€550 Main Event
Day 1a Started
2022 The Festival in Tallinn
€550 Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Players Info - Day 1a
2022 The Festival in Tallinn
Buy-in
€500
Entries
552
Entries
58
Players Left
22
The Festival Tallinn Is Live!
The live series that everyone has been waiting for, The Festival Tallinn, is up and running at the luxurious Olympic Park Casino Tallinn, Estonia.
The Festival Tallinn runs from June 27 through to July 3 and features almost 40 events from No-Limit Hold'em, to Open Face Chinese and everything else in between. You can check out a full schedule of events right here.
Players will flock to Tallinn to try their luck in the Cash Game Festival, blackjack and roulette tournaments, and even slots and sports betting events!
PokerNews will be bringing you daily recaps of the action, including the €550 buy-in Main Event that promises to be as huge as it is exciting. The Festival Tallinn Main Event has a quartet of flights from June 28 to June 30, with Day 1D featuring a turbo blind structure. Again, PokerNews will bring you updates from the Main Event once play concludes for the evening.
- June 28 at 12:00 p.m. local time - Main Event Day 1A
- June 29 at 12:00 p.m. local time - Main Event Day 1B
- June 30 at 12:00 p.m. local time - Main Event Day 1C
- June 30 at 8:00 p.m. local time - Main Event Day 1D Turbo
- July 1 at 12:00 p.m. local time - Main Event Day 2
- July 2 at 12:00 p.m. local time - Main Event Day 3
- July 3 at 12:00 p.m. local time - Main Event Final Table
Stay tuned to PokerNews throughout The Festival Tallinn, and check out The Festival's website which has everything you need to know about this exciting series.
Official End of Day 1a Chip Counts (full)
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
188,700 | |
|
179,500 | |
|
161,500 | |
|
156,700 | |
|
|
118,300 | |
|
92,300 | |
|
||
|
90,400 | |
|
|
89,800 | |
|
|
71,700 | |
|
|
65,000 | |
|
63,300 | |
|
|
60,900 | |
|
|
56,800 | |
|
|
55,700 | |
|
|
55,500 | |
|
|
48,400 | |
|
44,500 | |
|
39,600 | |
|
37,100 | |
|
|
35,800 | |
|
|
23,300 | |
|
|
15,000 | |
Stefan Bittger Tops The Main Event Day 1a Chip Counts
Day 1a of the €550 buy-in The Festival Tallinn Main Event is done and dusted after ten exciting levels of play. Some 58 players bought in on the first of four flights, with 22 of those starters bagging up chips at the close of play.
Nobody bagged and tagged more chips than Germany's Stefan Bittger, who turned his 30,000 starting stack into a tournament-leading 188,700 over the course of ten levels.
The Festival Tallinn Main Event Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stefan Bittger | 188,700 | 118 |
| 2 | Juan Carlos Vecino Duenas | 179,500 | 112 |
| 3 | Vambo Lund | 161,500 | 101 |
| 4 | Eric Wasylenko | 156,700 | 98 |
| 5 | Igor Pihela | 118,300 | 74 |
| 6 | Espen Sandvik | 92,300 | 58 |
| 7 | Arkadiusz Liszewski | 90,400 | 57 |
| 8 | Tihomir Yanev | 89,800 | 56 |
| 9 | Rando Liiber | 71,700 | 45 |
| 10 | Marlon Andrey Lopez Martinez | 65,500 | 41 |
Bittger has more than a dozen live cashes around Europe, totalling a shade over $30,500. He recently cashed in two side events at the 2022 Irish Open, and has done his chances of adding another in-the-money finish to his record no harm at all by getting off to a flying start in this tournament.
The chip leader was already in possession of one of the larger stacks in the room when he snapped off an ill-timed bluff by Juris Hlibovs while holding a flush. That hand catapulted Bittger to the top of the chip counts, and left Hibovs hovering around the middle of the pack.
Second in chips right now is Juan Carlos Vecino Duenas with a 179,500 stack. Duenas found himself at the summit of the chip counts after his pocket aces held against the jacks of Nicholas Berth, but he lost a little ground in the closing stages to finish second.
Three other players had the welcomed problem of trying to cram six figures worth of chips into their overnight chip bag. Vambo Lund (161,500), Eric Wasylenko (156,700), and Igor Pihela (118,300) being that big-stacked trio.
Also safely through to Day 2 is Espen Sandvik with 92,300. The Norwegian World Series of Poker bracelet winner currently occupies sixth place after Day 1a, and it one to watch as this value-packed tournament progresses.
Of course, not everyone managed to find a bag on Day 1a, although they have three more opportunities to do so in the coming days. The Festival founder Martin "Franke" von Zweigbergk busted at the hands of the aforementioned Wasylenko and headed off to play in the roulette tournament.
It is likely Artjom Kovalevski will re-enter at some stage after busting to a horrible bad beat during the penultimate level. Kovalevski committee his last 12 big blinds with pocket kings afterHlibovs had opened with the lowly nine-five of diamonds. Hlibovs called and flopped a straight and a flush draw, leaving Kovalevski drawing to a single out. It didn't appear and Kovalevski crashed out.
Day 1b commences at 12:00 p.m. local time on June 29 and sees some fresh hopefuls enter the mix and battle it out over the course of ten excellently-structured 45-minute levels.
€550 Main Event
Day 1a Completed