The Festival Nottingham Live Report

Here are the final pay-outs:

It was Sean who limped in to try to trap Menendez and that was exactly what happened as Menendez threw all of his chips into the middle. Sean made the call and we had a showdown!

Menendez: K 7

O’Donnell: A 8

O’Donnell was the one at risk as Menendez had a 2:1 chiplead. The dealer opened up the flop with 7 2 9 , giving O’Donnell a flush draw and Menendez middle pair. The turn gave a 2 , and Menendez had to dodge a lot of cards which could mess it up for him. However, the 7 was not one of them. It did gave a flush, but the full-house is obviously the winning hand here.

We have an Argentinian Winner of The Festival Series!

Ignacio Menendez	1st – £ 37,595 (After deal)
Sean O’Donnell	2nd – £ 31,155 (After deal)

After already having offered two times before, when there were four and three players left, the last offer to a deal was finally accepted from both ends. Here are the numbers:

Ignacio Menendez – £ 33,345

Sean O’Donnell – £ 31,155

• Play on for £ 4,250 and the trophy!

We have a big situation for the two local players here during the heads-up. It ended with a flush for Sean, which catapults him into the lead.

Sean O’Donnell	84,000,000
Ignacio Menendez	37,000,000

Geci busted out of the tournament in 3rd place. Following the results check beforehand, we would consider Geci as the favourite to take home the title. Still a very nice result for him as he takes home £ 18,250 for his efforts. He couldn’t win when he was all-in for his last remaining 1,5 big blind. His Ace-Queen did not hold against the other two players who checked it away until the end.

Endrit Geci

3rd – £18,250

9 Players will try to become the new HendonMob Champion here at The Festival Series in Nottingham. There is laying £ 7,650 at the cash desk for the winner of this event.

Vikesh Shah
Alexandru Talica
Yasir Khan
Terence Newton
Maxine Collins
Callum Drummond
Farida Reem Ahmed
Thomas Ascott
Mihail Popa

Level 33: 800,000/1,600,000 (1,600,000)
Entries: 5/609
Average: 24,360,000

Gyorgy Simon, the Hungarian based player, doubled up many times to stay alive in this tournament. He kept on winning flips, but his flip machine went broke on 4th place. He could not manage to top his biggest score of $45,934, as he finished runner-up during a massive event in Malta, Powered by Unibet.

Gyorgy Simon

5th – £ 12,592

JonKytePoker: I’ve been listening most of the time

JonKytePoker: Just had to double through Tonka, so missed it

We had the pleasure of seeing Jon Kyte here in Nottingham. Although he is playing poker now at the EPT in Paris, he is still with his heart at The Festival Series as he is listening/watching the livestream.

We salute you!

Are you curious how it went on here in Nottingham and would you like to visit the next stop in Malta? Make sure to check the webpage of The Festival Series.

Level 32: 600,000/1,200,000 (1,200,000)
Entries: 6/609
Average: 20,300,000

Dmitri Dudakov started the day as the commanding chipleader, but already lost a big pot in the first hand of the day. He was going along fine with the rest of the players throughout the final table so far in terms of stacks, but couldn’t find what he was looking for as he first lost with pocket 10s against Ace-King Suited, soon followed by his bust while having 1,5 big blind left after he lost that flip. We lose him in 5th place.

Dmitri Dudakov

5th – £ 9,250

Level 31: 500,000/1,000,000 (1,000,000)
Entries: 6/609
Average: 20,300,000

Vegard unfortunately found his Waterloo in 6th place and took home seven grand for his good performance.

Vegard Andreassen	6th – £ 7,000

Level 31: 500,000/1,000,000 (1,000,000) (40min blinds)
Entries: 7/609
Average: 15,225,000

Michael O’Brien went all-in with just 7 players left here at the Main Event of The Festival Series. The remaining players had already secured £ 5,500 and are all looking to win this epic title in the Main Event. O’Brien got it in well with K K , but sadly for him Geci woke up with A A . Michael couldn’t find a miracle and is our 7th place finisher.

End of the story for O’Brien.

Dmitri Dudakov	23,800,000
Michael O’brien	£ 5,500

Level 31: 500,000/1,000,000 (1,000,000) (40min blinds)
Entries: 8/609
Average: 15,225,000

We arrived at a point that shoving smaller hands would be necessary and it was Mark van der Voorden who pushed all-in from the Cut Off with pocket 3s. And it was who found pocket 10s to make the correct call here. Mark needed help from the cards to come to survive:

Van der Voorden 3 3

O’Donnell 10 10

The flop gave no help with 6 6 A and then Q turn and A river blanked also for Mark. Sadly, but true, he had to leave the table towards the cash desk. We have lost our first player of the final table. GG Oranje!

Sean O’Donnell	28,000,000
Mark van der Voorden	8th – £ 4.500

Gyorgy is doing extremely well with flips. Already just before the final table, he managed to win an important flip for his tournament life with pocket 7s against the KJ of Ignacio Menendez. This time they clashed again and we are off to one of the many races again here in Nottingham.

Gyorgy: 6 6

Ignacio: A 8

We saw the board coming with 10 5 8 and the turn was still good for Ignacio with the 10 . A blank on the river in the likes of a 2 sealed the deal for Gyorgy and so he doubles up again! We are going on a small break now.

Gyorgy Simon	19,000,000
Ignacio Menendez	21,000,000

Gyorgy moved his stack into the middle from UTG with his pocket 8s. He received a call from Dutchman Mark van der Voorden and was at risk for his tournament life. We are flipping!

Gyorgy Simon: 8 8

Mark van der Voorden: A Q

We were off to the races and we saw a J 3 6 flop. The 8 ended the hand instantly as Mark was drawing dead, so the J river was just a formality.

Gyorgy Simon	16,000,000
Mark van der Voorden	15,000,000

We are more than an hour under way and so far there is no player busted yet. The amount of Big Blinds are getting smaller and smaller, so it will kick off just very soon.

A bit of history here with one of the rooters of Sean O’Donnell about the Dusk Till Dawn pokerclub. Sean, who is apparently called ‘Crazy horse’ is a long-time friend of the kind gentleman here sitting in the audience. He explained me a bit about the history of the pokerclub and why it had been opened up in the first place. It seemed that some pokerplayers, including Rob Yong, wanted to play in a local casino here in Nottingham, but they weren’t impressed with those casino’s as they were just taking, taking, taking. And the ambiance wasn’t great for example and weren’t helpful at all in terms of requests for specific poker games etc. So they decided to open up their own pokerclub. And until today, it has been a great success story ever since.

The nice gentleman also mentioned that Sean is able to do crazy stuff at the table. So let’s see what happens! He is off to a good start as he started today with just 3,400,000 in chips.

Sean O’Donnell

18,000,000

Level 27: 400,000/800,000 (800,000)
Entries: 8/609
Average: 15,225,000

I changed my position here at The Dusk Till Dawn PokerClub. I am now sitting at a poker table right next to Feature Table together with Ylva Thorsrud. This lovely Norwegian poker professional has her own Twitch-Channel and is a huge friend of The Festival Series. Obviously, she is rooting for the Norwegian Vegard Andreassen, who made a deep run in the WSOP $1,500 PLO Event for roughly $40k in the summer of 2022. He started off as a short stack today. Let’s hope for Norway, he will grind it up!

Make sure to check out the LiveStream!

Level 28: 300,000/600,000 (600,000)
Entries: 8/609
Average: 15,225,000

Chip info if you follow the stream:

Pink Chips : 25.000

Green Chips : 100.000

Gray Chips : 500.000

We saw interesting action unfolded in the first hand of the day. It was Menendez with a clean double up!

Dmitri Dudakov A 4

Ignacio Menendez A Q

The board ran out:

9 J K 6 A

Ignacio Menendez	14,000,000
Dmitri Dudakov	31,000,000

It’s all about to kick off here at the Dusk Till Dawn Pokerclub in Nottingham. If you can’t make it to watch the Livestream on Twitch, I will try to keep you posted through the liveblog here at PokerListings!

