Tobias Revenas Bags the Day 1a Chip Lead of the Coolbet Open Main Event
Day 1a of the Coolbet Open Main Event hosted by Olympic Park Casino and Hilton Tallinn Park was a huge success with 130 entrants ponying up the �550 buy-in.
This represents a larger turnout than the 104 entrants that participated in Day 1a of the first Coolbet Open in May and more than the 113 entrants in Day 1a of the second Coolbet Open in October. Tomorrow's action is expected to be much bigger for the second and final opening flight with many players sharing they plan to enter or in some cases re-enter the event.
Players kicked off today's deep-stacked action with 30,000 in chips and competed for nine blinds levels of 45 minutes each. Those bagging chips will enjoy an even deeper structure for Day 2 and Day 3 on May 10-11 with 60-minute blind levels.
Sweden's Tobias Revenas was easily the star of the day after bagging a huge stack of 293,500 in chips. He was among the chip leaders midway through the day after eliminating two opponents with pocket kings against ace-deuce and nine-seven of spades on a four-three-six flop with two spades.
Also bagging big stacks on Day 1a were United Kingdom's Barry Cobb (second - 171,800), Estonia's Ottomar Ladva (third - 156,300), Finland's Teemu Salminen (fourth - 145,000), and Norway's Espen Sandvik (fifth - 137,000).
These were obviously not the only players to bag chips as 64 players from the Day 1a field will advance to Day 2. Among the notable players to advance was Estonian national team ice hockey goalie Villem-Henrik Koitmaa. Koitmaa was noticeably inexperienced with several players helping him with the rules as the game went on.
"I haven't played in eight years," shared Koitmaa. "Also, I have never played for money."
Koitmaa eventually was poised as the game went on and bagged the seventh biggest stack of 113,800 in chips while also being responsible for sending Martin "Franke" von Zweigbergk to the rail.
Luck was not on Von Zweigbergk's side. He was not successful in bagging a stack despite firing five bullets into Day 1a of the Main Event.
Also having a rough go today was Coolbet Founder Jan Svendsen who didn't find a bag despite firing three bullets today.
Day 1b of the Main Event will kick off at 1 p.m. EEST tomorrow with many new players and many of the same players from today that were unable to survive.
As was the case today, the PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the floor to provide complete coverage tomorrow and beyond until a winner is declared.
*Photos courtesy of Natalie Black/Coolbet Open.