Estonia's Magnus Pukk (pictured above) won a four-way all-in near the end of Day 1a to take the overall chip lead on Day 1a of the €555 Kings of Tallinn Championship.
Cyprus's Georgios Tsouloftas, who was near the top of the chip counts throughout the opening flight, wasn't too far behind with 170,100, while Estonia's Mauri Dorbek, who had the chip lead heading into the final break in the day impressively bagged 151,000.
Day 1a attracted 133 entries to add €63,480 to the prize pool. Check out all of the 57 survivors below:
| Player | Chips | Big Blinds |
| Magnus Pukk | 177,800 | 119 |
| Georgios Tsouloftas | 170,100 | 113 |
| Mauri Dorbek | 151,000 | 101 |
| Hendry Kullamäe | 145,600 | 97 |
| Morten Norland | 137,400 | 92 |
| Gundars Zelcs | 132,200 | 88 |
| Van Akram Marcus | 129,300 | 86 |
| Maikel Homin | 114,600 | 76 |
| Tanel Evert | 110,500 | 74 |
| Modestas Kryzanauskas | 108,700 | 72 |
| Kevin Didvig | 95,700 | 64 |
| Erikas Gordejevas | 94,200 | 63 |
| Jon Gurrutxaga | 93,700 | 62 |
| Per Halmrast | 88,800 | 59 |
| Jimi Koponen | 88,800 | 59 |
| Vidar Assersen | 87,400 | 58 |
| Jyrki Lampinen | 86,800 | 58 |
| Rytis Pranarauskas | 81,900 | 55 |
| Mikael Haapaniemi | 81,400 | 54 |
| Jose Larios Domene | 80,500 | 54 |
| Luca Beretta | 77,700 | 52 |
| Kriss Riekstins | 74,700 | 50 |
| Tanel Merida | 73,600 | 49 |
| Aleksandr Gamonovits | 73,000 | 49 |
| Matiss Kirsfelds | 73,000 | 49 |
| Kalle Parkkinen | 71,600 | 48 |
| Martin Kõiv | 71,400 | 48 |
| Vladislav Han | 71,000 | 47 |
| Erik Põlluveer | 66,500 | 44 |
| Juuso Kauppi | 62,300 | 42 |
| Stefan Jansson | 61,500 | 41 |
| Rain Kandla | 59,000 | 39 |
| Osku Karttunen | 49,800 | 33 |
| Mathias Christensen | 49,300 | 33 |
| Kennie Eriksson Hermansson | 49,200 | 33 |
| Mart Rinken | 49,200 | 33 |
| Eduard Kruglov-Arutiunian | 46,500 | 31 |
| Paul-Richard Argus | 45,000 | 30 |
| Sergejs Kacapovs | 43,300 | 29 |
| Ivo Rohula | 43,300 | 29 |
| Matte Karjalainen | 41,800 | 28 |
| Vadim Guk | 40,000 | 27 |
| Marko Vest | 38,000 | 25 |
| Stein Naerland | 37,700 | 25 |
| Tarmo Tammel | 37,000 | 25 |
| Mark Metsla | 35,200 | 23 |
| Eriksson Stahl | 33,600 | 22 |
| Johan Alen | 33,600 | 22 |
| Tadas Pranckevicius | 32,200 | 21 |
| Siim Suviste | 29,700 | 20 |
| Paulius Jucys | 29,400 | 20 |
| Oleh Bohdanov | 28,400 | 19 |
| Rait Kaimer | 27,100 | 18 |
| Raimo Reimann | 27,100 | 18 |
| Pasi Trollhjärta | 20,100 | 13 |
| Toomas Nurme | 19,900 | 13 |
| Martin Piik | 19,800 | 13 |
The floor announced that each table should stop the hand they are on and play five more. Surviving players will bag and tag their stacks.
Those not as fortunate can give it another go tonight with Day 1b of the €555 Championship kicking off at 7 p.m.
Stay tuned for the final chip counts of Day 1a. While we won't be directly reporting Day 1b, we will also provide the vital statistics including the number of entries and the final chip counts before the morning.
Level 9: 600/1,200 (1,200)
Entries: 71/133
Artjom Kovalevski got his last 14,400 in the middle from the big blind and was up against the under-the-gun opener Alba Gurrutxaga.
Artjom Kovalevski: 
Alba Gurrutxaga: 
Kovalevski pulled ahead on the flip after his queen found a partner on the 
flop. Neither the 
turn nor the 
river changed the outcome of the hand for Kovalevski to double his short stack through Gurrutxaga.
