The Festival Nottingham Day 1

After a long Day 1B yesterday, the players who didn’t make it yesterday are strolling around the casino again hoping to qualify for the prestigious second day of the PokerListings Championships event. The Festival Series is expecting it to be big today as many online qualifiers and package holders will join the tables as well.

Stay tuned for all the action here in Nottingham on the third day of The Festival Series!

Day 1B Chip Counts:

After an eventful day with 128 entrants, we can call it quits at Day 1B of the PokerListings Championships. We have seen many big pots being brewed, and small pots being collected like peanuts. Only 19 players remain and will come back for Day 2, being played on upcoming Wednesday. The PokerListings Championships is one of the major events of the Festival Series and with still one starting flight to go, it is going to be an epic prize pool.

Carrano leads the pack

We have seen many familiar faces of previous Festival Series joining this tournament such as JJ Hazan from the UK, Greger Larsson from Sweden, Ian Vertefouille from the United States, and Gatis Reigass from Latvia. Team PokerStars Online member GJ Reggie also came to play some cards here at the Dusk Till Dawn Pokerclub in Nottingham. But not all of them made it to the next day, JJ Hazan and GJ Reggie however, went through with notable stacks of 2,140,000 and 1,195,000 respectively. Gatis Reigass unfortunately busted two spots away from the end, also his friend Dimitrys Meless didn’t make it as he finished as the stone cold bubble. Ian Vertefouille was going strong all day long, but ended the day as absolute short stack with 345,000 in chips.

Carrado accumulated a chip stack of 3,005,000, mainly by winning the biggest pot of the day with set over set. He simply cruised his way towards the end and he will come back as one of the overall chipleaders.

During the last break of the day we had spoken with Carrado briefly – ”One guy opened the action to 40,000 and I raised it up to 75,000 with [Jx][Jx], we saw a flop with [Jx][8x][5x] and after a check of my opponent I made it 200,000 to go. The other guy then instantly shoved his whole stack into the middle, which was about 1,2 Million. When sitting there with Jacks in your hands, it’s easy. He eventually had [8x][8x] for a lower set. Now I am playing a bit above 3 Million chips. I might just stop playing for today in it.”

With the entrants combined of Day 1A and Day 1B we have now a total of 247 entrants, from which 18 players from Day 1A and 19 players from Day 1B will continue to the next day. Tomorrow we will have the last starting flight on the schedule. The Guaranteed has almost been reached, so we are expecting to reach the jackpot tomorrow.

Stay tuned for more blogs of the upcoming days as we will crown a winner for the PokerListings Championships. He or she will also get an additional package for the next Festival Series in Malta!

Action for tomorrow:

• The hospitality events will also kick off tomorrow, starting with a Bowling Adventure!

Level 14: 15,000/25,000 (25,000)
Entries: 21/128

Carrado just added a big pile to his stack by winning a 1,5 Million chip pot by flopping a Boat with his 5 5 .

We arrived at the table when the flop was already dealt and the pot included around 500,000 chips. Carrado put out a bet of 410,000 on the flop and his opponent, Alexander Cheng, called to see a turn. When the turn arrived J , Corrado then went All the Way, on which his opponent got timed out as he went through his whole timebank.

In Nottingham they are using a Shot Clock, and all players have received several TimeBank cards to make use of.

This iconic event for The Festival Series is like a couch and a chair for the living room. 67 Players found their way to this event and currently there are 22 Players left, who are all aiming to win this event. Eight of these players will make it into the money. A majestic £1,135 will be given to the winner, as well as a portrait trophy and a signed comic book. All, just for £60!

Level 14: 15,000/25,000 (25,000)
Entries: 24/128

On table 13 Russel Bowman just shoved his stack of 345,000 in the middle from the button, everyone folded so he collected the blinds. He is surviving, but making advantage of the tight image players are taking on them towards the end it seems.

Table 14 has with Chris Janlow a short stack with 279,000 in chips. He added some chips when he shoved all-in from the Small Blind against the Big Blind. After been in the tank the big blind eventually folded.

We have 24 Players left currently, and only 19 will continue to Day 2.

We talked briefly with the current Chipleader of Day 1B which goes with the name Corrado Nane. Corrado, who is actually living in Italy, in sunny Sicily, likes the event so far. Who wouldn’t, being the Chipleader currently. A very cool guy to talk to, and he explained he was going to attend next festival series in Malta as well. We asked him how he gathered this massive stack and he explained it a bit to us:

”One guy opened the action to 40,000 and I raised it up to 75,000 with [Jx][Jx], we saw a flop with [Jx][8x][5x] and after a check of my opponent I made it 200,000 to go. The other guy then instantly shoved his whole stack into the middle, which was about 1,2 Million. When sitting there with Jacks in your hands, it’s easy. He eventually had [8x][8x] for a lower set. Now I am playing a bit above 3 Million chips. I might just stop playing for today in it.”

