Strong Finnish at Betsson Live Estoril

Only recently a regular stop on the European circuit, Portugal is quickly becoming a popular destination for online sites’ live events and large tour stops alike. Casino Vilamoura saw the Unibet Open head over this year, followed recently by the European Poker Tour, which while a comfortable, well-run venue in a lovely location, is still a turn and river behind Estoril.

The largest casino in Europe, touted as the inspiration for regular visitor Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale, Casino Estoril is an impressive venue, on a scale able to cope with substantial numbers of players. Multi-coloured fountains, an entrance hall floor so shiny players were in danger of tripping over the glowing red ceiling lights’ reflections, and a relaxed policy on dress and food-pricing greeted the arrivals, along with a welcome show of drumming on a stage which previously hosted Cirque du Soleil.

The clashing Amsterdam Master Classics may have been a more high-profile (and buy-in) draw for the better-known Euro and U.S. players in November, but the €1,500 Betsson Live Estoril event made up for their dearth in setting, atmosphere, and multilingual action.

Should any players have wandered from the theatre (which was later filled with tables for the tournament itself) during later days they would have found the usual mix of table games and slot machines, and curiously, an art gallery on a totally deserted separate floor, which apparently has to be there to satisfy some sort of cultural requirement for gaming establishments.

Estoril itself is a picturesque resort-type town, with a beautiful beach and an atmosphere of Monaco-lite — well turned-out but more reasonably priced. But why deviate from the tournament area, when a variety of sit ‘n’gos promptly spring up to hold bustouts’ attention until the side events get going? Add to this the excellent dinner provisions and multiple bars, and it’s clear why it stayed thronged.

There’s definitely more of a short-holiday vibe at a tournament populated almost entirely by online qualifiers, many of whom are attending their first big live event.

Scattered among the newcomers were last year’s winner Kristian Aksnes (who incredibly finished day one as chip leader and made it within spitting distance of another very deep run) and the Dudesons (Finland’s equivalent of the Jackass guys), who got to announce “Sthuthle up and theal!” from around a flyer one had stapled to his tongue to get the party started.

From the 18 countries represented, it also turned out that one small area in Finland had provided at least 20 enthusiastically aggressive, if previously-unknown, players, and the bar on the final night was something to behold.

This was probably related to the fact that the top two spots were nabbed by Finns Ville Salmi and Teemu Kangasvieri. Salmi, who had announced on camera previously that he was going to win the tournament, actually did after a hard-fought final table sporting among others Daniel Ferreira and Ola Brandborn.

Swede Brandborn had been in contention for the chip lead off and on the previous day, and an early final table double-through put him (the most well-known finalist) as many spectators’ favourite, unless they were rooting for Portuguese representative Ferreira or Pedro Demeyere, which they did at impressive volume. Brandborn outlasted Paul Jansen and Ferreira, as well as young Ville Mattila, but ultimately finished in fifth place for €24,000.

The story behind fourth place finisher Alexander Lang sums up the attraction of events like this for many recreational players. The personable Austrian had qualified via two months plus of league tournaments, which ultimately provided him with a seat in a live final for a €1,500 ticket. He won it, and after three long days made the money and the biggest result of his live career.

He admitted, going into the final short-stacked, that he was delighted to have lasted that long, and was even cheerful when an outdraw sent him finally to the rail. Nursing a short stack for periods during the tournament, he had a few surprises for his opponents at the end, winning one key pot with a ballsy bet with bottom pair. When asked what he thought the more experienced players at the table might have thought of him, he smiled and said, “I don’t think they always… know what I do.” That won’t be the last seen of the fishing-hatted Lang; he was the final player standing wearing Betsson gear and won a bonus prize of a seat in next year’s event to add to his €31,000 in prize money.

Heading towards the professional end of the poker spectrum, six-max sit ‘n’go specialist Pedro Demeyere was left with Salmi and Kangasvieri, and gave them a run for their money, shipping his shorter stack in preflop whenever he smelled weakness and generally shifting into some kind of turbo gear, while giving off the impression of calm unflappability for which he is known.

The double up wasn’t to happen though; he busted in third place racing Kangasvieri preflop. This left Ville Salmi with just under a 2:1 chip lead against Teemu Kangasvieri, but any hopes the railers might have had of a Finnish battle to the death from two players who had hardly pulled their punches all final long were instantly dashed. A brief break was all that was needed to come to a chop arrangement, and they simply moved in preflop the following hand, with leader Salmi winning the pot and the opportunity to hoist the €100,000 giant cheque for official first place.

I’m always a little disappointed when people don’t finish a heads-up after a long event, especially if the structure allows for a bit of play. It seems a waste of a rare chance to play one-on-one at the end of a multi-table tournament (maybe for just a token sum and the trophy) and to utilise a specialised set of poker skills.

There seemed to be no complaints from the Finnish rail, however, and Salmi and Kangasvieri’s combined post-event interview saw them admit their satisfaction with the result, using more words at one go than in every interview I’d previously conducted with their fellow countrymen in total during the week.

Jen Mason is a part of BlackBeltPoker.com. She is responsible for its live tournament coverage in the UK and abroad.