Learn About the Coolbet Open in Tallinn on May 2-6

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Apr 18, 2018 5 min read Last updated May 02, 2018

The first-ever Coolbet Open is just around the corner, hosted by the Olympic Park Casino at the neighboring Hilton Tallinn Park in the Estonian capital of Tallinn on May 2-6.

The festival features 27 action-packed tournaments highlighted by the €550 Coolbet Main Event. The Main Event is a deep-stacked affair with players starting off with 30,000 in chips on each of the two opening flights on May 2-3 and blind levels starting at 45 minutes before going up to 60 minutes in length.

Players can re-enter an unlimited number of times before the start of Day 2 on May 4. Players surviving this day will compete for one more day on May 5 until the first Coolbet Open Main Event winner is crowned.

PokerNews will be on hand to cover the first Coolbet Main Event from start to finish with coverage consisting of the biggest hands and interviews with the players both in our blog and in live video on the PokerNews Facebook page.

Learn About Coolbet

Coolbet is a relatively new site operating on the Microgaming Poker Network available for Scandanavian poker markets and Estonia. It was founded about almost two years ago by NordicBet founder Jan Svendsen and offers a full suite of games with online poker launching two months ago.

We sat down with the Poker Manager of Coolbet Thomas Pasgaard Hviid to learn more about the site. Hviid has been involved in the poker community previously working for PokerListings and got some inspiration for the first Coolbet Open from the Battle of Malta.

Hviid expands on the origins of Coolbet in an exclusive interview with PokerNews along with its vast experience.

"Coolbet was founded by Jan Svendsen who was also the founder of NordicBet," Hviid said. "We launched mid-May 2016 after 14 months development of our platform and Sports software with the newest technologies available and a user interface we are proud of. Our Head office and gaming license is in Tallinn, Estonia where we have over 100 employees already, most of them with long experience in the business. Poker was launched on Feb. 1, 2018, on MPN and currently, we are offering our products (poker, sports, casino, virtual sports) to players from Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Estonia."

"We expect to invest €300,000 in the Coolbet Open this year."

The trend in the gaming industry outside some outliers is for operators to focus on other verticals. It is refreshing that Coolbet is taking its poker product seriously.

"We understand that online poker is not as popular as it was 10-12 years ago, but we still think that there is a gap in the market for us to differentiate and to widen our product portfolio," Hviid explained. "By focusing more on live tournaments, transparency, easy and fun campaigns. Many of our employees have been around since the start of online poker and have a large contact network which makes it easier to spread the word."

Launching online poker and deciding to host a live poker festival are two very different beasts. However, there are some connections and Coolbet felt it was important to give its players an experience they want.

"Our players have been craving for us to launch a poker festival and we believe it's important to show our players who are behind the company and we couldn't find a better forum than getting them over to Tallinn and giving them the best experience possible in our hometown!" said Hviid. "We also have experience from running live events earlier, which we believe is important when investing so much as we do. We expect to invest €300,000 in the Coolbet Open this year."

High Expectations

Expectations for the festival are big with huge prize pools and €30,000 in added prizes. Players are expected not only to come from its core markets but from around the world.

"We have big expectations and estimating at least 300 unique players and including re-entries the prize pool is expected to be around €200,000!" shared Hviid. "We are also adding €30,000 in various prizes during Coolbet Open! Most of the players are coming from Norway then an even split with players from Sweden, Finland, Estonia and then a few from Latvia and the United States!"

When deciding on a venue, Olympic Park Casino was an easy choice for Coolbet due to its location and reputation for delivering the best poker tournaments in the Baltic and Scandinavian regions. In addition, it was easy for Coolbet to determine who would be their tournament director with Teresa Nousianinen known to bring quality to the events she runs.

"We have big expectations and estimating at least 300 unique players and including re-entries the prize pool is expected to be around €200,000!"

"Olympic Park Casino has the experience to handle big tournament and Tallinn has good travel connections from Scandinavia and just a two-hour boat ride from Finnish capital of Helsinki and a four-hour car ride from Latvian capital of Riga! It is important for us to focus on quality and hence we have brought in Teresa Nousiainen to be the tournament director."

While many of the players attending the festival will be directly buying into the Main Event, Hviid shared that approximately 60 more qualified via online satellites. In addition, 20-30 more players qualified online to side events. The casino is also hosting many live satellites ahead of the event with around 50 additional seats expected to be awarded.

Hviid believes that this festival will be the first of many Coolbet Opens. Another festival is already planned for Oct. 17-21 at the same venue. Online satellites at Coolbet will launch over the summer and Hviid expects the Autumn festival will attract even more players.

Coolbet Open Schedule

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