Austria's Martin Mauthner came out of nowhere on the final day and the final table to win the €300,000 guaranteed The Festival Series Bratislava Main Event for €47,600 at Banco Casino Bratislava after agreeing to a three-way deal with Adi Rajkovic and David Vedral which left an extra €13,000 to the winner.
Mauthner was the short stack entering the final table and came back from a huge deficit heads-up on the way to the title.
The Austrian was a former dealer, most notably at EPTs, and was visibly having the most fun throughout the final table. Mauthner had an unlit cigarette hanging from his mouth the entire festival and will forever be known by The Festival Series as the Austrian Sammy Farha.
The victory was by far the biggest live score for Mauthner, who had a shade under $10,000 in total tournament earnings according to The Hendon Mob entering the event.
The Festival Series Bratislava Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Mauthner | Austria | €47,600* |
| 2 | Adi Rajkovic | Austria | €45,130* |
| 3 | David Vedral | Austria | €38,270* |
| 4 | Henry Mania | Germany | €20,500 |
| 5 | Fotios Ntamaris | Greece | €14,000 |
| 6 | Peter Hanke | Austria | €10,000 |
| 7 | Dushko Bogoevski | North Macedonia | €7,500 |
| 8 | Viktor Eriksson | Sweden | €5,975 |
| 9 | Erik Seffer | Austria | €4,600 |
*Reflects three-way deal.
Final Day Recap
The Festival Series Bratislava €550 Main Event was a massive success with 621 entries getting into the action. The action was down to just 31 hopefuls to start the final day.
After a few hours, the action was down to a final table of nine hopefuls with runner-up Adi Rajkovic kicking things off as the table captain and Martin Mauthner starting as the short stack.
Mauthner doubled up very early into the final table to the middle of the pack while Rajkovic and David Vedral swapping the lead back and forth.
Peter Hanke, Dushko Bogoevski, Viktor Eriksson, and Erik Seffer all hit the rail while Henry Mania bluffed off a bit of his stack before the dinner break.
Mania was a maniac after the dinner break and went from just four big blinds to more than half the chips in play during a short time during which time he sent Greek strategy streamer and Day 2 chip leader Fotios Ntamaris to the rail in fifth place to the disappointment to his many fans in the live stream of the final table.
Mania's time in the limelight didn't last long as he lost two big hands to Rajkovic to give him back the lead before Verdal finished him off.
The final three players agreed to a deal to flatten the payouts while leaving €13,000 and the trophy to be played for. Rajkovic ousted Vedral and had a 3:1 chip advantage against Mauthner before heads-up play began.
Mauthner mounted a comeback by doubling up twice and had more than triple the stack of his opponent before winning the event with trips against two pair.
Tons of Fun Outside Poker
In addition to the Main Event and tons of poker side events, The Festival Series also featured many other fun casino-related events including a roulette tournament, a blackjack event, a slots tournament, and two sports wagering contests.
The Festival Series founder Martin "Franke" von Zweigbergk was on top of the world after winning both of the sports wagering competitions while also running deep in the first of two open-face Chinese poker events.
While The Festival Series Bratislava, they have even bigger things planned in the future. Be sure to come back to PokerNews as we cover many of the biggest events around the world including the 2021 World Series of Poker.
