Michel Molenaar Wins The Festival Bratislava Main Event For €126,650

On the night of Sunday, October 16 Dutch poker professional Molenaar Michel managed to finish his march through a field of 1,271 players in the main event of The Festival in Bratislava €500,000 GTD, a guarantee that was surpassed by more than €100,000. For his win he pocketed €126,650 first place prize.
 
The last 16 players started the final day of the event at 14:00 and it didn’t take long, until only 9 finalists remained.

Molenaar started the day with almost 6 million in chips, followed by Leo Sigurdsson with almost 5 million. Martón Lugosi from Hungary was the first to leave the final table when the blinds were at 80k/160k, after a re-raise on Sigurdsson’s button with 55, Martón calls him with Q8s, the board did not smile at him and he left with a prize of €6,820 for ninth place.
 
Yasen Dichev from Bulgaria who started the final table short in chips, managed to first double his stack with AKo but a few hands later when he held the same hand, Gerianne Dijkstra eliminated him with KK and almost 9 million chips went her way, while the Bulgarian had to leave in 8th place for a little less than 10k prize.
 
The blinds went up to 100k/200k when Mark Berman from Malta decided to put all of his chips on the table with 66 from the button and got called by Dijkstra on the small blind who held the goods. Her aces held on the board KKQ5J and Berman left the tournament with €12,350 for seventh place.

Sascha Manns from Germany was playing some great poker throughout the tournaments, but his luck ended when he lost a big flip with JJ vs. Slavomir Rakovan with AKo, the flop brought an ace which left Manns with €20,375 prize for sixth place.
 
A well know poker coach from Hungary Peter Kamaras shipped his remaining stack with A8 on the button and unfortunately for him, the player on the big blind held JJ which sent him home with almost €30k his pocket.
 
That left only 4 players left in the tournament and with the blinds raised to 125k/250k, things complicated for Slavomir Rakovan from the Czech Republic, who had lost all of his chips in a huge pot againts Molemaar. Both players held top pair with a King, but Molemaar’s better kicker ended Rakovan’s tournament life.

Three Handed

The three-player game had started with blinds at 150k/300k, led by Molenaar with 17 million in chips, followed by Iceland’s Leo Sigurdsson with 11 million and Dutch Gerianne Dijkstra with 7 million.
 
Fast forward almost 2 hours and Sigurdsson took the chip lead reaching almost 18M, but it all came crashing down for him as he lost a huge pot with pocket queens vs. Molenaar’s A9 when they got it all in preflop. An ace on the flop left Sigurdsson with only 3 blinds left which he lost soon after and was eliminated in third place.

Heads Up

The Main Event was in the books after just two heads-up hands. The final hand started off quite simply with a limp from Gerianne Dijkstra. Michel Molenaar checked to see the flop of 299.

Molenaar check-called for 1 million and a J came on the turn. Molenaar check-called again, this time for 3 million.
 
6 completed the board on the river. Dijkstra moved all in and Molenaar quickly called. Dijkstra showed 74 for a bad-timed bluff and Molenaar took down The Festival Series Bratislava Main Event for €126,650 after showing J5.

2022 The Festival Bratislava Final Table Results