After a rather quiet first day of The Festival Series, the second day saw a lot more commotion and action inside the Banco Casino with the first side events coming to a conclusion and the Main Event getting underway.

The Main Event started with day 1A at 1pm. A total number of 80 players registered and 28 of those used the re-entry option after busting out. Thus, the total number of entries was 108 and that was decisively more than anticipated for the first day which is usually by far the quietest of the starting days. It is virtually certain that the total number of entries after all 4 starting flights will exceed 600 and the guarantee of $300,000 will be met easily.

38 players bagged chips after 10 levels and made it to day 2 which will begin on Friday.

Those are the full chipcounts:

Day 1B will start on Wednesday at noon and we expect 200+ entries for that day.

Video Summary of Day 1A

Some impressions from the Main Event:

British Victory at the Sviten Special

The first events concluded today. Among them was the Sviten Special. The event was scheduled to run for 3 days, but with 37 entries the turnout was a bit lower than expected and the players finished mid afternoon on the 2^nd day.

The Norwegian Rolf Galaasen had a healthy chip lead for most of the 2^nd day but lost several crucial hands in the end. George Sandford eventually scooped the last pot and was crowned the first winner at the Festival Series.

The Charity Blew Up

The first live streamed event of The Festival also happened this Tuesday. It was the Acroud Charity tournament in which multiple poker industry personalities faced off against each other in front of the TV cameras. 8,000 Euros (for a charity of the winner’s choosing) and plenty of honour were at stake. Among the players were the head of The Festival Series, Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk, head of PokerListings, Kresten Hougaard and Bengt Sonert from the Gambling Cabin. Unfortunately in the middle of the stream one of the computers almost literally blew up and cut the stream short.

The tournament concluded nevertheless and eventually Ylva Thorsrud from Norway won against Kresten Hougaard. The split the prize money 60% / 40% and hHer share (€4,800) will go to SOS Children’s Villages while Kresten’s (and thus to extend Pokeristing’s) share (€3,200) will be donated towards the Shelter for Abandoned Animals in Malta.

Blackjack and Roulette

Besides poker The Festival Series also runs several casino tournaments and two of those, the Blackjack and Roulette tournament, had their second starting flights. Those events have a total of 3 starting flights and will conclude on Thursday and Friday.

Coming up

Apart from the second starting flight of the Poker Main Event tomorrow there will be another highlight event, the €1k PLO highroller. This event will have a brief re-entry period and is scheduled to run for only two days. The final table will be live streamed on Thursday.

» Schedule of the Festival Series in Bratislava
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