It was a wild Thursday at Olympic Park Casino as the Kings of Tallinn Festival, ran by OlyBet, turned up the heat. The €1 million guaranteed Main Event smashed its previous entry record, but over in the cash game area, the real celebration was happening at a low-stakes Five Card Pot-Limit Omaha table.
That’s where the Bad Beat Jackpot hit in an absolutely brutal hand—though when a BBJ lands, nobody really walks away a loser.
Now in its 10th year, Kings of Tallinn continues to be a festival packed with action. The tournaments are world-class, but the cash games are just as juicy.
Quad Kings? Tough Break…
The action unfolded in a five-card PLO game, where two players got tangled in a monster cooler. Miko Männisto, with K♠K♣J♣6♦3♥, must have been feeling pretty good after making a set of kings on the K♥J♦4♦ flop, only for things to get better on the turn when the K♠ dropped.
But the river had other ideas as 9♦ rolled off, completing Klaus Gronberg‘s straight flush draw as they held Q♦10♦9♥9♠8♠, good for a king-high straight flush.
Cue the stunned silence, followed by the jackpot celebrations.
While the four-of-a-kind technically “lost” the hand, Männisto walked away with the biggest slice of the jackpot—€20,350. Gronberg collected €10,175, and every other player at the table got a €2,035 share just for being in the right place at the right time.
One of those players, Sebastian Ville-Oskari, almost missed out entirely—he had been about to switch tables but decided to play just one more hand. Talk about perfect timing.
Second Largest Bad Beat Jackpot Ever Hits — $2.2 Million
New Main Event Record as Guarantee Nears
Back in the tournament streets, the Kings of Tallinn Main Event wrapped up its Day 1 flights in record-breaking fashion. Day 1D was the busiest of the bunch, with 149 of its 352 entries advancing to today’s Day 2, while Day 1E saw 66 players move on from a field of 162 entries.
That brings the total entry count to 947, surpassing last year’s record of 914. So far, 373 players have bagged and tagged a stack, but if you’re not among them, there’s still hope—late registration remains open for the first four levels of Day 2.
Rune Brunes topped the charts in Day 1D with a stack of 279,000 to take second in the overall chip counts. Piotr Sztenkiel performed best in Day 1E, ending with 245,000.
Even this poker writer managed to squeak their way into Day 2 with an albeit more modest stack of 51,600. It was a tough day on the felt, with momentum hard to come by, especially when Ilari ‘Ziigmund’ Sahamies joined my table. The online poker legend and former High Stakes Poker player also managed to make it through Day 1D and will start with an above average 91,300.
Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Veikka Väinö Keto-Tokoi | Finland | 300,000 | 250 |
| 2 | Rune Brunes | Norway | 279,000 | 232 |
| 3 | Rauno Ratt | Estonia | 253,500 | 211 |
| 4 | Piotr Sztenkiel | Poland | 245,000 | 204 |
| 5 | Mauri Dorbek | Estonia | 229,700 | 191 |
| 6 | Richard Melby | Norway | 224,600 | 187 |
| 7 | Konstantyn Holskyi | Ukraine | 221,500 | 184 |
| 8 | Dmitri Zatsik | Estonia | 211,400 | 176 |
| 9 | Enea Subashi | Greece | 205,000 | 170 |
| 10 | Sebastian Wahl | Finland | 199,300 | 166 |
Gisle Olsen Triumphs in the PLO 4/5/6 Card Event for a Career-Best €52,280
Denmark’s Gisle Olsen will forever fondly look back at the 2025 Kings of Tallinn festival because it is where they recorded their first live poker tournament victory. Olsen navigated his way through a 271-strong field in the €1,100 Pot-Limit Omaha 4/5/6 card event and scooped €52,280 of the €252,030 prize pool. Olsen’s haul represents a career-best score and takes his lifetime earnings to over $510,000.
The seven-handed final table was a Scandinavian and Nordic affair, with one Dane, a player from Sweden, a Norwegian, and four Finnish grinders present and correct.
The Norwegian was none other than Tobias Leknes, the online poker mixed game genius who plays at PokerStars under the “Senkel92” alias, where he has captured 13 World Championship Of Online Poker (WCOOP) titles. There would be no live victory in this event for Leknes because he bowed out in seventh, much to the delight of his former table mates.
Sixth place and the first five-figure prize of the final table wen to Finland’s Kristian Kostiander. You may recall that Kostiander won the €1,650 Patrick Antonius Poker Challenge Main Event in Tallinn in April 2022 for a career-best €70,050. That win came at the same venue that’s hosting the 2025 Kings of Tallinn festival!
Remarkably, fifth-place finisher Jussi Matilla finished second in the Patrik Antonius Poker Challenge Main Event, meaning he was sharing this final table with a familiar face. The €14,400 Matilla collected in this event was the 21st five-figure score of his career.
Another Finn, Frederik Lindstrom, busted in fourth for €18,600, his first Kings of Tallinn cash. The PLO4/5/6 Card event progressed to heads-up soon after when Alexander Norden was cut down in third for €24,500. Norden’s latest haul pushed his live tournament earnings through the $500,000 barrier.
