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

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.

• Read the live reports of the €1,100 PLO4/PLO5 Championship at poker.pro.

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.

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.

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	Tony Westby	€3,350
16	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

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.

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 a 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.

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