The founder of The Festival, Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk, is a very good friend of poker.pro. This year, the driven poker entreprenour has proven that he’s not only a great organizer of live poker events; he’s also cemented his status as a very competent poker player. Just a few days ago, Franke captured his fourth title of the year, as he won the NT$ 15,000 Fixed Limit Seven-Card Stud Mix during the 2026 Asian Poker Tour Taipei. Franke’s time management is seriously impressive; he manages to travel all across the world and compete for prestigious title, at the same time that he’s in full swing planning for his upcoming live poker events in Vilnius and Rozvadov.
Franke the Eternity Machine
The poker.pro editorial office has been a big fan of Franke and The Festival for years. The Festival has proven to be a very popular live poker series, offering a diversified tournament schedule with affordable buy-ins for all poker enthusiasts. Franke himself is a super nice guy; he cares about the poker community and strives to create opportunities for all players to experience the great game, while he always emphasize the importance of being gamble aware.
Before diving into the upcoming stops for The Festival, let’s see what Franke himself has been up to lately. After enjoying some live poker in his home town during the 2026 OlyBet Showdown Tallinn, Franke took the trip to Asia for the 2026 Asian Poker Tour Taipei. One of the main reasons he decided to go there was to participate in the NT$ 10,000 Pot Drawmaha Sviten. The poker community (including Anders “Bengan” Bengtsson, the founder of Sviten) agrees that Franke has been the biggest advocate for the Five-Card Draw/PLO5 hybrid game, and that he’s been the one who’s made the game an international success. A few days ago, poker.pro deep-dived into how Franke (together with prominent Finnish player Riku Koivurinne) collaborated with the Asian Poker Tour to get Sviten on the Taipei schedule.
The NT$ 10,000 Pot Drawmaha Sviten kicked off at 19:45 local time yesterday (Saturday, April 25). The tournament scored 61 entries, creating a NT$ 500,219 prize pool (roughly €13,600). Riku Koivurinne managed to become one of the final nine players standing; he finished sixth for NT$ 31,000 (€840). Waving the Chinese flag, Kwok Fung claimed the title, the trophy, and the NT$ 145,719 (€3,950) first-place prize.
2026 APT Taipei – NT$ 10,000 Pot Drawmaha Sviten Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (NT$) | Prize (€) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Kwok Fung | China | NT$ 145,719 | €3,950 |
| 2 |  Hong Yu Yan | Taiwan | NT$ 105,000 | €2,846 |
| 3 |  Sorawit Suriyakarn | Thailand | NT$ 68,500 | €1,856 |
| 4 |  Chi Ho Kevin Tse | Hong Kong | NT$ 51,500 | €1,396 |
| 5 |  William Wang | New Zealand | NT$ 40,000 | €1,084 |
| 6 |  Riku Koivurinne | Finland | NT$ 31,000 | €840 |
| 7 |  Naoto Sato | Japan | NT$ 24,500 | €664 |
| 8 | Yi Hsuan Che | Taiwan | NT$ 19,000 | €515 |
| 9 | Kwan Ying Cheung | Hong Kong | NT$ 15,000 | €406 |
While Franke didn’t cash in the event, he’s still very pleased with his Asia trip, considering he had success in a different tournament during the earlier days of the 2026 APT Taipei. On the second day of the festival, Franke registered for the NT$ 15,000 Fixed Limit Seven-Card Stud Mix to enjoy some Mixed Games action. The tournament scored 34 entries, which created a NT$ 420,762 prize pool (roughly €11,400). Franke put all of his poker skills on full display, and when the dust settled, it was he who emerged victorious, claiming the NT$ 155,662 (€4,219) first-place payout and his fourth title of 2026.
2026 APT Taipei – NT$ 15,000 Fixed Limit Seven-Card Stud Mix Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (NT$) | Prize (€) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk | Sweden | NT$ 155,662 | €4,219 |
| 2 |  Patrick Quealy | United States | NT$ 107,300 | €2,908 |
| 3 | Tomoki Matsuda | Japan | NT$ 68,400 | €1,854 |
| 4 | Irsuko Yoroi | Japan | NT$ 49,400 | €1,339 |
| 5 |  Viktor Utrobin | Russia | NT$ 40,000 | €1,084 |
What a year it’s shaping up to be for Franke (or, as he sometimes refer to himself as, “The Farmer”). Claiming the title in Taipei, he scores his fifth title of the year. What’s more, they’ve come in four different countries; perhaps, Franke will be a force to be reckoned with in the flag hunter community? Below is a breakdown of all Franke’s titles in 2026.
