Reigning Champ Tom-Aksel Bedell Storms to the Top Again on Day 2 of the Diamond Poker Series Tallinn €10,300 Championship
Tom-Aksel Bedell joined the field as a late entry on Day 2 of the Diamond Poker Series PLO Grand Slam Tallinn €10,300 Championship decked out in regal gold. The defending champion of this event then proceeded to remind his opponents who was the reigning king.
Bedell bagged up the chip lead over the remaining 10 players with 8,110,000 as he chases his second consecutive win in this event after taking the title in Tirana in January. The Norwegian high-stakes regular seemingly won every hand at his table in the moments approaching the money bubble. “It’s impossible to win nine out of 10 pots,” Martin Kabrhel observed. Bedell ended the night in style, hitting a flush on the river to crack Jonas Christensen’s aces as Christensen was the last to fall on Day 2.
Behind him is Gergo Nagy, who had his own meteoric rise during the day. Nagy began his ascent when he doubled in a set-over-set cooler against Hans Thumann. He then busted Thumann by hitting a straight on the river. Once the bubble burst, Nagy scored a double knockout of Andriy Lyubovetskiy and Gruffudd Pugh-Jones as he ended the night with 5,750,000.
Final 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom-Aksel Bedell | Norway | 8,110,000 | 135 |
| 2 | Gergo Nagy | Hungary | 5,750,000 | 96 |
| 3 | Imad Derwiche | France | 5,550,000 | 93 |
| 4 | Gypsy Baron | 2,545,000 | 42 | |
| 5 | Fredrik Lindstrom | Finland | 2,145,000 | 36 |
| 6 | Lautaro Guerra | Spain | 2,095,000 | 35 |
| 7 | Aaron Pahlawani | Austria | 1,470,000 | 25 |
| 8 | Filip Aleksic | Netherlands | 1,445,000 | 24 |
| 9 | Vivian Saliba | Austria | 690,000 | 12 |
| 10 | Erik Bystrom | Sweden | 575,000 | 10 |
Imad Derwiche was the one to silence the loqacoious Kabrhel, showing down two kings in a massive pot as Kabrhel had a pair with straight and flush draws going to the river but couldn’t connect and busted two off the money. Derwiche rounds out the top three with 5,550,000.
The player known only as “Gypsy Baron” (2,545,000), Fredrik Lindstrom (2,145,000), Lautaro Guerra (2,095,000), and Aaron Pahlawani (1,470,000) are in the middle of the pack, Lindstrom going for his third final table appearance of this series after finishing in third during the €2,200 Million Opener and eighth in the €5,200 Million. Start-of-day chip leader Filip Aleksic slid down the leaderboard and found himself nursing a short stack near the bubble, but he managed to rebound and finish with 1,445,000. Vivian Saliba found a double up with kings on the last hand of the night to bag up 690,000, while Erik Bystrom is the short stack with 575,000.
The 34 survivors from Day 1 were joined by 40 new and returning players through the two levels of late registration at the beginning of the day, creating a total field of 148 entries. Only the top 20 would finish in the money, and Farid Jattin, €5,200 Million champion Youness Barakat, Jonas Kronwitter, and Joni Jouhkimainen all fell short of the bubble. Danyil Zaremba was knocked down to just 20,000 by Nagy on the bubble and managed to double up twice, but Gypsy Baron finished him off a few hands later.
A flurry of eliminations followed the bursting of the money, with six players falling in rapid succession. Eran Carmi (18th), Filip Lovric (14th), and 2019 WSOP Main Event champion Hossein Ensan (13th) were among those to make a trip to the payout desk.
The ten returning players will gather tomorrow at 1 p.m. local time as the venue switches to the exclusive Bombay Club down the street from the Chesterfield Poker Club. Everyone left is guaranteed €28,200, with the champion earning €338,370. The action picks up on Level 19 with blinds of 30,000-60,000 with a 60,000 big blind ante. The final table will be streamed on the Diamond Poker Series’ official YouTube and Twitch channels.
PokerNews will be on hand tomorrow inside the Bombay Club as the 10 finalists battle to determine the next PLO master.