Level 4: 1,500/2,500 (2,500)
Entries: 130/140
Average: 215,000
We are going into level 4 now and already have a couple players who had to run to the cash desk for a re-entry.
 Aki Nevalinen | BUSTED |
 Maxine Collins | BUSTED |
| Andrew Mapp | BUSTED |
| John Farrell | BUSTED |
| Marc Wright | BUSTED |
| Michael Stewart | BUSTED |
| Felix Emmanuel Ovey | BUSTED |
| Barry Grime | BUSTED |
 Oskar ‘Deckflow’ Ojaveer | BUSTED |
| Tariq Imam | BUSTED |
German professional poker player Sascha Manns already had a big stack all day in front of him, but in the last hand of the day it was given to him pretty easily. He opened up the action with Ace-King, and the small blind which was rather short with 400,000 in chips left, put his dancing shoes on and went all-in with Ace-Six. A king on the turn gave the win to Sascha, and made it happen that 21 players will advance to the second day of this Main Event here at The Festival Series in Dusk Till Dawn Nottingham.
The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk just announced to the large crowd at Dusk Till Dawn that the schedule has been released for The Festival Series Malta. The festival will take place from May 15-21 at the luxurious Portomaso Casino.
The schedule boasts 49 numbered events highlighted by The Festival Series Malta €550 Main Event. As is always the case at The Festival Series, the schedule also features tons of mixed game events. In addition, there are casino events with tournaments in Blackjack, Roulette, Slots, and Sportswagering.
Check out the full schedule for The Festival Series Malta here!
Oskar ‘Deckflow’ Ojaveer and Daniel ‘Danielmarpoker’ Palsson, both Twitch-Streamers, just got busted out of the tournament, and went on to go look for their captain as their ship sank on their way to the harbour.
Ojaveer threw in his last 225,000 with pocket 4s, and was way behind against the 6s from Callum Highley. While Ojaveer was walking away he mentioned to his team mate that he should defend the honours of the team now, roughly one hand his glass also broke and could hit the rail. 25 players are left and we are looking for 4 more players to bust here before the end of Day 1B.
The Cash Game challenge is live on the Twitch Channel of The Festival Series. Currently Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk is on the lead of the ranking, as he previously managed to get 600+ big blinds in profit. With hands like this, it might just happen that Franke will lose his top spot today!
Level 14: 15,000/25,000 (25,000)
Entries: 36/138
Average: 766,000
We are getting closer and closer, while Manchester United is running for a draw against Barcelona, the players are looking for their own draws here in Nottingham at The Festival Series. 36 players are remaining from a staggering 138 entries. We are down to the last four tables of the day and the action will be big, pots will be monster!
 Sascha Manns | 1,900,000 |
 Mark van der Voorden | 1,180,000 |
 Leo Sigurdsson | 1,000,000 |
 Gyorgy Simon | 1,500,000 |
 Marian Dumitrache | 2,000,000 |
| Oliver Farrell | 1,225,000 |
| Teresa Clark | 510,000 |
As the Main Event is going in full swing, the Cash Game Challenge is kicking off at the Livestream of The Festival Series.
Level 13: 10,000/20,000 (20,000)
Entries: 46/138
Average: 600,000
 Gatis Reigass | 1,020,000 |
| Jari Tapio Karkkainen | 1,050,000 |
| David Clark | 980,000 |
 Mariusz Wiszowaty | 740,000 |
| Sascha Manns | 1,350,000 |
| Callum Highley | 1,300,000 |
| Oliver Farrell | 950,000 |
| James Clarke | 850,000 |
| Marian Dumitrache | 1,200,000 |
Level 12: 10,000/15,000 (15,000)
Entries: 48/138
Average: 575,000
Not often he is lucky during The Festival Series, but during Day 1B of the Main Event he found the right gear, it seems. Reigass just took a big pot from Belgian player Dimitrios Loupakis, who qualified himself through Unibet, by winning with pocket Tens against the Aces of Loupakis. A straight was enough to take it down and Reigass added a nice couple chips to his stack, following Loupakis it was a 1,000,000 chip pot, but then Reigass must have lost some afterwards. Loupakis eventually busted as well at the same table. He will come back tomorrow to play the turbo Day 1D.
