Thursday, January 17, 2008

Helsinki Freezeout


Helsinki is not a city resting on its laurels. Having successfully hosted Finland’s first ever Eurovision Song Contest in 2007, (and who can forget the winning ‘Molitva’, by household legend Marija Serifovic, its three and a half minutes of life-enriching Euro-pop providing a Kennedy assassination moment for a new generation?), the city continued to play its cards right by offering a Hold ‘Em Freezeout tournament at the Grand Casino last week.

The tournament is appropriately named as January often sees brave Helsinkians strolling on the frozen Baltic Sea. Sadly, however, not many tourists decided to break the ice off their wallets, fork out the €2500 entrance fee and sample the intimate delights of the capital’s Christmas street, as the €500,000 event was dominated by Finns, with just one non-national reaching the final table.

In a region dealing up eighteen hours of darkness during the winter months, the last man posting the blinds was J-R Lampila, whose €160, 825 payday now snowballs him to number 73 in the bright lights of the ‘Finland All Time Money List’. For those of you who were left ‘Making Your Mind Up’, it just has to be ‘Nul Points’.

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