Finland’s Saakilahti Claims MILLIONS Europe Open Chip Lead

Finland’s Lauri Saakilahti enjoyed himself on Day 1B of the €1,100 Open event of the 2022 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Europe festival as he turned his 20,000 starting stack into 326,000 chips. That stack not only gave Saakilahti the Day 1B chip lead but he now leads the Open overall.

MILLIONS Europe Open Day 1B Chip Counts

Place | Player | Chips
1 | Lauri Saakilahti | 326,000
2 | Ignacio Molina | 123,000
3 | Roelof Peppingi | 115,000
4 | Andrei Cazachevici | 71,000
5 | Lilian Erdmann | 48,000

Saakilahti hails from Finland but lives in Barcelona. Indeed, three of the four recorded cashes on his Hendon Mob page come from tournaments held in Barcelona. Saakilahti’s last cash in Spain came in 2018 when he reached the money places in the €1,100 Finale event at the partypoker MILLIONS Barcelona Grand Final.

Andorra’s Ignacio Molina progressed to Day 2, which takes place on our Twitch channel on June 5, with a 123,000 stack. The Andorran has more than $310,000 in live poker tournament cashes, including one tipping the scales at $154,700. That was Molina’s reward for finishing second in a $1,700 buy-in event in Las Vegas in 2018. Molina also finished second in a €2,200 High Roller tournament in Madrid in January 2020 for €37,000, and more recently won an $880 event in Punta Cana for $51,000. He is in form and one to watch during the rest of the Open.

Third in chips on Day 1B was Roelof Pepping whose first live cash came in April 2022. Pepping won a €2,200 WPTDeepStacks High Roller event at the WPTDS Amsterdam stop and received €82,308. Since then, Pepping has two cashes at the recent 2022 Irish Open.

Andrei Cazachevici finished with 71,000 in his stack, while Frenchman Lilian Erdmann bagged up 48,000 chips after a frustrating day at the felt. However, he progresses with more than twice the number of chips he sat down with, so it is not a bad result.

Remaining MILLIONS Europe Festival

Date | Time | Event | Buy-in
Sat 4 Jun | 13:00 | Open Day 1D | €1,100
| 19:00 | Open Day 1E Turbo | €1,100
Sun 5 Jun | 13:00 | Open Final Day |
| 13:00 | Warm Up Day 1A | €2,200
| 19:00 | Warm Up Day 1B Turbo | €2,200
Mon 6 Jun | 13:00 | Warm Up Day 1C | €2,200
| 19:00 | Open Day 1D Turbo | €2,200
Tue 7 Jun | 13:00 | Warm Up Final Day |
| 13:00 | Bounty Day 1 | €2,200
Wed 8 Jun | 13:00 | Bounty Final Day |
| 13:00 | Main Event Day 1A | €3,300
| 20:00 | High Roller Day 1 | €10,300
Thu 9 Jun | 13:00 | Main Event Day 1B | €3,300
| 13:00 | High Roller Final Day |
Fri 10 Jun | 13:00 | Main Event Day 1C | €3,300
| 20:00 | Main Event Day 1D Turbo | €3,300
Sat 11 Jun | 13:00 | Main Event Day 2 |
| 14:00 | Barcelona Cup Day 1A | €1,650
| 14:00 | Super High Roller | €25,750
| 19:00 | Barcelona Cup Day 1B Turbo | €1,650
Sun 12 Jun | 12:00 | Barcelona Cup Final Day |
| 13:00 | Main Event Final Day |
| 13:00 | Closer Turbo | €1,100
| 14:00 | 6-Max High Roller | €10,300