Mikael Doverklint just bust his remaining 150,000 stack by losing K J vs A Q of Alexander Cheng, who keeps on adding chips to his decent stack.

Board: 7 5 9 4 9

There was no help for Doverklint, who already stood up from his chair before even one card was shown on the board. Perhaps we will see him back tomorrow for Day 1C.

Cheng – 725,000

Doverklinkt – BUST

We got many players with the same sizable stacks. As the action is slowing down a bit, as the end is nearing, we are waiting for the fireworks to explode.

Ian Vertefouille – 1,250,000

Vlad Talica – 1,300,000

Conner Roche – 1,250,000

Olov Yngve Vestgards – 1,300,000

Gatis Reigass – 1,050,000

Rinalds Zimka – 1,200,000

Adam Naylor – 1,100,000

Nane Corrado just showed one of his tricks to us when he made a potsized bet on the flop, eventually showing an [8x].

Let’s go to the action:

Stephen Morgan opened up the action from early position for 25,000, on which Orlando Anderson from the cutoff made it 95,000 to go. In the big blind was Corrado and he decided to call with a healthy stack leaving behind. Morgan also decided to call and see the flop. With around 300,000 in the middle, three players went to the flop which showed A 8 5 .

Corrado pulled out a potsized bet and the others immediately put their cards in the muck. By showing an [8x] Corrado made some eyebrows raising up from the other players, followed by a disconcerting ”Nice Hand Sir”.

Nane Corrado – 920,000

Stephen Morgan – 430,000

Orlando Anderson – 300,000

We are currently down to 50 players, which is around 30% of the initial field of 128 players.

As most of the days this week, the Cash Game Challenge will be streamed live on the Twitch-Channel of The Festival Series. We have some fun players at the table, resulting in a lot of banter. Make sure to give it a try and don’t forget to subscribe/like the page, so you will be informed about all the upcoming streams.

Level 9: 4,000/8,000 (8,000)
Entries: 60/128

The late registration period has ended and we are playing until 15% of the field is remaining. This means that all remaining players of the day will already lock up a nice min cash. With 128 entries today on Day 1B, and 119 entries of Day 1A, we currently have 247 registrations with one more starting on the list for tomorrow. It is already proven to be a big success during the PokerListings Championships.

Glen Wilson – 850,000

Mehrban Iranshad – 950,000

Ian Vertefouille – 1,300,000

Jav Javed – 900,000

Rinalds Zimka – 810,000

Level 8: 3,000/6,000 (6,000)
Entries: 60/122

As we are reaching the end of the late registration period, Rinalds Zimka found Aces in a dream spot. A player in utg position opened up the action, on which the player in the cut-off went all-in for 250,000. Zimka was sitting right after him and decided to reshove all-in. The original raiser went out of the way and we had a showdown.

Zimka A A

Player 10 Q

No help came as the board remained extremely low and thus added Zimka roughly 250,000 to his stack.

RInalds Zimka – 700,000

Our American friend, king of the Flips, is not even playing for that long today and he already has chipped up to over 1 Million chips. It seems the lack of sleep is not disturbing him at all, as he is talking with all of his neighbors at the table the whole time.

This is what The Festival Series is about – Socializing and having fun at the tables!

Currently we have another Side-Event which started in the likes of a Heads-Up tournament. 16 Players believe in their head-to-head skills, but only one will walk away with the first prize, together with a nice portrait and a signed comic book. Will Jacob the Dane win the tournament for the second time in a row?

Adam Naylor from the UK, is among the Chipleaders, if not the actual Chipleader. With a stack of roughly 1,5 Million he has nothing to complain about so far.

Adam Naylor – 1,500,000

Level 7: 2,500/5,000 (5,000)
Entries: 71/114

Trung had 55,000 chips laying just over the line, and there was about 200,000 in the pot after the river. The player in seat 5, Adam Bone, shoved his stack in there as a result for about 350,000 effectively. Trung didn’t had to think twice, as he folded right away. Bone opted for the flush as there were three hearts on the Q-high board.

Tran Trung – 300,000

Adam Bone – 610,000

Level 6: 2,000/4,000 (4,000)
Entries: 74/107

There were 230,000 chips in the middle and we saw the cards open of Jari Latti 6 9 and James Clarke J J . We can only imagine how it went in as the cards were already open on a board 5 7 8 2 and the river wouldn’t make any difference with a [10x].

Jari Latti – 230,000

Gatis Reigass from Latvia, always good for action at the tables, just took town a reasonable pot of Steve Brown. He managed to work his stack up to roughly 450K.

Gatis had raised it up preflop from utg position to 8,000 and he had one caller in the name of Steve Brown. After the flop Q J 2 , he pulled out another bet of 12,000, which was quickly called by Brown. The turn gave a 10 and Gatis continued for 55,000, which was then quickly folded by his opponent.

