Welcome Chesterfield Poker Club, Welcome to Betsafe’s The Festival Weekend in Tallinn!
For the first time in history, The Festival Weekend powered by Betsafe arrived in Tallinn. The Chesterfield Poker Club is hosting this event and we are extremely happy to be here! Come and join in on the fun while it lasts until April 26th!
Day 1: A Promising Kick-Off
On Day 1, the first day of this ‘mini event’, we saw the 250 euro Main Event being kicked off with a whopping total of 47 entries. A very nice start, where six players eventually made it through to Day 2, and secured themselves the mincash of 500 euros. On top of that, the chip leader got a 125 ticket as well. Among these six players, was Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk as well, he went through with 267,000. Harry Liimal went through with 353,000 as the chip leader.
Big O Delivers a Big Prize (ADDED Package!)
The Big O event was the first event where an added package was on the line for the winner. Besides the cool first prize money, Robert Relander got hold of the 1,600 euro package for The Festival Series Rozvadov (June 6-16).
Day 2: Main Event Day 1b Heats Up
On the second day (out of four) of the event, it was time for Main Event Day 1b. Koen Roos, Flaghunter by profession, eventually took the chip lead. But to say the least, it was with a bit of luck in the end! He managed to survive when he was at risk with A9s versus a pair of Kings. The flop showed trip nines for Koen, and the rest was history. Besides the chip leader bonus of 125 euro, he takes the overall chiplead as well in the Main Event with a total of 379,000 chips.
The Star of the Day: Meelis Ahman
But in all honesty, this wasn’t the top news of yesterdaty. Meelis Ahman, very well-known in the Estonian poker community, dominated the entire field by a mile. As a writer of this article, I can say that I have experienced his way to victory with my own eyes, as well as with my own cards. He first got a massive double-up when he won with K8cc against Q7cc, when the board had two clubs on there and a seven, the river gave a flush, but for Meelis it was the higher flush.
Aces Hold and the Field Falls
Not too much later, he busted out two players in the same hand when he was holding Aces and it went all-in preflop. Yours sincerely, had AJo and Rikard Relander had AQs. At the final table, he dominated the entire field and had big piles of knockout chips in front of him. We asked him several questions about his road to victory in the 52-player field, winning The Festival Rozvadov package, and the Estonian poker community.
Meelis: "Sometimes you're not happy, next moment you're laughing — that's poker, that's life."
One of the defining moments for Meelis in his recent poker run at the Betsafe Festival Weekend came with a K8-suited hand — a key spot that shifted the momentum in his favour. “After that, at the beginning of the final table, I had about 60% of all the chips,” he says. “It was easy grinding because of all the important flips I won as well. Played really aggressively and every time I was ahead on the river, and that’s important.”
Talking about the bounty format, Meelis is clear: “This is a format you have to play the wide range and flip for the bounties and get lucky on the important spots.” And it worked out big — from a €2,000 bounty prize pool, he cashed out around €1,100, on TOP of the usual prize money which was also around €1,000. “Which is amazing.”
The event took place in Chesterfield, a location Meelis genuinely appreciates. “In my opinion, a very nice place and I like it. I like that they have all different kinds of Festivals that are banned from the other locations in Tallinn.” He also gives props to Betsafe for organizing an event that truly brings in the locals: “It’s very nice because it gets the local players in due to the low affordable buy-ins. Players can't afford to buy into €550 tournaments every week, it needs to remain affordable. They’ve managed to get new players to poker and it’s a really fancy place, so it’s really fingers crossed that they can stay here for a very long time.”
Looking ahead, Meelis has his sights on The Festival in Rozvadov. “I was first thinking like where in Estonia is the place Rozvadov because I had never heard about it... I’m really in the dark about that as I have no idea where Rozvadov is located.” But that’s not stopping him — with a WinTV package the weekend before and then the full Festival package after, he’s got two full weeks of poker coming up in June.
Reflecting on the Estonian poker community, Meelis gets a bit philosophical: “It’s an easy question it seems, but it’s hard to answer. People come together often, have good times, many different faces, sometimes they are not happy and the next moment they are laughing around. But that’s life. Mostly it's the fun people that make the community.”
And for him, it all peaks at one time of year: “One of the big things — Estonian Tourney Poker Federation Summer Days — everyone from all around Estonia get together for a weekend of good times. This is the best time of the year.”
Join the Action Tonight!
Come join us for the final flights of the Main Event tonight at Chesterfield Poker Club! Two flights are happening today for the Main Event, and we have the Friday Midnight Madness later on in the evening! It’s Friday night, folks! Let’s go!
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