| Gatis Reigass | 810,000 |
 Dimitrios Loupakis | BUSTED |
Level 12: 10,000/15,000 (15,000)
Entries: 53/138
Average: 520,000
I’m sitting right in the middle of the tournament area, which is fairly comfortable when being a live reporter I have to say. At the table next to me I heard a player giving some tough talks to his opponents who were in the blinds. Michal Czeszel opened up the action himself from the button to 25,000. ”You are right in the sandwich, my friend” – he said to the player in the small blind. Daniel Palsson, an ACR-Stormer wasn’t that impressed by the trash talk and made it 85,000 to go and said ”It’s just playmoney, right”, soon followed by folds from all remaining players in the hand.
Talks aren’t always justified, seeing his all time live results being nearly $80,000 is pretty impressive, but there were 71 money finishes needed for that.
 Daniel Palsson | 360,000 |
| Michal Czeszel | 300,000 |
Level 11: 6,000/12,000 (12,000)
Entries: 61/138
Average: 452,000
| Sascha Manns | 1,070,000 |
| Bash Mahmood | 620,000 |
| Leo Sigurdsson | 560,000 |
| Nick Hicks | 700,000 |
 Anders Wattengard | 720,000 |
Level 11: 6,000/12,000 (12,000)
Entries: 62/138
Average: 445,000
Strolling around poker paradise, we saw the some tough action at table number 14. Many timebank cards were used on the river, but eventually a call was made and we had a showdown.
The board holded 10 5 6 K Q and it was Wiszowaty who had to make a decision for his tournament life as he was put to the test by Dutchman Silvius with a bet of 350,000 into a pot of roughly the same. Wiszowaty took it down eventually, holding the third best flush with J K . Silvius also had to open his cards and it was a stonecold bluff with A 10 , trying to scoop the pot.
| Mariusz Wiszowaty | 910,000 |
| Bas Silvius | 420,000 |
Level 10: 5,000/10,000 (10,000)
Entries: 70/138
Average: 394,000
The floorman just announced that 21 players will succeed to go to day 2 of the Main Event. With currently half of the players still in, its everyone’s game.
Level 9: 4,000/8,000 (8,000)
Entries: 72/138
Average: 373,000
Reigass is always up for some action and so did he in this hand we just witnessed. Reigass had opened from the middle position, and next to him it was Annika Liv Winell who put her remaining stack of 85,000 at risk. As soon as everyone went out of the way, it was Reigass who pressed the call button.
Reigass – Q K
Winell – A J
A standard situation, to say the least. Reigass took directly the lead on a Q 5 7 flop, but with the 10 appearing on the turn, Winell was drawing to a flush and straight as well. Sadly for her none of her outs came on the river with the 7 being drawn. Another one bites the dust.
| Gatis Reigass | 620,000 |
| Annika Liv Winell | BUSTED |
Level 9: 4,000/8,000 (8,000)
Entries: 74/138
Average: 373,000
I just spoke to fellow Dutchman, Mark van der Voorden. He told me he had lost a 450k pot. His opponent chucked in all of his chips on a J-3-3 flop with pocket 7s, Van der Voorden was holding the Aces, but sadly for him one of the remaining 7s appeared on the river. Tough game sometimes..
| Mark van der Voorden | 360,000 |
Level 8: 3,000/6,000 (6,000)
Entries: 85/137
Average: 322,000
Thomas Clack, residing in the UK and with live earnings surpassing the $40,000 mark, is sitting comfortably at the table number 3 currently. He just raised it up to 125,000 on the river, while his opponent had made it 50,000 before. Nick Hicks, the player in question, mucked his hand and was saying it was a nice bluff of Clack, who chips up to a stack of around 375,000.
| Thomas Clack | 375,000 |
| Nick Hicks | 590,000 |
Level 7: 2,500/5,000 (5,000)
Entries: 88/133
Average: 303,000
The Main Event is in full swing and with currently 133 entrants. That being said, you could conclude that for a Thursday it is very neat, especially when you consider that tomorrow with two starting flights, the real work still has to kick off. We have seen so many different nationalities already, and this is what poker makes so special, all kinds of cultures who come together and share the passion we have for the game.
