The second WSOPC Tallinn ring stays at home with Estonia's Aleksei Smirnov winning the coveted gold ring along with the €25,430 top prize. Going into Sunday's final table, it surely looked like the possibility of having a Finn crowned as the champion in the second event of WSOPC Tallinn Event #1: €1,100 No-Limit Hold'em was in the air. "The Terminator" Aki Pyysing finished the first day of play with more than the double amount of chips as Josh Stewart from Northern Ireland in second place.  

But in the game of poker, it’s always a chip and a chair as we’ve seen examples of plenty of times in this tournament already but it was safe to say that Pyysing was the most comfortable one to take his seat as the game began at 1 p.m. this afternoon. 

The nine players didn’t waste any time to give us plenty of action on the table and not even half an hour into the final table we saw Brazilian Manoel Filho eliminated in ninth place for €3,050 after running into Pyysing’s pocket rockets (aces) with his king-jack as short stack. 

In the blink of an eye, another one bites the dust, and this time it was Estonian player Tanel Evert whose king-eight was in good shape against Santtu Leinonen’s nine-eight but a flopped nine for the Finn, and Evert was sent to the rail picking up his winner check of €3,750 for finishing eight place. 

Not many hands went by until Polish player Dominik Ostrowski had to join the other two at the rail as his king-five wasn’t good enough to stand up against Aleksei Smirnov’s queen-jack which paired on the flop for a seventh-place finish for Ostrowski worth €4,900.

With these remaining six, Pyysing was still holding the fort but Josh Stewart started climbing the ladder and was looking like a strong contestant to take down the title. Someone who wasn’t as lucky was Norwegian player Vidar Assersen who lost almost all of his chips to Steponas Venckus and the hand after pushing the remains of his stack in with seven-eight under the gun but couldn’t find any luck against Aleksei Smirnov’s ace-queen. For his sixth place, Assersen walks away with €5,950. 

Going on their first break after two levels and the remaining nine minutes left on the clock from yesterday we had already lost three players and Steponas Venckus had to get something going as he had become the short stack on the table. He didn’t wait long until he looked down on ace-deuce from the big blind and decided to push them all in after a raise under the gun by Aki Pyysing. Pyysing holding pocket sevens was in good shape to terminate another player from the tournament and when the board ran out dry we sent off Steponas Venckus with €7,400 for his fifth-place finish. 

It was just about after that hand the dynamic started to change on the table. Pyysing's massive advantage in chips started to change as some of the other players gained some chips. Later on, he lost a huge pot against Aleksei Smirnov when doubling him up in a classic coin flip and all of a sudden we had a new name at the top of the leaderboard. 

The five players were then moved onto the main feature table after Event #1 €555 No-Limit Hold'em concluded. Sadly for United Kingdom's Josh Stewart, this experience didn’t last long as his king-jack didn’t hold up against Smirnov’s pocket fives and he was out on fourth place for €9,650. 

Then, after losing a big part of his stack to his fellow countryman Santtu Leinonen, Aki Pyysing suddenly was the player at risk and urgently needed a double up or two to survive on the pretty high blinds at this point. Pyysing who never played a WSOP Circuit event before had already given us plenty of action and interesting stories during the tournament but after the hits on his stack he really needed to get back up on the horse to be able to play for the golden ring. Pyysing did get one of the double-ups needed but when it was time for the other coin flip for Pyysing against Smirnov he couldn’t hit the board and was out in third place worth €13,200.

As Aleksei Smirnov from Estonia and Finland’s Santtu Leinonen reached heads-up they discussed a deal and agreed on securing €25,430 for Smirnov and €21,710 for Leinonen and €1,000 to play for apart from that desirable golden Circuit ring. Smirnov had a two-to-one advantage in chips to start with and even though they got almost even in chips near the end this was Smirnov's day. When the two got their chips in the middle in a coin flip it was almost written in the stars that the Estonian would catch the longer straw as he just seemed to have one of these days where the coinflips were in his favor. And so it was. Leinonen was eliminated in second place for €21,710 while we had our second winner here in Tallinn as Aleksei Smirnov received the audience applause as he received the huge winner check, a golden ring, and €25,430. 

