The PLO Grand Slam is heading back to Tallinn, and some of the festival’s most familiar faces already have their eyes on more silverware.
From September 15-22, the Diamond Poker Series returns to Bombay Club for eight days of high-stakes Pot-Limit Omaha, with €2.5 million guaranteed across the festival.
Two €1 million guaranteed tournaments headline the schedule, with the €5,200 5k Million running from September 17-20 before the €10,400 PLO Championship takes centre stage from September 20-22.
Former Championship winners Tom-Aksel Bedell and Imad Derwiche know exactly what it takes to win on the tour, while 2019 WSOP Main Event champion Hossein Ensan has come close on several occasions and is still hunting his first PLO Grand Slam trophy.
Ahead of the return to Tallinn, PokerNews caught up with all three about the festival, their love of PLO and what keeps bringing them back.
Champions Keep Coming Back to the PLO Grand Slam
For Derwiche, the action and atmosphere around the tables are what set PLO apart from other variants.
“PLO is special to me because there’s something different about this variant. It’s more fun, the atmosphere between the players is better, and there are more hands and more action.”
Ensan first encountered PLO at a casino in Dortmund, Germany, and says he immediately fell in love with the nonstop action. Bedell’s introduction was a little different, with private games and the money involved initially drawing him towards the four-card game.
Whatever brought them to PLO, all three have since become regular faces at the PLO Grand Slam.
Bedell enjoyed his biggest moment on the tour in Tirana in January 2025, when he freerolled his way into the €10K Championship before defeating Lautaro Guerra heads-up. The Norwegian topped 191 entries for €438,000, and rates Tirana as his favourite stop so far.
Derwiche’s best memories come from Tallinn. He went on the run of a lifetime at Bombay Club in April 2025, overcoming a 148-entry field to win the €10,300 PLO Championship.
He put that victory down to a combination of discipline and luck, two things he believes make any player difficult to beat when they arrive at the same time.
Ensan is the one member of the trio still waiting for his first PLO Grand Slam title, although he has repeatedly gone close. The German has finished runner-up in a €5K and reached two €10K Championship final tables, including a fifth-place finish in Malta last October.
After finishing 13th in the 2026 WSOP Main Event this summer, Ensan will head to Tallinn looking to finally turn one of those deep runs into a trophy. Bedell, meanwhile, has his sights set on a second PLO Grand Slam title.
The chance to compete for big prizes is clearly part of the appeal. Bedell praised the treatment and service players receive at the PLO Grand Slam, as well as the guarantees attached to its biggest tournaments, while Ensan tries to attend every stop his schedule allows.
“I think DPS is a fantastic project. I try to make it to every single stop, schedule permitting, of course. I really enjoy the higher buy-ins and the massive prize pools.”
Derwiche is similarly impressed by what the series has built, particularly its willingness to put major guarantees behind PLO tournaments on an increasingly crowded live poker calendar.
“I have to say, bravo. The DPS had the courage to organize a PLO tournament with such a big guarantee, while also finding a great balance between the EPT, WPT, and many other tournaments. I think that’s really impressive.”
That continues in Tallinn, where €2.5 million is guaranteed across the eight-day festival.
Away from the two €1 million guaranteed headliners, the schedule includes a €15,300 High Roller, €15,300 Quatro Bounty and a mixture of four, five and six-card Omaha events.
Stage Tournaments also give players a cheaper route into the two flagship tournaments. Those who finish in the top 20% advance directly into the corresponding event and carry their accumulated stack with them.
And while the prize pools have grown, so has the standard of opposition.
Bedell believes PLO is getting tougher as more players study together and use online content to improve. Ensan has noticed that progression too, but sees regularly competing against strong PLO specialists, as an important part of improving his own game.
“It’s natural for the field to keep improving, and I notice that growth in myself as well.” Ensan said, “When you compete regularly against top-tier PLO players, your own game automatically elevates.”
For Derwiche, that competition is part of the attraction. He says winning a High Roller title is far more satisfying than scooping a huge cash-game pot because of the number and quality of players you have to overcome.
“It’s amazing to win a title against some of the best PLO players in the world. It’s much easier to win a massive cash-game pot. In a tournament, you have to fight against hundreds of players, so it’s not easy. But I love the competition.”
That competition resumes at Bombay Club on September 15, with Bedell chasing a second title, Derwiche returning to the scene of his 2025 Championship victory and Ensan still looking to get his hands on a PLO Grand Slam trophy.
PLO Grand Slam Tallinn Full Schedule
Calum Grant
Senior Editor & Live Events Executive