Finland’s traditional Helsinki Midnight Sun tournament week was held at the beginning of June in the Grand Casino Helsinki. Even though the weather was sunnier than it had been in a long while, a large number of players managed to resist the urge of spending the days outside with friends and came to battle for the title of Finnish Champion of poker.
A couple of international players where among the field, as well a couple of well-known names such as Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies and the new face of RAY-poker Juha Helppi.
The Finnish Championship was desided by a €2,1000 buy in Texas hold’em event, a €1,050 Omaha event and €220 sökö event – better known as Scandinavian Stud.
There were three other non-championship tournaments in 7-card-stud, Texas hold’em Terminator and Texas/Omaha, and altogether the tournaments managed to pick up 540 eager players.
The winner of the Omaha tournament was a familiar face to the Finnish crowd. Lari Sihvo, who plays under the alias “operga”, won the Finnish Championship after defeating Mikko Sundell heads-up.
The players managed to get their chips in the middle when the flop was Q
J 10.
Sundell showed 10
10
8 Q.
Sihvo showed 4 10
J K.
Turn was the 9 and the river was 8 completing the straight flush on the table and Lari took the Finnish Championship with his king-high straight against Mikkos queen-high straight.
The crowd watching the Texas hold’em tournament had to wait on the winner of the final table for a long while. Finally, after a tight match Lauri Varonen managed to beat Markus Ristola in heads-up.
Both player went all-in when the flop was J 9 and 8.
Lauri showed A 3 and Markus showed K Q.
Turn was 3
River was 2
And after the river, Lauri Varonen was crowned the new Finnish Champion with a pair of threes.
The next tournament being held at Grand Casino Helsinki is Fennia Grand Slam from August 10–13. Fennia Grand Slam will host a €5,000 Omaha tournament and a €7,000 Texas hold’em tournament.
Since Midnight Sun was such a success, Grand Casino has also decided to add a high-roller €20,000+€200 tournament to the schedule of Fennia Grand Slam. Other possible tournaments are decided later.
For additional information, check out "GrandCasinoHelsinki.fi ":https://www.grandcasinohelsinki.fi/home/