The Festival Series High Roller event attracted 65 entries to create a £63,050 prize pool. Eventually it was Whetton who topped the field by winning a nice amount of £21,285, after making a deal with Watson. The field was logically the toughest of this Festival Series and we have seen big names popping up such as Tom Hall, Simon Wilson and Vincenzo Lupoli. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t their tournament as they didn’t make it to the money.

Level 26: 200,000/400,000 (400,000)
Entries: 11/609
Average: 11,072,727

Michael O’Brien	13,025,000
Dmitri Dudakov	22,250,000
Mark Griffin	400,000
Endrit Geci	16,500,000
A.V.	12,575,000

Sean O’Donnell	8,750,000
Gyorgy Simon	3,350,000
Mark van der Voorden	18,200,000
Ignacio Menendez	12,500,000
Samuel Deering	2,000,000

We got an all-in at table number 15. It waS Ali Ayub at risk, as he was the one which was all-in with roughly 7M in chips. The Estonian Dmitri Dudakov had him covered and we were going to see the biggest flip of the tournament:

Ayub: Q Q

Dmitri Dudakov: A K

The board ran out 6 J 2 4 5 and it was the end of the story for the local hero Ali Ayub. When going deeper into tournaments, it is also getting steeper.

Dmitri Dudakov	20,000,000
Ali Ayub	17th – £ 2.250

Its is going very fast now here in the Main Event. We are already down to 18 players.

Thomas Garment	19th – £ 2.000
Allan Arjut	20th – £ 2.000

Level 25: 150,000/300,000 (300,000)
Entries: 18/609
Average: 6,765,000

Sadly, but true. The Latvian dream for Gatis Reigass to win the Main Event of The Festival Series has finished. We saw him having the chiplead not even too long ago with 11M in chips, but he seemingly had blown up his stack as he was down to just 800,000 in chips. He did manage to double it up first with Kings, but one hand later he had shoved all-in, when the button and SB had completed the blind. The button threw his cards into the muck, but the SB in the likes of Ali Ayub made the call.

Ayub: A 2

Reigass: A 3

Ayub was mentioned a 3 would appear on the board, which it eventually did. But it was the wrong 3 for Reigass as it made a Flush for Ayub. We say ‘Au Revoir’ to the flamboyant Optibet guy from Latvia, Gatis Reigass.

Ali Ayub	6,750,000
Gatis Reigass	21st – £ 2.000

Mark van der Voorden, born and raised in The Netherlands, is firing up at the moment. He started it off slowly, but is accumulating chips over and over. Currently he is playing a healthy stack and is right in the mix.

Mark van der Voorden

6,750,000

Level 8: 3,000/6,000 (6,000)
Entries: 30/64
Average: 320,000

The High Roller NLHE kicked off at 14:00 GMT. When starting the tournament there were 20 registrations, which now went up to 64 entrants. A big success we have to call it. There is still time to late register!

Barry Grime
Tariq Imam
Tom Hall
Robert Boon
Vincenzo Lupoli

Level 23: 100,000/250,000 (250,000)
Entries: 24/609
Average: 5,075,000

Due to a redraw we couldn’t get the whole last table we had to count. But we did our best with the remaining chip counts:

Michael O’Brien	4,700,000
Ali Ayub	2,750,000
Sascha Manns	2,000,000
Thomas Garment	7,200,000
Gatis Reigass	11,000,000

Level 22: 75,000/150,000 (150,000)
Entries: 28/609
Average: 4,350,000

Vegard Andreassen	9,450,000
Jack Kent	1,200,000
Endrit Geci	6,750,000
Marian Dumitrache	1,800,000
Chris Cunliffe	5,000,000
Aki Nevalainen	3,400,000
Sean O’Donnell	3,750,000

Level 21: 75,000/150,000 (150,000)
Entries: 29/609
Average: 4,200,000

We arrived at table 12 where Polish superstar Michal Czeszel was all-in for his remaining 1,4M from UTG position. His neighbour Carlo Solazzo instantly made the call by throwing in a chip. Czeszel was very enthusiastic about his hand and couldn’t keep sitting in his chair. Suddenly there was another player who moved all of his chips into the middle. It was A.V. who put his 4M chips into the middle. Which then led to Solazzo going into the tank, although he already had put in 1,4M to call the first shove, he had to make a decision for his remaining 1,8M. Eventually, he made the call and we were going to witness the biggest pot of today.

Czeszel: K Q

Solazzo: Q Q

A.V: A A

The board had to give a lot of hearts for Czeszel to stay alive. Solazzo just had one-out to go with. The flop showed 8 9 6 , which gave no help to anyone but A.V. With the 6 on the turn and the 8 on the river it became a double bust out. We are down to 29 players!

A.V.	8,600,000
Carlo Solazzo	BUSTED – £ 1,500
Michal Czeszel	BUSTED – £ 1,500

Level 21: 60,000/120,000 (100,000)
Entries: 38/609
Average: 3,205,000

It’s going fast with the bust outs today. We started the day with 91 players, and currently we are left with 38 players, divided over five tables here at the Dusk Till Dawn PokerClub in Nottingham.

Adam Maxwell	39th – £1,250
Saied Yolmeh	40th – £1,250
Marko Keskel	41st – £1,250
Vincenzo Lupoli	42nd – £1,250

We currently have 190 runners in Day 1A of The HendonMob Championship. An event with a buy-in of just £120 and with a guaranteed of £25.000. With another starting flight going on at 18:00 GMT, Mr HendonMob, Roland Boothby can only be extremely grateful for this wonderful turnout.

The HendonMob is THE website to go to, when trying to find out more about poker players. Not only can you find all results of live events from every single player all over the world, you can also locate any tournament series on this amazing webpage. If you are interested in checking player rankings per country or per category, there is plenty of filters to for.

The lovely Mauritz Altikardes, Chief of PokerListings, spoke to him briefly yesterday:

Leo Sigurdsson, which we know from The Festival Series in Bratislava just went on to the cash desk to collect his earnings of today. He is an incredible player, who remains calm at all times at the table. Sadly, it won’t be Mullet Time today!

Jamie Holland	43th – £1,250
Marius Morel	44th – £1,250
David Vesley	45th – £1,250
Pawel Stock	46th – £1,000
Leo Sigurdsson	47th – £1,000

Level 19: 40,000/80,000 (80,000)
Entries: 45/609
Average: 2,700,000

It is starting to be a normality here at The Festival Series in Nottingham. Reigass is absolutely crushing the place. He qualified himself through day 1B with a little bit over 2M in chips. Somewhat he was hoping for to end the day with, as per his own ambitions. Yesterday, while day 1C and 1D were being played, he suddenly was sitting at the final table of The Festival FreezeOut tournament. Despite his commanding chiplead at the final 3 players, he eventually finished 3rd for £1,250. A nice score, which he currently in the Main Event equals, as the current locked cash is £1,250 while we are down to 45 players. The Optibet player will try to get to the final table today, that’s for certain.

Gatis Reigass

8,400,000

Level 18: 30,000/60,000 (60,000)
Entries: 49/609
Average: 2,485,000

Mark van der Voorden	540,000
Michael O’Brien	5,520,000
Satnam Sandhu	4,600,000
Javed Akhtar	2,700,000
Michal Czeszel	1,300,000
Ananda Vemuri	5,520,000
Marian Dumitrache	5,000,000
Mark Griffin	3,200,000

Level 18: 30,000/60,000 (60,000)
Entries: 56/609
Average: 2,175,000

Main Event Payouts

Level 17: 25,000/50,000 (50,000)
Entries: 61/609
Average: 2,000,000

Michael O’Brian	3,800,000
Oskar Wedde	550,000
Thomas Garment	2,300,000
Jack Kent	2,700,000
Ronnie Marland	3,300,000
Carlo Solazzo	2,600,000
A.V.	4,200,000
Ali Ayub	1,000,000
Aki Nevalainen	2,800,000
Vegard Andreassen	3,200,000
Chris Cunliffe	2,400,000
Marian Dumitrache	2,800,000
Simon Griffin	4,200,000
Mark van der Voorden	1,200,000
Purkiss	3,800,000
Stuart Griffith	3,000,000

Level 16: 20,000/40,000 (40,000)
Entries: 67/609
Average: 1,820,000

We already lost 24 players today, which is a fair amount when looking at the 30-minute blind levels and the big stacks all around.

John Whetton	BUSTED
Sara Wickins	BUSTED
Issa Gerges	BUSTED
Mariusz Wiszowaty	BUSTED
Philip Sewell	BUSTED
Tuomas Kalvinmaki	BUSTED
Jakub Matusiak	BUSTED
Alexandru Talica (Franke’s Flip Flops package winner)	BUSTED
Russell Tarbox	BUSTED

We spoke briefly to Simon Wilson, a very genuine and relaxed player from Ireland. He was already with The Festival Series at Brastislava, where he won a side event and he made it to the runner-up position of The HendonMob challenge. An event he won’t be able to play today as he will be flying back tomorrow. Instead, he will go try to catch his second portrait here at The Festival Series in Nottingham, by playing the High Roller NLHE which starts at 14:00 GMT today. Already 12 players registered for that one.

Wilson, got busted out of Day 2 of the Main Event early today. He qualified himself through the turbo flight 1D yesterday, and he explained us he was a bit lucky just before the bubble play yesterday. But today he got unfortunate as the player in the small blind, Chris Cunliffe, put him at risk for all his remaining 15 big blinds. He was way ahead with [Ax][Qx] suited, but could not dodge a seven as his opponent had [Qx][7x]. He did cash however, and for sure we will see him back in the coverage during the High Roller event.

Simon Wilson

BUSTED

Sascha Manns, a german poker-pro, busts Skeldon early on the day. All we saw was [Ax][Qx] taking down the pot with two pair. He added some nice chips to his stack, he plays around 3 Million at the moment.

Sascha Manns	3,000,000
Michael Skeldon	BUSTED

As players, we often not realize enough how much work is involved in events as such. The floor managers of the pokerpit and staff who are running around all day, gives it their everything throughout the whole event. Let’s make a tribute to this big fella of Dusk Till Dawn PokerClub!

Tomorrow, at Day 2 of the Main Event, the cards will be in the air at 1:00 PM CET and we will be playing down to 18 players.

It is going towards the end of the day with currently 30 players left. The blinds are sky high, so we expect still plenty of action, but players all would want to survive the day.

It’s nice and cozy here in the Media Room. It is actually the VIP area, which is being occupied by the Media Team. Just for this evening, they moved the feature table CashGame to the VIP room as the players wanted to continue. 5/10/25 blinds and enough booze for the people to enjoy. At the background the tv is on, where owner of Dusk Till Dawn, Rob Yong is playing a nosebleed CashGame with currently $469,000 chips in front of him. Playing against the likes of Andrew Robl, Gonazeles and Patryk Antonius.

I, as a reporter for PokerListings, will soon say goodbye to the pokerclub, so that I am ready for all the action to unfold at day 2 of the Main Event of The Festival Series tomorrow.

Level 15: 15,000/30,000 (30,000)
Entries: 31/118
Average: 760,000

We will be playing until we have 18 players left. It has been a good turn out here at the turbo edition of day 1D.

Just nine players were needed to reach the guaranteed prize pool of £ 200.000, but with 109 entries of which 78 are currently still in game, it can be called a big success so far here at the Main Event of The Festival Series. If you see this guy wondering around with a big smile, he either won the PLO tournament, or is just super happy about the whole event so far!

Jon Kyte is a poker pro from Norway who has already racked up over $800k in prize money playing live poker. Not only does he play live tournaments and cash games, he can also be found at the online tables with great regularity. He also has his own Twitch-Stream, going by the name ‘JonKytePoker‘. He can be found at The Festival Series events from day 1, as well as at the predecessor CashGameFestival. Mixed Games fit Jon like a glove, so he can once again be found at the tables at Dusk Till Dawn Pokerclub here in Nottingham for this event. He is a true friend of The Festival Series and has also shown several times that he really can play cards. Yesterday, for example, he won the OFC.

Jon is a one-of-a-kind poker player. Guys like him, you don’t see very often around. He is a true passionate of the game. As soon as he walks into a room, you see instantly that there is actually a personality coming in. On top of that, he is extremely kind to everyone here at the pokerroom, but when it’s about the games itself, he will crush literally everyone. No mercy. That you can also see back in his results, and overall Curriculum Vitae.

Jon took down the Open Face Chinese tournament yesterday and attended many cash games here, but will unfortunately not finish the week here at The Festival. He will travel to the European Poker Tour in Paris, where he will go on the hunt for one of the biggest achievements in his career. Currently his top score was during the € 2,200 No Limit Hold’em – partypoker Nordic Poker Championships, resulting in a massive cash of € 240,000! But for sure it won’t be his last presence at The Festival Series, as we will see him back during the next event in Malta, being held at Portomaso Casino from 15-21 May.

Our host Anastacia spoke briefly with the myth, the legend, the Norwegian Champion, the Betsafe ambassador, the true Viking, Jon Kyte.

We have 34 players went on to bag for the day. We will put all the chip counts after day 1D, when we will have the whole list and counts.

Popovic put his last 245k into the middle from the UTG position and he got a call from Shaun Halliday, while all the rest chucked their cards away. Showdown!

Popovic: A 4

Halliday: A Q

The flop gave no help to Popovic, as he was looking for a four 5 7 5 , on the turn was no help either with the 10 , but the river gave the ultimate save with the 4 nicely landing on the table.

Viktor Popovic	560,000
Shaun Halliday	900,000

Julie is an amazing personality and she was playing today at Day 1C of the Main Event here in Nottingham. Sadly for her, she just missed out on making a bag today. Perhaps we will see her back in the turbo flight of tonight where already 13 players have registered for.

Do you want to qualify yourself already for the next event of The Festival Series in Malta? Then check out the following page.

Julie Whitworth

BUSTED

Level 14: 15,000/25,000 (25,000)
Entries: 56/224
Average: 800,000

Ronnie Marland had opened up the action before the flop with Ace-King. He got a call from Dowers. The flop arrived with 8 6 6 . When Marland continued for 30k, it was Dowers who put himself at risk by going all the way with his remaining 225k stack. Time for a showdown:

Marland: A K

Dowers: 9 9

Marland needed to either hit an ace or king, or a runner-runner. The turn 2 changed nothing yet, but the 4 gave Marland the flush and the checkmark and he nicely chipped up as we are coming closer to the moment the players can bag up their chips.

Ronnie Marland	925,000
Daniel Dowers	BUSTED

Level 13: 10,000/20,000 (20,000)
Entries: 64/224
Average: 700,000

We are down to 68 players out of 224 entrants here at Day 1C of The Festival Main Event. The guaranteed will be crushed by the likes of one more starting day to come, so players are fighting their way up the chip counts to be able to have a great position at the start of day 2.

Chipcounts:

Carlo Solazzo	1,500,000
Viktor Popovic	900,000
Chris Cunliffe	1,500,000
Endrit Geci	2,900,000
Jacob Dideriksen-Nielsen	985,000

Marcin Niedzwiecki just got a nice double up in a classic domination nation hand.

