Finland’s Jarmo Salonen bagged the Day 1a chip lead after eight blind levels of one hour each in the Kings of Tallinn €1,100 Main Event at Olympic Park Casino and the Hilton Tallinn Park.
Salonen managed to parlay his stack of 30,000 chips nearly seven-fold into 208,000 in chips. Meanwhile, Estonian regular Igor Pihela Jr., who recently notched his biggest result with a runner-up performance in the Tallinn Summer Showdown Main Event for €42,300 is off to a hot start as well and bagged the second biggest stack of 201,100.
Bartosz Mielczarek (156,900), Julian Herold (147,000), and Jari Mähönen (144,400) also bagged top five stacks on Day 1a.
Day 1a attracted a banner field of 249 entrants already getting into the action with 121 players bagging stacks into tomorrow’s Day 2 kicking off at noon.
| Place | Player | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jarmo Salonen | 208,000 | 208 |
| 2 | Igor Pihela Sr. | 201,100 | 201 |
| 3 | Bartosz Mielczarek | 156,600 | 157 |
| 4 | Julian Herold | 147,000 | 147 |
| 5 | Jari Mähönen | 144,400 | 144 |
| 6 | Algimantas Markaitis | 130,800 | 131 |
| 7 | Michael Behnert | 129,500 | 130 |
| 8 | Algirdas Saveikis | 122,600 | 123 |
| 9 | Christian Brunborg | 116,300 | 116 |
| 10 | Justinas Smilingis | 115,300 | 115 |
The second and final opening flight kicked off as a turbo-affair at 8 p.m. with 30-minute blind levels instead of one hour. At the time of this recap, there were 42 entries with 39 players remaining. Players not only can continue to re-enter the entirety of Day 1b but also during the first blind level (Level 9) of Day 2. Shortly after the conclusion of Level 9, the total number of entrants, the prize pool, and the final payouts will be announced.
Blinds will start at 500/1,000 with a big blind ante of 1,000 to start Day 2. Stay tuned to our coverage of the Tallinn Summer Showdown Main Event at Olympic Park Casino.
*Photos courtesy of Kings of Tallinn photographer Elena Kask