Helina Tamm Bags Queens of Tallinn Main Event Chip Lead; Annika Abmayr Ships PLO

Friday was a busy day for women poker players at Olympic Park Casino as the OlyBet Queens of Tallinn hosted its two opening flights for the €350 NLH Queens of Tallinn Main Event. A total of 85 entries have already entered the mix, generating a €24,506 prize pool. These figures will increase with late registration remaining open on Saturday’s Day 2 for the first three blind levels of the day.

A pair of Estonians finished Friday on top of the 38 survivors to end the two opening flights with Helina Tamm after parlaying her 30,000 opening stack into 169,100 to take the overnight chip lead, followed by former OlyBet Poker host Evely Pihela with a cool 150,000.

In other news, Annika Abmayr bagged a short stack of 32,300 on Day 1a of the Main Event before earning a trophy later in the evening in the €150 PLO4/PLO5 for €1,447

Action Begins With Drea Karlsen’s Birthday Celebration

Norway’s Drea Karlsen has been building quite the highlight reel this year. After lifting a Queens event trophy at the OlyBet Showdown Vilnius in the spring, she went even bigger by snagging her first WSOP Circuit gold ring in Tallinn in the €350 NLH Queens event.

Fast forward to Friday at Olympic Park Casino, and the room once again turned into a celebration for Karlsen — this time for an entirely different reason. As the cards hit the air, the field broke out into a chorus of birthday wishes, giving one of poker’s true Queens the kind of royal treatment she deserved. Despite bagging a modest 25,500 — a touch below a starting stack — Karlsen told poker.pro that the chips were secondary to the fun atmosphere and the joy of ringing in her birthday right at the tables.

• Read more: History Written as Jenny Westerlund Shatters Barriers at WSOP Circuit Tallinn
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• Read more: From Small Town Dreams to the Queens of Tallinn: Giedre Valgemae’s Breakthrough Moment
• Read more: Saara Benlamine Crowned Champion at 2024 Queens of Tallinn
• Read more: Jenny Westerlund Stays Red-Hot, Wins Queens of Tallinn Opener After WSOP Circuit Tallinn Triumph

Helina Tamm Leads a Field Made of Stars

As mentioned in the intro, Helina Tamm (169,100) and Evely Pihela (150,000) made the home country of Estonia proud by topping the 38 players returning to action for Day 2 of the €350 NLH Queens of Tallinn Main Event. Four other players, most with their own impressive poker resumes, managed to break the six-figure barrier.

Sweden’s Elin Holmgren is just behind the Estonian leaders with 141,000, followed by Estonian resident from Lithuania Giedre Valgemäe (126,700), who recently shipped the $150 GGMasters at OlyBet Poker for $142,054. The 2024 OlyBet Riga Showdown Queens champion from Latvia Vita Veidemane (123,400) and Swedish poker journalist, who has also reported for poker.pro, Lina Olofsson (110,500) also cracked the six-figure barrier.

Meanwhile, several other notable names found a bag into Day 2, including poker.pro strategy editor Aytan Eldarova (90,500), Estonia’s Kelly Limonova (89,200), poker live-stream tracker Siiri Saar (78,200), 2023 Queens of Tallinn Main Event champion from Lithuania Marta Porter (63,300), FLIP founder Daiva Byrne (57,200), 2024 Queens of Tallinn Main Event champion and recently crowned 2025 Queens of Tallinn side event champion Saara Benlamine (49,000), and Estonia’s Kairit Leibold (39,500).

Check out the full chip counts heading into Day 2 below. Keep in mind that players can enter and re-enter during the first two hours of play on Saturday’s Day 2, with the action resuming at Noon.

