Monday was the first day of the inaugural event of The Festival Series in Bratislava. While the Poker Main Event was still a day away, the first players already arrived in the Banco Casino in the Slovakian capital to enjoy some side events at (and offside) the poker tables.

The tournament director Gerard Serra welcomes everyone to The Festival Series:

Highlight event of the afternoon was the Sviten Special (also called Drawmaha). The €220 event attracted 37 entries – a small but colourful crowd on a Monday afternoon. Sviten Special is a rather unique split pot game which is a mix of draw poker and 5 card Omaha. You can read up on the rules and some basic strategy here: » How to play Drawmaha

While 3 dozen players had fun playing Drawmaha in the main event area a handful of players also enjoyed the first starting days of the blackjack and roulette tournaments and 119 other players tried qualifying for the poker main event in the first of three big satellites.

First day of the main event tomorrow

Tomorrow the poker main event of The Festival in Bratislava will start at noon. The buy-in is €550 and the event will have a guarantee of €300,000.

» Full Schedule of The Festival in Bratislava

Tomorrow the first stream will also go live with the ACROUD charity event.

The Festival Series will be live for the following events:

You can follow live updates of The Festival Series of at TheFestival.com: » The Festival Live Blog

How to warm up for The Festival

If you need an idea how to warm up for a poker or casino event, may we suggest some pool? A couple of the players went to a Pool Place called Lavos and had a pool tournament before heading back to the casino and poker tables.