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jon Gurrutxaga |  |
55,000 | 25,000 |
| Artjom Kovalevski |  |
30,000 | 0 |
Level 9: 600/1,200 (1,200)
Entries: 71/133
The final blind level of Day 1a kicked off. The clock will be stopped near the end of the blind level when each table will be asked to finish their hand before playing a predetermined amount of hands before surviving players can bag their stacks into Tuesday's Day 2.
Those that missed out on the fun of bagging and tagging stacks on Day 1a, will still have three more opening flights to get the job done, including Day 1b kicking off in about an hour at 7 p.m.
Players can also enter and re-enter during the first three blind levels of Day 2 providing players plenty of opportunity to forge ahead with a deep stack.
Level 8: 500/1,000 (1,000)
Entries: 76/133
Dmitri Dudakov (pictured below) had his last 10,000 in the middle and was flipping against Martin Koiv.
Dmitri Dudakov: 
Martin Koiv: 
Dudakov was ahead on the flip after both the 
flop and the 
turn. However, the 
river double-paired the board while also counterfeiting Dudakov's pocket ducks.
Dudakov tapped the table to Koiv and then left the tournament arena after losing his stack.
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Koiv | |
60,000 | 30,000 |
| Dmitri Dudakov | |
0 | 0 |
Level 8: 500/1,000 (1,000)
Entries: 86/133
Eetu Porkka jammed for about 34,000 into a pot of around double that with the 
on the board after the river.
Georgios Tsouloftas went into the tank for more than a minute before he called.
Neither player had Broadway with a 
but both Tsouloftas found the correct call. Porkka tabled the 
for the top pair and tapped the table after Tsouloftas turned over the 
for two pair to win the hand.
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgios Tsouloftas |  |
170,000 | 70,000 |
| Eetu Porkka |  |
0 | 0 |
Level 8: 500/1,000 (1,000)
Entries: 86/133
It hasn't been a start to brag about for Lithuania's Kestutis Jungevicius as he has a sub-starting stack on his third bullet of Day 1a. This hand didn't help his situation.
We caught up to the action after Jungevicius checked with the 
on the board on the turn. Jusso Kauppi fired out a 10,000 bet into a pot of around 30,000 and Jungevicius called.
Both players checked the 
river. Kauppi turned over the and apparently, this was good enough despite bricking the board as he took down the pot after Jungevicius opted to toss his hand face down into the muck.
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jusso Kauppi | |
75,000 | 45,000 |
| Kestutis Jungevicius |  |
18,000 | 12,000 |
Level 7: 400/800 (800)
Entries: 90/132
Raimo Reimann jammed for 25,400 from the small blind before Per Halmrast (pictured below) went into the tank from the big blind. Halmrast opted to eventually call and likely wishes he could have seen into the future to choose otherwise.
Raimo Reimann:
Per Halmrast: 
Reimann's big slick was more than enough on the 
board to double his stack with trips through Halmrast.
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raimo Reimann | |
55,000 | 25,000 |
| Per Halmrast |  |
12,000 | 33,000 |
Level 7: 400/800 (800)
Entries: 91/129
"It's going in," we heard Tapio Aaltonen say from a table away. "It is probably going in."
Aaltonen was true to his word as we caught up with the hand when he jammed for 2,900 from under the gun. Per Halmrast then announced he was all-in as well for about a starting stack from the button and it was a heads-up showdown after the other players folded.
"I only looked at one card and it was a king," Aaltonen admitted.
Tapio Aaltonen: 
Per Halmrast: 
Aaltonen appeared to be over the moon about actually having a live flip instead of just one over card. It didn't matter either way as he bricked the 
board.
"I won't re-enter today," shared Aaltonen. "I am going to have a look at the rest of the schedule before I decide what to play next."
Aaltonen hung around for more than a minute and shared with us while we were watching a hand play out at another table that he took more than one cooler recently.
"My neighbor accidentally spilled my beer," Aaltonen said while pointing over to Joni Salo. "He offered to buy me a drink and I am just waiting for it before I figure out what to play next."
Salo was a gentleman of his word and gladly paid for Aaltonen's drink. Shortly after, a grateful Aaltonen made his exit but this is far from the last we will hear from the popular Finnish player this week.
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per Halmrast | |
45,000 | 15,000 |
| Tapio Aaltonen | |
0 | 0 |
Mauri Dorbek held the chip lead at the break with 115,000. Cypriot Georgios Tsouloftas was not too far behind with 100,000.
Check out the biggest stacks from around the room during the final break of Day 1a of the €555 Championship.
