The Chesterfield Poker Club in Tallinn has hosted some of the best Pot-Limit Omaha specialists across Europe and the rest of the world this week as they vie to capture a prestigious Diamond Poker Series trophy. Just 44 of them remain when Day 2 of the PLO Grand Slam Tallinn €5,200 Million begins at 3 p.m. local time.
The two starting flights built a field of 151 players so far, with late registration remaining open for the first level of the day as players try to grab a piece of the €1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. Youness Barakat takes a commanding lead into the day with 2,893,000, far ahead of Bernard Larabi (1,950,000) and Artur Teshaev (1,831,000).
Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Youness Barakat | United Kingdom | 2,893,000 | 289 |
| 2 | Bernard Larabi | Hungary | 1,950,000 | 195 |
| 3 | Artur Teshaev | Uzbekistan | 1,831,000 | 183 |
| 4 | Tom-Aksel Bedell | Norway | 1,725,000 | 173 |
| 5 | Aku Joentausta | Finland | 1,503,000 | 150 |
| 6 | Hossein Ensan | Germany | 1,450,000 | 145 |
| 7 | Filip Aleksic | Netherlands | 1,385,000 | 139 |
| 8 | Stefan Lehner | Austria | 1,372,000 | 137 |
| 9 | Amir Mozaffarian | Germany | 1,357,000 | 136 |
| 10 | Jonas Kronwitter | Austria | 1,260,000 | 126 |
In fourth place sits Tom-Aksel Bedell (1,725,000), a regular on the high-stakes scene in Europe who in January won the €10,300 Championship at the Diamond Poker Series stop in Tirana for €438,000. Aku Joentausta (1,503,000), 2019 WSOP Main Event champion Hossein Ensan (1,450,000), WSOP bracelet winners Stefan Lehner (1,372,000) and Amir Mozaffarian (1,357,000), as well as Jonas Kronwitter (1,260,000) are also in the top 10 to start the day.
Other returning players include Gergo Nagy (1,160,000), Alexander Petersen (613,000), Nikolaos Lampropoulos (482,000), Leonid Yanovski (383,000), 2014 November Niner Jorryt van Hoof (352,000), Damjan Radanov (300,000), and Lautaro Guerra (175,000). Fredrik Lindstrom (386,000), Dario Alioto (330,000), Robin Palm (258,000), and Danyil Zaremba (244,000) went straight from the final table of the €2,200 Milion Opener yesterday to jump into this field and managed to make it to Day 2 and chase a second deep run.
The action picks up on Level 11 with blinds of 5,000-10,000 and a 10,000 big blind ante. Levels will be 45 minutes, with a break after every three levels. The plan is to play down to a winner, but with the average stack nearly 70 big blinds and several players sure to take advantage of late registration and join the 44 opening-flight survivors, it will likely be a late night here in the Estonian capital.
Stay tuned as PokerNews follows the action the entire way up to the crowning of a new PLO champion.
