The Festival Series Malta: Nuno Morais Wins The €550 Main Event – Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk Tops POS Leaderboard
The Festival Series Malta has come to an end, but what an end it was! The final day of action saw a new champion crowned in the beastly 666-strong field in the €550 Main Event, and a certain special Swede topped the leaderboard in the Player of the Series Rankings. The one and only Mystery Bounty tournament played down from a field of 39 that made it to Day 2, plus the last High Roller event, the €1,100 Open Face Chinese. Here is the rundown of what happened.
€550 Main Event
This year's Main Event saw 100 more entrants than the previous instalment of The Festival Series Malta, meaning the number of the beast was on the clock from the start of the final day. Despite its negative connotations, it must have been a good omen for Portugal's Nuno Morais, who had all the chips in play and €61,001 more in his pocket when play came to an end yesterday evening.
He came into the Day with 2,380,000, good for fifth in chips. Angelo Vietti and Jon Persent were two early eliminations, and the final table was reached in some speed. It took just 45 minutes for the field to thin from 16 to 9.
Emmanuel Houssais came into the Final Table with the chip lead, and Morais sat in third. Jelenius chipped up early having caught Chalasa bluffing on a five-card flush board. Morais was also on the up, and he jammed the flop over a big blind lead from Arttu Mylls.
Olli Kovalainen was the beneficiary of a preflop cooler, as Houssais jammed into him from the big blind with Queens. Kovalainen had Aces and held, and Houssais was left chipless.
The tables then turned for Kovalainen, as he was coolered in spectacular fashion against the eventual winner. Morais made top boat and Kovalainen's Kings full was no good. This massive pot proppeled Morais to the top of the counts, and from there, there was no looking back.
Thomas Jakobsen, Arttu Myllys, Gustav Ekhagen were next out, and when play reached four handed, Morais had a 2:1 advantage on Jelenius. It wasn't much longer until Jelenius and Dimitrios Chalasa departed in third and fourth, respectively, leaving Morais and Savio heads-up. Morais had over a 3:1 advantage over his opponent.
Savio tried his best to claw some back, but ultimately, the chip deficit was too big to overcome, and Morais sealed the deal in a preflop all-in with king-queen offsuit. Below are the final table payouts.
Main Event Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nuno Morais | €61,001 |
| 2 | Damir Savio | €38,980 |
| 3 | Julius Julenius | €27,580 |
| 4 | Dimitrios Chalasa | €20,460 |
| 5 | Thomas Jakobsen | €15,730 |
| 6 | Arttu Myllys | €12,080 |
| 7 | Gustav Ekhagen | €9,259 |
| 8 | Olli Kovalainen | €7,160 |
| 9 | Emmanuel Houssais | €5,740 |
€350 Mystery Bounty
A field of 39 returned to the felt for the Mystery Bounty, including players from the 1/C Turbo Flight that commenced the same afternoon. Jose Gomez came into the field as the chip leader, and he added another cash to a decent haul here in Malta, having cashed in the 10-Game, 2-7 Pot Double Draw, The Main Event, and the PLO 4/5/6.
The field was all guaranteed 440 for their efforts, but obviously, everyone is focused the bounties. Adding to his Hendon Mob Championship winnings in some style was Egi Adriaans, who pulled the biggest bounty of them all - €9,191, good for first place money.
Mattia Desta pulled the €5,686 bounty, as well as the €3,148 bounty, which is the second and fourth largest bounties. He opened them almost back-to-back at the Mystery Bounty Chest. Desta then went on to finish second behind fellow countryman Marcello Genna, who bested him heads-up after around an hour or so of play.
Desta came away with the biggest score, but it seemed to me that he really wanted to get his hands in one of our beautiful personalised trophies, made by our talented in-house artist Modernoise. Below are the final table payouts inclusive of bounties.
Mystery Bounty Payouts
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marcello Genna | €9,937 |
| 2 | Mattia Festa | €17,892 |
| 3 | Aliaksei Baravik | €9,670 |
| 4 | Sean Godley | €4,250 |
| 5 | Jose Gomez | €10,710 |
| 6 | Bruno D Andrea | €2,920 |
| 7 | Michael Cauchi | €2,630 |
| 8 | Egi Adriaans | €11,391 |
| 9 | Kasjusz Zycinski | €1,050 |
€1,100 Open Face Chinese High Roller
The last High Roller Event of the week was in Open Face Chinese, and it attracted 23 Mixed Game Fanatics from across the continent.
Ville Hakala was in the field, and he needed a deep run to catch Martin 'Franke' von Zweigbergk at the top of the counts. He had 153 points, and Hakala had 144, and both had a gentlemans agreement in place not to register the last flight of the Mystery Bounty.
When Hakala was eliminated in 10th place, the result was confirmed, and the Boss was officially the Player of the Series. Hakala has now finished second twice in the Player of the Series Leaderboard, having finished second to his good friend and countryman Kare Hallamaa at the last Festival stop in Rozvadov. 'Franke' then went on to finish second in the Open Face Chinese, making it two second-place finishes for the trip, having finished runner-up to Rozvadov Open Face Chinese High Roller winner Fabian Bartuschk in the €350 Open Face Chinese a few days ago.
This time, however, he finished runner-up to Tobias Hausen after a swingy heads-up battle as the tables in the Portomaso Casino were being dismantled ahead of the end of The Festival Series Malta. Below are the payouts for the High Roller.
Open Face Chinese High Roller Payouts
| Place | Name | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tobias Hausen | € 8,401 |
| 2 | Martin 'Franke' von Zweigbergk | € 5,350 |
| 3 | Johan Vermot-Gauchy | € 3,550 |
| 4 | Robert Rohlich | € 2,499 |
| 5 | Simeon Tsonev | € 2,050 |
What's Next?
That wraps up this instalment of The Festival Series Malta, and what a blast it was. Every tournament exceeded the previous Malta stops numbers, and that is without a guarantee in the Main Event. A great result for 'Franke' and the team.
Qualifiers to Bratislava are already in play, and the iPoker campaign starts on the 29th of September. A total of 32 packages will be up for grabs, as well as 23 seats to the Main Event. Get yourselves online and in the qualifiers and join us at the next stop in Bratislava from November 18th to November 24th.
That's all for now, folks. Until next time.