Gatis Reigass – 430,000

Steve Brown – 200,000

If you are for some real Mixed Games, make your way up to the cash desk to register yourself for one of the most amazing mixed games events of this week – Sviten Special.

You don’t know the rules? Don’t stress out, not many do. But feel free to check out the rules of the game here.

Can England take it home?

We collected a few notable chip counts during the break for you. Currently we have 97 players registered with the late registration still open.

Vlad Talica – 650,000

JJ Hazan – 500,000

Glen Wilson – 450,000

Stephen Morgan – 420,000

Sean O’Donnell – 550,000

Samuel Deering – 620,000

Another familiar face has joined The Festival Series army in Nottingham for a game of poker, it is Georgina James from the UK and member of Team-PokerStars Online. We will see her passing by more often during this event in the live blog. She is also known by her always entertaining Twitch-Channel.

GJ Reggie – 260,000

Level 4: 1,500/2,500 (2,500)
Entries: 72/89

Lee Broomhead just busted a another player. With 95,000 total in the pot it was not a big pot, but every stack counts as they say. He scooped the pot on the river with his [Ax][Jx] against [Kx][4x] off the player who hit the rail.

Board: [Kx][8x][Qx] [5x] [Ax]

Lee Broomhead – 250,000

Ian Vertefouille, who had won the ranking of Franke’s Flip Flops in Bratislava has just joined the felt. I spoke to him shortly and he didn’t sleep for 48 hrs since he left the States to come play cards at The Festival Series, an event which suits him a lot in regards of the great atmosphere hanging around. He will have a long week ahead of him, full of great tournaments. Read the following content to get to know this great American professional poker player.

Level 3: 1,000/2,000 (2,000)
Entries: 68/80

We saw two players on the table number 1 brewing a big pot.

Flop 9 7 K

On the turn Q McMillian had raised it up to 25,000, after a bet of 9,500 from Michael London which he eventually called as well. On the 8 river, McMillian fired 80,000 chips to the middle, on which Michael decided that his hand wasn’t good enough.

James McMillian – 310,000

Michael London – 80,000

We saw a shove on the river from Zimka Rinalds, after an opening bet on the river from James McMillian. Both players have got healthy stacks in front of them.

Board: 9 Q 4 A 4

McMillian decided not to call the shove and thus lost the 40K he put in the middle on the river.

Zimka Rinalds – 270,000

James McMillian – 230,000

We saw an all-in on the turn at table number 15. Robert Mantu was in the tank for quite a bit before calling for almost all of his chips against Dimtrys Meless. Both players had the goods with [Ax][Kx] on a K-high board, and split the complete pot.

Robert Mantu – 200,000

Dimtrys Meless – 170,000

On wednesday morning players have the chance to get a MasterClass from long time regular JJ Hazan. In previous events it showed an immediate result with student players reaching to the deep stages of the PLO Events.

For more information check the following link

We saw a pre-flop allin at table number 15, where Glen Wilson had his remaining stack at risk against Adam Pearson. Sadly, for Adam he was faced [Ax][Ax], while holding himself [Kx][Kx]. The board brought no help with 5 9 9 3 3 . Soon later Adam busted and is already at the cash desk for a re-entry.

Glen Wilson – 300,000

Adam Pearson – Bust

Greger Larsson – 200,000

JJ Hazan – 200,000

Level 1: 1,000/1,000 (1,000) Entries: 46/46

We joined the action on table number 5, where Gatis Reigass from Latvia is seating. The player from Optibet opened the action from the cut off to 2,500 and both blinds decided to make the call and saw 9 J 8 on the flop. Both blinds checked the action, and Gatis continued for 3,500, which was just called by Steve Brown in the small blind. After the 7 on the turn, it was Gatis who fired again for 10,000. On the 2 Steve opened it up to 10,000, on which Gatis relaunched to 25,000 and this was enough to take down one of the first pots of the day.

We have got quite a sizable field for the start. More players are on the way, but will most likely be stuck as well due to the traffic situation outside.

We will kick off the live blog with the start of Day 1B at 15:30 P.M Local Time. Sadly due to an accident on the highway close by, many dealers are not able to come in on time.

It was February 12th, the day Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club opened its doors for another instalment of The Festival Series. United Kingdom had been entranced for weeks, and they showed up in large numbers on the unofficial start day of this event and the majority of the felt were local players for now. On the next starting days, we are expecting the international players to arrive including all the qualifiers who managed to scoop a package deal, which will evolve in some great fireworks.

Day 1A of the PokerListings Championships was scheduled for Sunday. With a starting stack of 200,000 chips, and ample blind levels, there was plenty of room to sit back and relax. There were already 80 registrations in the first two hours of the tournament, and this continued to grow throughout the rest of the day.

Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk managed to find his first bust of the Series within two hands. Of course, it wouldn’t be a story of Franke if this wasn’t accompanied by some drama due to missing a flush draw and such. Together with PokerListings Anchor, Mauritz Altikardes, they tried to qualify themselves for the final day, but most likely we will see them giving it another try tomorrow as they didn’t manage to survive for long.

The atmosphere in this poker club is extremely pleasant for the players, and you can tell by everything that people here are completely focused on the game we love so much. As it’s a club dedicated to Poker, you won’t find many casino games around, somewhat which is different from other premises. So it was W.M who finally topped the list from 119 entrants and of the 18 remaining players at the end of Day 1A, with a heavy stack of 3,920,000 chips, good for 20x the starting stack. Other notable stacks are M.Y with 2,700,000 in chips, and P.G with 2,650,000 in chips. With one more day to go, we’ll be able to get approximately close to 250-300 registrations and when Day 2 arrives next Tuesday, it will become a battlefield with big stacks all flying around.

The Live Blog will officially start from Day 1B 2PM Local Time of the PokerListings Championships onwards, so stay tuned and follow all the action of The Festival Series Nottingham here at PokerListings!

Here is a list of all remaining players of Day 1A:

Are you curious for Today’s action?

For the first time in the history of The Festival Series, an event series is being held at the Dusk Till Dawn Pokerclub in Nottingham. PokerListings, represented by Melvin Schroen, will handle the live blog, and will provide all of you with all the inside information of this epic week of events. There will be a total of 35 unique tournaments being held, divided over the next seven days. The Series, who is mainly focused on mixed games and all the events around poker itself, will provide a guaranteed prize pool of £200,000 for the Main Event. Additionally, another great event will take place in the name of PokerListings Championships and it has a whopping £25,000 guaranteed. Both big events we will cover from A to Z for you, with the last-mentioned event currently already started with more than 80 entries in just two hours! 

Games for Everyone  

The Festival Series is known for its diversity in game selection, specialized in mixed games. With 35 unique events, there is of course enough to play for Hold’em fans, but the mixed games are right up there in the likes of Omaha, Mixed PLO/NLHE, PLO 4/5/6, PLO HiLo, Open Face Chinese, Short-Deck, and Sviten Special. So, if you like games with more than two hole-cards, the place to be this week will be the Dusk Till Dawn Pokerclub in Nottingham! Don’t forget about the following, for every event there is an amazing trophy to be won, which will be an unique portrait drawing of the winners photo. If that’s not enough yet, you will also get a signed comic book!

About the Main Event 

The Main Event of The Festival Series is a deep-stacked and nicely structured event with four opening flights. With 200,000 chips in starting stack, it is going to be promised to be a fun ride of action for everyone. With the first three days to be 30-minutes levels, the last turbo flight will be with 15-minute blind levels. A guaranteed prize pool cannot be missed and this time there has been set a whopping £200,000 as a guarantee, which promises to give the top spots a heavy prize.  

Players are allowed to re-enter once per starting day and can re-enter until the end of the first two levels of the second day, unique in its kind. Last edition in Bratislava was won by Dutchman Michel Molenaar, who collected a nice €126,650 score at the cash desk, in which another Dutch player in the name of Gerianne Dijkstra became second for €77,450.  

It is certain to be fireworks in Nottingham. And if you still have the chance to hop on a flight or train, you won’t be disappointed! 

Secure your package for the next stop in Malta!

There are several packages to be won for the next stop in Malta (15-21 May). Regardless of what you will play this week, in any discipline you can scoop a package worth 1,600! We have listed them for you:

Player of the Series

During the previous stop in Bratislava a true players ranking was introduced. Swede Totti Linde walked away with the package for The Festival Nottingham. To get hold of this all-round trophy, you will have the score the most points based on the ranking system. Meaning that you will either need to run very deep in the Main Event and make a couple of other notable finishes in other side events, or you simply play every single side event and cash in most of them. For more information check this link.

Cash Game Challenge

Are you a cash game player? Twice per day there is a cash game challenge, which mostly will be streamed live on the twitch channel of The Festival Series. It does not matter if you have deep pockets or not, regardless the buy-in level or blind level, it is all about the net profit in big blinds collected. All this needs to happen within the designated time frame which stands in line for this challenge. For more information check this link.

Franke’s Flip ‘n Go’s

The famous flip games are also part of the assortment in Nottingham during The Festival Series. Whoever wins the most flips throughout the whole week, takes home a package for the next event. Do you want to become the next flip master? Check out following link for more information.

PokerListings Championships

The PokerListings Championships is in full swing currently with Day 1A being played but hold your horses. Tomorrow there is another starting day as well. With a well-structured event and a 200K starting stack, there is enough space for some stunts. The winner does not only walk away with a heavy first prize, but also takes home the trophy + a package for the next stop.