The first ever international poker tournament in Troia, Portugal concluded with a winner from Russia. Dmitry Varlamov outlasted a field of 242 to claim the title, the fame and the €80,187 first-place prize. Varlamov beat Dutchman Mateusz Moolhuizen heads up who was chasing his second Unibet Open title after having won the Malta event back in 2011. Dan Murariu remains the only two-time Unibet Open champion for now, but the 22 other previous Unibet Open winners will have a chance at a second title this September in Cannes.
The final table started with nine hopefuls and Frenchman Pierre Almeida held a big chip lead. Almeida five-bet folded ace-king suited and lost his chip lead quickly and his role at the final table was reduced considerably. Fernando Rocha was knocked out in ninth place cashing €8,022 when Zbigniew Wieczorek got a bit lucky. Rocha’s ace-king was beaten by ace-queen and we were down to eight.
Belgian pro and Unibet Open regular Laurens De Smet was the next to go. De Smet’s timing was off as he re-shove six-seven suited and Wieczorek woke up with ace-jack behind him. A few hands later De Smet was knocked out and he took home €10,709 for his eight-place finish.
One of the two remaining Dutch players was knocked out in seventh place. Auke Attena was patient, quiet and focussed but he couldn’t get lucky enough to win the tournament. Attena shoved over a raise from Moolhuizen and a call by Krzystof Stuchlik, and the former decided to call with ace-king suited. Attena’s ace-seven did not improve and he won €13,358.
Not too long after Attena was gone we saw Michal Karbowski lose all his chips to Moolhuizen. In another preflop all-in confrontation it was Moolhuizen who held ace-king versus ace-seven. Once again the board did not change things and Karbowski collected his €16,091 sixth-place prize. The dinner break started with five players and the chips were distributed like this at that point:
Mateusz Moolhuizen – 1,451,000
Zbigniew Wieczorek – 1,343,000
Dmitry Varlamov – 1,185,000
Krzystof Stuchlik – 435,000
Pierre Almeida – 427,000
After the dinner break Stuchlik had to go. Moolhuizen kept applying pressure and ended up facing Stuchlik’s all in with king-queen off suit. Stuchlik was ahead with ace-nine but a queen on the river ended his tournament. Stuchlik received €20,110 for his efforts and fifth place finish. Almeida was next to go in fourth place and he cashed €26,789. Almeida called a big shove from Wieczorek on the river but his opponent turned out not to be bluffing.
Mateusz Moolhuizen
When three-handed play began it was still anyone’s game but ultimately it was Moolhuizen who ended up knocking Wieczorek out. Moolhuizen ended up getting Wieczorek all in with an inferior top pair on the flop. Moolhuizen’s ace-seven held up and all of a sudden we were heads up. Wieczorek collected €36,191 for his third-place finish.
Unibet Open Malta winner Moolhuizen started with a chip lead but he could not get anything going in the heads-up battle. Varlamov won almost everyone of the 19 heads-up hands resulting in a quick exit for the Dutchman who was in control for most of the final table. On the final hand Moolhuizen made a big river bluff which resulted in his elimination. Varlamov called him with two pair, sixes and fours, against Moolhuizen’s queen-high. Moolhuizen received €56,265 and with that his second biggest live result ever. Varlamov recorded by far his biggest result and added €80,187 to his bank account!
From Troia we would like to thank you for following our coverage and we hope to see you all at our next event in Cannes! Satellites for Unibet Open Cannes (September 19-22) are running now on the Unibet client with a big Sunday Final ever week at 20:30 CET and eight €2,500 packages guaranteed. Keep following us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date with all our upcoming qualifier promotions, bonuses and satellite ticket giveaways.
