2018 Coolbet Open II

Day 1a of the Coolbet Open Main Event hosted by Olympic Park Casino and Hilton Tallinn Park was a huge success with 113 entrants ponying up the €550 buy-in.

This represents a larger turnout than the 104 entrants that participated in Day 1a of the last Coolbet Open in May. Tomorrow's action is expected to be much bigger for the second and final opening flight thanks to the huge amount of online qualifiers slated to be in the field.

Players kicked off today's deep-stacked action with 30,000 in chips and competed for eight blinds levels of 45 minutes each. Those bagging chips will enjoy an even deeper structure for Day 2 and Day 3 on Oct. 19-20 with 60-minute blind levels.

The star of the day was Estonia's Gert Laanemets who bagged a chip-leading stack of 163,200.

Also bagging six-figure stacks on Day 1a were Tomi Rasanen (second - 127,000), Timothy Harold (third - 107,400), Ranno Sootla (fourth - 107,400), and Aare Sepp (fifth 101,600). Unlike the other players, it took Sootla two bullets in the Day 1a field to get his name on the leaderboard.

These were obviously not the only players to bag chips as 64 players from the Day 1a field will advance to Day 2. Two former professional athletes also entered today's action in former footballer Joel Lindpere and former basketball player Martin Muursepp.

Luck was not on Lindpere's side as he did not bag chips after he lost a flip near the end of the day. Muursepp fared much better and bagged a 10th place chip stack of 85,600.

Also bagging chips was Finnish musician Kim Herold, who performed as part of a three-piece band during the welcome drinks ceremony on Oct. 16, with 78,500 in chips. Both Herold and Lindpere were interviewed during Day 1a live at Facebook on the PokerNews page.

Also interviewed today was Coolbet COO Anders Karlsen. Karlsen was unable to hold onto his chips and is unsure about whether he will enter again on Day 1b or before late-registration closes at the end of the first blind level of Day 2.

Day 1b of the Main Event will kick off at 2 p.m. local time tomorrow with many new players and many of the same players from today that were unable to survive.

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

_{*Photos courtesy of Natalie Black/Coolbet Open.}

While players were bagging chips, we interviewed Finnish musician Kim Herold live on Facebook. Herold not only was the lead singer in the band during the welcome drinks ceremony yesterday but also bagged a decent stack of 78,500 in Day 1a of the Main Event.

Stay tuned at PokerNews for the final day chip counts and recap.

The tournament director just announced the final three hands of the day. The Day 1a field attracted 113 entrants of which 66 were still in their seats when the announcement was made.

Kim Herold, who played in the band during opening drinks last night, agreed to an interview with PokerNews after he is done for the day.

Jussi Mattila built up his stack after his second bullet started off to a rough start but most of that recently disappeared again.

We caught up on a big hand when the action was on the river. With about 25,000 in the pot, Mattila bet for 24,800 after his opponent Tomi Rasanen checked the action.

Rasanen then jammed for about 53,000.

"I have to call, I have to call," Mattila said to Rasanen.

Mattila did indeed call and turned over for a flush. However, Rasanen held for a higher flush and became the latest player to enter the six-figure stack club.

A player bet 3,200 into a pot of around 5,000 after the flop came . Former Estonian footballer Joel Lindpere three-bet to 11,000 before Martin Mand four-bet jammed for 36,900.

The original raiser folded and Lindpere, who had his opponent barely covered, was shuffling his chips in one hand while rocking his cards back and forth in the other. This continued for two to three minutes before Lindpere found a call.

Martin Mand:
Joel Lindpere:

Equity was close in this hand with Lindpere holding top pair and Mand holding an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw.

The pendulum swung in Mand's favor after the came on the turn to give him a flush. Lindpere was unable to improve his hand to a full house after the completed the board on the river and was left with left with crumbs.

Lindpere just had a big blind and a big blind ante left and he hit the rail after he was unable to win that holding .

The final blind level of Day 1a has just begun with blinds at 300/600 and a big blind ante of 600. One of the main reasons the opening flights are relative short is so that players can play the two-day €330 Deepstack that starts today at 9 p.m.

The event is expected to attract many runners and Day 2 of that event will take place at the same time tomorrow.

We are unsure if Jussi Mattila is on his second bullet or if he has reentered more than once in the Main Event today. He did just come to a new table with what looked like was an opening stack or close to it and immediately one of the masseuses came over to give him a massage.

Matilla might be a little too relaxed as on his first hand at the table he doubled up an opponent.

Bjorn Stormer (pictured) limped from under the gun before Mattila three-bet to 2,800. It folded back around to Stormer who four-bet jammed.

Mattila asked for a count and snap-called when he found out it was for 6,300.

Stormer was ahead before the flop and kept the lead after the flop came .

"Queen," shouted Mattila.

Instead of a the came on the turn and Mattila was drawing dead. The came on the river to make the hand official.

"Well played, well played," said Mattila as he went back to enjoying his massage.