A huge congratulations to all 13 players who cashed here in the second event of the 2023 World Series of Poker Circuit Tallinn and a big round of applause to our second champion so far Aleksei Smirnov. 

Event #1: €555 No-Limit Hold'em Final Table Results

Event #2: €1,100 No-Limit Hold'em attracted 109 entries to create a €104,640 prize pool. Check out all of the final table results below:

Stay tuned at OlyBet.tv as we will provide you with full coverage of the events for the rest of the week. 

Article author: Lina Olofsson
Photo credits: Elena Kask

It's over! The last hand on the final table of the €1,100 Event #2 just played out busting Finland's Santtu Leinonen from the tournament. 

The action started with Leinonen making almost a minimum raise to 130,000 from the button and after a bit of thought, Aleksei Smirnov announced he was all-in. With pretty equal stacks (1,7 vs. 1,4 in favor of Smirnov) the Finn took his time before deciding if he would call or not but eventually decided to throw in a red chip and we had a showdown: 

Leinonen:
Smirnov:

We had a classic 50/50 here. However the flop was in favor for our Estonian Smirnov. The on the turn didn't change anything and neither did the on the river and it was all over. 

After the deal made when they were heads-up Santtu Leinonen gets €21,710 for his second place. 

Just a few hands later Finnish Santtu Leinonen found a double up after looking down on when Smirnov pushes him all-in from the small blind. He instantly calls and his opponent turns over . 

The board ran out and Leinonen doubled his stack. 

Smirnov has his sight on the win that's for sure and he just took a decent part of his opponent Santtu Leinonen's chips. 

It was on the flop and 460,000 in the middle Leinonen took a chance with his and bet 150,000. Smirnov tanked for a while before he popped it up to 400,000. Leinonen didn't do much "Hollywood acting" before he threw his cards into the muck and Smirnov increased his stack further while Leinonen needs a double up to not be eaten by the blinds. 

Ukraine's Viacheslav Sultanov agreed to a heads-up deal with Poland's Lukasz Fraczek to win Event #1: €555 No-Limit Hold'em for €34,435 and the first coveted WSOP gold ring of the festival.

His friend in GGPoker Ambassador Anatoly Filatov was on his rail from the beginning until the end and assisted him with some of the English translation in the interview with WSOP Circuit Tallinn host Evely Pihela.

During the short break before we started the heads-up the two remaining players decided to even the score a little bit and made a deal on the remaining prize pool where our chip leader Aleksei Smirnov secured €25,430 and Santtu Leinonen locked up €21,710. 

With that deal made we congratulate the players on their winnings. The duo are still going to battle it out for the golden WSOPC ring and the €1,000 extra going to the winner. 

Make sure you tune into the LIVE STREAM and follow the disintegration of this raffling final. 

As we are now heads-up the player is on a short leg stretcher. 

When they come back to play for the golden WSOP Circuit ring and the €27,840 in first prize Aleksei had a 2 to 1 advantage in chips against Santtu Leinonen. Or if you prefer to count it in Big Blinds it's 43 bigs versus 22. 

Aki Pyysing came into the final table as a massive chip leader but didn't have many things going his way unfortunately these past few hours. 

Down to only 12 BB he looked down on on big blind when Aleksei Smirnov pushed him all-in from small blind. He thought for a few second and then moved his chips over the line announcing a call. His opponent Smirnov turned over and we had a classic coin flip to determinate "The Terminator's" future on this final table. 

The board ran out which was no help to our veteran Pyysing from Finland who was eliminated in third place for €13,200.

And just one hand later Aki Pyysing found that double up he so well needed. 

The money went in before the flop between him and Aleksei Smirnov and show down revealed:

Pyysing:

Smirnov:

The board ran out and Pyysing doubles up and gets some air to breathe again. 

With the blind levels now up to 25,000/50,000 and a big blind ante of 50,000 our former chip leader going into today's play, Aki Pyysing, is down to only 380,000 and desperately needs a double up since every round costs 125,000 each. 

Santtu Leinonen went all-in pre flop from the button and was called by Aki Pyysing from the big blind after a few minutes of consideration. 

Leinonen:

Pyysing:

The board ran out and Leinonen doubles to 1,2 million while our previous chip leader now finds himself as the short stack among the three players left. 

We just had our first bust out on the final table since we moved on to the feature table. 

