Lasse Laukkarinen Leads After Day 1b of The Festival in Tallinn
Day 1b of The Festival in Tallinn at Olympic Park Casino and the adjoining Hilton Tallinn Park attracted 123 players to bring the total number of entries up to 181 with two flights to go.
After 10 levels of play 48 players bagged chips with a Finnish chip leader. Lasse Laukkarinen bagged almost 200k chips and is the overall chip leader after the first two of four starting flights. He told us after the day that he felt confident playing The Festival and was happy with the level of his play during the day.
He will return on Friday with the rest of the field to play Day 2. We’re still very far away from the money ranks however as even on Day 2 the main event allows two full 45-minute levels of late registration.
Alongside Laukkarinen multiple Scandinavian and Baltic poker players bagged plenty of chips – among them the most recent Coolbet Open winner Kaido Mikk, Coolbet player Heidi Bekker and Sarunas Abdrachmanovas from Lithuania.
Those are the top 10 chip counts after Day 1b:
| Name | Chips | Big Blinds |
| Lasse Laukkarinen | 196,200 | 123 |
| Tapio Aaltonen | 187,100 | 117 |
| Lars Viggander | 150,000 | 94 |
| Mats Palokangas | 144,800 | 91 |
| Kaido Mikk | 129,600 | 81 |
| Aleksi Naski | 125,300 | 78 |
| Heidi Bekker | 124,400 | 78 |
| Ronny Albrigtsen | 123,200 | 77 |
| Sarunas Abdrachmanovas | 120,800 | 76 |
| Aleksiy Baranovskiy | 117,900 | 74 |
Charity Tournament and PLO High Roller
The top side events of the day were the €1,050 PLO High Roller which drew 36 entries playing for over €35,000 and the Acroud Charity Event. With €8,000 in the prize pool, the winner of the Acroud Charity Invitational would get to pick which charity receives €4,800, while the runner-up would get to decide the charitable fate of the remaining €3,200.
Those were the players in the Event:
- Karev Tralla
- Svein Olav
- Frode Fagerli
- Mauritz Altikardes
- Franke von Zweigbergk
- Ylva Thorsrud
- Ruben Grave
- Simon Brannstrum
After a long battle Casino Friday’s Frode Fagerli won the heads-up against our and Acroud’s Mauritz Altikardes.
Moving Forward
Tomorrow will see Day 1c and Day 1b of the Main Event alongside the €250 H.O.R.S.E. Side Event and the Day 2s of the Roulette and Blackjack Events which each attracted more than a dozen runners on Day 1b today.
The Main Event Day 1c will start at noon while Day 1d will start at 8 pm in the evening. Day 1d is a turbo flight with only 20-minute long levels, giving players a last-minute chance to build a stack for Day 2 of the Main Event which will be played on Friday.
You can follow all the action over at TheFestival.com and read up on our daily recaps here.
