The opening bell has rung for the fourth edition of Northern Europe’s premier women-only poker festival on Thursday at Olympic Park Casino in Tallinn with a packed room, a great atmosphere, and a strong first field for the €80 NLH Deepstack Opening Event.
Norway’s Rebela Rodriguez took the first trophy of the festival, defeating Lithuania’s Daiva Byrne heads-up for €1,679. Five Main Event tickets were then handed out in the evening’s Freebuy Satellite with the three-day €555 Queens of Tallinn Main Event beginning on Friday.
Before the cards went in the air, the day opened at 17:00 with the Queens of Tallinn Meet and Greet, the social anchor that sets the tone for everything that follows. Players arriving from across Europe gathered in the venue, introductions were made, old friendships were picked up from where they left off last year, and new ones started. This is part of what makes the Queens of Tallinn different from a standard poker festival. The meet and greet is not a formality. It is a deliberate recognition that the community matters as much as the competition, and by the time the Opening Event cards went in the air at 17:30, the room already had an energy that the best poker festivals take days to build.
- Read more: The 2026 Queens of Tallinn Returns to Estonia This Summer
- Read more: Queens of Tallinn: More Than Just a Poker Festival
- Read more: The Queens of Tallinn Starts Thursday and Tallinn Is Ready
What the Queens of Tallinn Is
The Queens of Tallinn is the first and longest-running women-only poker festival in the Baltic states, and one of the most important events of its kind in Europe. OlyBet and Tournament Director Teresa Nousiainen launched it in 2023 with seven events and a simple goal: give women poker players their own space, their own schedule, and their own championship. It was not a one-day ladies event tacked onto the end of a schedule designed for someone else. It was a four-day festival built specifically for them. Three editions later, that idea has become a real thing with a real identity.
Anyone who has been inside Olympic Park Casino during Queens of Tallinn week knows it feels different from a standard festival. The atmosphere is warmer, the rail is louder, the energy at the tables is more collaborative and more social without being any less competitive. Players who bust a tournament come back to rail for the person who knocked them out. Friendships form at a pace that does not happen at most events. The 2025 edition drew a record 96 entries to the Main Event, produced a €27,678 prize pool, and Giedre Valgemäe took the title and the Queens’ necklace that has become the festival’s most recognizable symbol. This year the Main Event has been upgraded to €555, which means the prize pool will be bigger, the trophy will carry more weight, and whoever wins on Sunday will be a legitimate champion of a legitimate festival.
The Champions Are Back
All three previous Queens of Tallinn Main Event champions were in action on the festival’s opening day. Marta Porter won the inaugural 2023 Main Event at a €350 buy-in for €6,167, defeating Estonia’s Caitlin Müür heads-up from a 65-entry field. Lithuania calls her home but she has been based in the United Kingdom for years, and she has returned to Tallinn every year since. Saara Benlamine won the 2024 edition when the buy-in was reduced to €250, beating Ausra Razmaite heads-up from an 85-entry field to take €5,148. Finland’s finest was back in the room Thursday night. Giedre Valgemäe, the 2025 champion, was also here. Valgemäe came into last year’s final four-handed and agreed to a deal before lifting the necklace and €5,690, having arrived at the Queens of Tallinn on the back of a six-figure online score in the GGMasters at OlyBet Poker. All three back. All three filed entries. That says everything about what this festival means to the women who have won it.
| Year | Winner | Country | Prize | Entries |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 |  Giedre Valgemäe | Lithuania | €5,690 | 96 |
| 2024 |  Saara Benlamine | Finland | €5,148 | 85 |
| 2023 | Marta Porter | Lithuania | €6,167 | 65 |
Who Is in the Room
Beyond the champions, the opening night field included some of the most recognizable names in women’s poker across the region and beyond, including Sweden’s Jenny Westerlund. She won the 2025 WSOP Circuit Tallinn €1,500 Main Event for €200,200, becoming the second woman ever to win a WSOP Circuit Main Event, and then won the Queens of Tallinn opener that same summer. She is one of the most decorated and in-form players in women’s poker right now. Finland’s Anne Bezdek was in the room, a Queens of Tallinn champion in her own right from the 2025 edition, and has already secured her Main Event ticket on Thursday as one of the five Freebuy Satellite champions, alongside Ireland’s Karen Muir.
