Victor Gil den Houting Wins The Festival in Malta Main Event for €55,000

Victor’s Path to Victory

After three intense poker days, Victor found himself heads-up against Haven Taylor from Canada. It was a long, thrilling battle, with the chip lead swapping between the two several times during the one-hour showdown.

Victor entered the heads-up stage in the lead, holding 10.7 million chips to Haven’s 6.3 million. However, Haven fought back, using aggressive tactics to take the lead from Victor. Despite Haven’s efforts, Victor showed resilience, reclaiming the lead just in time for the final, decisive hand. Adding yet another runner-up finish to the list of Main Events at The Festival Series, as Gerianne Dijkstra had the same result in Bratislava 2022.

The Winning Hand

The final hand saw Haven pushing all-in with a pair of kings K 6 on a flop of Q K 7 . After a brief moment of thought, Victor made the call with K 7 , giving him two pairs, kings and sevens. Haven needed a miracle to stay in the game, requiring either running sixes or a queen to split the pot. The turn brought a 4 , offering no help, and the 9 on the river sealed Haven’s fate, making Victor the winner of the tournament.

Amazingly, Victor didn’t pay a single euro for his seat at the event. He won his entry through a rake race challenge on ChampionPoker, part of the iPoker Network, turning that free entry into a €55,000 payday.

Final Table Drama

The final table was a truly international affair, with players representing Spain, Macedonia, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, and Poland. The action started slowly but quickly heated up, with plenty of eliminations in short order.

The first player to leave the final table was Jordi Ruiz, another Spaniard, who finished in 9th place. What followed was a flurry of eliminations, mostly caused by Haven Taylor. She knocked out four players in quick succession, pulling off two double eliminations that saw her stack grow to nearly 12 million chips, out of the 17 million in play.

In the first double elimination, Haven’s pocket kings dominated the KQ and KT of Dragan Ignjatovski and Krystian Nalepka, sending both players out in 8th and 7th place, respectively. Just a few hands later, Haven struck again, eliminating Mario Eder (6^th place) from Austria and Bart Dil (5^th place) from the Netherlands. This time, her pocket sevens triumphed over Bart’s pocket kings after she hit a set on the flop.

Despite this, two players — Victor and Mathias Jordi — managed to double up through Haven, evening out the chip counts as the tournament progressed. After Victor knocked out Mathias Jordi in 4^th place, the final three players were all very close in chips, setting up a nail-biting finish.

Victor eventually built up a considerable lead, but Haven once again fought back by eliminating the last Macedonian player, Oliver Mihajlovski, in 3^rd place for €23,300.

Position	Name	Country	Prize (€)
1	Victor den Houting		55,000
2	Haven Taylor		32,800
3	Oliver Mihajlovski		23,300
4	Mathias Jordi		17,800
5	Bart Dil		13,800
6	Mario Eder		10,600
7	Krystian Nalepka		8,300
8	Dragan Ignjatovski		6,300
9	Jordi Ruiz		4,800

Hospitality Events

The Festival Series isn’t just about poker, as they are offering a massive amount of side activities for players who have qualified online and have access to the hospitality package. It all kicked off with the usual welcome drinks, and in the following days, they explored some of the greatest sides of Malta.

One of these activities was the visit of the Parsons beer factory, who produce the national beer called ‘Cisk’. Later in the week, hospitality members had the opportunity to enjoy several wine tastings, pool parties, and pizza lunch, all topped off with a player’s party!

Looking Ahead: The Festival in Bratislava

The next stop for The Festival Series will be in Bratislava, Slovakia, at Banco Casino from November 18-24.

Online qualifiers are already running on various operators, and it’s being promised that this event will become the true headliner of 2024. Stay tuned for updates as the action continues on The Festival Series!