The luxurious Bombay High Stakes Week is approaching its grand finale, and while the €25,000 Main Event, which wrapped on Saturday, carried the name “Main Event”, it was in name only. The true centerpiece of the series began on Tuesday: the ultra-exclusive €10,000 Bombay Anniversary Invitational with a €1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.
Hosted under the elegant roof of the Bombay Club in Tallinn, yesterday was a special day for poker in the Estonian capital. The Anniversary Event brought together some of the biggest high-rollers in the game for a three-day affair like really no other.
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The €10,000 Anniversary Invitational isn’t your average tournament. Entry was available only through personal invitation or by early registration to the aforementioned €25,000 Main Event. With the tournament capped at just 64 players, it’s one of the most exclusive (and valuable) fields ever assembled in Northern Europe.
By the end of Day 1, a total of 86 entries were recorded with 45 unique players and the help of 41 re-entries. Incredibly, there’s only a €183,000 overlay remaining to reach the €1,000,000 guarantee, but that means there’s still value left on the table.
With late registration and re-entry still open until the first hand of Day 2 at 14:00 local time, we expect a few more heroes to take their shot and edge closer to that juicy seven-figure prize pool.
Ardo Hanschmidt Bags the Big Stack
Of the 86 entries, 27 players survived the action and will return for Day 2. Estonian entrepreneur Ardo Hanschmidt is at the top of the leaderboard, having turned his 30,000 starting stack into a massive 254,000.
Hanschmidt might not be your household name in poker circles, as he has just three recorded live cashes, including a third-place finish in a €330 Turbo Event at EPT Monte Carlo 2010 and a couple of deep runs at the Estonian Championships. But he can change everything with the performance in the Bombay Anniversary event.
Behind him sits a much more familiar name in Estonian poker, Taago Tamm. With over a quarter of a million dollars in live earnings and multiple wins in OlyBet events, Tamm is bringing 170,000 chips into Day 2. Most recently, he came heartbreakingly close to his first WSOP Circuit Ring, finishing runner-up in the €555 PLO4/PLO5 event at WSOP Circuit Tallinn to Andria Gogelidze.
Close behind the top two stacks are Maltese entrepreneur Andre Scerri who secured third place with 167,000 chips, and one of the stars of this year’s WSOP Main Event, Mounir Tajiou, who bagged 164,500 to sit in fourth. The founder of the No Filter Poker continues to make waves on the live scene.
Norwegian businessman Morten Klein, one of the most active players throughout the entire week, finished the day with 140,000, putting him in sixth place. Right behind him is Germany’s Robert Heidorn, who followed up his Fast Bounty victory by bagging 135,000 in this one.
And rounding out the top ten is none other than poker legend Phil Ivey, who quietly worked his way to a 93,400 stack as he eyes yet another deep run in a high-stakes event.
Bobmay High Stakes Week – €10,000 Bombay Anniversary Invitational Day 1 Chip Stacks
| Place | Player | Country | Stack | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Ardo Hanschmidt | Estonia | 254,000 | 169 |
| 2 | Taago Tamm | Estonia | 170,000 | 113 |
| 3 |  Andre Scerri | Malta | 167,000 | 111 |
| 4 |  Mounir Tajiou | Sweden | 164,500 | 109 |
| 5 |  Bogdan Capitan | Romania | 149,000 | 99 |
| 6 |  Morten Klein | Norway | 140,000 | 93 |
| 7 |  Robert Alexander Heidorn | Germany | 135,000 | 90 |
| 8 |  Jelle Moene | Netherlands | 124,000 | 82 |
| 9 | Kevin Paque | Netherlands | 122,000 | 81 |
| 10 |  Phil Ivey | United States | 93,400 | 62 |
| 11 |  Aleksej Ponakovs | Latvia | 93,000 | 62 |
| 12 | George Bogdan Ana | Romania | 92,000 | 61 |
| 13 |  Anonymous | France | 85,600 | 57 |
| 14 |  Robert John Parker | Ireland | 80,500 | 53 |
| 15 | Markkos Ladev | Estonia | 80,500 | 53 |
| 16 | David Jeffrey Chen | United States | 80,000 | 53 |
| 17 | Anonymous | Estonia | 72,500 | 48 |
| 18 | Ragnar Toompere | Estonia | 68,000 | 45 |
| 19 | Teun Mulder | Netherlands | 67,500 | 45 |
| 20 | Karlo Kivi | Estonia | 63,500 | 42 |
| 21 | Bamdad Garzin | Estonia | 57,500 | 38 |
| 22 | Ottomar Ladva | Estonia | 50,000 | 33 |
| 23 |  Ville-Petteri Wahlbeck | Finland | 48,500 | 32 |
| 24 | Kayhan Mokri | Norway | 30,000 | 20 |
| 25 | Samer Mohammed Kiki | United States | 30,000 | 20 |
| 26 | Joel Johannes Alexander | Sweden | 27,000 | 18 |
| 27 |  Svetlana Aubakirova | Kazakhstan | 21,000 | 14 |
One More Shot at Glory
Also launching today at 18:00 is the €25,000 Grande Finale, a two-day event that will also wrap on August 7. While the Anniversary Event may be the crown jewel of the week, the Grande Finale is another gem in what has already been a world-class series.
