The Festival Weekend Riga Recap: ‘Mark Twin’ Wins €555 Main Event

The Festival Weekend in partnership with Olybet has just come to an end at its final stop of the year, with the Riga edition resulting in nine victors across the span of four days. ‘Mark Twin’ of Sweden was crowned champion of the €555 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event Mystery Bounty, at Olympic Voodoo Casino Riga, earning himself the top prize of €9,850, as well as any bounties accrued along the way.

He overcame the 153 entries from three Day 1 flights that took place, which generated a total prize pool of €42,075, with €30,600 in mystery bounties to be won.

The Festival Weekend Riga €555 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event Mystery Bounty Final Table Results

_{Note: Prizes do not include mystery bounties}

19 players returned for the second and final day of competition, with play commencing already in the money. With a min-cash of €630, any elimination would allow players to pull a mystery bounty, with prizes between €600 and €6,000.

The final table of nine was set had six Latvians in the mix, however the podium finishes wouldn’t go to any of them as one by one they fell. Juris Bonders was the final native to head home, ending an impressive run in 4th, receiving €3,700.

Estonian Dmitri Dudakov was sent home just shy of heads-up play with €4,740 for his efforts, and Finnish Mikko Heikkala lost the heads-up battle against Twin, with €6,555 his consolation. Twin, who came into the final day chip leading, kept up the tempo throughout the entire final day to secure the victory.

A Weekend to Remember

The biggest name to make it out to Riga over for The Festival Weekend was WSOP Main Event Champion and 5-time bracelet winner Scotty Nguyen, who made a few appearances on the felt. Both he and poker commentator Andreas “Wiseguy” Höglund fired the Main Event, but were unable to find a bag. Eduards Rakuss also showed up for some cards in his homeland, and scored a second-placed finish in the €350 Dealers Choice All PLO

There were also a plethora of mixed games and variants on offer across the series, with Omahajack, Dealers Choice PLO, as well as a 7-2 Game Estonia Special. The latter, which certainly is not particularly renowned outside of the balkans, involves a classic home game 7-2 bounty, but with two Estonian twists.

The first is that any player that wins a pot with 7-2 offsuit receives a big blind from every player still in the tournament, not just at their table. The second, known as the “INES rule,” means that players can still find a way to play even if they are knocked out between the end of late registration and the money bubble. During this period, players may pay one, and only one, additional buy-in, and receive two starting stacks in return.

The Festival Weekend – Riga Results

_{*Note: Prizes do not include bounties}

Olympic Voodoo Casino has no shortage of events throughout the rest of the year, with OlyBet Showdown Riga taking place there from September 19- 27. There will be more than 25 events, including a €1,100 Main Event, which begins on September 23.