Heads-up saw Olsen take on Tero Laurila, the reigning Irish Open champion. The one-on-one clash could have gone either way, but it was Olsen who came out on top and clinched the €52,280 top prize, a new carer-high. Laurila headed into the night with the €34,350 consolation prize in tow.
€1,100 PLO4/5 Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gisle Olsen | Denmark | €52,280 |
| 2 | Tero Laurila | Finland | €34,350 |
| 3 | Alexander Norden | Sweden | €24,500 |
| 4 | Fredrik Lindström | Finland | €18,600 |
| 5 | Jussi Mattila | Finland | €14,400 |
| 6 | Kristian Kostiander | Finland | €11,250 |
| 7 | Tobias Leknes | Norway | €8,650 |
Other winners
While Olsen was marching onto victory in the €1,100 PLO 4/5/6 Card event, four other Kings of Tallinn attendees were striding towards win in other events.
Samuel Saariaho turned €200 into €8,689 in the No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed event, while Tarjei Forus will forever be known as the €350 PLO 4/5/6 Card PKO champion, an accolade that also came with €6,210. Forus won a €150 PLO 4/5 card event at the 2024 WSOPC Tallinn festival last July.
Ville-Tapio Mesiranta’s second recorded live score is also his first outright victory. The Finn won the €200 Pot-Limit Sökö Nullo, outlasting 76 opponents to collect €3,30.
Last but not least, a shout-out to Henri Kettunen, who took down the €555 No-Limit Hold’em for €13,645. This was only Kettunnen’s second cash since June 2023, but it was worth the wait.
Kings of Tallinn Remaining Schedule
2025 Kings of Tallinn Results
| Event | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| €200 NLH Deepstack | 319 | €50,434 | Timo Tamminen | €10,260 |
| €350 Kings of Tallinn Cup | 455 | €131,177 | Stanislav Smeljov | €26,100 |
| €150 PLO 4/5/6 Mix | 209 | €25,268 | Andreas Backlund | €5,228 |
| €200 OFC Pineapple | 87 | €13,755 | Artem Berliand | €4,035 |
| €200 NLH Progressive Bounty | 221 | €17,260 | Enea Subashi | €2,920 |
| €200 NLH/PLO 4/5 | 204 | €32,252 | Olaf Larssen | €6,880 |
| €350 HORSE | 89 | €25,659 | Antti Suominen | €7,510 |
| €200 NLH Deepstack | 224 | €35,414 | Cato Vonheim | €6,895 |
| €200 PL 7 Card Stud/7 Card Stud Hi-Lo | 56 | €8,854 | Jason Glatzer | €3,010 |
| €200 NLH Progressive Bounty | 230 | €17,963 | Henri Schalin | €3,070 |
| €350 Dealer’s Choice (Hi Only) | 77 | €22,199 | Olli-Pekka Huuskonen | €6,640 |
| €350 8-Game | 98 | €28,253 | Niko Heikkinen | €8,300 |
| €200 NLH Estonian Independence Day Special | 338 | €53,438 | Elias Jalovaara | €10,840 |
| €200 NLH/PLO 4/5 | 92 | €14,545 | Sebastian Wahl | €4,275 |
| €555 Kings of Tallinn Championship | 710 | €330,150 | Benyamin Canatan | €66,050 |
| The Royal Showdown (Restricted) | 12 | €2,500 | Karl Karlsson/Juha Helppi | €1,000 |
| €350 OFC Pinapple Championship | 106 | €30,560 | Siarhei Narozhny | €8,980 |
| €555 Mystery Bounty | 197 | €91,605 | Robert Kaggerud | €16,045 |
| €150 NLH Turbo | 212 | €25,631 | Aleksi Roine | €5,470 |
| €200 PL Razz | 67 | €10,593 | Blaz Zerjav | €3,190 |
| €200 NLH Royal Challenge | 330 | €52,173 | Vilius Zabarauskas | €10,610 |
| €5,000 High Roller | 58 | €264,480 | Kestutis Jungevicius | €90,380 |
| €200 NLH Progressive Bounty | 384 | €29,990 | Juho Suutari | €4,650 |
| € 200 PL 2-7 Triple Draw | 70 | €11,067 | Elias Suhonen | €3,317 |
| €1,100 PLO 4/5 Card Championship | 271 | €252,030 | Gisle Olsen | €52,280 |
| €200 NLH 8-Handed | 273 | €43,161 | Samuel Saariaho | €8,689 |
| €350 PLO4/5/6 Progressive Bounty | 191 | €35,965 | Tarjei Forus | €6,210 |
| €200 PL Sökö Nullo | 77 | €12,174 | Ville-Tapio Mesiranta | €3,330 |
| €555 NLH | 115 | €53,475 | Henri Kettunen | €13,645 |
Images courtesy of Elena Kask/Kings of Tallinn
Senior Editor & Live Events Executive