European Mixed Poker Championship 2026: Tapani Pulkkinen Masters the 8-Game Main Event in Tallinn

Most poker festivals treat mixed games as a side dish: one 8-Game event tucked between Hold’em flights, played by the same thirty regulars. The European Mixed Poker Championship flips that around. For six days at Olympic Park Casino, Hold’em was just one game in the rotation. The crowd that showed up was there for Razz, Stud Hi-Lo, Badugi and Triple Draw as much as anything else.

The festival wrapped up on Saturday, October 31, with four trophies decided on the same day. The biggest went to Finland’s Tapani R. A. Pulkkinen, who won the €800 8-Game Main Event. Below you’ll find every payout from Events #9 to #12, the numbers behind them, and what they tell you if mixed games are on your own to-do list.

EMPC 2026 at a Glance

The European Mixed Poker Championship is run by OlyBet, the Baltic operator behind Kings of Tallinn and the WSOP Circuit stop at the same venue. The published schedule was built around affordability: twelve tournaments, nothing above €1,500, and several events at €200 or €300. That let newer mixed-game players test themselves without risking a big buy-in.

Dates	October 26 – 31, 2026
Venue	Olympic Park Casino (Hilton Tallinn Park), Tallinn, Estonia
Organiser	OlyBet
Tournaments	12, all mixed games
Buy-in range	€200 – €1,500 (plus €185 Main Event satellites)
Main Event	€800 8-Game, two Day 1 flights on October 30, single re-entry per flight, Day 2 on October 31
Extras	24/7 mixed cash games, welcome dinner and community lunch

That social side matters more than it sounds. Mixed-game communities are small and close-knit. A free dinner on the opening night is how a festival like this turns one-time visitors into regulars who come back next year.

Final Day Results Compared

Event	Buy-in	Entries	Paid	Winner	First prize	First prize ÷ buy-in
#9 8-Game Main Event	€800	146	19	Tapani R. A. Pulkkinen (FIN)	€22,250	27.8x
#10 6-Game Mystery Bounty	€300	70	9	Marius Toverud (NOR)	€6,028	20.1x
#11 6-Game High Roller	€1,500	21	4	Alexander Aaneland (NOR)	€10,886	7.3x
#12 Omaha Dealer’s Choice	€200 (re-buy)	61	9	Philipp Krieger (GER)	€3,004	15.0x

Multiples are calculated from the base buy-in. Event #12 allowed re-buys, so players who re-bought invested more than €200.

A quick reality check on field sizes. Earlier this summer, the WSOP Circuit Tallinn Main Event at this same casino drew a record 977 entries in No-Limit Hold’em. The EMPC Main Event drew 146. That gap is exactly why mixed games appeal to many players. Fields are smaller, there are fewer coin-flip marathons, and skill across many disciplines has a better chance of deciding who wins.

Event #9: €800 8-Game Main Event – Pulkkinen Takes the Title

The Main Event attracted 146 entries and generated a €97,090 prize pool. The rotation covered eight games, and only one of them was No-Limit Hold’em. The rest were fixed-limit and pot-limit formats: Stud, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, Pot-Limit Omaha, Limit Hold’em, Stud Hi-Lo and 2-7 Triple Draw.

Seven players reached the final table, and Pulkkinen eventually beat Denmark’s Christian Elgstrom heads-up. Elgstrom earned €15,070, with Britain’s Seun Oluwole third for €10,930.

What the numbers say

• About 83% of every buy-in went into the pool. €97,090 divided by 146 entries is roughly €665 per €800 entry, which is a fair rake for a live festival.
• 13% of the field got paid. 19 of 146 entries cashed, with a minimum of €1,600, exactly double the buy-in. That’s a generous floor compared with many NLH events, where the min cash barely covers the entry.
• First prize was 22.9% of the pool. The payout curve is flatter than a typical Hold’em event, which rewards consistent players who make deep runs without winning.
• Norway and the UK filled half the money. Five Norwegians and five Britons cashed, followed by two Finns.

#	Player	Country	Prize
1	Tapani R. A. Pulkkinen	Finland	€22,250
2	Christian Elgstrom	Denmark	€15,070
3	Seun Oluwole	United Kingdom	€10,930
4	Wantao Tang	United Kingdom	€8,590
5	Erik Mortensen Sonsteby	Norway	€6,730
6	Jerry Tommy Ödeen	Sweden	€5,260
7	Ilkka Elias Heikkilä	Finland	€3,840
8	Norberto Andres Korn	Germany	€2,830
9	Kayan Vandan Intwala	United Kingdom	€2,830
10	Gunnar Wedde	Norway	€2,320
11	Tor A. M. Welo	Norway	€2,320
12	Thor W. H. Morstol	Norway	€1,920
13	Joshua Chudnovsky	Israel	€1,920
14	Frode Fagerli	Norway	€1,920
15	Dinesh Babu Khatri	United Kingdom	€1,720
16	Didier Rabl	Switzerland	€1,720
17	Jonas Grusnius	Lithuania	€1,720
18	Mati Pirn	Estonia	€1,600
19	Georgina James	United Kingdom	€1,600

The 19 listed payouts add up to exactly €97,090, matching the published prize pool.

Why 8-Game is a different test

If you’ve only played Hold’em, here’s the short version. In an 8-Game rotation, the game changes every orbit or every few levels. Most of the games are fixed-limit, so you can’t shove someone off a hand.