Niedzwiecki A K

Holland A Q

Holland was looking for one of three remaining Queens in the deck, or to chop it up. The last thing almost happened as the flop came J J 5 . But the turn and river showed the 4 and the J . Leaving Holland behind with 14 big blinds

Marcin Niedzwiecki	470,000
Jamie Holland	275,000

Level 12: 10,000/15,000 (15,000)
Entries: 75/224
Average: 600,000

Carlo Solazzo

1,700,000

Level 12: 10,000/15,000 (15,000)
Entries: 78/224
Average: 574,000

Oskar Wedde, a Norwegian poker-pro and Twitch-Streamer with $123K in Live poker earnings, just got a nice double up with pocket nines. He got it all-in after an open from Erik Hamre on the flop, where he had flopped a middle set on a 2-9-10 board. Hamre couldn’t get away from the hand as he had Aces. While no ace arrived on the turn and river, it was Wedde who chipped up nicely. He is looking for a new personal best here in Nottingham, as his current biggest cash was during the Norwegian Championships back in 2018, collecting $47,644 for his victory.

Oskar Wedde

760,000

Level 11: 6,000/12,000 (12,000)
Entries: 88/224
Average: 476,000

We are down to the last 10 tables of the day, as we have 88 players left who are all looking to bag at the end of the shift.

Ahmed Jassim Al-Bassam	BUSTED
Peder Oyre	BUSTED
Pawel Stock	BUSTED
Denas Pranaitis	BUSTED
Malcom Mckinlay	BUSTED
Daniel Carter	BUSTED
Thomas Clack	BUSTED
Lucas Cominelli	BUSTED
Tom Haney	BUSTED
Haydn Morgan	BUSTED

Level 10: 5,000/10,000 (10,000)
Entries: 105/224
Average: 426,000

Vlad Costas thought he could scoop a big pot of Piotr Zima as he had flopped a set, evolving into a full-house on the river. He had pushed the all-in button, and it had put Zima at risk. However, Zima also had flopped a set on the flop, a better one. Zima, who has no live cashes behind his name so far, is looking in Nottingham to open up his HendonMob account. If it won’t happen today, he might could join the HendonMob Championship here at The Festival Series, which starts tomorrow.

Piotr Zima	670,000

Level 9: 4,000/8,000 (8,000)
Entries: 118/224
Average: 380,000

We have reached the end of the registration period and the total number of entrants including Day 1A and 1B, is now 491. This means that only 9 players are needed on day 1D to reach the guaranteed prize pool.

Today we will play down from 224 to 34 players.

Level 9: 3,000/6,000 (6,000)
Entries: 126/224
Average: 355,000

Steven Taylor (888poker)	600,000
Shaun Halliday	650,000
Glen Wilson	1,240,000
Gareth Wright	720,000
Endrit Geci	1,360,000

Lucas Cominelli is sitting comfortably at table number 38, taking a sip from his drink and checking out the action at his table. He is currently the chipleader presumably with a nice stack.

The Sheriff of Nottingham is the main antagonist in the legend of Robin Hood. He is generally depicted as an unjust tyrant who mistreats the local people of Nottinghamshire, subjecting them to unaffordable taxes. Robin Hood fights against him, stealing from the rich, and the Sheriff, in order to give to the poor; it is this characteristic for which Robin Hood is best known. The Sheriff is considered the archenemy of Robin Hood, as he is the most recurring enemy of the well-known outlaw.

Lucas Cominelli

950,000

We just witnessed a showdown at table 35, where Kevin Remelie stood up from his chair and grabbed his stuff. In front of him, he had his cards opened which were 7 2 . His opponent, which we saw earlier in the PokerListings Championship, Kasper Wurtz from Norway, had the goods with 5 2 as he had flopped a straight at 3-4-6.

”Seven deuce is supposedly the worst hand in the game and has the least opportunity to win. When you are dealt your two cards this achievement will become available when you have a two and a seven in different suits (e.g. seven of hearts and two of clubs).”

Imam got busted earlier out of the Main Event, but took down the short deck tournament instead. In a very short timeframe he bested a field of 10 players, and made a deal with James Mclaren. Both will be playing the Main Event most likely again as turned a buy-in of £ 230 into more than £ 1K.

Tariq Imam	£ 1,050
James Mclaren	£ 890

James Price just came to the cask desk and told the kind ladies behind the desk: ”Can I please re-enter this horrendous tournament?” We will keep an eye on him how he will handle his second bullet of the day.

Level 6: 2,000/4,000 (4,000)
Entries: 155/206
Average: 267,000

It is all hands on deck today. You need to be careful where you are walking here at Dusk Till Dawn Pokerclub during The Festival Series. You might get trapped.

Hamish Fowlie	BUSTED
Sarbjit Kular	BUSTED
Steve Jelinek	BUSTED
JJ Hazan	BUSTED
Colin Lovelock (PokerListings Champion)	BUSTED
Darren Fuller	BUSTED
Jacob Stone	BUSTED
Khadir Khoshawy	BUSTED

Are you curious how it all goes down here in Nottingham? Check that out!

We went into the first break of today, and we managed to scoop some of the chipcounts for you.

Shaun Halliday	600,000
Vegard Andreassen	590,000
Russell Bowman	195,000
Andrew Tuxworth	460,000
Aaron Philips	450,000
John Farrell	550,000
Sonia Padovani	550,000

Today it is the last chance to get yourself to the top spot of the ranking for Franke’s Flip Flops competition. Mainly Omaha flips will be played and the buy-in is £ 20 minimum, depending on how many players will enter. Last time in Bratislava, 8 wins were sealing the deal for Ian Vertefeuille, who came all the way from the United States to the Banco Casino in Slovakia, just to play Flips to be able to capture the famous Flip Flops of The Festival Series owner – Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk.

Get your wallets ready, it will all kick off at 21:00 GMT, right next to the bar. The current leader has got 6 points, followed by one player with 4 points. If you care interested anyhow to come visit the next stop of The Festival Series in Portomaso Casino in Malta, make sure to check out this webpage which gives you all possible info you need to know.

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

Level 3: 1,000/2,000 (2,000)
Entries: 122/127
Average: 208,000

Oskar ‘Deckflow’ Ojaveer	200,000
Greger Larsson	200,000
Sean O’Donnell	200,000
Carlo Solazzo	200,000
Benjamin Sweetman	200,000

Currently we have 113 players registered for the Main Event Day 1C. Magical numbers so far, but are we going to see the Guaranteed prize pool of £ 200K being reached? That’s the Million Dollar question! There need to be at least 500 players.

To be able to win one of the many packages to the next Festival Series in Malta, you will have to scoop the most profit (in big blinds) during a Cash Game session. Yesterday we saw crazy action unfolding at the feature table, which was live streamed on the Twitch-Channel of The Festival Series. Today there will be two sessions being played again. Players who are interesting in participating, can register themselves at the cash desk in the cash game area.

It is Friday the 17th of February and we are here in ‘windy’ Nottingham at the Dusk Till Dawn Pokerclub for Day 1C of the Main Event of The Festival Series. It has been a blast so far already, and it is about to kick off as we reached the most busiest days of the event. I will run around the premise all day to get you information about chipcounts, interesting hands or discussions at the tables, name it all.

Good luck to all the players!

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.

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

Currently we have two side events running here at the Dusk Till Dawn PokerClub. The pokerpit is close to be fully packed, and with many more events to be coming up today, it is overall another day in Paradise!

Level 2: 1,000/1,500 (1,500)
Entries: 88/89

One player already had to head to the cash desk for a re-entry within the first hour of play. It is a great turn out so far, and it is to be expected that this number will grow as there are plenty of levels available for late registration. A 200,000 starting stack gives you plenty of space for tricks.

Sascha Manns	250,000
Gatis Beigass	260,000
John Farrell	260,000
Samual Deering	260,000
Simon Wilson	190,000

The Festival Series is an event for everyone. All sorts of players find their way to Dusk Till Dawn Pokerclub this week and we have an incredible amount of female players in the mix as well. Lately we have published an article about women in poker. A must read for all of you!

