"Mixed games are growing in popularity" - Martin Franke von Zweigbergk

We chat to the creator of The Festival series about offering formats other than No Limit for players of all bankrolls.

 

What really sticks out about the festival series is the side events, recreational players do not have much chance to play 8-game, round of each, PLO hi-lo, heads-up etc. Why don’t we see these formats at other poker events?

Martin Franke von Zweigbergk: I agree with you that thus far the lower stakes and recreational players don’t have that many poker series out there that offer a lot of mixed games at smaller stakes. I guess that based on numbers, there might not be as many players for these games as you have for Texas No Limit, and also there might be financial reasons like more staff-intensive games or that mixed games demands a higher level of dealer knowledge etcetera. But from my personal perspective, I am trying to create an event series that I personally would like to attend. I mean, I am a hobby player, known by most as a fish, but of course, I know the rules, and if I really concentrate maybe I would rank myself above the average player in a tournament as long as more than two cards are spread. For me, gambling is more gaming.

We need to remember that we talk about a pastime activity, it is an equal share for fun as well as the thrill of maybe winning some money. So, a thrill for me = more cards = higher variance. To top it up I am lucky to be in a position where I am trying to create a gaming Festival around Europe and since I run it, I can make it as I want it (in collaboration with participating casinos and operators), so, of course, will I add games I love. Like Sviten Special, or Open Face Chinese, these two games are the Rolls Royce of Poker and if you haven’t tried them before then visit The Festival Nottingham 13-19th February or why not beautiful Malta 15-21st May.

"Casino tournaments are social gaming"

From my own experience poker players ask for these events in festivals, but when operators run them they struggle to fill up. Is that your experience?

Martin Franke von Zweigbergk: Quite the opposite. Mixed Games are growing in popularity and since we kind of brand ourselves as a mixed games festival people do travel to our stops for these games. We even have some Swedes and Italians flying in only for the first few days to play Sviten as their main game. And yes, mixed games tournaments leads to mixed games cash games. So, it is quite an experience to see variants of poker spread across several cash game tables at different stakes.

Poker players tend to shy away from casino games, so tell us more about the roulette and blackjack tournaments.

Martin Franke von Zweigbergk: Me, personally, I like the game Blackjack since as a player I have quite a fair game against the house and actually on some occasions I might even have an edge. When you then add the tournament format of it = you play strategically against other blackjack players and not only the house you truly have a unique and fun gaming experience! Same with our roulette tournament, I think this is one of the most social and loud tournaments we have on our schedule. Social gaming 100%! You need to understand that you truly play against the other players, it is a strategy game with betting rounds, levels, and buttons used to indicate order when players need to bet, you have a min and a max so you can just go all in on a number. To top it up, we even have qualifiers running at operators where people win entries to these tournaments, for the coming Nottingham stop we have 50 pre-qualified players.

"We crown a cash champion on BBs won"

Cash game players also get ignored at festivals – what is the cash game challenge?

Martin Franke von Zweigbergk: Cash Game is in many ways the true form of poker, this is where you separate fishes like my colleague Mauritz Altikardes from poker pro’s like me. So, how do you gamify this? You can’t really make it into a tournament format, but yes you can compare winnings. If you just compare winnings as is, then of course the person with a larger wallet and higher stakes will win most if you talk in absolute numbers. But we measure success in the amount of Big Blinds won after deducing the initial buy-in and any top-ups made. This way it doesn’t matter if you play £1-£1, £2-£5, or £10-£10… we will be able to compare the number of big blinds won. Over the Festival Week, we will host 12 feature tables (twice daily) in our so-called Cash Game Challenge.

To participate in a feature table you should be at Cash Game Desk 90 minutes before the start of a session and since it is 8-max format there might be some procedure for how the table is filled. Some of the feature tables will also be broadcasted on our twitch channel so people at home also can enjoy the action. At the end of The Festival we will have a winner (most BB won) and he/she is declared Cash Game Challenge Champion, will get his trophy and, just as important, a €1600 package for our next stop.

"Two bullets are better than one"

You have lots of satellite partners – how many people are you bringing to the event via satellite?

Martin Franke von Zweigbergk: We are collaborating with a fair bit of operators to enable as many players as possible to come to the event with packages won via satellites. I think this is the best approach, to secure your participation with a smaller investment winning a package. Our partners do have licenses in different markets, some are only allowing Swedish clients, some only UK-based players, some allow most Europeans etcetera, so the bottom line we have players from all over the world. In our last stop at Banco Casino in Bratislava in October 2022, we had players from a staggering 48 different nationalities.

We had about 1,006 unique players participate in our 3rd ever event, and as you can see they came from all parts of the world, and of course mainly Europe.

Some satellites award two main event tickets, which you know I am a fan of, explain why you did this?

Martin Franke von Zweigbergk: I think this is a great concept, and actually, the credit should go to Unibet, they as a partner started with this type of satellite and I agreed with you it is a great approach. Imagine that you bust early on day 1A as a qualifier and you have 6 nights hotel package and maybe a smaller budget for games like poker, it is not easy to re-enter the main event then. But with two bullets then your gameplay changes, you can relax a bit, and not every hand is for your “festival life”. And of course, if you make it to Day 2 you can exchange your second main event ticket for other tournaments and continue the fun.

Qualify for The Festival

Most of the satellites have ended, but there is still time to qualify for The Festival and you can win a package or just your seat.

• Unibet host €25 rebuy & add-on satellites on Tuesdays at 20;00 CET. This is to win a £450 seat only.
• partypoker also host seat-only satellites on Thursdays at 20:00 CET, which are £33 to enter.
• You can also win a €1,500 package on partypoker on Sundays at 20:00 CET for £109.

If you like the look of this event but can't make it, stay tuned for the next Festival event in Malta in May.

What would you like to see change to side event schedules? Let us know in the comments: