Welcome back to the coverage of The Festival Series Bratislava by PokerListings. As will be the case the entire week, our coverage will focus on the Main Event will providing some highlights and information about the plethora of side events.
The Festival Series was founded by Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk and is more than just a poker festival. Franke’s innovative The Festival Series focuses on much more and is more of a casino festival with blackjack, roulette, slots, and sports wagering tournaments all included in the schedule.
The poker highlight of The Festival Series Bratislava is, of course, The Festival Series Bratislava €550 Main Event from Oct. 11-16. The Main Event guarantees a whopping €500,000 but it appears based on yesterday’s Day 1a along with many more players still yet to arrive.
Players will have plenty of opportunities to build a big stack with five opening flights from Oct. 11-14 including Day 1a today starting at noon CEST. Not only can players re-enter if they lose all their chips twice per opening flight but also can re-enter (or register for the first time) during the first two blind levels of Saturday’s Day 2.
The first four opening flights will feature 40-minute blind levels with the final opening flight on Friday moving along twice as fast with 20-minute blind levels. Players will bag chips today on Day 1a after 12 blind levels are completed.
The first two opening flights attracted 305 entries with 90 players advancing to Day 2. Ronald Zapantis is currently on top of the chip leaderboard after parlaying his 30,000-opening chip stack into a monstrous stack of 296,000.
| Time | Event | Buy-in | Late Reg | Chips / Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00 | MAIN EVENT DAY 1C – 12 Levels €500,000 gtd. | €550 | 2x per flight | 30k / 40 |
| 13:00 | Heads Up Texas, CAP 32, Day 1 | €250 | No | 10k / 25/20 |
| 13:00 | H.O.R.S.E. | €250 | 6 lvls | 25k / 30 |
| 17:00 | Half ‘n’ Half (Texas & PLO) | €125 | 4 lvls | 20k / 20 |
| 17:00 | NLH High Roller €30,000 gtd. | €1,100 | 8 lvls | 100k / 30 |
| 19:00 | Satellite to Main Event 5x €550 Main Event tickets gtd. | €60 | 8 lvls | 10k / 20 |
| 20:00 | PLO 4/5/6 Cards (7 Max) | €250 | 6 lvls | 25k / 20 |
| 21:00 | Matching Visions Slots Tournament | €250 | No | – |
| 21:00 | NL Surprise (package to next Stop added) | €250 | 6 lvls | 15k / 20 |
| 00:00 | Blackjack Championship Final | Closed | Closed | – |
