Day 1b of the Coolbet Open €550 Main Event at Olympic Park Casino and Hilton Park Hotel was a huge success with 378 entrants more than tripling the 113 entrants entering on Day 1a to create a field of at least 491 entrants.
To bring this into perspective, the 491 entrants attracted in the two opening flights has already eclipsed the 425 entrants participating in the inaugural Coolbet Open Main Event in May.
The massive field will continue to grow with late registration open until the end of Level 9 or the first level of Day 2 on Friday, Oct. 19.
A total of 208 entrants survived which brings the remaining field size currently at 272 players with 64 bagging chips on Day 1a.
Norway's Vegard Dahl ended Day 1b in the chip lead with 235,600 and sits comfortably in first place overall heading into Day 2.
The next biggest stacks also belonged to Norwegians with Morten Rosenkrantz finishing the day with 182,500 in chips and Thomas Berg with 163,400 in chips. Berg fired at least three bullets with his last one leading him to a third-place stack heading into Day 2.
Day 1a chip leader Gert Laanemets from Estonia is also in good shape heading into Day 2 with a fourth-place chip stack of 163,200.
Here is a look at the top five chip counts heading into Day 2:
Position
Player
Country
Chip Count
1
Vegard Dahl
Norway
235,600
2
Morten Rosenkrantz
Norway
182,500
3
Thomas Berg
Norway
163,400
4
Gert Laanemets
Estonia
163,200
5
Sergei Gerasimovitš
Estonia
157,000
Meanwhile, Finland's Sebastian Wahl, who won the first Coolbet Open in May for €50,100, is also in good shape heading into day two after bagging a six-figure stack of 113,100. He shared in an interview with PokerNews a hand where he made a big call with ace-high putting his opponent on a failed flush draw.
The action resumes tomorrow at 1 p.m. EEST with blinds at 500/1,000 with an ante of 1,000. Stay tuned at PokerNews as we bring you coverage of the final two days of the Coolbet Open Main Event.
[Removed:109] shared with his table that today is his first time playing in a live poker tournament. So far, so good for Franksson as he just delivered a massive cooler to Line Lindsholm.
Franksson thought he was opening up to 500 from early position when he tossed out a single chip only to be informed that a single chip meant he was calling the big blind of 200.
Two players called before Lindsholm raised to 800 from the big blind. Franksson then three-bet to 1,900. The action folded back to Lindsholm who made the call.
Lindsholm check-called for 2,000 after the flop came . She then led out for 3,000 after the appeared on the turn.
Lindsholm fired out for 5,000 after the appeared on the river before calling a jam from Franksson that covered the rest of her stack of around 15,000.
Franksson rivered the nuts holding for top set and Lindsholm left the tournament area after turning over for a lower set.
During the break, PokerNews went live on Facebook with the first Coolbet Open champion Sebastian Wahl from Finland. Wahl shared with us a couple of hands to help him chip up to around 47,000 in chips in the early stages of Day 1b today.
Last night, Mari Thorrud Skolem won the Kommunepoker event on the casino stage. Over 2,000 people entered the event which began in local municipalities in Norway.
The winner of each municipality came to Tallinn to compete until a winner was crowned.
Not only does Skolem win the honors of being crowned the Norwegian champion but she also won a package valued at €2,000 to the Norwegian Championships.
Welcome to Day 1b of the 2018 Coolbet Open €550 Main Event hosted at Olympic Park Casino and Hilton Park Hotel.
Yesterday, the Main Event kicked off in style by attracting 113 entrants or nine more than the first Coolbet Open Main Event in May. Estonia's Gert Laanemets topped yesterday's field by bagging a huge stack of 163,200 in chips followed by Finlands's Tomi Rasanen (127,000) and Sweden's Timothy Harold (107,400).
Today's field size is expected to be much bigger with all of the satellite qualifiers scheduled for the second and final opening flight.
As was the case yesterday, players will begin the deep-stacked tournament with 30,000 in chips and blinds increasing every 45-minutes. Day 1b features eight blind levels with the action for the day expecting to end at approximately 8:30 p.m. EEST.
Coolbet Open Main Event Day 1a Blind Structure
Level
Small blind
Big blind
Big blind ante
1
25
50
2
50
100
3
75
150
4
100
200
200
5
150
300
300
6
200
400
400
7
300
600
600
8
400
800
800
Players will have unlimited chances to build a big stack for Day 2, which features a deeper structure of 60 minute blind levels. Not only can anyone reenter all day today, the tournament allows for reentry up until the end of the first blind level of Day 2 at around 2 p.m. EEST tomorrow. Also, players not happy with the number of chips they bagged can void their stack and start with a fresh stack of 30,000 in chips.
There is plenty of action each day at the Coolbet Open with 30 side events complementing the showcased Main Event. Tournament Director Teresa Nousiainen organized the schedule in a way that even if players are playing the Main Event they will have a chance to also play the festival's marquis side events as well.
Two of today's side events include the €165 Archie: Limit Triple Draw High/ Low Split at 7 p.m. EEST, the second and final day of the Coolbet €330 NLHE Deepstack at 9 p.m. EEST, the €330 NLHE Turbo at 9 p.m. EEST, and the Coolbet €110 No Limit Texas Hold'em FreezeOut at 11 p.m. EEST.
Coolbet Open Schedule
Date
Time (EEST)
Event #
Event
Buy-in
Oct. 16
5 p.m.
1
Freebuy Satellite to Coolbet Opening Event (seven seats gtd.)