Petter Berg Wins the 2026 Coolbet Open Main Event for €65,415 After a Short-Stack Comeback

Norway’s Petter Berg is the newest Coolbet Open champion, and he got there the hard way. The Norwegian grinder came into the final day of the ninth Coolbet Open Main Event sitting just outside the top ten, clawed his way back from roughly ten big blinds deep with four players left, and closed the tournament out in heads-up play against Georgia’s Sergi Kapanadze to bank €65,415 — his first-ever cash at this event.

The win capped a record-setting week for the festival, held at Olympic Park Casino and the Hilton Tallinn Park. This year’s €550 buy-in Main Event drew 753 entries, blowing past the previous high of 652 set back in 2022, and built a €357,675 prize pool that paid out to the top 95 finishers.

From Ten Big Blinds to Champion

What makes Berg’s win worth talking about isn’t just the money — it’s how close he came to not cashing at all. When four players remained, Kapanadze held nearly half the chips on the table while Berg was down to a short stack. Berg found a double-up with king-nine against ace-nine when a king hit the flop, and from there the momentum flipped hard. He went on to eliminate two more players and walked into heads-up play with almost a 3-to-1 chip advantage.

Kapanadze didn’t fold quietly. He bluffed Berg early in the heads-up match and looked to be clawing his way back into contention. But two hands turned the match decisively in Berg’s favor: a river call that caught Kapanadze’s trip nines with a rivered two pair, and later a full call-down of a three-barrel bluff that left Kapanadze down to just nine big blinds. From there it was over quickly — Berg’s king-three held against Kapanadze’s queen-jack on a board that paired sixes, sealing the title.

Berg, who also holds a Norwegian Heads-Up Championship title, kept his reaction short: “It’s always good to finish first.”

Final Table Results

Runner-up Kapanadze, a former member of the Georgian parliament, collected €43,060 — by a wide margin the biggest cash of his career, and a result likely to raise his profile in Georgia’s growing poker scene.

Why This Result Matters

A few things make this more than just another tournament recap:

• Field size is a real signal. A 753-entry Main Event at a €550 buy-in in a mid-sized European market like Estonia tells you the Baltic live poker circuit is still growing, not plateauing — useful context if you’re deciding where to travel for value-priced live series.
• Short-stack comebacks are rarer than TV makes them look. Doubling from ten big blinds against a chip leader holding nearly half the stacks in play, and then running that into a 3-to-1 lead heads-up, is a genuine outlier result — most short stacks bust well before four-handed play.
• The prize distribution rewarded deep runs, not just the win. With 95 spots paid and the min-cash sitting at €1,120 against a €550 buy-in, the structure gave players real incentive to play patiently on Day 2 rather than push for the bubble.

What’s Next for the Coolbet Open

The festival isn’t quite finished — Sunday closes things out with the €200 NLH Coolbet Closer Hyper Turbo at Olympic Park Casino, a traditional last-chance event before players head home. Planning for the 2027 Coolbet Open is already underway, and given this year’s record turnout, next year’s field is likely to be even bigger.

Bala Kumar

Founder of PokerClubGames.com and a Poker Researcher with 10+ years of experience in SEO, WordPress development, and gaming content strategy. Specializes in researching online poker sites, poker apps, tournaments, bonuses, and poker strategies. Experienced in poker platform reviews, affiliate marketing, and creating SEO-focused poker content for global audiences.

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