| Marian Dumitrache | 600,000 |
 Dimitris Loupakis | 750,000 |
| Stuart Griffith | 640,000 |
 Nils Jakob Linden | 550,000 |
 Vincenzo Lupoli | 660,000 |
Side events and the Cash Games are running very decent at the moment. With several other tournaments to start later on, it is being promised that whoever busts out of the Main Event, will have plenty of possibilities to continue playing. In the Open Face Chinese, where founder of The Festival Series Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk just took place, has currently still 15 out of 23 players in the game. The satellite for the Main Event started off with 52 players and they are now down to 27 players, with 5 seats guaranteed.
| Open Face Chinese | £ 200 + 30 |
| Satellite Main Event | £ 50 + 6 |
We arrived at table number 15, where we see Dutchman Mark van der Voorden sitting in seat 2, and Greger Larsson in seat 6. Greger came up to me and explained what had happened beforehand.
”One guy on the button had opened to 8,000 and the small blind made it 21,000, on which i decided to fold K Q from the big blind. When the flop was dealt with 10 5 5 I would have a flushdraw, which eventually came on the turn with the J . Arrived on the river A it would have given me a Royal Flush, which was so sick. The guy shoved on the other one at the river, and I would have had a sick stack. One of them had Aces even.”
In the meantime, partner in crime from the ‘George Clooney from Sweden’ had busted out of the tournament. She will maybe re-enter today, or give it another shot tomorrow on day 1c and 1d.
| Greger Larsson | 330,000 |
| Anna Malmi | BUSTED |
Oscar ‘Deckflow’ Ojaveer is a Twitch-Streamer from Estonia. This charismatic, cool dude from the Baltics already has won a side-event here in the likes of the Roulette tournament. Today he is playing Day 1B of the Main Event, as yesterday he might had needed some time to recover from the heavy evening beforehand. To win an event deserves its celebrations, and that’s exactly what had happened. Good luck to you today sir!
| Oscar Ojaveer | 115,000 |
Many players were happy to see that it was time for the first break of the day, to get some drinks and food in. It gave us the opportunity to note down some notable chipcounts:
| Saied Yolmeh | 753,500 |
| Marian Dumitrache | 425,000 |
| Teemu Leppalahti | 430,000 |
| Pawel Stock | 450,000 |
| Andras Balogh | 525,000 |
| Andrew Mapp | 460,000 |
| Vincenzo Lupoli | 700,000 |
Live bloggers, running around the pokerpit all day, the step counter on the phone is going into the red zone currently. We noted a couple of the bigger stacks at these early stages of Day 1B of the Main Event:
| Erik Hamre | 350,000 |
| Callum Highley | 510,000 |
| Teemu Leppalahti | 500,000 |
| Vincenzo Lupoli | 470,000 |
Level 3: 1,000/2,000 (2,000)
Entries: 95/104
Average: 216,000
We arrived at table 15 where Anna Malmi is showing ff her poker skills. One table next to her Greger Larsson, partner in crime, is sitting. Malmi called from the button a raise to 5,000 from the CU. Also both of the blinds came along, one of them is ACR-Stormer Neil Edwards, aka TwinnyPoker.
After the flop was dealt with showing K Q 10 , it was the CU who continued for 12,500. Malmi was not convinced and made it 25,000 to go, on which the blinds went out of the way. Attila Erdei, who was the man behind the CU, decided to complete to be able to see a turn. After checking the action, Malmi fired 35,000 and Erdei quickly folded.
| Anna Malmi | 180,000 |
| Attila Erdei | 120,000 |
| Neil Edwards (TwinnyPoker) | 135,000 |
| Andras Balogh | 262,000 |
Level 3: 1,000/2,000 (2,000)
Entries: 96/104
Average: 216,000
We saw a small pot being brewed at table number 3, where Sturla Hiller was putting Kevin Remelie to the test.
With around 30,000 in the middle, the board showed [4x][5x][4x] and with a [6x] on the turn it the straight possibilities became real. A [3x] on the river made it complete. Remelie opened up the betting process with 12,000 chips putting to the middle. Hiller however, had a plan and made it 35,000 to go. After a call the showdown appeared and Hiller had the goods with a flopped full house with his pocket 5s. His opponent called it off with A-high.
| Sturla Hiller | 210,000 |
| Kevin Remelie | 250,000 |
