Mauri Dorbek Leads After Day 1 of the 888Live Tallinn $30,000 Guaranteed Main Event
A total of 80 players ponied up the €400 buy-in or won a satellite tournament to enter the 888Live Tallinn $30,000 Guaranteed Main Event. Action kicked off a little after 4:00 p.m. with players starting off with 25,000 chips and blinds increasing every 30 minutes.
After 14 levels of play, just 33 players, or less than one-half of the starting field, advanced to Day 2 taking place tomorrow, August 27 at 12:00 p.m.
Estonian poker pro Mauri Dorbak ended the day in the chip lead with 157,900. Cash Game Festival co-founder Enri Orav wasn't too far behind him with 150,700. Also still in contention is his fellow co-founder Martin "Franke" von Zweigbergk, although with the shortest remaining stack of 17,000.
Also ending the day on a good note was Denmark's Jens Riis, who is celebrating his birthday in a big way by entering tomorrow's action in fifth place with 90,200.
Among those eliminated in today's action were 888poker Ambassador Kara Scott, Estonia's Maret Komarova, and PokerNews qualifier Cristian Placinta. The other PokerNews qualifier, Kasso Laasik faired a bit better today, as he is heading into tomorrow's action in eighth place with 82,500 chips.
For Scott the day was especially short after she flopped top-pair holding 
on a 
board. Local Estonian player Aleksandr Suvorovski, holding 
, was all-in with Scott after the 
completed his straight. Scott was drawing dead, but will be back tomorrow for the $5,000 Bounty Freeroll taking place at 1:00 p.m.
The 33 remaining players will head back into action at 12:00 p.m. tomorrow with blinds at 1,000/2,000 with a 300 ante. The average stack is 29 big blinds to start the action. Everyone on the nine-player final table will walk away with the at least the minimum cash of €1,000 with the winner guaranteed to take home €9,000.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for continued live coverage.