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Kings of Tallinn Hands Out First Big Trophies as €500K Main Event Begins

21 minutes ago

Samantha Doyle 21 minutes ago

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The €1,100 Main Event launched with 124 entries in its first flight, led by Mikael Haapaniemi, and registration remains open.
Noah Rogers claimed two early victories, winning both the €200 NLH Turbo and the €555 Kings of Tallinn Championship.
Paulius Turcinskas led a Lithuanian sweep in the €350 Cup, while Emmanouil Chalkiotis triumphed in the 555-entry Mini-Main.

The Kings of Tallinn Autumn Eition spent the better part of its opening week building towards one tournament and this Wednesday, the €1,100 Main Event finally arrived. The €500,000 guaranteed centerpiece is now running at Olympic Park Casino and Hilton Tallinn Park, with four starting flights spread across October 14-15.

Behind it sits a first week that has already produced a 555-entry Mini-Main, a 319-entry Championship and winners from across Northern Europe.

We're here to break it all the starting action down for you.

Main Event Enters Its Second Day of Flights

The first Main Event flight brought in 124 entries, with Finland’s Mikael Haapaniemi setting the pace in the early days.

Haapaniemi finished Flight 1A with 256,000 chips. Four Estonian players followed directly behind him, led by Tiiu Naar with 242,800. Only 38 players made it through the flight.

Flight 1A Leader	Country	Chips
Mikael Haapaniemi	Finland	256,000
Tiiu Naar	Estonia	242,800
Sander Leigri	Estonia	230,500
Stanislav Smeljov	Estonia	202,900
Siim Suviste	Estonia	189,900

This is just the current standing, since registration remains open during the early part of Day 2, so the final field and prize pool will remain a mystery until Friday.

The benchmark for the autumn edition comes from its first running in 2024, when the Main Event reached 701 entries and cleared the same €500,000 guarantee.

Rogers Completes Two-Trophy Start

Noah Rogers has probably made the best use of the first half of the festival.

The Norwegian first won the €200 NLH Turbo, a 32-entry event worth €1,868 to the winner. Three days later he sat down on the final day of the much larger €555 Kings of Tallinn Championship and took that one too.

The Championship attracted 319 entries and produced €148,335 in prize money.

€555 Kings of Tallinn Championship Final Results

Place	Player	Prize
1	Noah Rogers	€30,005
2	Alger Pissarev	€20,290
3	Dennis Zetterman	€14,830
4	Marek Zigel	€11,130
5	Ben Devers	€7,930
6	Jawad Habib	€5,770
7	Edgars Hauks	€4,530
8	Siim Taliaru	€3,760
9	Mario Colavita	€3,140

Rogers entered the final Championship stages behind several players but built the largest stack once the table shortened. Pissarev put up a decent fight during heads-up, twice reducing the gap before Rogers eventually closed it out.

Turcinskas Leads Lithuanian Cup Sweep

The €350 Kings of Tallinn Cup ended with Lithuania occupying both sides of the heads-up table.

Paulius Turcinskas defeated two-time WSOP Circuit winner Kestutis Jungevicius to win €12,602, while Jungevicius received €8,430.

Paulius Turcinskas Wins €350 Kings of Tallinn Cup

The tournament drew 205 entries, pushing its prize pool to €59,102.

Place	Player	Prize
1	Paulius Turcinskas	€12,602
2	Kestutis Jungevicius	€8,430
3	Arsenii Hvozdetskyi	€6,030
4	Alfonso Lopez Delgado	€4,600
5	Noah Rogers	€3,510
6	Nicklas Dehli	€2,680
7	Piotr Swietek	€2,150
8	Alens Jansons	€1,790
9	Niko Luhtalampi	€1,470

Mini-Main Starts the Festival With 555 Entries

Before the larger buy-ins arrived, the €250 Mini-Main supplied the opening weekend’s biggest field.

Emmanouil Chalkiotis Wins €250 Mini-Main

Three starting flights and late registration took it to 555 entries, creating €113,553 in prize money.

Emmanouil Chalkiotis eventually found himself heads-up against Simo Saarniit. A deal secured €16,225 for Chalkiotis and €16,618 for Saarniit before the remaining €3,650 was left for the winner. Chalkiotis claimed it to finish on €19,875.

€250 Mini-Main Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Emmanouil Chalkiotis	Greece	€19,875*
2	Simo Saarniit	Estonia	€16,618*
3	Ranel Käsi	Estonia	€10,160
4	Casper Jensen	Denmark	€7,480
5	Oskar Ojaveer	Estonia	€5,480
6	Gerardas Luksenas	Lithuania	€4,140
7	Enea Subashi	Greece	€3,040
8	Marko Paasikoski	Finland	€2,400
9	Atso Lindell	Finland	€1,940

*Heads-up deal.

There are still several tournaments left around the Main Event, including more bounty and mixed-game events and another €3,000 NLH tournament during the closing weekend. The Main Event itself moves to Day 2 on Friday and finishes Sunday.