The Festival Series is a diverse brand inspired by poker enthusiast and entrepreneur Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk that combines different poker formats, casino games, and hospitality events to create the perfect player experience.
This author enjoyed the first three days of The Festival Series Malta at Portomaso Casino, taking place from Sept. 8-15, and although he didn’t have success on the tables in the €250 Sviten Special event, otherwise had great success with enjoying the ambiance provided by the organizers.
Part of the success was running into Friend of PokerPro Mattia Ruebenstrunk, who we met earlier this year at The Festival Series RozVegas before bonding more during a private event at Bombay in Tallinn, where we will all rooting for our good friend Sarah Bradley to victory where she collected the €260,000 top prize.
While Ruebenstrunk might not be a household name in the poker world, he certainly is for music lovers as he is better known as the international reggae and dancehall DJ Warrior Sound. Warrior Sound won a package online to The Festival Series Malta and combined his poker adventures with a DJ gig on Friday in Malta at Club 77 and invited everyone to enjoy the show. This author, who already unfortunately left Malta and thus will be unable to attend, can personally recommend Warrior Sound after attending his show in an intimate setting at Bombay as part of their opening.
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Warrior Sound Exceeds Personal Poker Expectations
Warrior Sound can rock the house with his microphone and DJ skills but has shown he can also rock the poker tables. The DJ slash poker player from Germany needed to leave Malta on Saturday, so he was unable to play the festival’s highlight in the €550 NLH Main Event. So instead, he wanted to focus on improving his mixed games by entering an event with tons of experienced mixed game players in the two-day €550 HORSES.
You may have heard of HORSE before, which features a rotation of fixed-limit games in hold’em (H), Omaha hi-lo 8 or better (O), Razz (R), Stud (S), and Stud hi-lo 8 or better (E). The extra S at the end stands for something special in Sviten Special. For those unfamiliar with this format, it combines both Omaha and five-card draw in the same game and is something that Warrior Sound played once before.
“Jason, I am playing Sviten Special for just the second time, and I love it,” shared Warrior Sound on the first break of the opening day of the HORSES. “I just want to cash in this event as it would mean a lot to me, especially with so many mixed-game experts in the field.”
Warrior Sound always spreads good karma, and it came right back to him as he bagged a healthy stack on the first day of the event. This gave the DJ a day off, but instead of exploring Malta, he opted for more special sauce inside the casino and entered the stand-alone €250 Sviten Special alongside this author. While neither of us had success, we enjoyed the experience and hope the game will continue to grow.
The field in the €550 HORSES grew to an impressive 53 entries before the start of Day 2 for a €25,175 prize pool. Warrior Sound began the second and final day in seventh place among the 22 players remaining, with just seven of them slated to cash.
“I just want to cash in the HORSES,” Warrior Sound shared again at the start of the day, which began for some of us with a fun tour at The Brewhouse coordinated by The Festival Series hospitality team. “If that doesn’t go well, I will instead play the satellite for the PLO High Roller.”
Spoiler Alert: No satellite was close to being played by Warrior Sound.
The eventual champion, Eirik Presttun from Norway, began the day with the chip lead and remained near the top of the chip counts throughout the final day. Warrior Sound had a smile on his face that glowed the poker arena after United Kingdom’s Barrie Dear bubbled the event in eighth place.
Three Dutch players were in the money in an otherwise international affair. Dutch poker reporter Frank Visser was the first to exit with a min-cash of €1,025 before France’s Pierre-Olivier Jandaud (fifth – €1,850) and Latvia’s Alexandrs Golubevs (sixth – €1,380) also headed to the cashier.
The final four players agreed on a creative deal based on ICM, leaving €500 to play for. But for all intents and purposes, they were just playing for the trophy as it was agreed that the eventual winner would leave the extra €500 as a generous tip to the tournament staff powered by Ludos Academy.
Warrior Sound couldn’t be more thrilled at this point and was hungry for the trophy despite no additional financial benefits. Netherlands’ Ruud Alsemgeest (third – €4,215) and Bulgaria’s Lachezar Tsenov (fourth – €5,035) were out of chips shortly after the deal leaving Warrior Sound heads-up for the title against Presttun.
Presttun assumed control heads-up and eventually won the trophy in the form of a personalized sketched framed photo from The Festival Series after his six-low in Razz beat eight-low.
Warrior Sound still collected the biggest prize in his pocket €5,755, which was agreed upon at the time of the deal. Presttun officially won more, with a top prize of €5,895, but as agreed, €500 went to the dealer, leaving him with a little less than Warrior Sound at the end of the day.
“It was an amazing experience, Jason,” shared Warrior Sound with a smile. “They were all such good players and look forward to more mixed games later in the festival including Thursday’s €150 HORSE.”
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2024 The Festival Series Malta €550 HORSES Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Eirik Presttun | Norway | €5,895* |
| 2 |  Mattia Ruebenstrunk | Germany | €5,755* |
| 3 |  Ruud Alsmegeest | Netherlands | €4,215* |
| 4 |  Lachezar Tsenov | Bulgaria | €5,035* |
| 5 |  Pierre-Olivier Jandaud | France | €1,850 |
| 6 |  Alexandrs Golubevs | Latvia | €1,380 |
| 7 | Frank Visser | Netherlands | €1,025 |
We will interview Warrior Sound more in the coming weeks about his adventures in poker and music and wish him the best of luck the rest of the way in Malta.
Jonathan Raab is doing an amazing job updating The Festival Series website alongside The Festival Series photographer Mairo “EstonianWeirdo” Toom about what is happening at the Festival Series Malta. Also, special shoutouts to Franke, Karev, Melvin, Lemon Poker, Andreas, Alona, Nikita, Plush, and the rest of the staff at The Festival Series, Ludos Academy, and the gracious host Portomaso Casino and wish them the best of luck for the rest of the festival.
