Dmitry Varlamov defeated former Unibet Open champion Mateusz Moolhuizen in a dramatic heads-up battle in Portugal this week, becoming the first Russian player to lift the coveted Unibet Open trophy this week and taking home a first prize of €80,187.
The tournament took place June 6-9, set against the stunning backdrop of the Show Centre at the Tróia Design Hotel, in association with the Casino Tróia. Located right on the waterfront with views across the bay to the Port of Setúbal, and with world-class golf courses, beaches and incredible scenery right on the tournament doorstep, Unibet could not have picked a lovelier location to play some top-notch poker.
A total of 242 players entered over the two start days, producing a prize pool of €363,000 with 36 places paying out. It was a tough field, with many big names and familiar faces rubbing shoulders with numerous Unibet qualifiers and a sizable turnout of local Portuguese players.
The 108 Day 1a runners included Unibet Open Riga winner Peter Harkes, Unibet Ambassador Dan Glimne and reigning Irish Open champion Ian Simpson. French Unibet pros and real-life brothers Alexis and Jimmy Gillot also played Day 1a, but dressed as video game brothers Mario and Luigi, prompting a slew of level up puns. However, it would be game over for both of them before the day was out.
Perhaps the best known, and almost certainly the winningest, player to grace the felt on Day 1a was Michiel Brummelhuis. The Dutch high-stakes pro lurched into the lead midway through the day when he first flopped a straight against top pair and then flopped a set shortly after. Brummelhuis retained the chip lead for the rest of the day, and once he had increased his stack even further with aces against kings, he finished up on 235,500 – more than double the stack of the next man. The second spot that day was occupied by none other than eventual winner Dmitry Varlamov, who had got most of his chips by rivering an ace against pocket queens to bust Portuguese player Joao Vieira.
Day 1b attracted 134 runners, including former Leaderboard winner Tim Verbon, Portuguese Futsal legend Miguel Almeida and EPT Vilamoura winner António Matias. Following Mario and Luigi on Day 1a, there was more fancy dress fun on Day 1b as Egi Adriaans played the tournament dressed as a donkey following a campaign on the Unibet Open Facebook page that garnered an overwhelming amount of support.
Also starting on Day 1b were three former Unibet winners – Mateusz Moolhuizen, Paul Valkenburg and Dan Murariu. Valkenburg and Murariu both failed to make it through, but a steady upward chip movement throughout the day meant that Moolhuizen finished his start day on 103,000, in third place after Diogo Cardoso and Fernando Rocha – but all of them miles behind overall chip leader Michiel Brummelhuis from Day 1a.
Down to 108 players for the start of Day 2, Brummelhuis abused his big stack status and initially extended his chip lead even further. He was still chip leader when the bubble arrived in Level 14. We didn’t have to wait long to hit the money – down to 38 players, two players (Giovani Gouveia and Ruggiero Scommegna) busted out at different tables on the same hand, and the bubble thus burst without the need to go hand for hand.
Notable players who cashed on Day 2 but failed to make it to Day 3 and the final table included Pim van Wieringen (26th place), French Unibet pro Nicolas Dervaux (23rd) and Michiel Brummelhuis (the former chip daddy first lost a big pot to Karel Kratochvil and then smacked his AQ into Dmitry Varlamov’s AK , finishing in 18th place for €4,102). The demise of Dutchmen Dylan Gessel and Josephus Leenaerts in 11th and 10th places – both of them eliminated by Krzysztof Stuchlik – left us with our nine-handed final table and brought Day 2 to an end.
Final Table
Seat 1: Mateusz Moolhuizen, NL – 649,000
Seat 2: Dmitry Varlamov, RU – 730,000
Seat 3: Fernando Rocha, PT – 141,000
Seat 4: Michal Karbowski, PL – 685,000
Seat 5: Pierre Almeida, FR – 1,019,000
Seat 6: Krzysztof Stuchlik, PL – 738,000
Seat 7: Laurens De Smet, BE – 346,000
Seat 8: Zbigniew Wieczorek, PL – 182,000
Seat 9: Auke Attena, NL – 340,000
The final nine reconvened for Day 3, and Fernando Rocha quickly became the first casualty of the day when his AK was cruelly outdrawn by Zbigniev Wieczorek’s AQ just half an hour into play. He received €8,022 for ninth place. A speedy start, but we would have to wait another couple levels for the next elimination – that of Laurens De Smet. Crippled by a poorly timed button push against Zbigniew Wieczorek, De Smet lost his last few chips to Michal Karbowski with AT versus AJ and took eighth place for €10,709.
Soon we were also saying goodby to Auke Attena in seventh place (€13,358) and Michal Karbowski in sixth (€16,091) – both of them eliminated by Mateusz Moolhuizen. Having already chipped up nicely after a huge pot against Pierre Almeida even before knocking out these two players, Mateusz was propelled into the lead on 1.7 million – more than a third of the chips in play. Dmitry Varlamov briefly moved into the lead after winning a big pot against Zbigniew Wieczorek,but it was only brief – Moolhuizen eliminated Krzysztof Stuchlik in fifth place for €20,100 as well and was back in the lead four-handed.
Pierre Almeida may have come into the final as chip leader but he would finish the day in fourth place for €26,789, the victim of Zbigniew Wieczorek’s trip tens; this hand pushed Wieczorek into the lead as they went three-handed. But Dmitry Varlamov quickly snatched back the lead when he flopped a full house against Wieczorek, and the last Pole at the table was soon finished off by Mateusz Moolhuizen in what was actually rather a nasty cooler. Wieczorek took home €36,191 for third place.
Heads up, Mateusz Moolhuizen was ever so slightly in the lead with 2.5 million to Varlamov’s 2.3 million, but Varlamov soon took a decisive 2:1 lead when he flopped a straight and found action from Moolhuizen, who just mucked his cards at showdown. Just a few hands later, Moolhuizen moved all in on the river of a 4-9-5-3-4 board with Q-7 for a complete bluff. Varlamov made the call with pocket sixes, and Moolhuizen’s dreams of a second Unibet Open title were smashed. He took home €56,265 for second place, and Varlamov got the €80,187 first prize and the coveted trophy.
The Unibet Open heads next to the glamorous Riviera party town of Cannes late in the summer. We’ll be descending on the Casino Barriere Cannes Croisette from September 19-22 to rub shoulders with the stars, experience the legendary nightlife and – most importantly – play some poker. Qualifiers are running now on Unibet – please click here for details. Until then, it’s adeus from Portugal – but bientôt à Cannes!