Teresa Clark	200,000
Maxine Collins	200,000
Anna Malmi	200,000
Maili Tannbaum	200,000
Wendy Watson	200,000

A place where the common player is distinguished from the beasts of the game. A place where miracles happen that would not be possible anywhere else. Everyone is fighting for those coveted portraiture and the numerous packages that have been added to various disciplines. In Bratislava, The Festival started publishing these unique ratings, something The Festival has done exceptionally well.

It’s Thursday, February 16th, the day of Main Event Day 1B. The weekend is upon us and we expect large numbers of players today. We at PokerListings are literally here from dusk till dawn and we’ll keep you posted on all the details of this magnificent event. Yesterday we saw a total of 129 entries, where 19 eventually made it through the day and already secured a place in the money, and of course continue for day 2. With a guaranteed prize pool of £ 200,000, it is one of the better events of this season in the UK.

Side events

As everyone knows by now, The Festival Series is mainly focused on mixed games and today we kick off the ball with an Open Face Chinese tournament, six players have already been registered so that is very promising. The Main Event will of course be in the spotlight, which will also have two satellites played today. We also have a PLO 4/5/6 on the schedule, and a Deepstack NLHE event. Of course there are endless cash games going on all day long with the Challenge in there as well. On top of all this, there are Franke’s Flip Flop games running in the evening hours, and you can secure your package with ‘Spin the Weel’ during the cash games.

We are super happy with the great atmosphere hanging around in the pokerclub, and we hope you will enjoy the liveblog today! Good luck to all the players!

We have had a long day of poker today behind us. We saw many clashes of big stacks, we have seen short stacks fighting their way through the mine field, but above all, we have seen absolute joy today! It is nice to be here in Dusk Till Dawn Pokerclub in Nottingham, and the players are absolutely having a ball.

The day started off with 57 players, all wanting to win the that fabulous trophy here at the The Festival Series. Players such as Georgina ‘GJ Reggie’ James, Ian Vertefeuille, Corrado Nane and Colin Lovelock all made it to Day 2 of this event. For GJ Reggie it ended just before the final table as she couldn’t manage to win against Alexandru Grigorie.

”GJ Reggie, what is her online nickname on PokerStars, just got out of the tournament as she chucked in her last 8 big blinds, when the Grigorie went about all-in from UTG before her.

GJ Reggie 10 J  

Grigorie K Q  

The board gave a King, but no diamonds or draws/pairs for Georgina. With this bust we can conclude that the new PokerListings Champion won’t be a female player.”

Not much later we had reached the final table and the following players were taking a seat at the feature table. It was Nicholas Burrett who had the commanding chiplead already for a long while, as well when going into the final 9:

All nine players were great throughout the whole tournament and were chasing the grand first prize, together with many additions to it such as a trophy and a package. Burrett was in an amazing spot to finish it off, but eventually came short and didn’t make it until the end of the tournament. Hazan, Bowman and Lovelock on the other hand, have every reason for bragging rights as they managed to make a deal when they were left with the three of them. If you would like to watch back the whole final table, or to read all the keyhands of the final table, make sure to check it out!

Thank you all very much for following the liveblog. And stay tuned for all the live action at The Festival Series here in Nottingham!

We were already playing Heads Up for some time, and after we saw Russell doubling up with KQ against the KJ from Colin it was this time another hit. As mentioned before, a deal was made already when three players were still in the game. So the winner would walk away with a decent amount of cash, a package for Malta, a signed comic poker book, and last but not least, an unique portrait!

After Russell had taken a big hit the hand before, he went all-in with his remaining 6,900,000. No help for Russell, and Colin Lovelock would be crowned as the official winner of the PokerListings Championship!

Unfortunately we didn’t had much time today to blog about the major event of this series, the Main Event Day 1A as we were following the PokerListings Championships until the very end. But do not worry, we won’t miss a thing of the rest of the tournament. 19 Players remained from the first starting day, and it’s Ali Ayub who is in the commanding lead with 3,420,000 in chips. We also see the American Ian Vertefeuille (790,000) and Jonatan Wedde (910,000) still in the running. Everyone who remained, has locked up a min cash already, and we will see them all back on Day 2.

With the previous hand the stacks have turned around as well:

Watch the action unfold live on Twitch! We are coming to an end Ladies and Gentleman! Bowman just doubled up as he shoved all-in with KQ, and holded against the KJ of Colin.

Fireworks was promised at this final table, and we certainly got well served. With three players remaining a deal was discussed and everyone typed ‘I agree’ in the end. Soon after, Hazan was at risk with a huge contest ahead of him as he was up against Lovelock.

JJ Hazan: 2 2

Lovelock: Q Q

The board gave no help to Hazan and as it ran out 7 6 6 3 8 .

It is what it is. Jeraint ‘JJ’ Hazan just became 3rd for a nice payday. We will see him back during the Main Event and many more side events throughout this week as he will be staying for bit longer here in Nottingham.

We are down to the Heads-Up!

• Numbers from the deal will be revealed later on.

Burrett was the chipleader for so long in this tournament. Basically from the moment there were still 30/35 players left, he was leading the pack. But he found his Waterloo on 4th place as he busted with Kings against the Queens from Jeraint Hazan.

Burrett: K K

Hazan: Q Q

The board remained low on the flop with 5 4 6 , but the turn gave Burrett a slap in the face Q , on the river no help got offered with a 5 and the former chipdaddy can go to find the cash desk.

We have to say farewell to Corrado Nane. The flamboyant Englishman busts out in 5th place against the 4s from Russel Bowman.

Make sure to check out the Twitch-Channel of The Festival Series. The final table is running hot. If you want to join more action the upcoming days, make sure to give them a follow!

Corrado had opened the action, followed by a shove from JJ Hazan. It was a classic clash between the titans of the final table:

Corrado: A Q

JJ Hazan: A K

The pot in total was 16,400,000 and Corrado was at risk. The flop revealed directly a straight for Corrado with K J 6 , the turn gave some hope to Hazan however with another diamond on the board 6 , but this time it weren’t diamonds who last forever with the 10 on the river. Nice double up for Corrado here with seven players remaining

Dimitru Enache managed to get a 7th place for 12x the buy-in. A nice payday but he would definitely be hoping to get more out of it. His last hand went as follow:

Dimitru Q J

JJ Hazan A K

It was up for the races, Dimitru had to find the light in the jar to be able to survive as he had thrown in his last 1,400,000 chips into the middle. Hazan woke up with the goods and was hoping to chip it up, which eventually happened.

The board gave a gutshot for Dimitru with 4 9 K . With three remaining tens in the game it was looking for the straight, but it wouldn’t be happening this time as the turn and river were the 9 and 2 to put Dimitru out on the 7th place.

Sean got it in for his last 4,150,000 chips and got a call from Russell in the big blind.

Sean A 6

Russell A A

The board appeared to be full of clubs, but it wasn’t in favour of Sean and was about dead already.

J 4 3

A straight flush had to help Sean, but it wouldn’t be happening this time.

Turn 3

River J

We saw Talica at risk at the final table. And unfortunately his hand did not improve.

Talica 8 8

Player A Q

The flop gave no help with 10 10 4

The 8 on the turn sealed the deal and it was over and out. The river J was just a formality.

We arrived at the final table of the PokerListings Championship. 8 Players have reached the last table of the day, and will all give it all to become the newly crowned champion. Here are the chipcounts of all the remaining players:

Blinds: 150,000 / 300,000 (Ante 300,000)

We had to say ”Au Revoir” to Garry Spinks sadly. He had put in his last 3 big blinds and the big blind decided to add a couple chips to make the call.

Colin Lovelock K 5

Garry Spinks 5 9

Garry was asking the dealer to turn over a nine, but he wouldn’t listen and turned over 7 10 5 3 J . Luckily he could handle the bust, as his opponent is a friend of him.

We are down to the final table. Which will be streamed live at Twitch.

