2025 Kings of Tallinn Day 8: Gisle Olsen Wins PLO Championship & Bad Beat Jackpot Triggered

News provided by Poker.Pro
Gisle Olsen Wins 2025 Kings of Tallinn PLO Championship

It was another amazing day at the 2025 OlyBet Kings of Tallinn as it celebrates its glorious decade of history with a 64-event celebration at Olympic Park Casino and the Hilton Tallinn Park.

Denmark’s Gisle Olsen dazzled in front of the lights and cameras of the TV table to defeat a record field of 271 entries to win the €52,280 top prize, his largest cash to date according to The Hendon Mob.

Four other players found gold on Thursday including Finland’s Samuel Saariaho winning Event #40: €200 NLH 8-handed for €8,680, Norway’s Tarjei Forus shipped Event #41: €350 PLO4/PLO5/PLO6 Progressive Bounty for €6,210 plus bounties, Ville-Tapio Mesiranta hoisted the trophy in Event #42: €200 PL Sökö Nullo for €3,330, and Henri Kettunen won Event #43: €555 NLH for €13,645.

The cash games on the casino floor were packed. While the atmosphere was already electric, it picked up a notch when the bad beat jackpot was triggered. Klaus G nailed a straight flush in five-card Omaha and won the hand and an additional €10,175 from the jackpot. Miko M had an amazing hand with quad kings and was thrilled that he didn’t win the pot as this meant he earned the top bad beat jackpot prize of €20,350. Five other players at the table each earned €2,035 with one player nearly missing out as he was about to leave before deciding to play one final hand.

Bad Beat Jackpot Triggered at 2025 Kings of Tallinn
Bad Beat Jackpot Triggered at 2025 Kings of Tallinn

Read on to learn more about Day 8 of the 2025 Kings of Tallinn at Olympic Park Casino and the Hilton Tallinn Park, or click on the links below to read about the event.

15 Years in the Making: Gisle Olsen Dominates Final Table of Record-Breaking Kings of Tallinn PLO Championship for First-Ever Trophy (€52,280)

The Kings of Tallinn €1,100 PLO Championship broke all records by attracting a field of 271 entries. After two days of play, only Gisle Olsen was left standing, hoisting the trophy. Having lost five heads-up battles in his long career, this marks Olsen’s first-ever recorded live tournament victory. The Danish player, whose first recorded cash stems from 2010, was awarded €52,280 for his efforts, a new all-time best score.

Gisle Olsen

Olsen started the final table in the middle of the pack but quickly rose to the top as he wrapped up the final table in under 90 minutes of play. The last hurdle on his way to victory was heads-up opponent Tero Laurilla, who only lasted a few hands in the duel and had to console himself with the runner-up prize of €34,350.

Meanwhile, 2019 Main Event finalist Jussi Mattila finished in fifth for €14,400, while start-of-day chipleader Tobias Leknes was the first to bow out from the final table, receiving €8,650 for his seventh place.

€1,100 PLO4/PLO5 Championship Results

Place Player Prize
1 Gisle Olsen €52,280
2 Tero Laurila €34,350
3 Alexander Holmberg €24,500
4 Fredrik Lindstrom €18,600
5 Jussi Mattila €14,400
6 Kristian Kostiander €11,250
7 Tobias Leknes €8,650
8 Jyri Merivirta €6,650
9 Aklilu Laitinen €6,650
10 Renars Skanis €5,000
11 Hans Holst €5,000
12 Mikael Koistinen €3,950
13 Henrik Puija €3,950
14 Frederik Brink €3,950
15 Mathias Siljander €3,350
17 Espen Sandvik €3,350
18 Jonas Juhlen €2,950
19 Jussi Perlinen €2,950
20 Michal Danka €2,600
21 Joakim Brochard €2,600
22 Riku Piiroinen €2,600
23 Seppo Parkkinen €2,600
24 Kai Lehto €2,350
25 Tobias Napel €2,350
26 Juha Helppi €2,350
27 Teemu Toikkanen €2,350
28 Tran Xuan €2,350
29 Minh Thang Ngo €2,350
30 Jarkko Suokas €2,100
31 Ranno Sootla €2,100
32 Vivian Saliba €2,100
33 Niko Heikkinen €2,100
34 Filip Jambresic €2,100
35 Michal Rudnik €2,100
final table

