Winners Aplenty on Penultimate Day of The Festival Series Malta
Yesterday saw the widest range of tournaments at this instalment of The Festival Series in Malta at the Portomaso Casino. The Main Event played down to the last 16 players, and winners were crowned in the 10-Game, PLO Bomb Pot Madness Round of Each, as well as the Slots Championship and the Sportsbook Tournament. Let's have a look at what happened.
The Main Event
A field of 84 returned for Day 2 of the Main, and the field was halved after the first few hours of play. Jose Gomes came into the day as the chip-leader, but by the start of the first break, he was left with fumes, having lost a massive pot to Thomas Degimbe.
Two hours later, the field was down to 28, with Degimbe still in the lead. Ultimately, play ceased for the day when the 16-player mark was reached. Unfortunately for Owen Sammut, he was player to miss out on the final day of the Main Event. He was short and called a button jam with king-jack offsuit, and was dominated by the ace-king offsuit of Julius Jelenius. Below are the chip counts ahead of the start of today's play.
| Rank | Name | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Philip Pearson | 4,940,000 |
| 2 | Thomas Jakobsen | 4,190,000 |
| 3 | Julius Julenius | 3,080,000 |
| 4 | Fan Sun | 2,450,000 |
| 5 | Nuno Morais | 2,380,000 |
| 6 | Gustav Ekhagen | 2,370,000 |
| 7 | Emmanuel Houssais | 2,260,000 |
| 8 | Dimitrios Chalasa | 2,090,000 |
| 9 | Thomas Degimbe | 1,720,000 |
| 10 | Olli Kovalainen | 1,610,000 |
| 11 | Jon Persent | 1,280,000 |
| 12 | Arttu Myllys | 1,280,000 |
| 13 | Angelo Vietti | 1,190,000 |
| 14 | Sander van Wesemael | 1,100,000 |
| 15 | Damir Savio | 915,000 |
| 16 | David Calero | 905,000 |
10-Game
A field of 58 total entrants entered the 10-Game Mix at the Portomaso yesterday. The field generated a prize pool of €17,081, and attracted seasoned mixed game players, such as Scott 'Pokerbrahs' Kenyon, who was seen giving a beautiful rendition of Snow (Hey Oh) at the karaoke event later that evening, T.O.R.S.E.S. Champion Barrie Dear and Mixed Game fanatic Frank Visser. JJ Hazan was the chip-leader for a decent amount of final table play, but he was dispatched by Keranen in a three-way all in which also saw Ben Sweetman depart from the tournament.
At the end of the day, it was Sviten Special Weekend Main Event Champion Ville Keranen who took down the title after around 12 hours of play. He bested Eriks Gedroics heads-up, taking down the title with a 2-7 Single Draw Hand. Below are the full payouts.
| Rank | Player | Prize (€) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ville Keranen | €5,001 |
| 2 | Eriks Gedroics | €3,240 |
| 3 | Benjamin Sweetman | €2,350 |
| 4 | Jeraint Hazan | €1,840 |
| 5 | Herli Olop | €1,450 |
| 6 | Simeon Tsonev | €1,100 |
| 7 | Jose Gomez | €800 |
| 8 | Sean Godley | €650 |
| 9 | Grzegorz Iskra | €650 |
PLO and NLH Bomb Pot Round Each
The Festival Series is renowned for its diverse range of tournaments. This one is no different. The PLO and NLH Bomb Pot Round Each used an ante only structure, and two boards were dealt per runout. The tournament attracted 141 total entrants, which generated a total prize pool of €14,735.
Jose Gomez found the money for the third time in a day, having cashed in the Main Event and the 10-Game mix. Mika Hautakangas and Yann De Tychey De La Ferte Preval also added to their Festival Cashes. Ultimately the title went to home team representative Karl Gialanze, who bested Toni Sarkama heads-up after a lengthy battle. Below are the payouts in full.
| Rank | Name | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karl Gialanze | €3,661 |
| 2 | Toni Sarkama | €2,290 |
| 3 | Jose Gomez | €1,630 |
| 4 | Roland Rohlich | €1,244 |
| 5 | Salvatore Geroldi | €970 |
| 6 | Mattia Festa | €750 |
| 7 | Mika Hautakangas | €570 |
| 8 | Yann De Tychey De La Ferte Preval | €470 |
| 9 | Jamie Lee Jones | €400 |
| 10 | Dennis Rower | €330 |
| 11 | Robert Rohlich | €330 |
| 12 | Michael Rossi | €290 |
| 13 | Kamil Maslowski | €290 |
| 14 | Teunis De Geus | €250 |
| 15 | Glenn Hasselberg | €250 |
| 16 | Alex Gleeson | €220 |
| 17 | Desislav Petrov | €220 |
| 18 | Riku Grondahl | €190 |
| 19 | Jarmo Salonen | €190 |
| 20 | Jose Martin | €190 |
Slots Championship and Sportsbook Tournament
As mentioned in the above paragraph, The Festival has truly unique offerings when it comes to tournaments. Earlier in the week, we had winners crowned in Blackjack and Roulette tournaments, and yesterday was no different.
The slots tournament is a very prestigious skill-based event, and it was Isac Ekstrom who pressed the buttons the best, winning the most of the 21 entrants that took to the machines downstairs in the gaming area of the Portomaso Casino.
A total of 28 entered the Sportsbook tournament, another one steeped in prestige and skill. A very familiar name took that one down. Patrick Cole (aka The Blogger aka me) was the luckiest man of all who entered the tournament. This was made possible due to Martin 'Franke' von Zweigbergk putting me into the tournament, which is something he does as a treat for his Festival Team. With that being said, he also comes away a winner, as he is entitled to half of the winnings.
It was almost not meant to be, due to a misclick. Second-place finisher Wouter Schuurbiers was instructed to put 17 down as his tiebreak score by his friend and my colleague Melvin Schroen, but instead opted for 11, meaning my tiebreak score of 19 was the closest to the overall total score of all the games combined, 16. Below are the payouts for the best tournaments on the schedule.
| Rank | Name | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patrick Cole | €1,463 |
| 2 | Wouter Schuurbiers | €731.50 |
| 3 | Toni Sarkama | €731.50 |
What's Next?
Today, the Seniors event will start and play to its conclusion, as will The Festival Series' marquee tournament, The Main Event. The final turbo flight and subsequent Day 2 of The Mystery Bounty tournament will run today, as will the last High Roller tournament of the series, the Open Face Chinese High Roller. Fabian Bartuschk will no doubt be in the building to defend his title that he won that the last Festival Series in Rozvadov. Martin 'Franke' von Zweigbergk will also be in the field, and he is looking to lock up the Player of the Series title.
That's all for now, folks. Stay tuned to www.graiachia.com and on all social media platforms to keep up to date with all things The Festival.