It was pre flop the money went in between Aleksei Smirnov and Josh Stewart with the latter at risk. 

Joshua Stewart: 

Aleksei Smirnov: 

With the flop it was only two outs for Stewart to leave his hope to. The turn or the river wasn't one of them and Stewart found himself eliminated from the final table on fourth place for €9,650.

We are live on the stream which you can watch if you tune in over HERE. Which is sent with a 30-minute delay just like this blog will be to not give you any spoilers. 

In one of the first hands back, Aki Pyysing took a bit of our new chip leader Aleksei Smirnovs chips and they are almost "Even Steven" up there in the top now.

Kelly Kellner traveled from Western Canada to attend the WSOP Circuit Tallinn. Check out what he had to say in the video below:

While we wait for the live stream to go up let's have a look at the pictures from our amazing photographer from today's final table here in the €1,100 NLHE event #2. 

Santtu Leinonen

Josh Stewart

Aleksei Smirnov

Vidar Assersen

Steponas Venckus

Aki Pyysing

As the players are now moving to the feature table we have a new player in the lead of the remaining four players and that's Aleksei Smirnov with 1,250,000 in his stack. 

When the play resumes we will pop up the blinds to 20,000/40,000 (BBA 40,000). 

The 22nd level is about to end and the players will now move up to the feature table since the €555 event #1 is now finished and a winner has been announced. 

This means you will be able to watch them play live with a 30-minute delay in approximately 40-50 minutes. This also means that the blog will also be on a 30-minute delay with all the updates to not spoil anything for our amazing views and followers. 

Head over to The Live Stream to watch the resolution of this fantastic event where the winner will walk away with €27,840.

Aki Pyysing has been holding the fort steady since late last night but just took a huge hit after doubling up Aleksei Smirnov. 

Aki raised to 65,000 and Aleksei Smirnov went all-in for 500k and Pyysing made the call for what we presume was the biggest pot of the day. 

Pyysing:

Smirnov:

The flop gave Smirnov a set and not much hope for our Finnish champ and on turn a full house for Smirnov ended all possibilities for Pyysing. The river didn't change anything and Smirnov is up to a million in chips while the Terminator lost a big part of his stack. 

Check out the highlights of the 2023 WSOPC Tallinn at Olympic Park Casino and the Hilton Tallinn Park below:

Aki Pyysing raised UTG and the action was folded to Steponas Venckus in the big blind who decided to put his 155,000 in. Aki called and we had a showdown:

Pyysing:

Venckus:

The flop gave Lithuanian  Venckus a possible flush draw but no luck there and he was eliminated in 5th place for a €7,400 payout. 

The players just returned to their seats and we are now on the 22nd level of the tournament with 15,000/30,000 and BBA of another 30,000. 

On the main feature table, they are down to three players in event #1 €550 NLHE and as soon as we have a winner there we will be moving our players onto there and have it livestreamed on air with a 30-minute delay. 

Lots of action around the blinds, stealing, all-ins, and post-flop action make the chips go quickly from one player to another. But that doesn't seem to bother our chip-leader Aki Pyysing, who has been at the top since the day began.

Here's the stacks of our remaining six players: 

1. Aki Pyysing - 1,280,500
2. Joshua Stewart - 920,000
3. Santtu Leinonen - 521,000
4. Aleksei Smirnov - 390,000
5. Steponas Venckus - 155,000

The remaining five players are now off to their first break of the day. While they are away we take the chance to get their chip counts as they are also doing a color up and introducing the green chips into play which are worth 100,000 each. 

Level 21: Blinds: 10,000/25,000 (25,000)
Entries: 5/109

Steponas Venckus went all-in UTG for 190,000 and the action was folded to Aleksei Smirnov in the small blind who thought for a while until he folded but Josh Stewart didn't thing for more than a second before putting some gray chips over the line announcing a call. 

Steponas Venckus:

Josh Stewart:

The flop didn't look too nice to our player at risk but with the turn and river he managed to dodge the bullet and doubled up. 

Santtu Leinonen opened the action by tossing 55,000 in the middle from the button and second in chips Joshua Stewert defended from the big blind. 

The flop came  - Stewert checked and Leinonen bet 40,000 and again Leinonen called.
The turn didn't mean much to both players as they checked it down. But the river somehow made the Irish guy throw 200,000 from the big blind and Leinonen gave up the pot.