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mauri Dorbek | |
115,000 | 85,000 |
| Georgios Tsouloftas | |
100,000 | 25,000 |
| Van Akram Marcus | |
95,000 | 65,000 |
| Tanel Evert | |
90,000 | 60,000 |
| Stefan Jansson | |
90,000 | 60,000 |
| Vladislav Han | |
90,000 | 25,000 |
| Jyrki Lampinen | |
85,000 | 55,000 |
| Feras Abid | |
85,000 | 15,000 |
| Aleksandr Gamonovits | |
80,000 | 50,000 |
| Mikael Homin | |
80,000 | 50,000 |
| Modestas Kryzanauskas | |
70,000 | 40,000 |
Players are on their final break of Day 1a. We will update the bigger stacks from around the room around when the action resumes.
Players will play three more blind levels as follows before bagging stacks for the day:
Meanwhile, Day 1b, which boasts the same deep structure as Day 1a will provide more players a chance at advancing with the action kicking off at 7 p.m. In addition, there will be two more opening flights on Monday with players still permitted to enter and re-enter during the first three blind levels of Tuesday's Day 2.
Level 6: 300/600 (600)
Entries: 94/124
Norway's Vidar Assersen (pictured below) already amassed a decent stack and just added the chips from the stack of Estonia's Marko Vist from the following hand.
Assersen opened from early position to 1,300. Sergejs Kacapovs called from one seat over before Veikka Keto-Tokoi three-bet to 4,000 from the cutoff. Marko Vist five-bet shoved for 12,300 from the blinds before Assersen six-bet shoved for around double a starting stack. Both Kacapovs and Keto-Tokoi found folds and Vist got up from the table when he saw he was dominated.
Marko Vist: 
Vidar Assersen: 
Vist got no love on the 
board and was on the rail while Assersen was among the early chip leaders on Day 1a.
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vidar Assersen | |
80,000 | 50,000 |
| Marko Vist | |
0 | 0 |
Level 6: 300/600 (600)
Entries: 100/124
Norway's Sven Omland was the biggest winner thus far at the 2024 Kings of Tallinn after shipping the two-day €350 Kings of Tallinn Cup for €19,200. He will need to re-enter if he wants a chance at winning an even bigger event in the €555 Kings of Tallinn Championship after losing his stack in the following hand.
Georgios Tsouloftas and Tadas Pranckevicius both checked the 
flop before Omland bet 2,500 into a pot of around 6,000. Both Tsouloftas and Pranckevicius called before both checking the 
turn.
Omland bet 8,000. Tsouloftas quickly called, while Pranckevicius opted to get out of the way. Tsouloftas checked one last time after the river paired the board. Omland jammed for about 11,000 and Tsouloftas snap-called.
It was a bit of a cooler for Omland as he had a strong hand with trip aces after tabling the . Tousloftas turned a set before further improving to a full house and eliminated Omland after turning over the 
.
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgios Tsouloftas | |
75,000 | 45,000 |
| Tadas Pranckevicius | |
35,000 | 5,000 |
| Sven Omland | |
0 | 0 |
The heads-up battle didn't last long between Janne Nevalainen and Paul Koppe.
Nevalainen had his stack committed postflop with the eventually running out on the board. Nevalainen had a strong hand with a full house with 
but it was Koppe winning the tournament in style after showing the 
for a royal flush! This will surely be sure a hand that will be talked about throughout the day as it isn't often a player gets a royal flush in any form of poker, let alone win a trophy.
Meanwhile, shortly after, the duo discussed how they wanted to approach selecting the six mystery bounty envelopes with Nevalainen holding one bounty token and Koppe, who already won €3,000 in bounties, in possession of five tokens.
Nevalainen asked for Koppe to select first. Koppe collected the big €5,000 bounty on his third pull and snagged up €10,500 of the total €11,000 in bounties to bring his total up to €13,500 on top of the €6,020 winner's prize for a €19,520 prize for the biggest thus far at the 2024 Kings of Tallinn.
Meanwhile, Nevalainen was left to collect the remaining €500 bounty prize to bring his total bounties up to €2,000. Although it was a bit of a cooler to get the lower bounty prizes with three bounties, he did go home with a handsome total prize of €6,330 when taking into account the €4,330 runner-up prize from the prize pool.
Right after we posted an update on the side events, the action went heads-up in the €555 PLO Mystery Bounty with Tomas Berzinskas hitting the rail.
Berzinskas immediately headed to the tombola to collect his envelope for an elimination earlier in the day. He picked the second-highest envelope in a €3,000 bounty to add to his €2,970 third place prize for a €5,970 payout.
Meanwhile, either Janne Nevalainen or Paul Koppe will be crowned the champ and also one of these players will also collect the top €5,000 mystery bounty prize. We will update who won this event soon after the final hand was dealt.