| Festival | Event | Winner | Country | First-Place Payout | Entries | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 APT Taipei | NT$ 15,000 Fixed Limit Seven-Card Stud Mix | Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk | Sweden | NT$ 155,662 (€4,219) | 34 | $420,762 (€11,400) |
| 2026 OlyBet Showdown Tallinn | €200 Open-Face Chinese Pineapple | Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk | Sweden | €1,970 | 30 | €4,845 |
| 2026 WSOP Circuit Liechtenstein | SFr500 8-Game | Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk | Sweden | SFr3,704 ($4,747) | 29 | SFr12,398 ($15,888) |
| 2026 Kings of Tallinn | €200 PL Sviten/PLO5 | Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk | Sweden | €4,550 | 130 | €20,553 |
| 2026 OlyBet Showdown Vilnius Ace Breaker | €200 PL Sviten | Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk | Sweden | €2,068 | 32 | €5,168 |
It’s an educated guess that Franke would’ve had a good time in Taipei, even if he didn’t win a tournament. In an exclusive quote with poker.pro journalist Christoffer Karlén, Franke expresses his love for the 2026 APT Taipei:
“It’s amazing here in Taipei. The event is played at two venues: Red Room, and then Taipei Arena, which is roughly a 10-minute walk away. All in all, I think they have 170 poker tables; this event is insanely big. All dealers and floor staff are very competent and so, so nice and kind. The players here really loves Mixed Games; we’re talking crazy variants. They had never played Sviten before, but they adapted swiftly and they loved it. I was told that some groups play a variant of the game in Hong Kong where they have two drawing rounds: one after the flop, and one after the turn. That’s pretty cool. The APT is amazing, everyone should go here.”
Qualify for The Festival Online
After playing poker for five days, Franke will now take a week’s well-deserved vacation, discovering the beautiful country of Taiwan. When he’s back in business, it won’t be too long until his next live poker event – this time as the organizer. The 2026 Festival Weekend Vilnius will be played May 28-31 at Olympic Casino Lithuania. It’s a four-day bonanza that offers all the best things of The Festival, but in a more compressed format. The schedule features two Main Event: the €555 NLH Main Event which is played as a PKO, and the €350 T.O.R.S.E.S. Mixed Games Main Event.
Then, June 9-15, it’ll be time for the 2026 Festival Rozvadov. Kings Resort Rozvadov is one legendary live poker venue, and Franke and his crew is ready to put on a big show.
Everyone intrigued in participating in a The Festival event – and, perhaps, enjoy a 0% beverage with Franke himself – would be very wise checking out the online qualifiers and satellites for the various The Festival events. Lord knows Franke has done a sublime job together with his partners, setting up a ton of lucrative qualifiers on different poker networks.
Let’s start with WPT Global, which has quite the unique The Festival promotion. Every Monday, players can compete in the $55 Direct Qualifiers and battle it out for €1,600 packages for The Festival. $0,55 Satellites and $5,5 Feeders are available, so all contestants can make their way to the $55 Direct Qualifiers for an even cheaper buck. Every Direct Qualifier has two packages guaranteed, but here comes the special twist: if you win a package on WPT Global and then use it for the 2026 Festival Rozvadov and win the €555 Main Event, WPT Global will give you an additional $100,000, on top of what you’ll earn for winning the tournament itself. The value of this campaign is, to say the least, off the charts. That being said, if you win a package on WPT Global, you don’t have to use it for the Rozvadov stop: you can also use it for the 2026 Festival Weekend Tallinn, which will be played July 1-5 at Olympic Park Casino, Tallinn, Estonia. With the $100,000 added in mind, though, it would make sense to use the package for a Rozvadov adventure.
Download the WPT Global poker client here.
On the iPoker network, players can compete for both packages, but also €555 Main Event tickets, for either a regular The Festival event or a The Festival Weekend. Qualifiers are running daily on different iPoker operators; it’s a real smorgasbord, and the best thing for all players to do is check out the breakdown of qualifiers on The Festival’s website.
Download the Redstar poker client here.
Download the Champion Poker client here.
Download the Betsson poker client here.
Qualifiers are running on even more sites, such as OlyBet, which operates in the GGPoker network. Again, pay The Festival’s webpage a visit and browse the qualifiers page; find what qualifiers/satellites that suits you best.
Few players are putting in as much work for the players as Franke. It’s the way he does it that is so darn impressive; there are only 24 hours a day, yet, he manages to create sublime live poker events and set up tons of qualifiers, while he also keep on winning prestigious live poker titles himself. The upcoming Festival events are destined to be slam-dunks, all of them, and, perhaps, Franke will keep on winning. It’s only a matter of time before he buys himself a bigger trophy cabinet.
