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.
| 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 |
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.
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!