Place	Player	Country	Chips	Big Blinds
1	Helina Tamm	Estonia	169,100	141
2	Evely Pihela	Estonia	150,000	125
3	Elin Holmgren	Sweden	141,000	118
4	Giedre Valgemäe	Lithuania	126,700	106
5	Vita Veidemane	Latvia	123,400	103
6	Lina Olofsson	Sweden	110,500	92
7	Kjersti Jocumsen	Norway	99,500	83
8	Elisabeth Harestad	Norway	95,500	80
9	Aytan Eldarova	United Kingdom	90,500	75
10	Kelly Limonova	Estonia	89,200	74
11	Gerli Rüüberg	Estonia	84,500	70
12	Christina Solli	Norway	79,200	66
13	Virpi Ojanen	Finland	78,500	65
14	Siiri Saar	Estonia	78,200	65
15	Thuy Anh Dao	Vietnam	71,000	59
16	Marta Porter	Lithuania	63,300	53
17	Marita Mägi	Estonia	61,100	51
18	Viktorija Rakejevaite	Lithuania	59,600	50
19	Ausra Razmaite	Lithuania	57,500	48
20	Daiva Byrne	Lithuania	57,200	48
21	Kjersti Grini	Norway	55,000	46
22	Annemar Rimmel	Estonia	53,200	44
23	Liisi Voltri	Estonia	50,500	42
24	Saara Benlamine	Finland	49,000	41
25	Donna Stanton	United Kingdom	49,000	41
26	Amanda Lindqvist	Sweden	48,200	40
27	Susanna Haapasalmi	Finland	48,100	40
28	Kairit Leibold	Estonia	39,500	33
29	Sabina Zalite	Latvia	39,400	33
30	Isabelle Winther	Norway	37,100	31
31	Victoria Okoroafor-Thorsen	Norway	36,000	30
32	Riina Jääskeläinen	Finland	32,500	27
33	Annika Abmayr	Germany	32,300	27
34	Maria Flygare	Sweden	28,400	24
35	Drea Karlsen	Norway	25,500	21
36	Riitta Sahala	Finland	25,400	21
37	Liis Rogov	Estonia	12,500	10
38	Ruta Ismailova	Lithuania	12,400	10

Annika Abmayr Wins €150 PLO4/PLO5

In other news, the €150 PLO4/PLO5 attracted a field of 30 female entrants to create a €3,627 prize pool. Jenny Westerlund was unable to go back-to-back in winning side event trophies, finishing on the soft bubble in sixth place before players were in the money after Finland’s Outi Reinilä stone-cold bubbled the event in fifth place.

The four players in the money were each from a different country, highlighting the international flavor of the end. Unlike yesterday’s €80 NLH Deep Stack Opening Event, which mainly boasted Estonian players at the final table before Sweden’s Westerlund claimed the trophy, this time around, Estonians were nowhere to be found, with none finishing in the top 12.

Finland’s Saara Ylianttila (third – €650) and Lithuania’s Ausra Razmaite (fourth – €510) were the first to hit the money, leaving Germany’s Annika Abmayr and Norway’s Christina Solli heads-up for the title. Abmayr came out on top to earn the trophy and the €1,447 top prize, while Solli earned €1,020 for her runner-up performance.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Annika Abmayr	Germany	€1,447
2	Christina Solli	Norway	€1,020
3	Saara Ylianttila	Finland	€650
4	Ausra Razmaite	Lithuania	€510

2025 Queens of Tallinn Day 3 Schedule (Saturday, Aug. 23)

Players won’t have much time to rest on their laurels, as Day 3 of the 2025 Queens of Tallinn promises another action-packed slate on Saturday. The spotlight, of course, shines brightest at 12 p.m. when survivors return for Day 2 of the €350 Queens of Tallinn Main Event, where more players will join the 85 entries with the action playing deep into the money until a final table of nine hopefuls is reached. The final table will be played out on Sunday in front of poker fans around the world on the OlyBet Poker live stream.

From there, the afternoon shifts gears at 2:30 p.m. with a freebuy satellite boasting €20 rebuys and add-ons guaranteeing five seats into the €200 PokerNews Queens Crown.

The €200 NLH PokerNews Queens Crown Deepstack kicks off at 5:30 p.m. before men are invited to join the women in Event #9: €200 NLH (Open to ALL!) at 9 p.m.

Check out Saturday’s schedule below or head to the Queens of Tallinn landing page at OlyBetEvents.com for the full schedule and more at the 2025 OlyBet Queens of Tallinn at Olympic Park Casino.

Time	Event
12:00	Event #4: €350 Queens of Tallinn 2025 Main Event Day 2
14:30	Event #7: Free Entry Satellite to €200 PokerNews Queens Crown, €20 Rebuys & Add-on (5 Seats GTD)
17:30	Event #8: €200 NLH PokerNews Queens Crown, Deepstack
21:00	Event #9: €200 NLH (Open to ALL!)

• _{Images courtesy of Elena Kask / OlyBet Poker}