Unibet France Team Pro Quentin Lecomte has made history in taking down the 2013 Unibet Open Cannes, bettering his fifth place finish at Unibet Open Paris and becoming the first ever French Unibet Open winner. Lecomte beat a large field and a tough final table that included former Unibet Open champions Paul Valkenburg and Dmitry Varlamov, the entire final streamed online with hole cards visible on a 40 minute delay. Lecomte took home the €100,000 first prize as well as the coveted Unibet Open trophy, his victory all the sweeter for taking place on home soil.
An actual red carpet greeted players arriving for the Unibet Open September 19-22 – not that Unibet players needed any assistance in feeling like movie stars in the glamorous city of Cannes. The Casino Barrière de Cannes Croisette, set right on the waterfront of this playground of the rich and famous, provided the stunning backdrop for this landmark 25th edition of Europe’s most exciting poker tour. In addition to the €1,500 + €150 NLH Main Event, the festival included a full schedule of side events including a €500 + €50 Deepstack tournament and a €2,300 + €200 High Roller event. With Unibet players accommodated at the luxury Hôtel Majestic Barrière and Hôtel Gray d’Albion just a few minutes’ walk along the seafront promenade and the famous Unibet hospitality taking a front seat with Welcome Drinks for players on the Hôtel Majestic’s balmy open air pool deck and the legendary Unibet Open Players’ Party running into the small hours at the Les Marches Club, there was also plenty to entertain the crowds above and beyond the draw of the poker.
A total of 313 players entered over the two start days, creating a prize pool of €450,720 with 36 places paying out. The tournament area was packed with familiar faces, including Unibet Ambassador Dan Glimne, friends of Unibet Hugo Borst and Daniel Camus, Unibet Open Riga champion Peter Harkes, former Swedish international footballer Tomas Brolin and EPT Grand Final winner Pieter de Korver. In addition, the field contained a virtual who’s who of French poker, with such luminaries of the old school as Roger Hairabedian, Paul Testud and Bernard Boutboul taking to the felt, along with Unibet France Team Pros Nicolas Dervaux and Alexis Gillot.
As always, not everyone could stay the course. One by one some of the most famous players in the field fell by the wayside, and by dinner time on Day 2 only 37 players remained. It took perhaps half an hour for the bubble to burst, Unibet Open regular Jorma Vuoksenmaa becoming simultaneously the unhappiest and the most popular player in the room. The Finn got his chips in ahead with pocket jacks but came a cropper to Johnny Østbjerg’s A-5 when an ace dropped on the flop. Vuoksenmaa finished in the unluckiest place, while everyone else was guaranteed a minimum payout of €3,050.
Players who made it into the money but missed out on the final table included entertaining Norwegian Johnny Kristiansen (30th place), EPT Deauville runner up Paul Guichard (25th place), Dutch powerhouse Jasper Wetemans (17th place) and EPT Barcelona finalist Toni Ojala (16th place). The exit of Dutchman Frank Douma in 10th place signalled both the end of Day 2 and the advent of the final table. And what a final table line up:
Seat 1: Thierry Morel – 1,181,000
Seat 2: Linus Hjulström – 759,000
Seat 3: Linas Laurinenas – 346,000
Seat 4: Paul Valkenburg – 613,000
Seat 5: Quentin Lecomte – 498,000
Seat 6: Joao Silva – 576,000
Seat 7: Joni Salo – 744,000
Seat 8: Paul Tedeschi – 1,110,000
Seat 9: Dmitry Varlamov – 431,000
It was a final table of considerable pedigree. Two previous winners were in contention – Paul Valkenburg and Dmitry Varlamov, the latter of whom was making his second consecutive Unibet Open final after taking down Unibet Open Troia in June. Quentin Lecomte was also a Unibet Open final table veteran, having finished fifth in Paris last year, and his fellow countryman Thierry Morel, the chip leader going into the final, has a string of excellent results in his home country to his name. The third Frenchman at the table, Paul Tedeschi, has finagled both a WPT and a WSOPE, and sole Swede Linus Hjulström narrowly missed out on the final table in Troia, finishing in 14th place.
Thierry Morel may have started the day as chip leader, but he didn’t hang on to it for long. In fact, the final was characterised by a chip lead that changed hands rapidly and repeatedly – almost every player held the lead at one point or another, a testament to the extremely high level of play. Almost every player at the table would have made a worthy winner, had things turned out differently.
It was mere minutes before the final table lost its first player, and it was one of the most experienced players who succumbed first. Dmitry Varlamov, the reigning champion after taking down Unibet Open Troia in June, pushed from the small blind with J-T over a raise from Joni Salo holding A-Q in the cutoff. Salo flopped one ace and turned another, and Varlamov was denied back-to-back titles, instead taking home €10,000 for ninth place.
The next player to hit the rail was sole Portuguese finalist Joao Silva whose A-K proved entirely insufficient against chip leader Thierry Morel’s pocket aces. Silva got €13,270 for eighth place and the rest of the day off for his trouble.
It would be almost another three hours before the next elimination. When it came, it would prove a disappointment to the large Dutch contingent that made up much of the rail – Unibet Ambassador Paul Valkenburg, who many had regarded as the favourite to win this despite starting the day with a below average stack, exited in seventh place for €16,550, his K-Q no good against Linus Hjulström’s A-J. He will have to wait at least until Unibet Open Riga in December to hoist his second trophy.
Joni Salo was next to go in sixth place (€19,950), pushing with K-7 but running into Paul Tedeschi’s pocket eights. And just moments later, former chip daddy Thierry Morel exited in fifth place for €24,950, running A-8 into Linus Hjulström’s pocket rockets – cementing Hjulström’s chip lead and sending the Swede into four-handed play with more than half the chips on the table.
Hjulström lost over a million chips in a massive three-way hand against Quentin Lecomte and Linas Laurinenas but made most of it back when he knocked out Paul Tedeschi in fourth place for €33,250 with pocket nines against Tedeschi’s A-Q.
Quentin Lecomte was the extreme short stack when they went three-handed, but he soon doubled through Linas Laurinenas, and as it turned out it would be the Lithuanian who exited in third place, pushing with A-5 to a raise from Hjulström holding A-7. The first card out of the deck was a seven, and Laurinenas got €44,900 for his third place finish.
Linus Hjulström had a roughly 2:1 chip lead over Quentin Lecomte when they went heads up, and Hjulström actually managed to extend his lead to around 5 million to Lecomte’s 1 million. However, a series of dramatic double ups saw Lecomte first recover and then actually move into the lead – only for Hjulström to double back into the lead! Double up after double up followed, the lead going back and forth repeatedly over several hours, until finally, with Hjulström down to 2.4 million against Lecomte’s 3.8 million, the chips finally went in. Lecomte’s pocket sevens made a full house against Hjulström’s A-K, and the Unibet Open crowned its first ever French winner – a fitting end to the second Unibet Open outing into France.
The Unibet Open will be back this December in one of our favourite destinations – the beautiful mediaeval city of Riga, just in time for some festive Unibet fun right before Christmas. Satellites are running on Unibet right now from freeroll up, so get qualifying now and next time it could be you raising the Unibet Open trophy!
