2024 WSOPC Tallinn Day 3: Erik Krumins Wins First Ring

Records were set and hardware was won on the third day of the 2024 World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Tallinn at Olympic Park Casino and the adjoining Hilton Tallinn Park on Sunday.

Latvia’s Eriks Krumins was easily the star of the day after defeating Sweden’s Christopher Berggren heads-up in the two-day Event #1: €250 No-Limit Hold’em for €31,620, the coveted WSOPC gold ring, and an invite to the $1 million guaranteed WSOP Tournament of Champions Freeroll next summer where more hardware in the form of a gold bracelet is on the line.

Meanwhile, two other ring events kicked off on Sunday, including the two-day Event #2: €350 8-Game and the three-day Event #3: €555 No-Limit Hold’em. The final table of the 8-Game will be played out on Monday at 1 p.m. with Norway’s Tarjei Forus holding the chip lead over the final seven, while the €555 NLH will continue on Monday with Day 1c and Day 1d.

In addition, Finland’s Markus Jauhianen defeated a field of 167 entries to win the €250 NLH Bounty for €4,300 plus bounties, while Lena Bjorn came out on top of 125 entries in the €150 NLH & PLO 4/5/6 Mix to win the €3,144 top prize. The final table in that event featured many big names in Tallinn and around Europe with Max Sanders, Scott “PokerBrahs” Kenyon, and Phil Gross all finishing in the top five.

Read on to learn more about what transpired on Sunday’s Day 3 of the 2024 WSOPC Tallinn, along with Krumins’s road to victory:

Erik Krumins Wins Event #1: €250 No-Limit Hold’em

Players came out in droves for a chance at a ring and riches in Event #1: €250 No-Limit Hold’em. A new record for a €250 buy-in event was set in what turned out to be one of the most well-attended international poker events in Estonian history, thanks to a banner field of 788 entries for a €166,426 prize pool.

It was a marathon of a second day lasting more than 15 hours before Krumins managed to be the last player standing. Krumins has been red-hot this year as this author covered the Irish Poker Open in March, where the Latvian shipped the €550 JP Masters for a massive haul of €51,675. Now, he has another big win this year under his belt, along with his first taste at WSOP gold.

Berggren began the final table in the middle of the pack, with Swedish runner-up Christopher Berggren leading most of the way until three players remained.

Finland’s Timo Ruuska was the clear short-stack with just three big blinds. However, he managed to ladder up one spot thanks to a bad beat delivered by Lithuania’s Kestutis Jungevicius to Switzerland’s Maureen Bloechlinger.

Bloechlinger, who founded the Globetrotting Poker Facebook brand, joined this author and others on the PokerPro Baltic Road Trip to WSOPC Tallinn and was hungry for a ring. She would have been in good shape if there was no hand variance but instead hit the rail in ninth place for €2,756. Berggren opened for 2.5 big blinds and was called by Jungevicius before Bloechlinger jammed for 15 big blinds from the big blind with big slick. Berggren snap-folded while Jungevicius called off most of his stack with king-queen. A nasty queen came straight away, and Bloechlinger took some time to recoup before enthusiastically joining the day’s final event as a max-late entry.

Seconds later, Ruuska was out of gas in eighth place for €3,500 after his ace-six suited proved to be no match to the suited big slick held by Norway’s Marius Hakonsen.

Berggren continued to extend his lead, but Krumins managed to join the top of the pack after winning a flip in a dramatic hand where nines won a flip against ace-ten suited to eliminate Jungevicius in seventh place for €4,500. A ten appeared on the turn, but Jungevicius was in shock as the two-outer came on the river to save Krumins and eliminate Jungevicius.

United Kingdom’s Daniel Stacey was down to ten big blinds when he jammed ace-ten suited into the kings held by Estonia’s Stanislav Smeljov. No love came from Stacey to push ahead on the dry board for Stacey to collect the sixth-place prize of €6,100.

Berggren kept pushing ahead and increased the gap. However, Krumins doubled through Smeljov before eliminating another Estonian in Mairo Tori in fifth place for €8,100 when his ace-five was good against jack-ten to come within a few big blinds of the chip lead.

Krumins nearly took the chip lead shortly after but Berggren instead extended his chip lead again after his big slick won a flip against jacks to eliminate Smeljov in fourth place for €10,700.

Shortly after, Krumins won a pot without a showdown for the first and only lead change at the final table.

The charismatic Norwegian Marius Hakonen then fell victim to Krumins when his ace-queen suited didn’t win a flip against sevens. Hakonen shared he has been playing poker for less than two years and was thrilled with his podium result despite falling short of a ring.

The heads-up action didn’t last long, even though it nearly could have. The event ended on a bad beat for Berggren who had to settle for the healthy runner-up prize of €19,900 after his sixes didn’t hold against ace-deuce suited.

Congratulations to Eriks Krumins on his epic victory and cementing his status in the Estonian poker history books for winning the first gold ring of the 2024 WSOPC Tallinn.

WSOP Circuit Tallinn Day 4 Schedule (July 22)

Monday will be a busy day with four ring events in play and two WSOPC gold rings to be awarded in Event #2: €350 8-Game final table starting at 1 p.m. and the one-day €350 PLO 4&5 Progressive Bounty starting an hour earlier at noon.

Ladies will shine the next two days with the first-ever ladies-only ring event in Tallinn kicking off at 5 p.m. The ladies will play down to a final table which will be broadcasted live at OlyBet.tv with hole cards displayed on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the €555 NLH boasts its final two opening flights at noon and 7 p.m.

This is all in addition to a couple of side events, a handful of satellites including freerolls and freebuys, and the cash games running 24 hours a day on the casino floor.

Head to OlyBetEvents.com for the full schedule of the 2024 WSOP Circuit Tallinn, and check out Monday’s schedule below: