The festival boasts eight mixed-game events with a leaderboard and leads directly into the Poker North Masters. The electric vibe is felt throughout the casino with many big names in attendance including returning 2023 EMPC Main Event champion Dainius Antanaitis, who later in the year won a WSOP Europe 8-Game bracelet, WSOP Circuit winner Jon Kyte, Norwegian Poker Association president Tobias Leknes, Georgina James, Mason Pye, and Blaz Zerjav among the players enjoying the battle.

Ylva Thorsrud, who is well-known for streaming her online poker games at Coolbet on Twitch under the ‘Jevakim’ screenname, was back streaming the action on Day 2 allowing many other players to learn mixed games and enjoy the amazing atmosphere.

However, it was another big name in 2008 WSOP $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. champion Jens Vortmann shining the brightest on Day 2 after agreeing to a heads-up deal with Norway’s Joakim Bakke. Vortmann was awarded the trophy while the payouts were nearly evenly split with Vortmann earning €5,422 and Bakke banking €5,421.

Vortmann is boasting a fantastic start to the festival as he is one of two players to finish in the money in the first two events after min-cashing Event #1: €100 Big Bet Mix for €400. Meanwhile, Dutch poker superstar Sander “The Weasel” van Wesemael was the other player to notch two cashes thus far after also min-cashing Event #1 for €400 followed by a seventh-place finish in Event #2 for €810.

The event rotated between Omaha high-low 8 or better and Stud high-low 8 or better and was a massive success with 95 entries creating a €20,273 prize pool. This not only smashed the €15,000 guarantee but nearly doubled the €11,583 prize pool created last year when Tobias Leknes defeated a field of 54 entries to win the €4,401 top prize. Last year’s runner-up Torstein Iversen was the only player to cash in this event in back-to-back years after following up his €2,838 cash in 2023 with an eighth-place prize of €605 in 2024.

Meanwhile, the two-day Event #3: €350 Dealer’s Choice kicked off on Tuesday with its opening day with players choosing between the following games:

The mix:

• NLH – FLH – PLO – PLO5
• FLO8 – PLO8 – 5cPLO8 – NLO8
• Stud – Stud8 – Razz – 5CD
• NL2-7 – A-5TD – 2-7TD – Badugi
• Badacey – Baducey

The event soared past its €20,000 by more than 50 percent with 105 entries creating a €31,573 prize pool. What’s more is that this event nearly tripled last year’s event won by Austria’s Robin Panholzer for €4,788 after he outlasted a field of 39 entries to claim a lion’s share of the €11,978 prize pool.

Just 29 hopefuls were remaining including many notable players including last year’s champion Panholzer, Tobias Leknes, Eva “Chic” Jiretorn, JJ Hazan, Aleksandrs Golubevs, and Dainius Antanaitis.

Meanwhile, Ylva Thorsrud will be back in action, which means poker fans are in for a treat as she will be live streaming her action across a library of games on the popular ‘Jevakim’ Twitch channel.

Come back tomorrow to see if one of these players will win the coveted title or whether it will be another player rising to stardom.

See the 2024 EMPC Schedule here.