EPT Tallinn: Russians Shine in Season 8 Kickoff

The European Poker Tour (EPT) season 8 started in Tallinn, Estonia. The main tournament had a buy-in of €4,000+250. The previous year, 420 players participated in the main tournament, creating a prize pool of €1,596,000.

The winner of the main tournament last year was Norwegian Kevin Stani, who took home €400,000. Russian player Konstantin Bilyauer finished in second place, earning €250,000. Dmitry Vitkind finished fourth, receiving €120,000. A total of 10 Russian-speaking players made it into the prize money out of 56. Other notable Russian players included Ivan Demidov, Matvey Linov, Oleg Makovenko, and Artem Litvinov.

Russian players who participated this year include Vadim Markushevsky, Dmitry Stelmak, Dmitry Vitkind, Maxim Kolosov, Kirill Zapletin, Alexander Konstantinov, and Vitaly Grigoriev. On the penultimate day, 21 players remained, including three Russians: Andrey Subbotin, Alexander Konstantinov, and Vitaly Grigoriev. The average stack was 401,428, with Swiss player Ronnie Kaiser leading with a stack of 1,900,000. Andrey Subbotin exited the tournament in 20th place, taking home €7,500. Vitaly Grigoriev exited the tournament in 18th place. Alexander Konstantinov finished in 12th place, earning €12,500. Maxim Kolosov participated in a PLO tournament with 44 players, and three of the top three places were taken by Russian players.