Tapio Vihakas Leads Final 23 After Day 2 of the Tallinn Summer Showdown Main Event

Finland's Tapio Vihakas bagged a chip leading stack of 560,000 in chips on Day 2 of the Tallinn Summer Showdown €1,100 Main Event at Hilton Tallinn Park and Olympic Park Casino.

Among the nearly $300,000 in cashes accumulated by the Finn is a final table appearance at the very first Summer Showdown Main Event in 2017 where he took eighth place for €3,670.

Two other Finns are on top of the chip counts with 23 players remaining in Jussi Mattila with 528,000 in chips and Day 1 chip leader Mathias Siljander with a cool 500,000 in chips. Yesterday, Mattila predicted he would end Day 1 with 137,000 in chips midway through the day and bagged exactly that. He was a little off today with his prediction of 488,000 in chips but once again close.

Day 2 Recap

The second day began with late registration open for one blind level. The field grew from 168 entrants to 195 entrants to create a €185,250 prize pool and a €46,700 top prize. This crushed the record last year when the Summer Showdown Main Event attracted 165 entrants.

Eliminations took place at a fast and furious pace throughout the day. Siljander and Vihakis had the chip lead most of the day but Estonia's Kelly Limonova also had the chip lead for a time before she eventually bagged 450,000 in chips. Regardless of how things turn out for Limonova, she will have the honor of being the last woman remaining in the Main Event.

In addition, Limonova and Andres Loiv are the last two players remaining in the Last Longer Competition hosted by Olybet Poker for its qualifiers. The last player standing will be awarded a Battle of Malta Main Event ticket valued at €555.

The day was scheduled to end after eight blind levels of an hour each. However, when the eighth blind level of the day began with 28 players remaining and 23 guaranteed a min-cash of at least €2,180, the tournament director decided that for better or for worse that players would be in the money by the end of the day.

After the tournament was down to just 24 players, players were given a short break for a redraw and were instructed they would be hand for hand the remainder of the day. However, a cooler took place to end the bubble in just one hand.

Kim Lindstrom opened and was called by Siljander before Pasi Laihinen made a sizeable three-bet. Lindstrom folded before Siljander jammed. At the time, Siljander wasn't huge on chips and if his opponent called and he lost the hand, he would have had the one of the shortest stacks in play. Laihinen did indeed called and was well ahead with pocket aces to Siljander's king-queen suited. The flop was a safe one for Laihinen but he was stunned after the board gave his opponent a runner-runner flush to send him out on the rail in 24th place.

After players bagged chips, they were invited to the casino floor for the Players Party for free drinks and to be entertained by the Finnish band Higher Ground.

Day 3 of the Main Event will kick off at 12 p.m. local time tomorrow with 14:38 remaining in Level 16 with blinds at 2,500/5,000 and a big blind ante of 5,000. After this level, blinds will increase every hour as they have been throughout the event. The plan entering the day is to play down to a final table of eight players.

As was the case the past two days, the PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the floor to provide complete coverage tomorrow and beyond until a winner is declared.

Day 3 Seat Draw

Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chips	Big Blinds
1	1	Markus Asikainen	Finland	279,500	56
1	2	Jussi Mattila	Finland	528,500	106
1	3	Igor Pihela Sr.	Estonia	147,000	29
1	4	Ranno Sootla	Estonia	76,000	15
1	5	Kelly Limonova	Estonia	450,000	90
1	6	Timo Ruuska	Finland	135,000	27
1	7	Algimantas Jablonskis	Lithuania	82,500	17
1	8	Andres Loiv	Estonia	337,000	67

2	1	Rain Heeringas	Estonia	112,000	22
2	2	Santeri Piiroinen	Finland	181,500	36
2	3	Jari Lahtinen	Finland	313,500	63
2	4	Jaakko Rajaniemi	Finland	161,500	32
2	5	Ahmed Ibrahimi	Morocco	430,000	86
2	6	Mathias Siljander	Finland	500,000	100
2	7	Dmitrijs Kornevs	Latvia	184,000	37

3	1	Aki Pyysing	Finland	401,000	80
3	2	Marius Morel	Estonia	57,500	12
3	3	Tarmo Tammel	Estonia	171,500	34
3	4	Markku Koplimaa	Estonia	150,000	30
3	5	Tapio Vihakas	Finland	560,000	112
3	6	Kim Lindstrom	Finland	337,500	68
3	7	Toomas Polli	Estonia	175,000	35
3	8	Peter Warfvinge	Sweden	77,300	15