• Razz rewards the lowest hand.
• Stud Hi-Lo and Omaha Hi-Lo split the pot between the best high hand and the best qualifying low.
• Triple Draw is a lowball game where you can swap cards three times.

A player who is excellent at two games and lost in the other six will bleed chips steadily, because the weak rounds come back around again and again.

Event #10: €300 6-Game Mystery Bounty – Toverud on Top

Seventy players entered this one, which mixed Stud Hi-Lo, PLO Hi-Lo, Razz, NLH, Badugi and 2-7 Single Draw. Nine places were paid, and Norway’s Marius Toverud took the title and €6,028.

Look closely at the payout table and you’ll spot something odd. Fourth place earned more than third, and sixth place earned €3,120, more than second. The published figures appear to include mystery bounty envelopes on top of finishing prizes. That means a player who drew a big envelope could out-earn people who outlasted them. It’s the nature of mystery bounties, and a good reminder that busting players in these events can be worth more than laddering up a spot or two.

#	Player	Country	Prize
1	Marius Toverud	Norway	€6,028
2	Pasi P. A. Laihinen	Finland	€2,320
3	Kenneth Naoki Wiik	Sweden	€1,420
4	Tomasz Pawel Gluszko	Poland	€1,930
5	Toomas Samuel Mäkikokko	Finland	€750
6	Brandon Michael Webb	United States	€3,120
7	Kjersti Elizabeth Grini	Norway	€510
8	Jens Vörtmann	Germany	€600
9	Anders Auset	Norway	€330

Event #11: €1,500 6-Game High Roller – Aaneland Leads a Norwegian One-Two

The second High Roller of the festival drew 21 players, playing the same six-game mix as the Mystery Bounty. Only four were paid, and Norway filled the top two spots: Alexander Aaneland won €10,886 and Gunnar Wedde took €7,620.

Wedde deserves a mention. He also finished 10th in the Main Event for €2,320, giving him €9,940 from two deep runs on the same Saturday. That’s a strong day’s work in two very different formats.

Small fields like this one feel more like a sit-and-go than a tournament. With 21 runners and a top-four payout, the four cashers shared €27,216, about 86% of the €31,500 collected in buy-ins.

#	Player	Country	Prize
1	Alexander Aaneland	Norway	€10,886
2	Gunnar Wedde	Norway	€7,620
3	Antony J. D. C. Kelly	United Kingdom	€4,900
4	Sampo Kalervo Ryynänen	Finland	€3,810

Event #12: €200 Omaha Dealer’s Choice – Krieger Closes the Festival

The final tournament on the schedule was a re-buy Dealer’s Choice built entirely from Omaha variants:

• PLO
• PLO Hi-Lo
• 5-Card PLO
• 5-Card PLO Hi-Lo (often called Big O)
• Pot-Limit Courchevel
• Pot-Limit Sviten Special

In Dealer’s Choice, the player on the button picks the game for that orbit. You’re constantly adjusting to whatever your opponents think is their edge.

Sixty-one players entered, nine cashed, and Germany’s Philipp Krieger won €3,004, ahead of Estonia’s Heiti Riisberg (€1,950). Norway had five of the nine paid places, more than every other country combined.

#	Player	Country	Prize
1	Philipp Krieger	Germany	€3,004
2	Heiti Riisberg	Estonia	€1,950
3	Joakim Bakke	Norway	€1,400
4	Eva A. M. Jiretorn	Sweden	€1,010
5	Rodolphe Zagoury	France	€750
6	Ylva Kim Thorsrud	Norway	€620
7	Kenneth Aspestrand	Norway	€500
8	Jan Roger Holte	Norway	€400
9	Morten Antonsen	Norway	€400

The Nordic Factor

Country	Titles	Cashes
Norway	2	15
United Kingdom	0	6
Finland	1	5
Sweden	0	3
Germany	1	3
Estonia	0	2
Other (7 countries)	0	7

None of this is a surprise to anyone who follows the European mixed-game scene. Nordic players grew up with games like Sviten Special and Østfold Razz in home games and local card rooms. The EMPC schedule even included a dedicated Nordic Special Mix earlier in the week.

When we covered the Sviten Special at the Battle of Malta last week, Norway again filled a big share of the money. If you sit down in a mixed game anywhere in Europe, expect Scandinavians at your table, and expect them to know the obscure variants better than you do.

Practical Takeaways If You Want to Play Mixed Games

• Fix your worst game first. In a rotation, your weakest game costs you more than your best game earns. For most Hold’em players, that’s Razz or Stud Hi-Lo.
• Learn fixed-limit thinking. In limit games you can’t bluff people off big hands with one bet. Starting-hand selection and patience matter far more than aggression.
• Use cheap events as practice. A €200 Dealer’s Choice is a classroom with real stakes. The EMPC’s 24/7 mixed cash games served the same purpose.
• Value deep runs, not just wins. The Main Event’s flat payout curve and double-buy-in min cash reward players who avoid big mistakes over many hours.
• Treat mystery bounties differently. As Event #10 showed, an envelope can be worth more than several pay jumps. Busting players matters.

For full schedules and future dates, visit the official EMPC page. OlyBet’s next big stop at Olympic Park Casino is Kings of Tallinn, which traditionally runs in February and features its own mixed-game events.

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