Michel Molenaar Leads Final 16 of The Festival Series Bratislava Main Event

The Festival Series Main Event is down to just 16 players at Banco Casino. Each player at the final two tables has locked up at least €4,710 in this €550 buy-in event with much more on the line with the top prize announced at €126,650.

Dutch poker player Michel Molenaar has locked up the chip lead heading into the final table after bagging a massive stack of 5,775,000. Molenaar picked off a bluff with big slick near the end of yesterday’s penultimate day against Ronald Zapantis and now all eyes are on whether he can parlay his chip lead into what would easily be his largest live tournament cash.

Kamaras still wound up bagging a top three chip stack with 4,820,000 in chips with Leo Sigurdsson in between the two players with 4,960,000.

Two women are left in the pack in Gerianne Dijkstra (3,105,000) and Coolbet streamer Ylva Thursrud (1,475,000). Germany’s Sascha Manns (2,225,000) has also advanced and will likely have a tight-knit crew in Malta rooting him on. Meanwhile, Paf Poker qualifier Jari Pekka Raettyae (645,000) is among the players hoping to spin up their short stacks today.

Day 2 Seat Draw

Table	Seat	Player	Chips	Big Blinds
1	1	Leo Sigurdsson	4,960,000	62
1	2	Miklos Zsuffa	415,000	5
1	3	Ylva Thorsrud	1,475,000	18
1	4	Mark Berman	3,240,000	41
1	5	Michel Molenaar	5,775,000	72
1	6	Ronald Zapantis	1,460,000	18
1	7	Yasen Dichev	1,200,000	15
1	8	Marton Lugosi	1,765,000	22
23	1	Aaron Frese	1,420,000	18
23	2	Gerianne Dijkstra	3,105,000	39
23	3	Slavomir Rakovan	3,290,000	41
23	4	Peter Kamaras	4,820,000	60
23	5	Jari Pekka Raettyae	645,000	8
23	6	Adi Rajkovic	520,000	7
23	7	Sascha Manns	2,225,000	28
23	8	Andrew Hanak	1,865,000	23

Final Day Plan

Today will begin with 43 minutes remaining in Level 26 with blinds at 40,000/80,000 along with a big blind ante of 80,000. After this blind level, blinds will increase every 50 minutes instead of the 40 minutes on most of the opening flights and the 45 minutes featured during yesterday’s Day 2.

There will be a live stream on a variety of channels which you will be able to check out by clicking on the Stream tab within our coverage. We will be reporting all the action in real-time until the official final table of eight players is set. At this point, we will report on the same 30-minute delay as the stream as to not give away any spoilers.

Remaining Main Event Payouts

The Festival Series Bratislava Main Event attracted a banner field of 1,271 entries. This created a tasty prize pool of €603,725 to obliterate the €500,000 guarantee. Here is a look at all of the remaining payouts for the final 16 players:

1	€126,650
2	€77,450
3	€50,550
4	€36,975
5	€27,900
6	€20,375
7	€14,350
8	€9,870
9	€6,820
10-12	€5,795
13-16	€4,710

Cards will be in the air at 2 p.m. Stay tuned at PokerListings for all of your updates until a winner is crowned!