June 7 was far from an ordinary Saturday in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. The 2025 Festival Rozvadov is in full flare, and already on the second day of the event, new records were broken, and new chapters in the poker history books were written. The cherry on top of an action-packed day was the €150 Hendon Mob Championship (THMC), which became the largest-ever tournament of its kind with the fourth starting flight.
Largest THMC Event Ever
The 2025 Festival Rozvadov kicked off June 6 at King’s Resort, and will go on until June 16. The main attraction of the first weekend has been – and still is – the €150 THMC.
There’s really no wonder why THMC events always attract large number of players; when cashing in the events, players get an unique The Hendon Mob icon on their profile on the world’s largest live poker database, which seems to be very sought by all players.
The collaboration between The Festival and The Hendon Mob dates back to 2022, when their first joint event took place in Bratislava. For the current tournament in Rozvadov, Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk (founder of The Festival) approached Head of Partnerships at The Hendon Mob, Roland Boothby, with a creative suggestion – lower the buy-in from €250 to €150, and amp the guarantee up to €300,000.
The idea became reality, and prior to the tournament kicking off, The Festival and The Hendon Mob had one vision in mind, and that was for this to be the biggest THMC event of all time.
On the first day of The 2025 Festival Rozvadov, things kicked off great with Day 1a and 1b – 540 entries combined was a very good number to start with. Add to this the 167 entries from the two remote flights at King’s Casino, Prague, and the tournament had already reached 707 entries after the first day.
Then came yesterday, June 7. Day 1c commenced at 11:00 local time, and registration closed with 501 entries. The total number was at this stage 1,208, which meant the previous European record for largest THMC Event (888 entries, set during the 2025 Irish Poker Open) had now been surpassed.
Play continued and more and more players registered for Day 1d, while Day 1c was on its last level of the day. When the 1c players reached the hand for hand-stage of the tournament, the dealers stopped dealing, and Franke grabbed the microphone in the tournament area.
“You are now part of history,” Franke began his speech. “This is now the biggest THMC tournament ever. There are a few people who make this possible. Of course, you players and dealers, my crew, and Roland and Hans from The Hendon Mob, but also the King’s Resort, which delivers these insane numbers. A large applause for Federico and his whole team!”
As more than 1,605 entries had now been made, the previous world record for the biggest THMC event (set during the 2023 RUNGOOD Poker Series at the Thunder Valley Casino Resort, Lincoln) had now been shattered.
This has now become a live poker tournament for the ages; The Festival and The Hendon Mob can both be very satisfied with what they’ve accomplished this weekend.
Day 2 Will Crown a Winner
At 17:00 today, June 8, Day 2 will start. The poker.pro live reporting team will cover the tournament from start to finish until a historic winner is crowned. Make sure not to miss any action, and tune in to the live blog frequently. Before the tournament starts, the seat draw and full chip counts will be posted on poker.pro.