There are currently three other events outside of the €555 and one satellite running in the tournament arena. One is about to award a winner!
The €555 Pot-Limit Omaha 4 & 5 Card Mystery Bounty is down to just three hopefuls for the title with Estonia's Paul Koppe, Finland's Janne Nevalainen, and Lithuania's Tomas Berzinskas all still in the mix for the trophy.
The €350 8-Game kicked off at 1 p.m. with Bulgaria's Stanislav Parkhomenko the only player to hit the rail thus far among the 41 entries.
Some of the usual mixed-game players are in the mix including Scott "PokerBrahs" Kenyon, Allan Arjut, Juhana Konttinen, Kairit Leibold (pictured below), and Tarjei Forus in the mix.
Meanwhile, the €150 NLH Bounty already had 58 players in their seats in the opening moments with the action kicking off in that event at 3 p.m. Jorg Bru, Lucas Cravero, Jimmy Dewerdt, Sami Korpela, Jari Pekka Rattya, and Maili Tannbaum were among the faces noticed in the field.
Best of luck to all players on Sunday in both the €555 Championship and the other events as well. We will provide a daily recap in the late morning of all the action of the day at OlyBet.tv as we have had thus far this festival.
Level 4: 200/400 (400)
Entries: 96/107
Laur Sibold opened for 1,100 from the button before Artjom Kovalevski jacked it up to 2,500 from the small blind. Elias Vaaraniemi four-bet to 7,600. Sibold snap-folded before Kovalevski opted to call to see the flop.
Kovalevski checked before he called a small bet of 3,000 by Vaaraniemi. Both players checked the turn before Kovalevski led out for 5,000 on the 
river. Vaaraniemi quickly called and won the pot when his 
won a flip against Kovalevski's .
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elias Vaaraniemi | |
60,000 | 30,000 |
| Laur Sibold | |
42,000 | 12,000 |
| Artjom Kovalevski | |
30,000 | 0 |
Level 4: 200/400 (400)
Entries: 96/107
Oleksii Lubnin opened the button before he three-bet jammed for around 30 big blinds from the button. Andrei Antonenko called from the small blind and Lubnin needed help after the cards were turned over.
Oleksii Lubnin:
Andrei Antonenko:
No save came for Lubnin on the board and the Ukrainian will need to re-enter if he continues to wish to play.
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andrei Antonenko | |
35,000 | 5,000 |
| Oleksii Lubnin |  |
0 | 0 |
Level 4: 200/400 (400)
Entries: 94/104
The action resumed with a few new players getting into the mix including popular Finnish player Anne Bezdek.
Bezdek joined OlyBet Poker Podcast host Jason Glatzer alongside Kings of Tallinn tournament director Teresa Nousiainen for the first episode with special guests in the first ladies event winner and 2023 Queens of Tallinn Mystery Bounty champ Kelly Limonova and Bezdek to chat about the Kings of Tallinn. Check out the podcast below:
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anne Bezdek | |
30,000 | 0 |
Players are on their first 15-minute break. Blinds will increase to 200/400 with a 400 big blind ante when the action resumes.
The Day 1a field reached 100 entries just before the first break of Day 1a with 98 entries. A total of 90 players remain with Jarmo Salonen, Per Halmrast, and Andrius Mazeika all hitting the rail during Level 3.
Level 3: 100/300 (300)
Entries: 83/86
Vadim Guk checked the 
board after the turn before Rytis Pranarauskas fired out for 2,600 into a pot north of 4,000. Guk tanked for close to a minute before he called.
Guk checked again after the 
river. Pranarauskas bet 7,000. Guk paused for close to two minutes before he called. Pranarauskas immediately turned over the nuts with after his opponent's call. Guk had nothing that could possibly beat his opponent's ace-high flush and opted to muck his hand before the dealer awarded Pranarauskas the pot.
Meanwhile, Virgo Laansoo (pictured below) hit the rail around the same time for the third casualty of Day 1a.
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rytis Pranarauskas | |
50,000 | 20,000 |
| Vadim Guk | |
35,000 | 5,000 |
| Virgo Laansoo | |
0 | 0 |
Level 2: 100/200 (200)
Entries: 70/72
A duo of local players tangled up in a pot on Table 3. Karl Valk bet 6,000 into a pot of slightly more with the on the board. Kaido Koorits (pictured below) paused for a short time before he raised to 15,000.
Valk tanked for around two minutes and seemed less than pleased with the outcome after he called. Koorits turned over the for a full house. This did the job to win the hand and decimate Valk's stack with his opponent shaking his head while tossing his hand into the muck.
