Jari Saviaho Advances to the Kings of Tallinn Main Event in the Chip Lead
Finnish small business owner and poker aficionado Jari Saviaho heads to the eight-max televised final table of the 2019 Kings of Tallinn Main Event at Olympic Park Casino in the lead with 2,630,000 in chips.
Closely on Saviaho's tail are fellow Finn Jussi Mattila with 2,585,000 and Italy's Luca Sebastiani with 2,245,000. After the trio there is a more than 1 million chip gap to the next closest competitor going into the final day. Among the shorter stack survivors was Estonia's Andrei Volodtsenkov with a sixth-place stack of 775,000. Volodtsenkov can be a zero to hero story as he has advanced to the final table after qualifying to the tournament at OlyBet Poker for just �3.30.
The day began with 49 hopefuls looking to make the money and beyond. The bubble broke after Estonia's Jarko Lipp was eliminated in 35th place on a bad beat when his queens could hold against the pocket fives held by Sweden's Peter Pihlstrom. The remaining 34 players were each guaranteed a payday of at least �2,740 or more than double the �1,100 buy-in.
Three OlyBet Team Pros advanced to the penultimate day. However, two of them in Carmen-Elina Vist and Raigo Aasmaa fell shy of the money. Dmitrijs Meless was able to outperform his fellow team members by finishing in 22nd place for �2,940 after his pocket eights couldn't get there against the queens held by Estonia's Kaupo Tenno. Meless also advanced the furthest last year among OlyBet Team Pros when he took 13th place for �3,560.
Other notable players finishing the day in the money included Norway's Morten Mortensen (20th - �2,940), United Kingdom's Julian Adamson (19th - �2,940), Latvia's Yaniv Peretz (18th �2,940), and Day 2 chip leader from Estonia Janar Kokk (12th - �5,770).
The penultimate day of the tournament ended after Latvia's Andrejs Punka jammed his short-stack with ten-eight suited and couldn't win a flip against the pocket threes held by Saviaho. This was despite flopping a flush draw and a gutshot straight draw. Instead of coming back tomorrow, Punka took home the ninth place prize of �6,890.
2019 OlyBet Kings of Tallinn Final Table Seat Assignment
| Seat | Name | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vladimir Bednar | Slovakia | 970,000 | 24 |
| 2 | Jussi Mattila | Finland | 2,585,000 | 65 |
| 3 | Kaupo Tenno | Estonia | 635,000 | 16 |
| 4 | Luca Sebastiani | Italy | 2,245,000 | 56 |
| 5 | Jari Saviaho | Finland | 2,630,000 | 66 |
| 6 | Andrei Volodtsenkov | Estonia | 775,000 | 19 |
| 7 | Vitalijs Zavorotnijs | Latvia | 240,000 | 6 |
| 8 | Bahadir Hatipoglu | Turkey | 1,170,000 | 29 |
The action kicks off tomorrow at 1 p.m. local time with 15 minutes remaining in Level 25 with blinds at 20,000/40,000 and a big blind ante of 40,000. All of the returning players are guaranteed a payout of at least �8,460 and with their eyes on the top prize of �85,300.
We will be covering all the action of the final table on a 30-minute delay and you will also be able to watch with hole cards at PokerNews by clicking on the Live Stream tab that will appear in our coverage when it is live.
*Photos courtesy of Rene Velli/Kings of Tallinn.