Play is about to begin with OlyBet Kings of Tallinn Tournament Director and Co-Founder Teresa Nousiainen introducing the players.
2018 OlyBet Kings of Tallinn
€1,100 Main Event
Day: 5
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2018 OlyBet Kings of Tallinn
Buy-in
€1,100
Prize Pool
€254,600
Entries
268
Level
28
Blinds
40,000 / 80,000
Ante
10,000
The biggest poker name in the Main Event was Juha Helppi and the Finn did not disappoint by entering the final table in Seat 9 with a second-place stack of 1,400,000.
Helppi will add to his $7.1 million in lifetime tournament cashes which is second only to the $7.3 million amassed Patrick Antonious for the most from Finnish players.
PokerNews interviewed Helppi during the Main Event and he shared one thing that he still will try hard to achieve is a WSOP bracelet after a handful of amazing runs to only fall short of the title. He takes every poker tournament as seriously as the next despite the buy-in and the prizes involved.
A couple of nights during the festival, Helppi was busy playing €50/€100 pot-limit Omaha with €200 and €400 straddles with Antonius and others. Hundreds of thousands of Euros were won and lost by players at the table which was easily the biggest ever hosted at Olympic Park Casino.
Silver Nommik is the sole Estonian on the final table and enters play with the shortest stack of 278,000 or 11 big blinds.
Despite the Estonian only having a handful of cashes he has made a deep run in events in the past, most notably a third place finish in the Nordicbet Superweekend €550 Main Event in 2013 for €13,000.
Nommik also shared with PokerNews that he plays a bit online and has managed five-digit scores in the past. He also explained he won $20,000 in December in Spin & Go's alone.
The Estonian shared his biggest poker moment during the tournament was simply "making it to the final table."
He also shared he will play this like any other tournament he is short-stacked in and not intimidating about the table being streamed.
"I am not really nervous at all," shared Nommik. "I know how to play and only have a little more than 10 big blinds."
Totti Matias Arosuo, or Matias to his friends, is in Seat 7 and starts off the action with a sizeable chip lead with 1,959,000 in chips. This represents a huge one-quarter of the total chips in play.
During the last couple of blind levels yesterday, Arosuo was taking charge and scooping pot after pot.
Nothing is guaranteed in poker, but it is likely this will be Arosuo's biggest live tournament cash as all he needs is a seventh-place finish or better for it to be a new high point. A win will take his almost $40,000 in career earnings over the six-figure mark.
Arosuo has made several final tables, however, has never been able to hoist a trophy. He has a pair of runner-up finishes including in a side-event in last year's OlyBet Kings of Tallinn.
Finland's Quang Thanh Doan is one of the most experienced players at the final table with nearly $500,000 in live cashes. He enters the day with a sixth-place stack of 643,000.
He had a big smile on his face this morning and shared he wasn't nervous and was going to just play his best game.
Doan's claim to fame goes back almost a decade when he won The Grosvenor Victoria London Poker Championships & Unibet Open £2,750 Main Event for a huge haul of £187,000. Since then he has consistently piled on the cashes and a win today would be his second biggest in his poker career.
Arto Ilmari Loikkanen is one of five Finnish players, one of two players named Arto and one of the three players to enter the final table with a seven-figure stack with 1,137,000 in chips.
If he finishes in seventh-place or better, he will surpass $100,000 in career live tournament cashes.
The Finn is just coming fresh off a win taking down the 2018 Helsinki Freezeout €550 H.O.R.S.E. event for €15,739.
Loikkanen has been consistently been near the top of the pack throughout most of the tournament and looks to nail his biggest win of his poker career.
Arto Antero Lehtonen in Seat 4 is one of five Finns at the final table and kicks off play with a seventh-place stack of 626,000.
He shared with PokerNews that he is excited and "hoping for a good run."
Lehtonen has already secured his largest live tournament cash to date and explained he has very happy with his performance especially after last year busting on Day 1.
Despite Lehtonen entering in seventh place, he does start the action in the middle of the pack. He has visibly been enjoying himself all tournament and that will likely continue throughout the final table.
"I am having a fun time and enjoy myself," shared Lehtonen. "I have nothing to lose as this is my biggest cash ever anyway and I hope to climb up as high as I can."
[Removed:174] is the other Lithuanian represented on the final table. He finds himself in a familiar spot as last year he finished seventh on the final table of the 2017 Kings of Tallinn Main Event.
This year he comes in with a healthy fifth-place stack and has higher expectations.
"Any place but first will be a fiasco," shared Tamasauskas. "I need revenge from last year. I learned a lot and am hungry."
He has been thinking about a chip-leader pot when he was all-in with pocket fives and lost against pocket kings and shared he wouldn't make the same mistake if put into a similar spot.
Tamasauskas is also no stranger to winning big money as part of his over $100,000 in tournament cashes is a win in 2012 in a €1,000 EPT side event for €48,000.
Arunas Garunkstis is one of two Lithuanians represented at the final table. He is known in his country as a true force on the cash game tables and has proven his ring game prowess in several other countries as well including during the Kings of Tallinn on some of the nights during the Main Event and at the Cash Game Festival in London.
Garunkstis also has managed several live tournament cashes for a total of almost $40,000. He enters the final table with a fourth-place stack of 989,000 and regardless of how he finishes the tournament today, this will be his highest tournament cash.
Shahin Shirazi Nejad is Sweden's lone representative on the final table in Seat 1. While he plays tons of live poker back in his home country, this is only his second trip outside of Sweden to play poker. The other was also in Tallinn when he ran deep in the Swedish Poker Championships.
Although Nejad enters the final table with the second shortest stack with 14 big blinds with 347,000 in chips, he shared with PokerNews that playing without a lot of chips is one of his strengths and is confident he will make the right moves.
He is excited about the prospects of making a deep run and shared he would have fun no matter how deep he finishes in the Main Event.
The Kings of Tallinn also helped him get the bug to travel more for poker. He shared the experience allows him to meet new people and discover new places.