Kristoffer Skolem Leads the Pack Heading into the Final Day of the Coolbet Open Main Event
The Coolbet Open €550 Main Event at Olympic Park Casino and the Hilton Park Hotel has thus far been a huge success.
The tournament attracted 368 entrants from the two opening flights with 264 advancing to Day 2. With late registration open until the first blind level of Day 2, the field ballooned to 425 entrants to generate a massive prize pool of €206,125.
First place is slated to win a whopping €50,900 with each of the 39 players advancing to the third and final day on Saturday each guaranteed a payout of €1,155.
Norway's Kristoffer Skolem is in the driver's seat to enter the final day with a huge stack of 994,000 and blinds starting off at 4,000/8,000 with an ante of 1,000. Not too far behind Skolem are Finland's Sebastian Wahl (second - 829,000) and Norway's Alen Coralic (third -707,000). Notable in the top of the standings is Dutchman Sander van Wesemael, who boasts over $700,000 in lifetime winnings. 'The Weasel', as he is affectionally known, sits in fourth with 573,000.
Day 2 ended after Estonia's Ave Lepik finished in 40th place to bubble the tournament when her ace-king didn't outflip the pocket jacks held by countrymate Jaagup Luhakooder. Both players had a set, however, Luhakooder's jacks full of deuces was better than Lepik's deuces full of aces.
Lepik didn't walk away empty-handed. The Coolbet Open is awarding an additional €30,000 in prizes in the Main Event on top of the prize pool. For bubbling the tournament, Lepik was awarded a free Coolbet Open Main Event ticket valued at €550 the next time the festival takes place in October.
Notable players to start the day but not survive were Kim Christensen, who began the day as the chip leader and Day 1a chip leader Dmitri Zatsik. Also not surviving were Coolbet founder Jan Svendsen, Carmen-Elina Vist, Jon Kyte, Espen Uhlen Jorstad, and Jussi Mattila.
The final day kicks off tomorrow at 12 p.m. with 39 hopefuls battling it out in hopes to win the first-ever Coolbet Open Main Event trophy and the €50,100 top prize.
Live streaming commentated by Andrew "Picasso" Hedley will begin once the field is trimmed down to 24 players which will be available in our coverage under the Live Stream tab.
Stay tuned at PokerNews tomorrow as we bring to you the conclusion of the Coolbet Open Main Event at Olympic Park Casino and the Hilton Park Hotel.
*Lead image courtesy of Juhani Tyrisevä.
before Jari Hurri went over the top with 
.
.
was able to best Kyte when the board gave him a flush.
and Christensen called. At this point, we estimated the pot to already be almost 100,000 in chips.
appeared on the turn and Kesanen bet 20,000. Christensen went into the tank for a minute or two before he raised to 55,000.
completed the board on the river. Kesanen slowed down the aggression and checked. Christensen then jammed for about 100,000 and Kesanen called almost as soon as the words "all-in" left Christensen mouth.
and was eliminated when Kesanen who had 105,000 remaining at the time he called turned over 
.
giving Vist and open-ended straight draw. Vist checked, the player in the big blind bet, before the opener shoved.
, Terje Bremseth jammed for 50,100. Christensen with not too much more behind called.
held by Borge Dypvik in an all-in preflop pot to bring his stack to around 25,000 as the break was coming in.