Day 2 Action

At the start of Day 2, 52 players remained, all eyeing a piece of the €252,030 prize pool. However, such luck was only reserved for the top 35 finishers, meaning 17 players had to leave the field empty-handed. Sebastian Wahl was the first casualty of the day, and he was soon followed by the likes of Mystery Bounty winner Robert Kagerud and Pot-Limit Razz champion Blaz Zerjav.

Igor Pihela Jr. busted five spots from the money, and, after about an hour and a half of play, the bubble burst as Mikael Haapaniemi was eliminated in 36th before the tournament even went hand-for-hand.

Min-cashes were picked up by Vivian Saliba (32nd – €2,100) and first-ever Kings of Tallinn Main Event champion Ranno Sootla (31st – €2,100). Sootla’s fellow Tallinn royalty Juha Helppi (26th – €2,350) and Kai Lehto (24th – €2,340) picked up some pay jumps, while Espen Sandvik (17th – €3,350) and Mathias Siljander (16th – €3,350) waved goodbye at the final three tables. The best Estonian player was Henrik Puija, who finished in 13th place for €3,950.

Henrik Puija

After three levels of play with two tables, the short-stacked Jyri Merivirta was eliminated in eighth place, setting the final table of seven in stone. Leknes had lost a big pot just before the start of the final table, leaving him as the shortest stack. He tried to claw back, but his fate as seventh-place finisher was sealed when he jammed into the flush of Fredrik Lindstrom.

Kristian Kostiander (6th – €11,250) soon followed after losing out on a chop pot thanks to a flushy river. It was at this point that Olsen started to heat up. First, he eliminated Matilla in a preflop confrontation before winning a big pot from a bluffing Lindstrom.

Lindstrom was left short after the encounter with Olsen. The double-suited aces he was dealt looked like a promising way out of the hole, but Laurila’s kings turned quads to eliminate Lindstrom in fourth instead, receiving €18,600.

Fredrik Lindström

Not much later, Olsen cracked the kings of Alexander Holmberg to eliminate him in third for €24,500. Olsen started the heads-up with about three times as many chips as Laurila and finished the job within a couple of hands. Olsen got it in with aces preflop against the queens of Laurila. Olsen made a set on the flop and turned a full house to win the tournament without much of a sweat, ending a 15-year-long drought.

Event #40: €200 NLH 8-Handed Payouts

Place Player Country Prize
1 Samuel Saariaho Finland €8,680
2 Toni Vuolle Finland €5,930
3 Siim Niido Estonia €4,200
4 Miska Vihervuori Finland €3,130
5 Thomas Rott Norway €2,400
6 Dmitri Damaskin Estonia €1,860
7 Kare Hallamaa Finland €1,480
8 Peder Behr Sweden €1,200
9 Jerry Villa Finland €1,011
10 Richard Bauer Germany €850
11 Mindaugas Grigaitis Lithuania €850
12 Roope Keminen Finland €740
13 Arto Lehtonen Finland €740
14 Viktors Caikins Latvia €660
15 Joel Haapio Finland €660
16 Joonas Laamanen Finland €590
17 Alex Heinonen Finland €590
18 Ziga Klopcic Slovenia €530
19 Sampo Aalto Finland €530
20 Evaldas Katinas Lithuania €530
21 Athanasios Kostouros Greece €480
22 Eriks Krumins Latvia €480
23 Roope Tarmi Finland €480
24 Tim Van Kemenade Netherlands €440
25 Tarmo Tammel Estonia €440
26 Mehdi Saidi France €440
27 Valentin Francois France €440
28 Sarah Link Germany €400
29 Anton Askolin Finland €400
30 Pertti Salakari Finland €400
31 Tobias Lundgren Sweden €400
32 Ahmet Canatan Denmark €400
33 Kalle Toivonen Finland €400
34 Constantin Lau France €400

Event #41: €350 PLO4/PLO5/PLO6 Progressive Bounty Results

Place Player Country Prize
1 Tarjei Forus Norway €6,210
2 Veli-Pekka Penttinen Finland €6,210
3 Barrie Dear United Kingdom €4,190
4 Ricardas Vymeris Lithuania €3,050
5 Tobias Napel Norway €2,250
6 Rustam Havryliuk Ukraine €1,770
7 Kim-Erik Pihl Finland €1,385
8 Jack Karadas Norway €1,100
9 Hans Fernkvist Sweden €1,100
10 Joona Nyholm Finland €890
11 Michel Leibgorin France €890
12 Henri Ojala Finland €730
13 Henrik Puija Estonia €730
14 Martti Ojala Finland €730
15 Darren Floyd Ireland €610
16 Marko Voutilainen Finland €610
17 Teemu Toikkanen Finland €610
18 Lee Horton United Kingdom €530
19 Frank Stüken Germany €530
20 Tomasz Gluszko Poland €460
21 Nikolay Ponomarev United Kingdom €460
22 Connor Oakley United Kingdom €460
23 Tomas Szabo Slovakia €460

Event #42 €200 PL Sökö Nullo Results

Place Player Country Prize
1 Ville-Tapio Mesiranta Finland €3,330
2 Jukka Ylitalo Finland €2,730
3 Jari Mähönen Finland €1,710
4 Jyri Merivirta Finland €1,250
5 Timo Lehikoinen Finland €910
6 John Carroll Ireland €750
7 Santtu Leinonen Finland €610
8 Artturi Hannula Finland €490
9 Jari Kalenius Finland €394

Event #43: €555 NLH Results

Place Player Country Prize
1 Henri Kettunen Finland €13,645
2 Daniel Mccormack United Kingdom €9,200
3 Luka Sorainen Finland €6,390
4 Sondre Stormyr Norway €4,650
5 Morten Norland Norway €3,580
6 Gisle Olsen Denmark €2,810
7 Tobias Leknes Norway €2,300
8 Nils Linden Sweden €1,930
9 Andreas Werner Sweden €1,630
10 Mantas Liachauskas Lithuania €1,390
11 Ernestas Stalemekas Lithuania €1,390
12 Eriks Krumins Latvia €1,210
13 Noelia Ivars Rico Sweden €1,210
14 Juha Nikkola Finland €1,070
15 Isak Bergström Sweden €1,070

2025 Kings of Tallinn Schedule Day 9 (Friday, Feb. 28)

Friday will boast a busy start with hundreds of players battling on Day 2 of the Main Event starting at Noon with late registration remaining open until around 4:30 p.m.

Two trophies will be awarded on Friday in the €200 NLH Progressive Bounty at 3 p.m. and the €150 NLH/PLO4/PLO5 Turbo at 10 p.m.

In addition, two multi-day events kick off on Friday including the €555 PL Sviten Championship at 5 p.m. and the €1,100 NLH DeepStack Progressive Bounty at 8 p.m.

Check out Thursday’s schedule below or head to the OlyBetEvents.com landing page to see the full schedule and more.

Time Event
12:00 Event #25: €1,100 Kings of Tallinn Main Event Day 2
15:00 Event #46: €200 NLH Progressive Bounty
17:00 Event #47: €555 PL Sviten Championship Day 1
19:00 Event #48: €150 Satellite to €3,000 NLH (3 Seats GTD)
20:00 Event #49: €1,100 NLH DeepStack Progressive Bounty Day 1
22:00 Event #50: €150 NLH/PLO4/PLO5 Turbo

*Images (other than bad beat jackpot) courtesy of Elena Kask

Poker journalist Jason Glatzer boasts more than a decade in experience in poker media and operations. He is well-known in Europe for providing quality reporting, editorial, and commentating at a wide variety of events from around the world including at all major events at our flagship venue Olympic Park Casino

Related