Mathias Siljander Bags the Chip Lead on Day 1 of the Tallinn Summer Showdown Main Event
The third edition of the Tallinn Summer Showdown �1,100 Main Event hosted by Olympic Park Casino and Hilton Tallinn Park can already be labeled a success with 168 entrants ponying up the �1,100 buy-in.
This is already three more than the record turnout of 165 entrants last year with players still allowed to late register and reenter until the start of the second blind level of Friday's Day 2.
Players began today's deep-stacked action with 30,000 in chips and battled it out for eight hour-long blinds levels.
More than half of today's field survived today's action with 85 players joining those that late register tomorrow. Finnish players are thus far dominating the top of the chip counts with nine out of the twelve players that bagged at least 100,000 in chips coming from Finland including the Day 1 chip leader Mathias Siljander with 241,900.
Siljander captured the chip lead midway through the day after he won a big hand with kings against the ace-queen held by Masse Mirza.
Closest on Siljander's tail are Tapio Vihakas (209,200), Riko Piiroinen (166,800), Kelly Limonova (137,600), and Jussi Mattila (137,000). With two hours left to play and sitting on a stack of around 40,000, Mattila announced to all those within listening distance that he was going to bag exactly 137,000. Mattila had slightly more than this but lost a few chips before the end of the day.
Day 1 Chip Leaders
| Place | Name | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mathias Siljander | Finland | 241,900 |
| 2 | Tapio Vihakas | Finland | 209,200 |
| 3 | Riko Piiroinen | Finland | 166,800 |
| 4 | Kelly Limonova | Estonia | 137,600 |
| 5 | Jussi Mattila | Finland | 137,000 |
| 6 | Antti Karkkainen | Finland | 134,500 |
| 7 | Peter Warfvinge | Sweden | 115,100 |
| 8 | Jaakko Rajaniemi | Finland | 110,400 |
| 9 | Johan Palokangas | Finland | 103,800 |
| 10 | Matias Knaapinen | Finland | 103,100 |
Notable players outside the top ten to bag chips into Day 2 include Aki Pyysing (100,000), Ranno Sootla (77,000), Sami Pulliainen (56,500), Markku Koplimaa (52,700), Jari Hurri (43,200), Sebastian Wahl (39,300), Daragh Davey (32,200), and Espen Uhlen Jorstad (22,300).
Day 2 of the Tallinn Summer Showdown Main Event will kick off at 12 p.m. local time tomorrow with blinds at 500/1,000 and a big blind ante of 1,000. PokerNews will post starting seat assignments before the action resumes.
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.
*Images courtesy of Elena Kask / Tallinn Summer Showdown.