Since its founding in 2021, The Festival has made a name for itself as one of the most diverse live poker festivals. The founder, Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk, is a big Mixed Games advocate, and one must admit that he’s been successful in organizing The Festival, as it embodies his own spirit and lets his love for the Mixed Games shine through.

The upcoming 2026 Festival Weekend Tallinn will be no exception. On the contrary, this might be the one Festival event that has the most unique mix of games on the schedule ever. It’s going to be a thrilling five days in the Estonian capital; the beginning of July in Tallinn should be a dream for poker enthusiasts from all over the world. This follows the successful The Festival Weekend Vilnius a month ago, where Lithuania’s Gerardas Lukšėnas shipped the €555 NLH Main Event Progressive Knockout for €7,905 plus bounties.

The poker.pro team, in collaboration with OlyBet and The Festival Series, will provide daily recaps at poker.pro and OlyBetEvents.com.

Sviten Bonanza, Mystery Main Event, and More

It’s an educated guess that Franke and his team have barely been able to catch their breath after the recently concluded 2026 Festival Rozvadov. Played at King’s Resort June 9-15, it was seven days filled with unparalleled poker action, and it all wrapped up in stellar style with Romania’s Paul Craciunas claiming the €550 Main Event title.

Tallinn will be the next stop for the series, and to say that this one sounds exciting would be an understatement. The 2026 Festival Weekend Tallinn will be held July 1-5 at Olympic Park Casino & Hilton Tallinn Park Hotel. This poker.pro journalist often tends to use the word “Smorgasbord” when describing the schedules of the various Festival events. Perhaps that word works better this time than ever before. Not only does the schedule include 21 unique events (which in itself is impressive to compact into five days), but there are also several unique games which you won’t find at your average festival.

Before getting into the Mixed Games portion of it, though, let’s break down the €555 Main Event. €300 will go into the traditional prize pool, while €200 will go into the Mystery Bounty prize pool. There are three starting-day flights for players to choose from, and they’re all playing down to 12,5% of the field (those who make Day 2 will be in the money). That’s also when the mystery phase kicks in; there’ll be top dollar to play for. It’s a three-day tournament, and a winner will be crowned on July 5, the final day of the festival.

 With the Main Event “out of the way,” let’s move over to some Mixed Games. The whole festival will kick off on July 1 with the €350 Sviten, which is one of Franke’s favorite games (the whole team at poker.pro is also a big fan of this Five-card Draw/PLO Frankenstein of a game). That won’t be the only opportunity for all Sviten enthusiasts to enjoy their favorite game during the five-day festival, though; the €150 Sviten 49 will be played on July 4. In this variant of the game, half of the pot goes to the hand that gets the closest to 49 when adding all the hole cards together, not the best five-card draw hand. Ordinary Sviten Special will also feature in the €350 Dealer’s Choice, the €555 Mixed Games Main Event T.O.R.S.E.S., and the €200 Baby T.O.R.S.E.S. supreme. It’s been said before, and it’s worth saying again: Franke is a big advocate for Sviten, and the founder of the game, Anders “Bengan” Bengtsson, even gave Franke credit for being the main reason that the game has been able to spread from the clubs in Stockholm to the global stage.

One could argue that the biggest exclamation point of the 2026 Festival Weekend Tallinn will be the €200 NLH 7-2 Estonia Special (Including INES Rule) tournament. The core of this event is a traditional Texas NLH tournament, but some twists have been added to make the game more exciting. First and foremost, there will be some incitement to playing the worst standing hand in poker, i.e., the legendary seven-duce. If a player wins a main pot holding seven-deuce off-suit, every remaining player in the tournament (not just only at that specific table) will have to pay one Big Blind to the one who played the rags. This sounds right up Franke’s alley; there’s really no big surprise that he decided to include this tournament on the schedule.

The aforementioned tournament is also played with the INES Rule (named after the Estonian artist INES and her song “Once in a Lifetime.) While players will have the opportunity to do unlimited re-entries until late registration closes, the INES Rule (or the Once in a Lifetime Rule, as it also has been called) will give players one more chance to claim redemption. After late registration closes, all players will be given a special chip. If the player busts before the bubble, he/she can declare “INES.” By doing this, the player can pay twice the buy-in for a 40,000 starting stack, even though late registration officially has closed. The chip will be returned to the floor, and the player will have utilized his/hers one and only INES chance. Quite a unique concept, and all things considered, this tournament should yield some excitement.

All in all, the 2026 Festival Weekend Tallinn schedule includes a number of fun games that have become synonymous with Franke and his events. Check out the full schedule below.

The 2026 Festival Weekend Tallinn Schedule

Anyone who has ever attended a Festival event can vouch that they never disappoint. The Olympic Park Casino & Hilton Tallinn Park Hotel will be buzzing with action during the first five days of July; the sunny city center of Tallinn won’t be the only place running hot. All poker enthusiasts are destined to have a good time during the 2026 Festival Weekend Tallinn, and the poker.pro editorial office is beyond excited to follow the action from a distance.

• Article originally produced at poker.pro.