow's Day 2. Here are the counts of the 19 progressing players.
| Rank | Name | Amount | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robert Lim |  | 537,000 |
| 2 | Oliver Mihajlovski |  | 506,000 |
| 3 | Attila Erdei |  | 438,000 |
| 4 | Kare Hallamaa |  | 422,000 |
| 5 | Dennis Zetterman |  | 387,000 |
| 6 | Daniel Kuhlmann |  | 328,000 |
| 7 | Lars Arne Lubbers |  | 263,000 |
| 8 | Kiril Bakalov |  | 217,000 |
| 9 | Jiany Lu |  | 201,000 |
| 10 | Niklas Gustav Nyman | | 196,000 |
| 11 | Jonas Francis Jean Ferrut |  | 169,000 |
| 12 | Jonas Rosqvist | | 162,000 |
| 13 | Peder Behr | | 140,000 |
| 14 | Samuel Robert Elson |  | 130,000 |
| 15 | Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk | | 119,000 |
| 16 | Celine Helen Eidsto-Nyland |  | 84,000 |
| 17 | Patrik Chrast |  | 78,000 |
| 18 | Claudio Muller |  | 59,000 |
| 19 | Sean Godley |  | 33,000 |
€550 Mixed Game Main Event - T.O.R.S.E.S.
The final flight of the €550 Mixed Game Main Event - T.O.R.S.E.S. saw a new overall chip-leader emerge in the form of The Festival Series regular and fellow countryman, Barrie Dear. The Mixed Game specialist surged to the top of the overall counts, overtaking Antoine Degeorgio, who topped three progressors yesterday evening.
Dear bagged a very healthy stack of 499,000, and he will be joined by Rozvadov Player of the Series Runner Up Ville Hakala and former 1/B T.O.R.S.E.S. chip-leader Matteo Crapanzano just to name a few. Benjamin Sweetman (pictured above), another UK representative, found second place. Mixed Game fanatic and professional poker reporter Frank Visser took the felt but couldn't find a bag, as did former Mixed Game Main Event champion, Sascha Manns and professional streamer and multiple Player of the Series Winner Scott 'Pokerbrahs' Kenyon. Here is a look at the counts.
1/B T.O.R.S.E.S Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barrie Dear | | 499,000 |
| 2 | Benjamin Sweetman | | 248,000 |
| 3 | Ville Hakala | | 181,000 |
| 4 | Christer Johansson | | 178,000 |
| 5 | Martin Schamaun | | 161,000 |
| 6 | Matteo Crapanzano |  | 140,000 |
€125 Win The Button
Last night, the first tournament played down to its conclusion, and it was Sweden's Oliver Kubalek who bested a 72-strong field at Portomaso Casino. With this win, he climbs to the top of the Player of the Series leaderboard. Kubalek has had some very recent success at The Festival Series, as he finished runner-up to Czech national Ondrej Mar at the Rozvadov instalment of the €550 Main Event this June. Here are the payouts.
| Rank | Name | Country | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oliver Kubalek | | €2,088 |
| 2 | Yurii Rassamakin | | €1,883 |
| 3 | William Mace | | €1,230 |
| 4 | Luca Micalef |  | €865 |
| 5 | Lukas Adamec | | €555 |
| 6 | Eamonn Brown | | €340 |
| 7 | Michal Janczarski |  | €230 |
| 8 | Even Røste Kristiansen | | €180 |
| 9 | Cristina Balsamo | | €153 |
What's Next?
Today, 1A of the €550 Main Event begins at 12 p.m., followed by the final nine players in the Mixed Game Main Event - T.O.R.S.E.S at 12.30 p.m as does the €350 Sviten Special. The Roulette Championship commences at 3.30 p.m. before there is a break until the evening, where satellite to the Main Event will run, as will the final flight of The Hendon Mob Championship at 7.30 p.m.
That's all for now, folks, until later on.
