The Festival Series Reveals the Schedule for Bratislava 2023!
The Festival Series recently introduced the schedule for their next stop in Bratislava, from November 26th until December 3rd at their beloved Banco Casino in Bratislava. Last year, the event broke all of its records with a cherry on the pie, the Main Event winner Michael Molenaar who won the biggest prize of € 126,500 in Slovakian poker history up until this day. With yet another guaranteed prize pool of € 500,000 in the Main Event, they are trying to top this record and write poker history yet again .
The Festival Series is just two years old, in which they have brought all the mixed poker games formats back into the spotlights of Europe’s poker industry. Founder Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk is known for giving an extra dimension to every newly introduced schedule, and this time he took it to another level! At PokerListings, we are going to dive a bit more deep into the new schedule to try and give you a view of what you can expect from their next event.
The Festival Series Bratislava Returns
With either three or four stops every year, The Festival Series is becoming a synonym for any other great poker event in Europe. Within just two years’ time, they have been all across Europe with stops in Tallinn, Bratislava, Malta, and Nottingham.
Before the 2024 plans are shared with the poker crowd, there is one massive stop waiting just around the corner. Bratislava is the so-called ‘coming back home’ stop of The Festival Series. For the 3rd consecutive year, they will be the guest of Banco Casino in Bratislava, which is currently one of the major destinations of live poker in Europe. With the guidance of Bancon Casinos’ Jan Packa, Zuzana Mikulikova, Michal Borovsky, and their entire team, the people of The Festival Series will host a stunning 54 events!
Within these events, there is of course place for the Main Event, but there are many other significant tournaments on the schedule which gives goosebumps to every mixed poker game player out there. But that’s not all, the unique trophies The Festival Series is handing out to every winner are pure craftsmanship, and the hospitality events make it happen that every group of poker friends enjoys their time not only at the poker tables but even more outside the world of poker.
Let’s dive more into it by highlighting the events which we think to be part of when being in Bratislava at the end of November:
€550 NLHE Main Event (€ 500,000 GTD)
Many Main Events are well-known for their great tournament structures and many opportunities to try and build yourself a reasonable stack for the second day of the tournament, still the day where the money will be reached and thus perhaps the most important day. With 40-minute blind levels, 30,000 starting chips, and a great blind structure, there is plenty of space to showcase your poker skills at the tables. If it won’t work out as you hoped at first, there is no concern, as two re-entries are allowed per opening flight. Speaking of which, there will be six opening flights of which two are turbo structured.
On Day 2 of the event, it is still possible to enter the Main Event within the first two levels of the day. Levels will have an extended duration of 45 minutes per level from that day onwards. Often the players assume that the tournament structure is mainly because of the organiser, but that’s not entirely true as the casino is always part of it as well. Chapeau to you all! We expect the first prize to be top-heavy this time around as well, trying to beat the previous record of Dutchman Michel Molenaar who took home a whopping € 126,500, topping a field of 1,271 entries in 2022’s edition.
€550 Mixed Games Main Event
Newly introduced to the poker world, and mouth-watering for the mixed games specialists is the Mixed Games Main Event, going by the name HORSES. It does not occur that often that players can enjoy both, a No-Limit Texas Hold’em Main Event, and a Mixed Games Main Event, which is all thanks to the love for poker of the grand man himself Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk. The last ‘S’ however, stands for Sviten Special, better known as DrawMaha poker. And let that be one of the specialities of the Swedish players, being the ‘inventors’ of that game. Currently, there is no guaranteed prize pool assigned to the tournament just yet, but without a doubt, it will be when this newly introduced Main Event will shake up the numbers.
Players will receive 30,000 starting chips and can enjoy 30-minute blind levels, through one of the three opening flights. Contrary to the NLHE version, there is no late registration possible on Day 2 of the event.
HendonMob Championship, The Festival Queens, Deepstack Tournament Returns
Just like the previous editions of The Festival Series, these three majestic tournaments will be part of the schedule once again. With buy-ins of respectively €250, €125, and €250,these tournaments can be called the so-called furniture of the event, which each has its own sort of pride towards the winner of the event.
By having the Mixed Games Main Event entering the schedule at the beginning of the week, it will be a head-to-head race with the Deepstack Championship in terms of entries, but the ladies' events as well as the HendonMob event, always shine like a diamond throughout the week.
Non-Poker Tournaments
The Festival Series is not only known for poker events, and this time the Blackjack tournament/Roulette tournament/Sportsbook tournament will presumably rise to yet another level. When looking at the number of entrants during the past events of The Festival Series, there is a consistent improvement visible. And let’s be real, who doesn’t like to play some other tournaments than poker during a full poker holiday week?
All these formats are usually only played like cash games in poker, but if you add the competition dimension to it, there is so much more joy in it all, that you just really want to be part of something unique that stands. Consider the trophies they are handing out, one of these tournaments is perhaps your shortcut to one of them! Below you'll find the full schedule. Make sure to click on it to make it easier to read.
See you in Bratislava!
