Laura Cornelius
Life on the Road
EPT Tallinn: Headstands and Backstoke
My last blog was all about getting back into the Blackjack, as I competed in The European Blackjack Open last month. Since then, I am back on the road on the EPT circuit and the first stop of Season 8 was Tallinn in Estonia, somewhere I had never been before, but had heard great things about. Only the week before I left for Estonia, some hometown friends of mine had told me they were staying in the Swissotel (where we stayed and also where the tournament takes place in Tallinn) on a stag do and had mentioned what a crazy but beautiful place it was and also how the hotel club sandwiches were some of the best they'd ever tasted (they don't get out much to be fair). At weekends, the place was inundated with stags from all over Europe (but predominantly the UK I felt), leaving their trails all over the old town, making the most of the best value for money beers available and found staggering around the place til 9am in the morning. Unfortunately for us, though I did have 2 party nights, our trip would be slightly tamer and containing a lot more poker!
The tournament was a smaller field than usual, maybe due to it being the first stop on the tour and everyone still in tatters from The World Series, but Kevin Stani was there to try and keep hold of his title as well as Arnaud Mattern who had taken 3rd place the year previous. So throughout Days 1a and b, 298 players took their seats to fight it out for the €275,000 first place prize. In amongst them was the feisty Olympic Hockey Player, Fatima Moreira de Melo who has been doing really well on the EPT stops recently. During the poker playing we took a time-out so I could test her skills on the Archery Field , just because I knew she just couldn't be good at everything!!
As the field was slightly less than what we had been used to, and with all the FInnish players, we were seeing a particularly aggressive tournament; it meant the days were much shorter than we were used to. We were finishing at around 8pm every evening as opposed to 11pm, sometimes Midnight or later in some tournaments. So we were really able to take advantage of the long daylight hours in Tallinn. I can confidently say, some of the sunsets I saw in Tallinn were some of the most beautiful I had ever seen and the sun was not setting until at least 11pm each night! Our party had been pushed back until the evening of Day 3, so this evening we all got our best frocks on (including the poker players), to party it up at The Vabank Club in the heart of the old town. I had a few too many 'free drinks' as usual and think I spent the best part of an hour trying to convince Roberto Romanello to prop bet me €5000 to do something 'a bit mad'. This was because a few days previously, Praz Banzi and he had come up to Sarah Grant and I very excitedly and exclaimed, "We bet our mate to get in the water fountain in Tallinn and do a few rounds of back-stroke" And low and behold, they showed us the footage on their IPad of their friend getting into a small pond, about knee high water, and much to the amusement and shock of an elderly couple and tramp sitting on benches nearby, swinging his arms all over the place as he backstroked around the tiny pond. He was no Ian Thorpe, but he was paid the €5000 to get a bit wet, smelly and look like a wally, something I'd be well up for!! But back to the party and when Romanello said he'd prop bet me to do a headstand in the club, I tanked and tanked, but knowing I was going to be unsuccessful, given my intoxication and general uselessness at headstands, I offered a roly poly instead. Needless to say, I never got my €5000!
FInal Table Day loomed and before we knew it, it was over. It was aggressive all the way with predominantly Finnish Players making it over before it even got started. It was the Swiss Omaha Cash Online Prodigy, Ronnie Kaiser, who reigned in the glory though and kept his chiplead going for 2 days! He was very happy with his brand new EPT Champion Title and no doubt, we will see a lot more of him on the EPT Circuit during Season 8. Our next stop will be Barcelona next week, which I am very excited about. Barcelona is a fantastic city with great nightlife. I just hope I get to see a bit... I have been practicing my headstands afterall 
