button in SafariRobin Vanloot Continues Stellar WSOPC Tallinn by Bagging Big on Day 1b of Main Event
The second of five starting flights of the WSOP Circuit Tallinn €1,500 Main Event is in the books. Day 1b attracted a field of 224 entries to the Hilton Tallinn Park Hotel & Olympic Park Casino, nearly double the number of Day 1a. The first two starting days collected nearly half of the guaranteed €1,000,000 prize pool, which seems likely to be broken as Day 1c is ongoing at the time of writing with a field of 50 entries, and Day 1d and Day 1e are scheduled for July 30.
At the end of the night, 34 players were able to bag and tag their chips, all having secured a spot in the money by making it to Day 2. The final player to depart was Nicolas Bacigalupe, who fell on the stone bubble to mark Day 1b's completion.
Meanwhile, Baptiste Caim was one of the players who profited the most from the bubble dynamics, becoming the first and so far only player to bring a seven-figure stack to Day 2 by bagging a whopping 1,098,000. Caim is followed by fellow French native Robin Vanloot. Vanloot already has a final table under his belt this week, having finished in third place in the massive €350 Mini Main for €25,200. With 961,000 in his possession, Vanloot will be looking to improve on that score with a deep run in the Main Event.
End of Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baptiste Caim | France | 1,098,000 |
| 2 | Robin Vanloot | France | 961,000 |
| 3 | Jussi Julkunen | Finland | 796,000 |
| 4 | Deividas Butnoras | Lithuania | 703,000 |
| 5 | Simone Fumagalli | Italy | 605,000 |
| 6 | Martin Studzinski | Norway | 556,000 |
| 7 | Timmy Anker | Denmark | 538,000 |
| 8 | Rasmus Nielsen | Denmark | 468,000 |
| 9 | Dmitri Dudakov | Estonia | 444,000 |
| 10 | Patrick Pedersen | Norway | 410,000 |
Dmitri Dudakov ended up as the highest-placed hometown player, while fellow Estonian grinder Tarmo Tammel survived a scare on the bubble to make Day 2 with 173,000. Vanloot's fellow Mini Main finalists Jarmo Salonen and Martin Piik also survived Day 1b, although with 157,000 and 88,000 to their names, they will be among the shorter stacks at the start of Day 2.
Defending champion Jenny Westerlund fired another bullet on Day 1b without any success, being eliminated early in the day. Her heads-up opponent Krzysztof Chmielowski stuck around for much longer, but fell only a few places before the bubble. Other notable eliminations on Day 1b include Igor Pihela, Mathias Siljander, David Docherty, and Georgios Skarparis.
If they want to make it to Day 2, they will have to try again tomorrow, July 30, as the final two starting flights are scheduled. Day 1d kicks off at noon local time and will follow the same structure as Day 1a and Day 1b, playing 40-minute levels throughout the day, with 12 levels of late registration, until 15 percent of the field has been reached. Day 1e provides players with a final shot at glory, starting at 6 p.m. with 30-minute levels.
PokerNews will be back on the floor tomorrow, so make sure to tune back in to find out how big the WSOPC Tallinn Main Event will grow.