Urmo Velvelt Wins the 2016 888Live Tallinn $30,000 Guaranteed Main Event
After two days of play, Estonia's Urmo Velvelt finished on top of the 80-player field to win the 2016 888Live Tallinn $30,000 Guaranteed Main Event.
Many notable players entered and exited the $440/€400 on Day 1, including 888poker Ambassador Kara Scott, Estonia's Maret Komarova, and PokerNews qualifier Cristian Placinta.
Scott, who on top of playing in both the Main Event and the $5,000 Bounty Freeroll, loved Tallinn and participated in both the welcome drinks and the city tour.
"Tallinn is a beautiful city," shared Scott. "It's my first visit to Estonia and I've been excited to get here ever since the 888Live event was announced! For me, the format of playing a bit of poker somewhere new and interesting, while also getting to do some site seeing or group activities is perfect. Poker is a great way to travel! We had a city tour on one of the days, which meant we were able to listen to all the history of the city while also trying out some local delicacies like moose sausage, breakfast beer, and schnapps."
Despite no success on the felts, Scott also enjoying the action. "I had a lot of fun in the main tournament although I was out fairly quickly. I played in the freeroll bounty event as well and that's always a bit of fun." Scott explained. "It's a turbo but the prizes are good, so although everyone is laughing and having a good time, they also have one very serious eye on taking the top spot with added money."
Cash Game Festival co-founder Martin "Franke" von Zweigbergk was the first player eliminated on Day 2 after his 8♥8♦ was unable to out flip Rauno Tahvonen's king-jack after a king spiked the flop. Tahvonen, however, was also unable to make it to the final table and eventually exited the tournament in 16th place.
Also out early was another Cash Game Festival co-founder Enri Orav who began Day 2 in second place. However, he did have reason to celebrate as they announced that 888poker is going to sponsor their second stop in London this year at Aspers Casino Westfield Stratford City from September 28 to October 2.
The final table was reached after Andrey Belokopytov was eliminated in tenth place when his ace-queen was unable to hold against Kristjan Rausberg's king-jack. Belokopytov didn't walk away empty-handed as 888poker awarded him a GoPro for being eliminated on the official bubble.
Fredrik Zitting (9th - €1,300) and Dmitri Gaškov (8th - €1,600) were both eliminated within 10 minutes of the final table beginning. It took an hour before the next players were eliminated with Dennis Lindmark (7th - €1,600) losing a flip when his nines were unable to beat Eduard Kruglov's ace-jack and Vjacheslav Kovaljov (6th - €1,900) exiting when his king-jack was unable to outgun Viacheslav Novoselov's queens.
Another hour went by when Viacheslav Novoselov, who was low on chips, went out in fifth place for €2,300 when his six-five was unable to improve against the king-nine held by Kristjan Rausberg.
Rausberg was the next to exit in fourth place for €2,800, after he found himself low on chips and got it in with jack-seven against two players holding high pocket pairs.
At this point, the action went back and forth for awhile before Eduard Kruglov was eliminated in third place for €3,800 when his ace-three didn't get there against Urmo Velvelt who was holding ace-ten of spades.
Heads-up play began fast and furious with both Urmo Velvelt and Sergei Oganesjan starting about even in chips. It didn't stay that way for long, as the duo was all-in rather quickly. Velvelt with king-queen was able to pair up and win the hand against Oganesjan who held ace-jack.
Not too long after that, Velvelt eliminated Oganesjan when his sevens were able to hold against Oganesjan's queen-nine. Velvelt shared that he was really happy about the win. He added; "I got really lucky and all my flips held."
Final Result
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Urmo Velvelt | Estonia | €9,000 |
| 2 | Sergei Oganesjan | Estonia | €5,200 |
| 3 | Eduard Kruglov | Estonia | €3,700 |
| 4 | Kristjan Rausberg | Estonia | €2,800 |
| 5 | Viacheslav Novoselov | Russia | €2,300 |
| 6 | Vjacheslav Kovaljov | Estonia | €1,900 |
| 7 | Dennis Lindmark | Sweden | €1,600 |
| 8 | Dmitri Gaškov | Ukraine | €1,300 |
| 9 | Fredrik Zitting | Finland | €1,000 |
Be sure to complete your PokerNews experience by checking out an overview of our mobile and tablet apps here. Stay on top of the poker world from your phone with our mobile iOS and Android app, or fire up our iPad app on your tablet. You can also update your own chip counts from poker tournaments around the world with MyStack on both Android and iOS.
