Akseli Paalanen and Ilari Sahamies on Top of the Leaderboard on Day 2 of the Kings of Tallinn Main Event
Finland's Akseli Paalanen heads into Day 3 of the 2020 Kings of Tallinn €1,100 Main Event at Olympic Park Casino and Hilton Tallinn Park leading the pack of 82 players with a stack of 877,000.
The tournament has been a massive success attracting 591 entrants during the two opening flights along with another 83 entrants during the first blind level of Day 2 to bring the field up to 674 entrants.
The prize pool absolutely smashed the €500,000 guarantee with €640,300 being paid out to those that cash and the winner going home with a huge six-figure haul of €141,400. This makes it the largest single tournament held at this venue and the third-largest ever held in Estonia, just behind the two EPTs that took place in the Estonian capital a decade ago.
Paalanen wasn't the only player to bag a big stack on Day 2. Just behind him were Sweden's Dennis Berglin (827,000), who began the day as one of the short stacks and Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies (605,000).
Sahamies drew a big crowd near the end of the day when he open-jammed the turn for a big stack with a full house and eliminated Sebastian Wahl who after tanking called with trips.
There were four former Kings of Tallinn Main Event winners in the field on Day 2 including Ranno Sootla (2015 - €37,730), Matias Knaapinen (2017 - €45,007), WSOP bracelet winner Juha Helppi (2018 - €62,000), and Vitalijs Zavorotnijs (2019 - €85,300).
Knaapinen is the only player of the bunch with a chance of becoming the first two-time champion after bagging a healthy stack of 221,000.
Notable players eliminated on Day 2 Jason Wheeler, Markku Koplimaa, Hassan Sey, Arvydas Merfeldas, Daragh Davey, David Comeron Carrasco, Roope Tarmi, and Tarmo Tammel.
The action will resume tomorrow at 12 p.m. EET with blinds at 3,000/6,000 and a big blind ante of 6,000. The 82 players will begin in hand for hand mode until the money bubble break with 80 players guaranteed a payout of at least €2,100.
Tomorrow is scheduled to play until a final table is reached. Stay tuned at PokerNews as we bring you the coverage of the 2020 Kings of Tallinn Main Event.