Finding himself with only 45,000 left after the hand against Steponas Venckus Norwegian Vidar Assersen goes all-in under the gun. Steponas Venckus raises to 100,000 and the action is folded to Aleksei Smirnov on the small blind who goes all-in for almost 400,000. Josh Stewart on big blind gets out of the way while Venckus tanks for a while until he eventually folds his hand. 

Vidar Assersen:
Aleksei Smirnov:

Steponas Venckus nods his head and says "It's a flip" which we presume means he had a middle pocket pair in his hand. 

The flop came which potentially gave the Norwegian a straight draw but the on the turn and was none of the outs he would have needed and he finished the tournament in 6th place for €5,950. 

Level: 20: Blinds: 10,000/20,000 (20,000)
Entries: 6/109

Vidar Assersen jammed his remaining 215,000 stack from the cut-off and Steponas Venckus snap-called all-in for 159,000 chips from the button. The players opened their cards on the table.

Vidar Assersen:
Steponas Venckus:

Vidar's hopes of hitting an ace were crushed on the flop as Venckus hit a set of Queens.
The turn was and the river which lead to a nice double-up for Venckus.

Here's the stacks of our remaining six players: 

1	Aki Pyysing		1,550,000	277,000
2	Joshua Stewart		810,000	237,000
3	Aleksei Smirnov		350,000	165,000
4	Santtu Leinonen		326,000	14,000
5	Steponas Venckus		201,000	122,000
6	Vidar Assersen		155,000	144,000

We've reached the 20th level in this tournament and the blinds of 10,000/15,000 with a BBA of 15,000. 

We'll be back with a more accurate chip counts from the final table now as we're down to six. 

It can surely go quickly in the game of poker and with a few short-stacked players in the lineup we all knew this could happen. 
Right after the first two eliminations it's in the battle of the blinds that Aleksei Smirnov and Dominik Ostrowski get their chips in and showdown: 

Aleksei Smirnov:
Dominik Ostrowski:

The board ran out and another one bites the dust here at the final table. 

And just like that they were down to only six players. Congratulations to Dominik Ostrowski who's rewarded €4,900 for his efforts here in Tallinn and the €1,100 NLHE event number two. 

Our shortest stack on the final table Tanel Evert was left even shorter after he had to forfeit his big blind and he was left with only 21,000 chips when action folded to him on the small blind and he put his remaining stack in the middle.  

Santtu Leinonen had an easy call on the big blind for this price.

Tanel Evert:
Santtu Leinonen:

Evert had the better hand but not for long as the flop already gave Leinonen what he needed and the , didn't change much for Evert.

Eliminated in 8th place he will take home the price of €3,750.

Manoel Filho goes all-in pre flop from UTG+1 for 91,000 and gets called by Santtu Leinonen behind with 312,000 in his stack. It folds all the way to Aki Pyysing on the big blind who puts Leinonen all-in and the Finn decides to get out of the way. 

Filho:

Pyysing:

Flop:

Turn:

River:

And just like that, we lost our first player on the final table. Manoel Filho pockets €3,050 for his 9th-place finish. 

Tournament director Teresa Nousiainen has just presented the nine final players on our secondary feature table and drawn for the button which will start on seat number six. 

Ok, people let's do this! Shuffle up and deal! 

The final 9 players remain in the battle for the ring in Event #2: €1,100 No-Limit Hold'em and only one player will take it home. Who is it going to be?

The action begins at 1:00 p.m. as players will be seated on one of the featured tables here in Tallinn.

The final table will begin at Level 18 with blinds at 6,000/12,000 along with a 12,000 big blind ante with nine minutes left on the clock.

Aki Pyysing (pictured below) sits comfortably in the chip lead with a whopping 1,273,000 stack (106 big blinds) followed by Joshua Stewert who also played in Event #1: €555  WSOPC event and starts the day in Event #2 in second place with about 48 big blinds with everyone else on the shorter side with 26 big blinds and under.

The player at the most risk is Tanel Evert who is at only 45,000 chips and will be looking to double his way through the final table.

Check out the final table seat draw and the final table payouts below:

Final Table Seat Draw

Final Table Payouts