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kaido Koorits | |
55,000 | 25,000 |
| Karl Valk | |
5,000 | 25,000 |
Level 2: 100/200 (200)
Entries: 66/68
Tapio Aaltonen opened before firing out a four-bet to 4,200 from early position. Oleksandr Taran four-bet shoved. Aaltonen tanked for close to a minute.
He eventually flashed the before he folded his hand.
You might be thinking the standard questions about whether you should ever fold hands like kings. In this case, Aaltonen won't be up all night wondering if he made the right decision as Taran turned over the as the dealer began to push the pot his way.
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oleksandr Taran | |
45,000 | 15,000 |
| Tapio Aaltonen | |
25,000 | 5,000 |
Level 1: 100/100 (100)
Entries: 63/65
Hanno Liiva checked the river with the 
already on the board before Feras Abid (pictured below from the 2023 Olybet Kings of Tallinn Summer Showdown) opted to jam for more than the approximately 25,000 Liiva had in his stack into a pot of a bit less.
Liiva tanked for more than a minute before he called. Abid turned over the for a rivered wheel. Liiva was ahead until Abid completely his gutshot and hit the rail on a cooler after turning over the for a set of cowboys.
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feras Abid | |
70,000 | 40,000 |
| Hanno Liiva | |
0 | 0 |
Level 1: 100/100 (100)
Entries: 53/54
The €555 Championship is already one player down after Kestutis Jungevicius (pictured below recently playing in the Vilnius Ace Breaker) hit the rail in the opening moments of Day 1a.
Kestutis Jungevicius opened for 400 from early position before Vladislav Han three-bet to 2,100 from the small blind Feras Abid cold-called from the button before Jungevicius jacked it up to 6,400.
Han tanked for about 30 seconds before he jammed. Abid quickly folded. Jungevicius paused for about 20 seconds before he called off his stack of 29,400.
Kestutis Jungevicius:
Vladislav Han:
Han's cowboys held strong after Jungevicius bricked the 
board. Jungevicius stuck around for a short while after the hand to confirm he was covered before heading to the cashier to re-enter.
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vladislav Han | |
65,000 | 35,000 |
| Kestutis Jungevicius | |
30,000 | 0 |
Tapio Aaltonen, Kevin Didvig, Hanna Heinlo, Vygerdas Jonikas, Jarmo Salonen, and Lithuanian poker couple Viktorija Ignataviciene and Rimantas Ignatavicius are among the early players in the field.
| Player | Chips | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rimantas Ignatavicius | |
30,000 | 0 |
| Viktorija Ignataviciene | |
30,000 | 0 |
| Jarmo Salonen | |
30,000 | 0 |
| Vygerdas Jonikas | |
30,000 | 0 |
| Hanna Heinlo | |
30,000 | 0 |
| Kevin Didvig | |
30,000 | 0 |
| Tapio Aaltonen | |
30,000 | 0 |
Level 1: 100/100 (100)
Entries: 36/36
Cards are in the air for Day 1a of the €555 Championship after preliminary announcements by Kings of Tallinn Tournament Director Teresa Nousiainen (pictured below).
The field boasted 36 players in their seats from the start and will grow significantly throughout the day.
Welcome to the 2024 Kings of Tallinn at Olympic Park Casino from Feb. 23 to March 3. The first two days of the festival have proven that attendance records this festival will be smashed with a large vibrant crowd already in Tallinn during the first weekend of the 10-day festival.
Our live reporting coverage will be brought to you by Jason Glatzer in English while we will also be hosting local coverage in both Estonian and Finnish.
The coverage begins with the €555 Championship Event on Feb. 25-28 before continuing to the €1,100 Main Event (Feb. 28 to March 3), the €5,000 High Roller (final day coverage on March 2), and the €3,000 NLH (final day coverage on March 3).
The €555 Championship boasts four opening flights. Most of the tournament boasts 40-minute blind levels outside of tomorrow evening's Day 1d which features a faster structure with 25-minute levels. Each opening flight boasts nine blind levels with re-entries and late registrations allowed for the first three blind levels on Tuesday's Day 2 before closing at the start of Level 13.
Players start with 30,000 in chips with Sunday featuring two opening flights with Day 1a at 12 p.m. and Day 1b at 7 p.m. Our coverage will focus on Day 1a, however, we will be sure to provide the vital statistics along with who advanced to Day 2 on Day 1b.
Last year, France's Benjamin Gros dazzled the crowd at the 2023 Kings of Tallinn €555 Championship after defeating a banner crowd of 559 entries to win the €55,500 top prize.
Our coverage will begin when cards are in the air for Day 1a at noon. Stay tuned to follow along the action until a winner is crowned.
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