Forus, Sorainen and Yazdanpanah Claim Rings on Wednesday at the 2026 WSOP Circuit Tallinn

Three gold rings changed hands on Wednesday at the 2026 WSOP Circuit Tallinn, powered by OlyBet Poker, as the felt stayed busy across Olympic Park Casino and the Hilton Tallinn Park. Norway’s Tarjei Forus topped Ring Event #6: €1,100 PLO4/PLO5 for €43,930, Finland’s Luka Sorainen captured the one-day Ring Event #7: €5,000 NLH for €66,762, and earlier in the day, Sweden’s Mehdi Yazdanpanah outlasted a 677-player field to win Ring Event #3: €555 NLH for €59,465. Christoffer Karlén already put together a full recap of that event, so click here to read more.

With three more rings in the books, attention is quickly turning to the €1,000,000-guaranteed Main Event, which added two more starting flights and 274 fresh entries on Wednesday. France’s Baptiste Caim bagged up a massive 1,098,000 to lead Day 1B, while Israel’s Ben Gur heads to Day 2 with the top stack from Day 1C at 578,000. Two more flights, Day 1D and Day 1E, are still to come on Thursday.

Ring Event #8: €1,100 8-Game restarts today with 10 players left in the hunt, with Germany’s Michael Schmitz and Norway’s Tarjei Forus, who jumped straight into the field after winning his PLO4/PLO5 ring, sharing the chip lead heading into Day 2. Also among the finalists is poker.pro’s own Head of Media, Jason Glatzer, sitting in seventh place.

As if that wasn’t enough action for one day of the festival, three more trophies were handed out in the side events. Lithuania’s Tomas Kovalenka won the €250 NLH Progressive Bounty for €5,272, Finland’s Juho Suutari took down the €555 PLO4/PLO5 6-Handed for €10,510, and Norway’s Jae Kim capped off the night by claiming the late-night €200 NLH Turbo for €6,683.

Full coverage continues at poker.pro and OlyBetEvents.com throughout the series.

• Read more: WSOP Circuit Live Reporting at poker.pro
• Read more: Mehdi Yazdanpanah Wins Ring Event #3: €555 NLH During the 2026 WSOP Circuit Tallinn
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• Read more: Antti Perttula and Sami Saamanen Claim First Rings of 2026 WSOP Circuit Tallinn
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• Read more: The 2026 WSOP Circuit Tallinn Schedule Features 12 Ring Events
• Read more: Tallinn Kicks Off Second Half of European WSOP Circuit Season
• Read more: The 2026 WSOP Circuit Tallinn Schedule Features Multiple Women-Only Events
• Read more: Beyond the Felt: What to Do in Tallinn During the 2026 WSOP Circuit

Forus Wins Ring Event #6: €1,100 PLO4/PLO5

Ring Event #6, the €1,100 PLO4/PLO5, drew 198 entries to build a €188,100 prize pool, and with plenty of prominent Pot-Limit Omaha specialists in the field, the standard was sky-high all the way through. Thirty players survived Day 1 to advance already in the money, but all eyes were on the gold ring, the €43,930 top prize, and a WSOP Paradise Bahamas package.

All six of the biggest stacks from Day 1 played their way through to the final table, with Finland’s Rasmus Ekstroem bringing the largest stack of all into the final day. Ekstroem couldn’t finish the job, though, falling in the heads-up battle against Norway’s Tarjei Forus and settling for second place and €28,370.

Forus had already flashed his Pot-Limit Omaha credentials earlier in the series with a win in the €350 PLO5/PLO5 Hi-Lo side event, and two other Omaha titles, with a wins at the 2024 edition of the Circuit festival and last year’s Kings of Tallinn. On top of that, he is a two-time Norwegian mixed games champion (2024, 2013). Now he can add a WSOP Circuit ring and the career-best result to go with it.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Tarjei Forus	Norway	€43,930
2	Rasmus Ekstroem	Finland	€28,370
3	Vladislavs Petrovs	Latvia	€18,930
4	Pasi Sormunen	Finland	€13,030
5	Pyry Kyroejoki	Finland	€9,250
6	Ranno Sootla	Estonia	€6,790
7	Etienne Bargibant	France	€5,160
8	Einars Muhajevs	Latvia	€4,060
9	Alberts Cevers	Latvia	€4,060
10	Tony Kokko	Finland	€3,310
11	Marcis Zeltmatis	Latvia	€3,310
12	Vaeinoe Ketvell	Finland	€2,810
13	Jari Kurikka	Finland	€2,810
14	Frederik Brink	Denmark	€2,810
15	Steven Tool	Estonia	€2,810
16	Morten Norland	Norway	€2,810
17	Roope Tarmi	Finland	€2,810
18	Martin Schamaun	Austria	€2,480
19	Onni Huttunen	Finland	€2,480
20	Christian Steinbo	Norway	€2,480
21	Georgi Voomets	Estonia	€2,480
22	Aurimas Bielskas	Lithuania	€2,480
23	Juho Suutari	Finland	€2,480
24	Pasi Laihinen	Finland	€2,480
25	Daniel Clifford	Sweden	€2,280
26	Joona Nyholm	Finland	€2,280
27	Markus Ristola	Finland	€2,280
28	Nicklas Dehli	Denmark	€2,280
29	Kaspars Renga	Latvia	€2,280
30	Totti Arosuo	Finland	€2,280

