For the third 12 months in a row, the Olybet Queens of Tallinn pageant befell in Estonia’s capital, hosted on the Olympic Park On line casino contained in the Hilton Park Lodge. Over 4 days, feminine gamers competed in 5 totally different tournaments, every with an opportunity to win one of many coveted Queens of Tallinn necklaces.
When you step into the on line casino, one factor stands out above all: the ambiance. The ladies welcome you with laughter and optimistic vitality. Despite the fact that a robust neighborhood has been constructed over the previous years, newcomers are immediately included and made to really feel at house.
On the 2025 version, the pageant’s spotlight was the €350 Foremost Occasion, which supplied two beginning flights. With 96 entries, a brand new file was set for the pageant, and a prize pool of €27,677 was up for grabs.
After three days of fierce battling on the tables, it was Giedre Valgemäe who’s been on a tear as of late, including one other title to her résumé after profitable the OlyBet Poker GG Masters simply days earlier. Valgemäe acquired a singular, golden Queens of Tallinn necklace on high of the first-place prize of €5,690.
A Pageant Stuffed with Vitality, Group, and Equality
Nonetheless, it isn’t nearly enjoying poker on the Queens of Tallinn. The occasion separates itself in numerous methods from different girls’s poker occasions across the globe.
One such instance, as Teresa Nousiainen, Poker Event Director at Olympic Leisure Group, defined, was that the ultimate desk was streamed stay on YouTube.
“We at all times determined to have it on a TV stream, and do the identical issues we do for any pageant,” Nousianen mentioned.
Nousiainen has labored in poker since 1994, beginning as a seller earlier than transferring into directing poker tournaments. She’s overseen occasions on the European Poker Tour, a number of different PokerStars excursions, and numerous different main collection. Eleven years in the past, she created one in every of Europe’s largest poker festivals, the Kings of Tallinn.
“It’s one thing that I used to be pleased with from the very starting, created and constructed up,” she mentioned. Three years in the past, the thought for a women-only pageant adopted naturally.
Three years in the past, the thought for a women-only pageant adopted naturally. “In fact, there was a Kings of Tallinn, so we would have liked to have a Queens of Tallinn.” The primary version was the primary of its form in Europe; there was uncertainty initially.
“You don’t know if persons are going to prove? Are they coming? However, from the primary one, we’ve had a very nice ambiance,” Nousiainen remarked.
Extra Than Only a Poker Event
Ever for the reason that inaugural occasion, the neighborhood has grown steadily, fueled by success tales comparable to Jenny Westerlund’s victory within the 2025 WSOPC Tallinn Foremost Occasion
“Ladies’s poker just isn’t the identical because it was just a few years in the past. These are actually robust, good gamers,” Nousiainen famous.
Her colleague Christer Larsson, Group Poker Director at OlyBet, additionally chimed in. For him, Westerlund’s win had further which means.
“That’s actually massive for us, to see that the women not solely play with us, they will truly win the principle occasion.”
Like Nousiainen, Larsson is among the driving forces behind the pageant. For him, the pageant is about inclusion, range, and giving again to the ladies who help the sport.
“I at all times see folks placing up a women’ match through the massive occasions with a small buy-in. Principally, you are belittling girls in poker. I believed, ‘Hey, come on, why shouldn’t we do one thing?'”
Nousiainen shares Larsson’s philosophy, rejecting the concept that girls’s poker needs to be restricted to small aspect occasions.
“Ladies’s poker just isn’t the identical because it was just a few years in the past. These are actually robust, good gamers”
“Why is the belief that ladies need to play a 100 euro No-Restrict Maintain’em match? What makes you an professional on girls, and what they need? I’ve at all times determined that I’m not going to try this. I refuse to try this.”
As a substitute, she and Larsson centered on a whole pageant schedule that features selection, combined video games, and prestigious codecs; the blueprint for a profitable Queens of Tallinn collection.
A Distinctive Crew Occasion, and Lots Extra
The workforce occasion is among the pageant’s most original highlights, a practice carried over from the Kings of Tallinn. Groups of three gamers compete throughout totally different tournaments, incomes factors for his or her finishes. The highest-scoring workforce receives 2% of the Foremost Occasion prize pool.
“That is additionally a means for us to assist gamers to come back collectively, play in new groups, have enjoyable collectively, and have some horses to cheer on should you simply busted out your self,” mentioned Larsson. “Early registrants acquired customized workforce shirts that includes their chosen names, with names like ‘The Aceholders,’ ‘The Cat Fighters,’ ‘Flip Energy,’ and ‘Oops, I’m Bluffing Once more’ lighting up the match corridor.
Even those that arrived alone might be part of a workforce earlier than the second break within the Foremost Occasion. Nobody was neglected, and everybody was welcome – a precept completely sums up the Queens of Tallinn.
The opposite aspect occasions additionally added taste to the schedule, providing one thing for everybody. One particular match was the PokerNews Queens Crown Occasion, a €200 buy-in with 20-minute blinds that attracted 45 entries. The title went to Anne Bezdek, a well known participant with outcomes courting again to 2011 in line with Hendon Mob. She took house €2,445 and the trophy.
Trying again, the Queens of Tallinn has turn out to be greater than only a poker pageant. It celebrates neighborhood, energy, and inclusion, the place girls come collectively to compete, help, and encourage each other.
As Larsson summed it up: “For me, personally, that is so, so essential. To provide one thing again to the women and see the smiling faces when folks come collectively as buddies.”
2025 Queens of Tallinn Foremost Occasion Remaining Desk Outcomes
*denotes four-way deal
Sava Krink
International Dwell Occasions Govt
