Maximilian Silz Wins Pokercode Festival Main Event for €23,169

It's been a week since the inaugural Pokercode Festival came to a close in the Banco Casino in Bratislava, Slovakia. Maximilian Silz was crowned champion of the €550 Main Event after a heads-up deal with his friend Tim Van Loo, taking home €23,169.

The schedule featured two more events including a €5,000 High Roller and €220 Bounty King Event. The High Roller set a national record for the biggest buy-in on Slovakian soil. Let's take a look at what went down in Bratislava.

Maximilian Silz Triumphs in Main Event

The €550 Main Event featured a €125,000 guarantee (pre 5% staff reduction) and with 253 entries on the board at the end of late registration the total prize pool came down to €120,175. Among those still in the field when registration closed were Pokercode CEO Fedor Holz, Original Grindhouse members Mario Mosboeck and Florian Fuchs, and friend of Pokercode Rainer Kempe.

The money would be reserved for the best 31 players however and none of the above mentioned top tier players managed to sneak in the money. Unfortunately, Pokercode's own Raffael 'Pferdinho' Crose, part of the Pokercode Stream Team, was eliminated on the stone cold bubble when his ace-ten couldn't win against the ace-queen of Tim Van Loo.

Plenty of familiar faces were sent to the rail as soon as the money was reached. Community member Tim Bakker (29th - €1,035), Grindhouse 2 participant Jordan Woodall (26th - €1,035), Grindhouse 2 film maker Damien Cooper (16th - €1,455), and Stream Team member Quirin 'Q_Poker' Heinz (15th - €1,815) all cashed the tournament but they didn't make it to Day 3.

Cash game coach Steffen Sontheimer outlasted every Pokercode coach in the Main Event, despite being, you know, a CASH GAME coach. The 2017 Poker Masters purple jacket winner was making a run but it all ended in an unfortunate 10th place. Sontheimer needed to win a flip with pocket fives against the queen-nine of Maximilian Silz but the queen on the turn ended Sontheimer's dreams of winning the Pokercode Festival Main Event.

The final table was set with chip leader Alexander Baier. Baier won a giveaway where he joined Pokercode for 3 months when Pokercode announced Sontheimer as cash game coach. He managed to get his hands on another giveaway when he won Simon Rønnow's Pokercode Festival package and was freerolling in the tournament where he held the chip lead!

The first players eliminated on the final table were Day 1a chip leader Vladimir Bednar (9th - €3,005), Konstantin Hammermueller (8th - €3,785), Filip Jurga (7th - €4,805), and Isuf Hoxha (6th - €6,010). At this point Silz was on top of the chip counts but all stacks were between the 21 and 32 big blinds. Leonard Hermann was  next to depart the final table and he had to settle for €7,270 busting in 5th place.

Original Grindhouse member Fabian Bernhauser was one of the short stacks together with Baier and was sent to the rail by Van Loo when his ace-seven lost against ace-five (4th - €9,735). Baier did manage to get a couple double ups to pull himself back in the game, but when he and Van Loo both flopped top pair he couldn't overcome his kicker problems and he was eliminated in 3rd place. Baier got in for €0 and out for €11,950.

Silz and Van Loo made a heads-up deal after a little bit of play. Silz settled for €18,913 and Van Loo, with the bigger stack, took €19,395. There was still €4,256 left to play for and, of course, the trophy! The heads-up lasted only 15 minutes when Van Loo couldn't hit his flush and Silz was officially crowned Pokercode Festival Main Event Champion!

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Record-Setting High Roller

The pricey €5,000 High Roller managed to attract eight unique entries with Rainer Kempe and Kate Scisel re-entering the tournament once. All eight players, however, were part of a new national record with the High Roller being the biggest buy-in tournament to ever happen in Slovakia.

Kempe couldn't convert his second bullet, just like Fedor Holz, Matthias Eibinger, Simon Rønnow, and Stefan Peukert didn't make it into the money. Scisel did manage to finish in the money in 3rd place for a small profit. Mario Mosboeck and Timo Vogt made a heads-up deal with the latter taking home the trophy afterwards.

Nauta Crowned Bounty King

The €220 Bounty King attracted plenty of players as well. With well over 100 entrants and a steep 10% payout structure it was all about the bounties in the earlier stages of the tournament. Every bounty was worth approximately half a buy-in at €100 a piece.

Ruurd Nauta was the one collecting a lot of them, including his own after winning the heads-up and being crowned 'Bounty King'. He took home close to €4,000 and of course the trophy.

Side Events

It wasn't just about poker at the Pokercode Festival. Every single day highlighted a community event as well. After welcoming everyone on Day 1 of the Festival we had a proper pub quiz on Day 2. Day 3 featured the Players' Party and the final day of the festival had a football tournament for those not making it to the Final Table of the Main Event.

Find all the photos here - shot by Tomáš Stacha

Thank you so much to everyone joining the Pokercode Festival and we hope to welcome you all during the next event.

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