Sorainen Tops High Roller Field to Win Ring Event #7: €5,000 NLH

Ring Event #7, a €5,000 NLH one-day event, brought together the best of Northern Europe’s poker scene. Forty-two entries built a €195,552 prize pool, with seven players making the money, and it came down to an all-Finnish final between Luka Sorainen and Mikael Haapaniemi.

Sorainen prevailed to collect €66,762 and his first-ever WSOP Circuit ring, one-upping his win earlier this year in the high roller side event at the 2026 Kings of Tallinn. As with all Circuit winners in Tallinn, Sorainen also earns a WSOP Paradise package and will be heading to the Bahamas in December. Haapaniemi wasn’t far behind, banking €42,540 for the runner-up finish, still the biggest cash of his career.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Luka Sorainen	Finland	€66,762
2	Mikael Haapaniemi	Finland	€42,540
3	Noah Rogers	Norway	€28,550
4	Casimir Seire	Finland	€20,220
5	Aliaksandr Shylko	Czech Republic	€15,160
6	Piotr Sztenkiel	Poland	€12,070
7	Vladas Tamasauskas	Lithuania	€10,250

Ring Event #8: €1,100 8-Game Down to Ten

While the €1,000,000 GTD Main Event is the centerpiece of the festival, for some players, the €1,100 8-Game is their own “main event” and tournament that matters the most. Sixty-three entries created a €59,850 prize pool for Ring Event #8, and ten players survived the opening day, with everyone already guaranteed a payday.

Germany’s Michael Schmitz and Norway’s Tarjei Forus (fresh off his PLO4/PLO5 ring win and eyeing a second title of the week) share the overall chip lead with 576,000 apiece heading into Day 2, which gets underway at 13:00 local time on Thursday and plays to a first-place prize of €18,380.

Also among the ten finalists is poker.pro’s own Head of Media, Jason Glatzer, currently sitting in seventh place with 231,000. Good for roughly 15 big bets, or 28 big blinds. Plenty of chips to work with on an exciting final day, and still very much anybody’s game.

Position	Player	Country	Chips	Big Bets
1	Michael Schmitz	Germany	576,000	38
1	Tarjei Forus	Norway	576,000	38
3	Bernd Reich	Germany	398,000	26
4	Aki Pyysing	Finland	328,000	21
5	Marius Toverud	Norway	267,000	17
6	Mikko Ylamaeki	Finland	244,000	16
7	Jason Glatzer	Lithuania	231,000	15
8	Simeon Tsonev	Bulgaria	209,000	13
9	Sascha Manns	Germany	163,000	10
10	Riku Koivurinne	Finland	159,000	10

Kovalenka Wins €250 NLH Progressive Bounty

Event #50, the €250 NLH Progressive Bounty with €100 bounties and 8-handed play, attracted 256 entries, with 39 players sharing a €27,904 regular prize pool. Lithuania’s Tomas Kovalenka defeated Brazil’s Frederico Alves Dos Santos heads-up. As is the case with progressive bounty events, both finalists collected an equal €5,272 from the regular prize pool, but the bounties collected along the way, and the trophy, made all the difference for Kovalenka.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Tomas Kovalenka	Lithuania	€5,272
2	Frederico Alves Dos Santos	Brazil	€5,272
3	Gintaras Naglius	Lithuania	€2,780
4	Federico Caielli	Italy	€1,930
5	Carina Wald	Sweden	€1,380
6	Xavier Lyu	United States	€1,010
7	Jyrki Lampinen	Finland	€760
8	Emil Mortensen	Denmark	€590
9	Marius Sopp	Norway	€470
10	Morten Halvorsen	Norway	€390
11	Matias Knaapinen	Finland	€390
12	Kristaps Sipols	Latvia	€330
13	Rasmus Lundstrom	Finland	€330
14	Jere Hedman	Finland	€330
15	Hannes Oun	Estonia	€330
16	Kristian Heilmann	Finland	€290
17	Jonas Lapinskas	Lithuania	€290
18	Peter Onnestam	Sweden	€290
19	Rolftomas Jauring	Sweden	€290
20	Meelis Ahman	Estonia	€290
21	Robertas Visockas	Lithuania	€270
22	Nedas Nanys	Lithuania	€270
23	Yevhen Roshchebak	Ukraine	€270
24	Alberto Martinez Gonzalez	Estonia	€270
25	Lavrenti Hirvonen	Finland	€270
26	Dalius Balciunas	Lithuania	€270
27	Mikael Zackariasen	Sweden	€270
28	Andrew Ward	United Kingdom	€250
29	Jimmy Dewerdt	Estonia	€250
30	Joakim Stoere	Norway	€250
31	Alexander Ekstroem	Sweden	€250
32	Dmitrijs Petrenko	Latvia	€250
33	Mart Rinken	Estonia	€250
34	Fan Yang	Estonia	€250
35	Torben Beltz	Germany	€250
36	Jonas Klaus	Austria	€250
37	Sander Lithun	Norway	€250
38	Mathias Bayer	Austria	€250
39	Terje Finsveen	Norway	€250

