Last night’s winner of the €350 Open-face Chinese, Riku Koivurinne, just returned to the Hilton Tallinn Park Hotel after what hopefully was a good night’s rest. He took his winner’s picture with the trophy, and before he jumped into the €555 PLO4/5 Ring Event, he was kind enough to give poker.pro five minutes for a small chat.
Rumors has it Koivurinne arrived later than expected to Tallinn yesterday on account of traffic in Helsinki to the ferry. Allegedly, his plan was to play the €350 Mini Main Event after he busted the OFC. “Yet, I won the last OFC tournament I played, so you never know”, he added at the end of the quote, and now, here we are.
As insane as this sounds, yesterday’s heads-up duel against Fabian Bartuschk was actually a repeat of the €350 Open-face Chinese event during the 2025 Irish Poker Open. Koivurinne got the best of his German opponent on both occasions:
“I kind of felt a little bad for Fabian both here and in Dublin because I ran really good. I really enjoy OFC; it’s a really fun game, you don’t have to stress, you just play your game and have a chat with the other players. It’s very enjoyable.”
Considering this poker.pro reporter is very novice when it comes to OFC, I curiously asked Koivurinne about the variance in the game:
“People feel like OFC is a high-variance game, but in my opinion it’s on the lower side; especially if the structure is as good as it was here.”
It’s safe to say the Finn is a worthy OFC winner. He’s spent time studying the game and playing a lot online, which may not always be the case with all Mixed Games players. OFC isn’t the only discipline Koivurinne is prominent in, though; during the 2024 WSOP Circuit Tallinn, he won his first Circuit Ring when he emerged victorious in the €1,100 PLO4/5. When asked what event he’s looking forward to the most this coming week, he can’t decide whether it’s the €1,100 8-Game or the €555 Sviten. Luckily, the schedule allows him to play both tournaments.
At the end of our talk, Koivurinnen has a message to all 2025 WSOP Circuit Tallinn players:
“Play the Mixed Games. They’re a lot of fun and, in my opinion, the most enjoyable forms poker. It’s because the Mixed Games players are always good people and are in it for the fun.”
It’ll be exciting to follow Koivurinnen’s progress this week, and perhaps, he’ll claim his second WSOP Circuit Ring.
