Record-Breaking Main Event Headlines Thursday at WSOP Circuit Tallinn as Pyysing Wins 8-Game Ring

Thursday was another jam-packed day at the 2026 WSOP Circuit Tallinn, powered by OlyBet Poker. Finland’s Aki Pyysing claimed the festival’s seventh gold ring, topping Ring Event #8: €1,100 8-Game for €18,380 and a WSOP Paradise package. But the biggest story of the day played out on the Main Event floor, where 392 entries in Day 1D and 191 more in Day 1E pushed the €1,500 Main Event to a record-breaking 977 total entries for a €1,253,002 prize pool, comfortably crushing the €1,000,000 guarantee.

Five more trophies were awarded in the side events. Latvia’s Raivo Grislis captured the €750 NLH Mystery Bounty for €7,560 plus an undisclosed haul of mystery bounties, Finland’s Juuso Parviainen won the €200 Five-Card Mix for €3,100, France’s Timothee Rey pocketed €5,965 in the €555 NLH 6-Handed, Sweden’s Lars Nord took down the €200 PLO4/PLO5 Bomb Pot with Double Board for €4,191, and Latvia’s Jevgenijs Zotovs closed out the night with a win in the €200 NLH Turbo for €4,851.

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Main Event Crushes the €1,000,000 Guarantee

The €1,500 Main Event kept rolling on Thursday, with Day 1D drawing 392 entries and Day 1E adding a further 191. Across all five starting flights, the Main Event finished with a record-breaking 977 total entries, building a €1,253,002 prize pool that blew well past the €1,000,000 guarantee, with €210,000 reserved for whoever lifts the trophy.

A total of 147 players survived to advance to Day 2 on Friday, where the field will play down to the final 24. Finland’s Rasmus Lundstrom heads into the second day as the overall chip leader with a commanding 1,304,000 stack. The winner will walk away with €210,000, a WSOP Circuit ring, and a WSOP Paradise Bahamas package.

Follow all the action live from the Main Event on our live blog, expertly handled by Christoffer Karlén.

Main Event Payouts

Position	Prize
1	€210,000
2	€140,500
3	€96,950
4	€68,575
5	€49,300
6	€36,050
7	€26,810
8	€20,300
9	€15,647
10-11	€12,270
12-15	€9,800
16-23	€7,980
24-31	€6,620
32-39	€5,610
40-47	€4,840
48-55	€4,260
56-63	€3,830
64-71	€3,520
72-79	€3,310
80-87	€3,170
88-147	€3,000

Pyysing Wins Ring Event #8: €1,100 8-Game

Ring Event #8, the €1,100 8-Game, brought together 63 entries for a €59,850 prize pool, with 10 players advancing out of Day 1 to battle it out for the trophy on Thursday. Germany’s Michael Schmitz and Norway’s Tarjei Forus, who was fresh off his PLO4/PLO5 ring win, shared the overall chip lead heading into the final day with 576,000 apiece, but neither could get the job done at the table, with Schmitz finishing third for €7,840 and Forus fourth for €5,330.

It was Finland’s Aki Pyysing who came out on top, claiming the €18,380 top prize and a WSOP Paradise package. Norway’s Marius Toverud ran him closest, banking €12,220 as the runner-up. Also making the final table was poker.pro’s own Jason Glatzer, who capped off a strong run with a 10th-place finish for €2,210.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Aki Pyysing	Finland	€18,380
2	Marius Toverud	Norway	€12,220
3	Michael Schmitz	Germany	€7,840
4	Tarjei Forus	Norway	€5,330
5	Riku Koivurinne	Finland	€3,870
6	Bernd Reich	Germany	€3,000
7	Sascha Manns	Germany	€2,500
8	Mikko Ylamaeki	Finland	€2,250
9	Simeon Tsonev	Bulgaria	€2,250
10	Jason Glatzer	Lithuania	€2,210

Grislis Cashes In on €750 NLH Mystery Bounty

Event #54, the €750 NLH Mystery Bounty, introduced mystery bounties once the field reached the money in this one-day, 8-handed event. Seventy-seven entries built a €25,910 regular prize pool on top of €23,100 in mystery bounties. Latvia’s Raivo Grislis came out on top, defeating Sweden’s Sebastian Hjartberg heads-up to bank €7,560. Hjartberg collected €4,790 for the runner-up finish.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Raivo Grislis	Latvia	€7,560
2	Sebastian Hjartberg	Sweden	€4,790
3	Mark Harmening	Germany	€3,190
4	Pasi Laihinen	Finland	€2,230
5	Ilias Pappas	Greece	€1,640
6	Rapolas Bielskis	Lithuania	€1,270
7	Tomas Kovalenka	Lithuania	€1,040
8	Antti Perttula	Finland	€901
9	Luis Miretti Bonetto	Argentina	€830
10	Andreas Brendholdt	Denmark	€820
11	James Noonan	Ireland	€820
12	Matiss Celmins	Latvia	€820