JJ Hazan, travelled to every Festival Series stop so far, is feeling very comfy today as he is grinding his stack up and is sitting in the spotlights at the feature table. JJ is a true friend of the series, and is also providing PLO players a true masterclass at this event. Check the following link for more information, as it will be held at the next Festival most likely as well.

At the feature table, live streamed on Twitch-Channel of The Festival Series, we lost another player. We are down to 12 players.

GJ Reggie, what is her online nickname on PokerStars, just got out of the tournament as she chucked in her last 8 big blinds, when the Grigorie went about all-in from UTG before her.

GJ Reggie 10 J

Grigorie K Q

The board gave a King, but no diamonds or draws/pairs for Georgina. With this bust we can conclude that the new PokerListings Champion won’t be a female player.

*Any mention of a bonus or discussion of such terms is not in relation to the province of Ontario.

Spoke a little bit with PAF-casino qualifier Toivo Ojasoo when he joined the table I am sitting at. He mentioned he had played the Main Event but it didn’t end well for him as he had lost a very unfortunate 3-way clash.

”I had pocket Tens and the flop was 10-K-4, we went 3-way all-in and one player had Ace-King, while the other one had Queens. No idea what he did there with Queens, but OK. The river card was another Queen and he won the 1M pot.”

It happens in poker, but for sure we will see Toivo ‘the friendly Fin’ back in action throughout the upcoming week.

Marius Morel, residing in Estonia, just recently just had won a Main Event already. It was the Olybet Holiday Special for $25,191. The event, being held in the Hilton Olympic Park Casino in Tallinn, had attracted 212 entries and had a prize pool of just above $100,000. Let’s see if he can win another major title back-to-back. He is currently playing at the feature table. You want to get to know Morel better? Check the following interview.

We just started the action after the players had another break of 15-minutes, and we already lost two players. Wurtz, who ended up being short, couldn’t turn it around anymore.

Level 9: 4,000/8,000 (8,000)
Entries: 76/129

We noted down the bigger stacks of the room for you. Here is an overview:

We are down to 16 players and one of the tables will become the feature table and will be streamed with a 30-minute delay on the official Twitch-Channel of The Festival Series. I will make sure you won’t miss any of the action from the outer table. It is Nicholas Burrett who still has the commanding chiplead and is really running hotter than the sun at the moment.

Who will become the PokerListings Champion? We will see it after the break.

The PokerListings Championship is down to its last two tables, after we had to say goodbye to Danny Ball. He finished 19th.

Other busts:

We just lost Thomas Ascott, who told us before he would go win the tournament. It didn’t turn out well for him and his rollercoaster ride ended on place 21.

Another Thomas, Clack as surname, also got busted out of the tournament. He finished 20st.

We saw a lot of chips laying in the middle of table 36 (Players got moved to the other side of the room due to the Main Event expanding). It was Kovacs who had to decide on the river if he would double up or go home.

Board: [5x][Qx][5x][7x][9x]

Kovacs called eventually the all-in with King-Queen, while his opponent had the goods with pocket 7s. Exit for Kovacs.

Gorden Skinner, who was the absolute short stack of the tournament, moved all-in from UTG for 325,000 effectively. With Corrado and Taylor both putting in the same amount for a call, it was Grigorie who shoved his 3,500,000 into the middle from the Big Blind and we would see a showdown as Corrado and Taylor folded:

Grigorie: A Q

Skinner: A 4

Help was needed for Skinner, but the poker gods were not convinced to do him a favour.

Board: A 5 7 6 10

We are down to 25 players. Everyone has locked up £ 300 so far, but of course all of them are looking to win the first prize of £ 6,850 + Malta Package. Not bad for a £ 120 buy-in tournament.

There are currently 3 events running and some Cash Games as well. With the KO-tournament about to start, the venue will be fully packed in the early hours today.

We saw an all-in at table number 31. It all went in on the flop and the player at risk was Rinalds Zimka. Corrado had the goods and took down a 1,8 million pot.

Corrado: A 10

Zimka: J K

Flop – J Q K

The turn didn’t help Zimka, Q , and the river was a complete blank 7

Corrado stood up and informed his mates that he had the nuts, before the turn and river was dealt. He started today as the chipleader, and is among the big stacks still. 3 tables left.

Level 20: 50,000/100,000 (100,000)
Entries: 28/383
Average: 2,735,000

Level 19: 40,000/80,000 (80,000)
Entries: 30/383
Average: 2,500,000

We got a player going by the name Nicholas Burrett who has about 10% of the chips in play. We are seeing two empty spots next to him, most likely victims of his outstanding performance.

Level 5: 1,500/3,000 (3,000)
Entries: 78/99

At the Dusk Till Dawn Pokerclub it is really comfortable for live reporters to say the least. All the action is located in one big room, with tables close to each other. It makes the step counter on the phone not overloading. Let’s see who we can recognize from the players:

Level 19: 40,000/80,000 (80,000)
Entries: 38/383
Average: 2,000,000

We made a tour across all remaining five tables and noted down the bigger stacks of the tournament:

Level 19: 40,000/80,000 (80,000)
Entries: 38/383

GJ Reggie, a PokerStars Team Online Pro, just managed to chip up during a battle of the blinds. When we joined the action, we saw Vlad Talica timebanking for a while before open-folding Ace-Jack. He had made a 3-bet to spice up the action versus GJ Reggie, but she was not going anywhere and decided to go All-in. Talica threw in a couple timebank cards, soon followed by a muck.

We just saw Eddy Shaw walking away from his seat, after losing a classic flip and his remaining chips. Situations which you just have to win at some point, if you want to reach the final table.

Shaw: A K

Burrett: J J

The board ran out 10 7 5 8 J and Shaw got subbed for a new player at the table. We got 38 players remaining.

Level 18: 30,000/60,000 (60,000)
Entries: 39/383

Unfortunately for her, Patel just lost her remaining chips when she was up against a player who had Ace-Jack.

Patel: 4 6

Player: A J

The board showed a Jack, and no pairs or straight for Patel. She will be heading to the cash desk to collect her winnings. It’s the first lady who busts out of the tournament today, but with 3 ladies still in the game, we might will crown a female winner today of the PokerListings Championship!

We spoke a bit with Thomas Ascott, who went through to the second day by surviving Day 1C. He started the day with 2,7 Million in chips and he told us it was like a rollercoaster today. Losing Ace-King against Ace-Queen for example, and then doubling it up again. At least we can say Ascott is full of confidence today of winning this event. GL Sir!

Level 17: 25,000/50,000 (50,000)
Entries: 45/383

It happened to all of us at least once, being the absolute short stack of the tournament. Priti Patel sadly had lost almost all of her chips against Sigurd Thengilsson from Iceland. It left her with just one chip behind, which she put on the spot right the hand after that. Like a player said at the table – ”It could become a story of a lifetime”. That is, if she manages to keep winning all-ins for the next upcoming time.

The first all-in situation she managed to win, was when she cracked Aces with just [4x][7x], hitting trips 7s on the turn.

Level 17: 25,000/50,000 (50,000)
Entries: 46/383

Average: 1,700,000

One of The Festival Series most loving Poker player’s is Ylva Thorsrud. At PokerListings, we have made a tribute to her as a player, and not without a reason. Check it out! She is currently one of the remaining contestants for the title of the PokerListings Championship here at The Festival Series in Nottingham.

Level 17: 25,000/50,000 (50,000)
Entries: 47/383

Colin Lovelock has got a pile of chips in front of him. Bit hard to count but he is doing well at the moment, that’s for sure as he started off the day with 1,600,000 in chips. We will check later on with him how he accumulated his chips and we will ask him for his love with building castles.

Level 16: 20,000/40,000 (40,000)
Entries: 48/383

One of our favourites for today is Nane Corrado. He is off to a good start as he just knocked out a player with Ace-Jack against Queens. An Ace appeared on the flop and there wasn’t any Queen popping up on the board. Eddy Shaw can straight jump into the Main Event, which is also in full swing at the moment as there are already 55 entrants.