Estonia’s Kairit Leibold, a familiar face at OlyBet events, registered. Kelly Limonova, also Estonian, was in action. Ireland’s Angela Rogan made the trip to Tallinn, adding to the international flavor of the opening night.
Still to arrive and expected throughout the festival: Anca Eggenberger, the reigning WSOP Europe Ladies champion, whose presence will bring additional attention and prestige to the Main Event field. Emzy Oliver, a multiple Battle of Malta Ladies Event champion and one of the most recognized names in women’s poker in Europe, is also on her way. The field that assembles for the €555 Main Event starting flight tomorrow is shaping up to be the strongest in the history of the Queens of Tallinn.
Rebela Rodriguez Wins Opening Trophy
The Opening Event drew 92 entries and generated a €5,989 prize pool, a strong first-night number for a festival that is still growing its international reach. The field was genuinely diverse: players from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Ukraine, Belarus, Ireland, England, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, and Israel all registered. The Estonian contingent was the largest by distance, as expected at a home festival, but the international contingent was the strongest the Queens of Tallinn has seen on its opening night.
The final table was a talented one. Helina Tamm, who bagged the chip lead in the 2025 Queens of Tallinn Main Event, was there. Iryna Tsikhanskaya of Belarus, fresh from her recent wedding and playing what had the feel of a honeymoon poker trip, made the final table. Viktorija Rakejevaite of Lithuania, Agnese Barca of Latvia, and Christel Haller of Estonia all featured. Daiva Byrne, the Lithuanian poker professional who founded FLIP (Fantastic Ladies in Poker) back in 2017 and has been one of the most important advocates for women’s poker in Europe ever since, made it to the heads-up match before finishing as runner-up. Byrne’s FLIP community has grown into one of the largest women’s poker groups in the world and her presence at the final table of the opening event of a women-only festival felt entirely fitting.
However, it was Norway’s Rebela Rodriguez who earned the rights to claim the first title of the 2026 Queens of Tallinn and the €1,679 top prize, after defeating Byrne heads-up en route to victory.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Rebela Rodriguez | Norway | €1,679 |
| 2 | Daiva Byrne | Lithuania | €1,140 |
| 3 |  Agnese Barca | Latvia | €870 |
| 4 |  Christel Haller | Estonia | €600 |
| 5 | Liis Rogov | Estonia | €450 |
| 6 | Helina Tamm | Estonia | €310 |
| 7 | Viktorija Rakejevaite | Lithuania | €250 |
| 8 |  Iryna Tsikhanskaya | Belarus | €210 |
| 9 | Ilona Sibold | Estonia | €180 |
| 10 | Marita Mägi | Estonia | €150 |
| 11 | Anastassia Mossihhina | Estonia | €150 |
Freebuy Satellite: Five Main Event Tickets Awarded
The evening’s Freebuy Satellite sent five players to the €555 Main Event. Anne Bezdek, Olivia Lundgren, Doris Sooläte, Karen Muir, and Hassiba Haimiche all won their seats. All five join the Main Event Day 1 field starting tomorrow at 14:30.
| Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| Anne Bezdek | Finland | €555 Main Event Ticket |
 Olivia Lundgren | Sweden | €555 Main Event Ticket |
| Doris Sooläte | Estonia | €555 Main Event Ticket |
 Karen Muir | Scotland | €555 Main Event Ticket |
 Hassiba Haimiche | Algeria | €555 Main Event Ticket |
Friday at the Queens of Tallinn
Day 2 of the festival is the biggest day on the schedule. The €555 Main Event Day 1 fires at 14:30 and is the reason most players are in Tallinn this week. A morning Freebuy Satellite at 12:00 guarantees three more Main Event tickets for anyone who has not yet secured their seat. The €150 NLH Knockout fires at 21:30 for players who want to keep playing after the Main Event day wraps up, and another Freebuy Satellite at 22:30 sends five seats to the Saturday €200 PokerNews Queens Crown.
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 12:00 | Event #3: Freebuy Satellite to €555 Main Event (Three Seats Guaranteed) |
| 14:30 | Event #4: €555 Main Event Day 1 |
| 21:30 | Event #5: €150 NLH KO |
| 22:30 | Event #6: Freebuy Satellite to €200 PokerNews Queens Crown (Five Seats Guaranteed) |
- Images courtesy of Elena Kask / OlyBet Poker
- Article originally produced at poker.pro.