Parviainen Masters the Rotation to Take Five-Card Mix

Event #55 offered up an exciting mix of five-card games: Sviten, PLO5, and 5-Card Triple Draw, played pot-limit, high only, with a button round of each in a 6-max format. Sixty players entered for a €9,690 prize pool, and it came down to an all-Finnish final. Juuso Parviainen handled the rotating games best of all, winning €3,100, while Väinö Ketvell settled for €2,040 as the runner-up.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Juuso Parviainen	Finland	€3,100
2	Vaeinoe Ketvell	Finland	€2,040
3	Lachezar Tsenov	Bulgaria	€1,300
4	Phil Gross	Germany	€880
5	Torgil Hellman	Sweden	€640
6	Juuso Oksanen	Finland	€500
7	Joonas Keijonen	Finland	€430
8	Skjemstad Runar	Norway	€400
9	Martin Svan	Sweden	€400

Lone Frenchman Rey Outlasts Four Norwegians

Event #57, the €555 NLH 6-Handed, saw 35 players do battle for a €16,625 prize pool. France’s Timothee Rey found himself the lone outsider when five-handed, surrounded by Norwegians, but he powered through the field to take the biggest piece of the prize pool, defeating Inge Fagerbakke heads-up. Rey collected €5,965 for the win, with Fagerbakke banking €3,960 as the runner-up.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Timothee Rey	France	€5,965
2	Inge Fagerbakke	Norway	€3,960
3	Vilde Ekren	Norway	€2,490
4	Oeyvind Sundseth	Norway	€1,720
5	Patrick Pedersen	Norway	€1,330
6	Toni Jaervisalo	Finland	€1,160

Nord Wins €200 PLO4/PLO5 Bomb Pot, Double Board

Event #58 gave players the double-board bomb pot format they’d been asking for after last year’s single-board version. The 7-handed event attracted 106 entries, raising the prize pool to €17,119. Sweden’s Markus “The Machine” Nord got the better of Norway’s Espen Ringstad in the heads-up finale, pocketing €4,191 for the win. Ringstad had to settle for €3,428 as the runner-up.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Markus Nord	Sweden	€4,191
2	Espen Ringstad	Norway	€3,428
3	Vaeinoe Ketvell	Finland	€1,990
4	Kaspars Renga	Latvia	€1,390
5	Andrej Michailov	Lithuania	€1,010
6	Ben Gur	Israel	€770
7	Juuso Oksanen	Finland	€610
8	Stanislovas Vinicenka	Lithuania	€510
9	Brian Soerensen	Denmark	€450
10	Jari Mahonen	Finland	€410
11	Jenny Westerlund	Austria	€410
12	Jyri Laitimo	Finland	€390
13	Kaapo Tapio	Finland	€390
14	Deniss Lebedevs	Latvia	€390
15	Eric Tea	France	€390
16	Antons Kapusta	Latvia	€390

Zotovs Wins Late-Night €200 NLH Turbo

The nightly €200 NLH Turbo, 8-handed, remained as popular as ever with 109 entries building an €18,121 prize pool. Latvia’s Jevgenijs Zotovs lifted the trophy at around 3 a.m. local time, collecting €4,851 for the win. Lithuania’s Einius Jurgevicius took home €3,090 as the runner-up.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Jevgenijs Zotovs	Latvia	€4,851
2	Einius Jurgevicius	Lithuania	€3,090
3	Sander Oestlyngen	Norway	€2,080
4	Charly Pugin	France	€1,460
5	Daniel Skoglund	Norway	€1,060
6	Kristaps Vismanis	Latvia	€800
7	Marius Sopp	Norway	€640
8	Andre Maki-Viinikka	Estonia	€530
9	Richard Melby	Norway	€450
10	Pekka Ikonen	Finland	€410
11	Ville Keraenen	Finland	€410
12	Tomi Arponen	Finland	€390
13	Erik Lura	Norway	€390
14	Jari Karkkainen	Finland	€390
15	Kaur-Erik Suurorg	Estonia	€390
16	Tarvi Apsolon	Estonia	€390
17	Risto Paernat	Estonia	€390

Friday, July 31 Schedule at WSOP Circuit Tallinn 2026

Friday brings Day 2 of the Main Event, along with two more rings up for grabs: Ring Event #9, the €555 Sviten, and Ring Event #10, the €1,100 NLH Mystery Bounty.

12:00	Ring Event #5: €1,500 NLH Main Event Day 2
12:00	Event #60: €80 Satellite to WSOPC €1,100 NLH Mystery Bounty
14:00	Ring Event #9: €555 SVITEN
16:00	Event #61: €250 NLH Bounty
17:00	Ring Event #10: €1,100 NLH Mystery Bounty Day 1
18:30	Event #62: €200 PLO5/PLO6 Deep Stack
19:30	Event #63: €555 NLH 8-Handed
21:00	Event #64: €200 NLH Turbo 8-Handed
22:30	Event #65: €150 Satellite to WSOPC €3,000 NLH

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