Two WSOPC Tallinn Ring Winners Win Trophies as French Reaches 100th Final Table in Riga

Flag hunters have taken notice of the 2024 OlyBet Showdown Riga Voodoo Bounty at the luxurious Olympic Voodoo from September 14-22, 2024, with at least three flag hunters confirming their attendance in Riga, including Canada’s Dominick French and Japan’s Yuri Ishida. Although WSOP Circuit Baltic Road Trip globetrotter Maureen Bloechlinger already earned her Latvian flag and was unable to join the fun, Scotland’s Andrew Leatherm is expected to join the action later in the festival.

Dominick French reached two final tables, including one yesterday in the €150 NLH/PLO4/PLO5 Mix. He shared last evening that he will have good memories from Riga with the second final table, representing his 100^th final table recorded at The Hendon Mob to fulfill his long-term quest.

“I promised Doyle Brunson 25 years ago that I would reach 100 final tables,” shared French. “I have finally done it and will leave tomorrow to collect more flags in Europe.”

French’s quick visit to Riga didn’t lead to any trophies on Sunday. Instead, three Latvians stole the show including a memorable performance by Elvijs Kergalvis, who came from behind at the final table to win the two-day €250 NLH Warm-Up Progressive Bounty for €2,189 and a ton of bounties with more than €1,000 in bounty chips in front of him alone during the heads-up action.

Meanwhile, a pair of Latvian players who won WSOP Circuit rings in Tallinn this summer now have a local trophy in an international event to complement their hardware collection. Eriks Krumins won the €250 Deep Stack for €3,487, and Harijs Erglis shipped the €150 NLH/PLO4/PLO5 Mix for €2,303.

Read on to learn more about Sunday’s Day 2 of the 2024 OlyBet Showdown Riga Voodoo Bounty at Olympic Voodoo Casino.

Elvijs Hasn’t Left the Building

The two-day €250 Warm-Up Progressive Bounty attracted 99 entries for a €11,009 prize pool along with another €9,900 on the line in progressive bounties. The final day began with just 14 players remaining. Two players hit the rail on the final table bubble in Eltons Stamers and Tigrans Vilums

All of the final table eliminations in this event along with many other highlights were shared on the OlyBet Poker Instagram stories through Sunday with a common theme once the final table reached. Every time Latvia’s Elvijs Kergalvis had his stack committed, he stayed in the building with more chips than he had before the hand.

The final table began with a huge bad beat for Lithuania’s Rimantas Boguzas. The start-of-the-day chip leader Aris Rozentals was short on the final table and committed his stack with king-queen. Rozentals woke up with aces and jammed over the top before Andrejs Harzejevs called both players with the hopes of collecting two big bounties with fives.

Rozentals was drawing dead after the turn, while Harzejevs had three outs to deliver a bad beat, including one for a straight flush. A blank five spiked the river and Harzejevs celebrated as he collected two players’s stacks along with two sizeable bounties.

Harzejevs managed to parlay his new stack into a fourth-place finish after Latvia’s Aleksejs Gusevs and Lithuania’s Evaldas Katinas lost their stacks. Cash game enthusiast Kristiana Stauere decided to give this tournament a spin and she was glad she did finishing in third place leaving Ukraine’s Serhii Leonov with a 2:1 chip advantage over Kergalvis to start heads-up play.

Kergalvis doubled his stack and continued to win pot after pot to take a commanding chip lead before shipping the tournament to claim the second trophy of the 2024 OlyBet Showdown Riga Voodoo Bounty. Check out the Day 2 results from the Warm-Up below:

Eriks Krumins Shines Again

Eriks Krumins has had quite the year as this author has covered two prior international events where he was the last player standing. His first big result came during a big side event at the Irish Poker Open for €51,675 before winning a WSOP Circuit gold ring over the summer in the €250 NLH for €31,620.

Krumins was the first player to hit the rail on Day 2 in the €250 Warm-Up PKO and immediately entered the one-day €250 NLH Deep Stack. The Latvian poker beast made the most of it as he defeated countrymate Sergejs Piratovs heads-up to win the €3,487 top prize.

The event itself attracted 51 entries to create a €10,771 prize pool, with the top eight players locking up at least a €411 min-cash. Congrats to Krumins on yet another live poker tournament victory this year, and check out the full results from this one-day event below:

Harijs Erglis Adds a Trophy to His Ring

Harijs Erglis helped create a great vibe during the 2024 Baltic Road Trip to the WSOP and his good karma paid off a couple of weeks later when he won a coveted WSOP Circuit gold ring in the final ring event the WSOP Circuit Event #12: €555 NLH Progressive Bounty for €10,670 plus bounties. He shared that he might bring in the ring later in the week, but in the meantime, it has some new company after Erglis shipped the €150 NLH/PLO4/PLO5 Mix for €2,303 after defeating Lithuanian poker dealer Darius Tamulevicius heads-up.

The €150 NLH/PLO4/PLO5 Mix attracted 57 entries to create a €7,114 prize pool with the top eight players guaranteed at least a €272 min-cash. Check out the full results of this action-packed event below:

Day 3 Schedule (Sept. 15, 2024)

The action continues on Monday at the 2024 OlyBet Showdown Riga Voodoo Bounty with three new events highlighted by the start of the two-day €250 Mystery Bounty at 4 p.m.

Before that, players will battle for at least three €350 Main Event Mystery Bounty seats in a €20 rebuy and add-on satellite at 1 p.m., with the turbo-infused €150 Monday Express will be the sole event to crown a winner on Monday.