Level 15: 15,000/30,000 (30,000)
Entries: 52/383

The action pre-flop we can only imagine, but on a K-high flop we saw Cornell opening the action with a bet of 250,000. His opponent, Michael Yates opted a reraise for 500,000. Cornell checked his cards once more before putting all his chips in the middle. Yates instantly folded.

It’s a rough start for Yates as he started the day off with 2,7 Million chips.

Level 15: 15,000/30,000 (30,000)
Entries: 54/383

We saw an all-in after the flop at table 22. Jonas Kovacs went for a clash with one of the current Chipleaders, William McCallum, who was sitting in the big blind and added a couple chips to see the flop.

Kovacs K K

McCallum 2 4

Board: 4 K 4 5 10

Level 15: 15,000/30,000 (30,000)
Entries: 57/383

Ian Vertefouille started the day with only 10 big blinds and he got it in pretty well in the first hand of the day with Ace-Jack. He was up against the Queens of Robert Mitchell and sadly couldn’t spike an Ace. We will say GG to the winner of the Flips ranking of Bratislava. For sure we will see him later on in the Main Event

Robert Mitchell	1,200,000
Ian Vertefouille	BUSTED

Day 2 of the PokerListings Championships has started and we will play until we have a Winner today. Everyone is already secured from a mincash of £ 200, and there is a grand first prize of £ 6,850 + Package The Festival Series Malta worth 1,600 Euro’s!

Hello PokerListings readers,

Today we will have a grand day ahead of us with Day2 of the PokerListings Championships and the Main Event is about to start as well today. We will mainly focus on the PokerListings Championships today, but we will take some gossip from the Main Event as well. In about an hour from now we will Shuffle Up and Deal. Good luck to all the players and keep crushing today!

We reached the end of the day as 20 players will remain on contest to become the PokerListings Champion and with not only winning grand prize money, he or she will also get a package for the next stop of The Festival Series in Malta. It was eventually the Norwegian Twitch-Streamer Ylva Thorsrud who eliminated Samuel Deering in a stylish manner.

Early big stacks

We saw many hands again today and we eventually played for about 9 hours straight. It was Yin Yahzou who had the commanding chiplead from the get-go, but when the end was narrowing he had to go in survival mode and eventually finished the day with 730,000 chips. We also saw Latvian pride Dimtrys Meless who finished yesterday at Day 1B as the stone cold bubble, but today he bagged chips and fully deserved it this time with a stack of 1,620,000. Other notable cashes are Kasper Wurtz (2,865,000), Jonas Kovacs (2,700,000), and Thomas Ascott (2,670,000).

We have seen also some crazy action such as the following saga:

John Kitchen, who by now hit the showers, had an interesting hand before he actually busted his stack anyhow. When I was talking to him a bit, he moved all-in for his remaining 93,000 from UTG. He told me he had two flush draw possibilities with his hand. His neighbour Tahriq Qaiyum went all-in as well and all remaining players folded. ”I want to see his pain in the fance once he loses with his Ace-King” John mentioned to me. And oh boy, did he not.

Kitchen – 4 6 

Qaiyum – A K 

The pain was real, and it became even worse for Qaiyum.

Board : J 3 4  3  J 

We have had many beats and braggs today. But in the ultimate hand it was Ylva Thorsrud who busted Sumual Deering with a cooler to finish off the day. Ylva’s Kings holded up against the Ace-Queen suited of Samual. No help and Sumual finished on the most dishonourable place of the tournament, the bubble.

Chip Counts Day 1C PokerListings Championships:

Level 17: 25,000/50,000 (50,000)
Entries: 20/23

Simon Wilson, who lost as lot in previous clashes, keeps on 3-betting despite being under the 1M chipmark. After an open 100,000 and a call of the player from the middle position, he then made it 280,000 to go from the CU. Both players folded when looking at the poker face of Simon Wilson.

Yin Yahzou isn’t that commanding anymore as he was before. He is one of the shorter stacks and needs to push/fold at all times. However, its not him who is folding all the time at his table.

Level 16: 20,000/40,000 (40,000)
Entries: 23/136

On table 13 we have Dimitrys Meless, who became the bubble-boy in yesterday’s episode Day 1B, 4-bet shoved from the SB, and the original raised moved out of the way before Simon Wilson went into the tank. It wouldn’t take long before he folded as well and so he lost his 305,000 bet he had in front of him. Meless showed Queens when Wilson asked to show his hand.

On table 14, we had another pot brewed where the Queens were involved. It was Gorden Skinner who took some from previous Chipleader Kasper Wurtz. Wurtz who seems to have lost an incredible chunk of his stack in a split-second. Queens vs Ace-Jack and the pocket pair stood up all the way.

Jonas Kovacs saw Andrews going all-in after an opening raise of the CU. Holding [Ax][Qx] it was an easy-peasy reshove for Kovacs, with a stack of 1,1 Million chips.

Andrews [Ax][10x]

Kovacs [Ax][Qx]

The board gave no help, some chop pot opportunities but nothing happened on the river. It was the end of the story for Andrews, who can join the lot at the bar, as it’s getting busy over there.

A player in early position opened up the party with a raise to 55,000, on which Wurtz in the SB, and Lambert in the BB decided to see a flop.

Flop: 8 10 9

Wurtz checked and Lambert put her remaining 355,000 into the middle. The original raiser folded instantly and Wurtz threw in a timebank card, before making the call with 8 7 . It was a logical call, when looking at the stack of Wurtz who is the dominating chipleader, but Lambert had flopped well with 9 6 for a Gut-shot straight-flush draw.

The turn however, gave a straight to Wurtz J , and with the river being a 2 , it was Game Over for Lambert. Wurtz is really in the commanding chiplead at the moment overall, with just 5 players left to bust to finish Day 1C here at the PokerListings Championships.

Kasper Wurtz	5,000,000
Wendy Lambert	BUSTED

Gordon Skinner got to know that Diamonds last forever, unfortunately. We saw the dealer had already turned over the flop, which was 10 5 7 . Wendy Lambert, also from the UK, went all-in on the flop, after an open from Skinner. An immediate call followed and cards were about to be opened:

Skinner: 10 Q

Lambert: K 8

With the 10 on the turn nothing changed, but the flush came through with the 9 and Lambert made a double-up towards the end of Day 1C.

The Roulette tournament attracted 16 players, and whenever chips are flying around you can be certain that The Festival Series Owner – Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk is present. Later today, in the results tab, you can find all results of the Side-Events of this wonderful series here at Dusk Till Dawn Pokerclub in Nottingham.

Level 13: 10,000/20,000 (20,000)
Entries: 47/136

It’s the players dream. Flopping a set while the other aggressor, with a decent stack, hits top-pair with top-kicker. Sembrastovych saw it happening as he was involved in the hand himself holding J J . He opened up the action pre-flop to 50,000, with the blinds on 10,000/20,000/20,000. Neighbour player Justin Kean made the call, before the big blind put his dancing shoes on and raised it up to 265,000. Neil Hackman who was the player in question, had a decent stack with about 30ish big blinds behind.

Flop: J 6 K

Hackman continued for 225,000, on which Sembrastovych announced to be all-in. An instant call of Hackman which showed A K and saw the bad news, when looking his opponent cards. No runner-runner appeared and Hackman hit the rail, which was fairly close as table number 16 is right at the end of the poker pit.

We have a new Chip Leader!

When you see a board of K J 9 K A , and 3 players are involved in the pot, it certainly has to be fireworks.

Lazarus had put in 56,000 on the river, into a pot of around 150,000. The big stack of the table folded his hand, but Mikael Doverklint made ‘just’ a call on the river with 10 Q . Lazarus was a bit surprised, as he thought he would have taken it down with K 7 .

