The Celebration Nottingham finished up on February 19 with the delegated of the £500 purchase in Headliner champion. By the time late registration closed, 609 players had already signed up, resulting in a guaranteed £232,292 prize pool shared by the top 92 finishers.

At Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham, the chips were all in the hands of Argentina’s Ignacio Menendez, who won a heads-up deal with Sean O’Donnell for a career-best £38,595 when the dust settled.

A.V. walked to the cashier’s desk to collect £3,500 after losing the first player at the nine-handed final table early on.

Mark van der Voorden finished in eighth place after opening-shoved for ten big blinds with pocket threes from the cutoff. Sean O’Donnell called from the small blind with a superior pair of tens in the hole. Van der Voorden was gone after the tens held.

Michael O’Brien joined van der Voorden on the rail almost immediately after he was busted. When O’Brien went all-in from early position with pocket kings, he was down to a little less than 6.5 big blinds. Endrit Geci was sitting on the button with the only hand that could beat him preflop, unbeknownst to O’Brien: pocket kings. Everyone else folded when Geci three-bet shoved. O’Brien’s cowboys received no assistance, and he finished seventh for £5,500.

Vegard Andreassen won sixth place and £7,000

Under the gun, he evaluated queen-eight and determined that it was strong enough to commit the final of his five big blinds. Even though Andreassen floated an inside straight draw, Menendez called the shove from the small blind with pocket nines, and Andreassen ultimately missed his outs and was eliminated from the Main Event.

Dmitri Dudakov’s demise reduced the final five to four with his elimination. His micro-stack of 1.5 big blinds went into the middle on the very next hand, and he lost a coin flip with pocket tens against O’Donnell’s ace-king. Dudakov got £9,250 for his efforts because the Poker Gods weren’t down on him. He went into the cold night in Nottingham with it.

Gyorgy Simon of Hungary finished fourth with the tournament’s first five-figure score of £12,592. Simon unhinged after a conflict with Menendez. With pocket tens in the small blind, Simon shoved for slightly more than five big blinds. Menendez bet and called with suited nine-seven, and despite Simon losing top set, he got a seven-high straight by the river.

Menendez Takes Control before Heads-Up Geci was left out of the match

Before going bust, the former Party Poker MILLIONS Online champion was down to 1.6 big blinds. O’Donnell raised with ace-four of hearts on the button, Geci called all-in with ace-queen, and Menendez joined in with eight-deuce off suit in the big blind. Menendez won with a rivered eight after the active players checked down the board. Geci took home £18,250 for finishing third.

Menendez held a telling 95 million to 27 million chip lead going into fair warning, however O’Donnell broke Menendez’s experts with jack-eight to flip the challenge on its head. O’Donnell’s lead endured one hand before he wound up on some unacceptable side of an ace-ruler versus ace-sovereign circumstance.

Both players agreed to a deal because of the unpredictable nature of the one-on-one battle, which left the trophy and £4,250 up for grabs. When O’Donnell limp-called all-in for 37 million with ace-eight of diamonds during the 1,000,000/2,000,000/2,000,000a level, Menendez won the extra prize money and faced off against Menendez’s king-seven.

Menendez took the lead with a seven on the flop, but O’Donnell got a flush draw. Before the seven of diamonds on the river elevated O’Donnell to a diamond flush and Menendez to the tournament-winning full house, the turn paired a deuce.

The Festival Goes to Malta in May

The Festival will next be held from May 15 to 21 at the Portomaso Casino in St. Julian’s, Malta. The Festival’s founder, Martin “Frankie” van Zweigbergk, stated, “Malta is the perfect poker destination, and the Portomaso Casino has a long history of successfully hosting big poker tournaments,” in regards to the upcoming stop in Malta.

Thanks to Jonathan Micallef and the Portomaso Casino, we will be able to make The Festival in Malta a reality. Every one of our players will have a phenomenal poker and club occasion in May.