Suutari Claims €555 PLO4/PLO5 6-Handed

Event #52, another action-packed €555 PLO4/PLO5 played in a Button Round Each, 6-Handed format, brought together 76 entries for a €36,100 prize pool. After eight hours of play, Finland’s Juho Suutari claimed the win and the €10,510 top prize, defeating Sweden’s Magnus Edengren heads-up. Edengren pocketed €6,970 for his runner-up finish.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Juho Suutari	Finland	€10,510
2	Magnus Edengren	Spain	€6,970
3	Pyry Kyroejoki	Finland	€4,530
4	Thomas Rott	Norway	€3,100
5	Roy Van Der Reijnst	Netherlands	€2,230
6	Adem Can	France	€1,700
7	Joona Koivisto	Finland	€1,380
8	Vidar Assersen	Norway	€1,190
9	Abbe Mardiny	Sweden	€1,190
10	Jelco Burger	Netherlands	€1,100
11	Onni Huttunen	Finland	€1,100
12	Tson Hu	Netherlands	€1,100

Kim Wins Late-Night €200 NLH Turbo

The late-night €200 NLH Turbo, 8-handed, saw 159 entries battle for a €26,433 prize pool with 24 players cashing. Norway’s Jae Kim topped the list, collecting €6,683 for his “night shift.” Kim denied 2024 Queens of Tallinn champion Finland’s Saara Benlamine a trophy of her own, though Benlamine still walked away with a respectable €4,220 for the runner-up finish.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Jae Kim	Norway	€6,683
2	Saara Benlamine	Finland	€4,220
3	Thomas Haverstad	Norway	€2,820
4	Antti Hakala	Finland	€1,950
5	Kristian Heilmann	Finland	€1,390
6	Jari-Pekka Juhola	Finland	€1,040
7	Anders Holm	Denmark	€800
8	Michal Dydymski	Poland	€640
9	Danqiu Shen	China	€540.75
10	Nico Segersven	Finland	€470
11	Simon Svinth	Denmark	€470
12	Daniel Rantanen	Finland	€430
13	Miika Toyras	Finland	€430
14	Adomas Juozapavicius	Lithuania	€430
15	Even Flatekvaal	Norway	€430
16	Morten Norland	Norway	€410
17	Richard Melby	Norway	€410
18	Satu Kaihoniemi	Finland	€410
19	Mindaugas Grigaitis	Lithuania	€410
20	Iiro Elomaa	Finland	€410
21	Abraham Uittenbogaard	Netherlands	€410
22	Edvinas Tenikaitis	Lithuania	€410
23	Vilde Ekren	Norway	€410
24	Toni Jaervisalo	Finland	€410

Thursday, July 30 Schedule at 2026 WSOP Circuit Tallinn

Thursday brings Day 8 of the 2026 WSOP Circuit Tallinn, and a fourth gold ring is already on the cards, with Ring Event #8: €1,100 8-Game set to crown its champion. The Main Event also rolls on with two more starting flights, Day 1D and Day 1E, and there’s plenty more side action lined up to keep both rooms buzzing.

Time	Event
12:00	Ring Event #5: €1,500 NLH Main Event Flight 1D
13:00	Ring Event #8: €1,100 8-Game Final Day
13:00	Event #54: €750 NLH Mystery Bounty
15:00	Event #55: €200 Five-Card Mix
18:00	Ring Event #5: €1,500 NLH Main Event Flight 1E
18:30	Event #56: €50 PLO5 Satellite to WSOPC €555 SVITEN
19:00	Event #57: €555 NLH 6-Handed
21:00	Event #58: €200 PLO4/PLO5 Bomb Pot
22:00	Event #59: €200 NLH Turbo

• Images courtesy of Elena Kask / OlyBet
• Poker Article originally produced at poker.pro.