John Kitchen, who by now hit the showers, had an interesting hand before he actually busted his stack anyhow. When I was talking to him a bit, he moved all-in for his remaining 93,000 from UTG. He told me he had two flush draw possibilities with his hand. His neighbour Tahriq Qaiyum went all-in as well and all remaining players folded. ”I want to see his pain in the fance once he loses with his Ace-King” John mentioned to me. And oh boy, did he not.

Kitchen – 4 6

Qaiyum – A K

The pain was real, and it became even worse for Qaiyum.

J 3 4 3 J

The awkward silence got taken over by the noise of chips chirping. And John chipped up to around 200,000. But soon later it followed by a bust as we no longer see him in the list of remaining players.

Level 9: 4,000/8,000 (8,000)
Entries: 76/136

We have seen Yin Yuzhou sitting extremely comfortably throughout the whole tournament and he seems to be a real contestant for the victory in this tournament. With his smooth skills he is easily chipping it up – We got hold of one of his winning hands:

Michael Ingram, who opened op the action from the button with a raise to 16,000, got a 3-bet against him of 40,000 from Yuzhou. After being in the tank a bit he raised it up to 76,000 on which Yuzhou moved in all of his chips. Ingram, who just had around 230,000 behind, concluded he had to lay down his hand and moved them into the muck.

We have reached the end of the registration period of the PokerListings Championships. The grand total of participants is 383, which gives a total prize pool of £37,121. A number which crushed the guarantee of £25,000.

Today we will playing until 15% of the felt of Day 1C is left, so 20 players will be able to bag their chips.

Players who have made it to Day 2 – will collect approximately a £200 min cash at least.

Mark van der Voorden, one of the many Qualifiers of The Festival Series got his package secured by winning a satellite event at Unibet. We noticed him already a bit earlier in the tournament, but now we finally got a hand of him as well.

Jonas Kovacs opened the action from early position with a bet of 15,000 on blinds 3,000/6,000/ with ante 6,000. Van der Voorden is sitting right next to him and he made the call, so did the player in the big blind and 3 players saw the flop 4 7 3 . Kovacs continued for another 15,000, on which Van der Voorden 3-bet to 42,000. Kovacs wasn’t afraid and put in 100,000 chips as a 4-bet. The Dutchman didn’t throw in chips, but timebank cards instead before throwing his cards into the muck.

Richard Lazarus had only a couple chips left but got it in 3-way for a grand total of 220,000 chips. Eventually only him and just one his pre-flop opponents got to the showdown in the end and he opened up a nice set of 7s to take it down and is back on starting stack.

By meeting so many people in the previous events, it is sometimes hard to recognize players by name, but some folks you will always remember. This is also the story with Simon Wilson, a very eager and kind gentleman from the UK, who won the Texas NLHE Freezeout in Bratislava. The Festival Series has found a unique way of awarding the winners throughout the series. From every picture of the winner, a portrait will be made by Ukranian artist ‘Modernoise’. Interested? Make sure to check out the interview with him.

Level 7: 2,500/5,000 (5,000)
Entries: 73/114

We currently are one level away of the end of the late registration of the PokerListings Championships. A decent turnout today we have to say, although it looked like it would become more busy today. As the 8-Game is popular over here, several players decided to play mixed games instead of No-Limit Hold’em.

We grabbed a hand of table number 3 where Daniel Edler added some chips to his stack after his opponent gave up on a flop of 4 8 6 . Pre-flop Edler had already 3-bet to 26,000, followed by a bet on the flop of the same size.

Currently there are 56 players who entered this side event, and 52 players are still in the game to win this all-round mixed games event. We have a lot of familiar names sitting at the tables. Let’s see is there and can still keep it together:

WIlliam Paxton
Sasha Manns
Jon Kyte
Georgina James (GJ Reggie) – Team PokerStars
JJ Hazan
Mason Pye – Team PokerStars
William Lynch

We have seen Jari Latti already hitting the fields yesterday, and by seeing him today again on Day 1C we can conclude that yesterday didn’t end well for him. Going into the hand we had seen, he had about starting stack at the start of the hand. While moving in a raise of 56,000 on the river into a 110,000 pot, his opponent Dimitrys Meless threw his hand into the muck. The board had ran out K J 6 J 2 and Latti was satisfied with the fold of Meless, who became the stone cold bubble boy on Day 1B.

[Ax][4x] off suited made it work out well for Latti.

We just spotted an all-in on table number 1 where Justin Kean put a player at risk in the name of Danut-Andrei Onofrei. The dealer had dealt [Ax][Jx][10x][9x][4x] and Kean had thrown out a bet which put Onofrei at risk for his tournament life. Onofrei went into the tank, thinking through what actually had happened. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get rid of his [Kx][Jx] as it was no good against the [Qx][Qx] of Kean.

Players who have taken an hospitality package will go soon to the Bowling Centre to enjoy themselves. The Festival Series is not only about playing poker, but also to put on some dancing shoes now and then. Who will throw the most strikes this afternoon? For more information about such events, make sure to check the following link.

Players enjoyed a 15-minute break, which gave us the chance to collect some of the notable chip stacks. It is rather busy already with 95 entrants, and it has surpassed the guaranteed prize pool with these numbers. With still 4 levels of late registration, there is plenty of time for people to either register or re-enter.

As mentioned before, the 3rd place finisher of The Festival Series Main Event of Bratislava in the name of Leo Sigurdsson took a heavy hit to his stack by calling off a big river bet of his opponent Jonatan Wedde, a Twitch-streamer from Norway.

Sigurdsson’s ”sigh” moment happened when he called of a bet of 97,500, into a pot of 80,000. The board had ran out [Ax][Ax][6x][10x][7x] and when the cards opened up, Wedde showed nicely [Ax][Kx] to take it down.

The fancy Swede, also called the ”George Clooney of Sweden”, who attended every event of The Festival Series so far, is also sniffing around in Nottingham. He is a true member of The Festival Series army, and we hope for him he will run deep today. Sadly for him, he just lost a big chunk of his stack due to a lower kicker. His [Kx][Jx] was no good against the [Kx][Qx] on a K-high board.

Greger Larsson 137,500

We joined the action at table 14, where Albert Sapiano is giving a masterclass at the moment. He clashed already couple times with his opponent William Delaney. In the current hand the board had ran out so far 9 8 6 7 , And Delaney had released a bet of 15,000 into a pot of 30,000 chips. Sapiano made the call to see the 7 on the river, followed by an immediate bet of 75,000 on the river, adding the words ”A flush won’t help you”.

Delaney thought about it for a bit before putting his cards into the muck. Sapiano gently showed A J and took down the pot with a nice bluff.

Leo Sigurdsson from Iceland, who managed to become 3rd for €50,550 during the Main Event of The Festival Series in Bratislava is also attending this event. We already saw him strolling around yesterday, but we didn’t see him playing anything yet. For sure he is gearing up for another deep run in the Main Event, starting tomorrow.

Anthony Kauzloric had a bet of 27,000 laying in front of him, while the action was on his opponent on the river.

His A 3 was enough to take down the pot on a board of 10 3 4 10 2 . His opponent didn’t believe him as he called if off with [Ax][Kx].

Anthony Kauzloric – 280,000

We got already 38 players registered for the PokerListings Championships event Day 1C, the last one of the starting flights. Let’s have a look around in the field so far:

Player	Country	Stack
Sanjay Patel		200,000
Gatis Reigass (Optibet)		200,000
Paul Smith		200,000
Dimitrys Meless		200,000
William Delaney		200,000
Alistair Donaldson		200,000

As The Festival Series is specialized in offering mixed games, this event cannot be missed out on. Many Scandinavian players will attend this event, and with the mix of local UK players it is going to be a ball to be playing an event of such. If you are unsure about your 8-game skills, hold your horses, we got everything you need to know in our website.

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.