2017 Cash Game Festival Tallinn
Day 1 Started
2017 Cash Game Festival Tallinn (Spring)
2017 Cash Game Festival Tallinn
Day: 1
Welcome to Day 1 of the 2017 Cash Game Festival Tallinn at Olympic Park Casino
Following two successful stops this year in London and Nova Gorica, Slovenia, the Cash Game Festival is about to kick off its third stop of 2017 at Olympic Park Casino in Tallinn, Estonia for five days of nonstop cash game poker on April 26-30.
Tallinn holds a special place in Cash Game Festival history as it is where the festival planted its roots with its first two stops in 2014 and 2015. The following year, the festival transformed into an international tour in 2016 with stops in London (twice), Malta and Bulgaria before wrapping the year off back in Tallinn once again.
The festival expects a full house and to attract many players from the Baltics and Scandinavia. Additionally, there will be around 10 players attending the festival thanks to Cash Game Festival VIP packages they won online at Triobet powered by Betsafe and Nordicbet. In total, there are 10 tables set up in the poker room for players will be able to enjoy a variety of poker variants at different stakes.
Each day, Brandon Allen will host the two televised feature tables and players will also have plenty of opportunities to enjoy themselves away from the poker felt with plenty of fun activities planned by the festival organizers. Early today, many players have been witnessed around the town enjoying the almost perfect weather and shared they are looking forward to shuffling chips on the tables.
The Cash Game Festival Tallinn officially kicks off at 5:30 p.m. EEST (3:30 p.m. BST) with welcome drinks inside the poker room. Shortly afterward, the first of two daily televised tables start at 5:40 p.m. EEST (3:40 p.m. BST) and will be streamed on a 20-minute delay with stakes at €1/€2 no-limit hold'em on the Cash Game Festival Twitch channel as well as will be broadcasted across multiple media outlets including PokerNews.
Later in the day, there will also be a second higher stakes televised feature table on a 20-minute delay at 8:40 p.m. EEST (6:40 p.m. EEST).
There are plenty of other activities planned for the players that won packages to the event and players purchasing the hospitality package including a trip to a gun range, a disc golf challenge, a city tour, a world-class dinner and a VIP party.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews Live Reporting team will be covering the festival with player interviews and recaps each day during the festival.
First Feature Table of the Cash Game Festival Tallinn Begins
The first televised feature table of the day has just kicked off. You can check out the action on the Cash Game Festival Twitch channel and on PokerNews by clicking on the Live Stream tab.
The stakes for the early game are €1/€2 no-limit hold'em. We will share bios of the players very shortly.
Festival Jackpot Details
During the Cash Game Festival Tallinn, two packages valued at €2,000 each to the Cash Game Festival Gibraltar at Sunborn Casino May 17-21 will be given away.
One package will be given away to the player with the highest hand during the festival on no-limit hold'em tables and another on pot-limit Omaha tables.
In the case of any ties, a random drawing will take place to decide which player wins the package.
Feature Table Bios
Estonian entrepreneur Tauri Taimre, aged 28, is in Seat 1. He considers himself a cash game specialist and stays away from poker tournaments. He bought in for €300 and shared his favorite hand is six-three offsuit. He explained that he is not nervous despite this being his first time on a televised feature table.
Estonian IT specialist asked to be referred to as Jurgen also bought in for €300 sits in Seat 2.
Another Estonian IT specialist in Viktor Sahhatski is in Seat 3. He bought in for €250 and shared he has been playing poker for 2 1/2 years. This is his first televised table experienced and shared he is a little bit nervous. His favorite hand is pocket aces.
Spain's Pablo Vidal Vazquez is in Seat 4. Vazquez has been playing poker for four years and shared he is a professional player. He bought in for €500 and said, "I'm just excited to begin."
Cash Game Festival regular Niklas Blomqvist from Sweden was missing in action the first two festivals this year in London and Slovenia. He has made his return in Tallinn and immediately popped on the feature table in Seat 6. Like Sahhatski, Blomqvist's favorite hand is pocket rockets.
Lithuania's Pavel was on Seat 7 also bought in for €500. He shared with PokerNews during welcome drinks that he hopes that he is looking forward to higher stakes games as the festival progresses. He isn't a stranger to these games as he once won €10,000 in a session.
Estonia's Roland Luik rounds off the table in Seat 8 and classified himself as an amateur poker pro. He one-upped everyone and started off the action with €510 or €10 than anyone else on the table. While he is showing some confidence, he did admit that he is maybe a little bit nervous.
Photos From Day 1
Tauri Taimre Had Fun and Moves On
Players that see hot action at another table often try to get into the action. Tauri Taimre is no different and just walked away from the feature table to hop into a bigger game. He shared with a smile that "it was fun" to make an appearance at the feature table.
He is now playing in a €5/€5 no-limit hold'em side table against most local players. The action is playing pretty big with thus far straddles witnessed more times than not.
Good Decision By Taimre
It looks like Tauri Taimre's decision to depart the feature table was a good one. At least if his chip stack is doing the talking.
He just won a pot of around €1,000 during the first all-in on the table on a 
flop. Taimre held top-pair with 
, while his opponent paired the six on the board. The dealer shipped a big stack of chips to Taimre after the turn and river were blanks.
Tons of Chips on the €5/€5 Table
They say the poker action in Tallinn is one of the best places in Europe. While there are definitely some card rooms with more poker tables than hosted at Olympic Park Casino, the games at these rooms may prove to be tougher.
The €5/€5 game right now is the biggest going in the poker room. We aren't saying this is one of the easier games that will be witnessed during the festival, but players are laughing and having a good time. Most players have at least €1,000 in their stack and some two to three times more this amount.
Among those in action is another player that was earlier on the televised feature table in Lithuania's Pavel.
As far as the feature table go, players will be competing for about another hour. They will then be given the option to move to a side table while a bigger stakes feature table is being set-up.
More Day 1 Photos
