The beautiful island of Malta was the scene for the very first Unibet Open of 2011, a brand new and unique location for the first of four stops on this year’s Unibet Open tour. Later in the year, we’ll be enjoying June in Barcelona, a marvellous late summer trip to Dublin and finally finishing off with a snowy Christmas in Latvia’s party capital Riga.
In Malta however, the event was all about the “D’s” – as in the Danish and the Dutch, who were far and away the most well represented nations coming into the two starting days. Players such as Unibet Open London winner Paul Valkenburg and bracelet winners Rob Hollink and Jesper Hougaard helped make up the field of 293 players spread over the two starting days.
Casualties came quickly during the first start day, some like Lithuanian Unibet Ambassador Andrius Tapinas who was knocked out when his pair of queens were cracked by Mattias Tikerpe’s jacks all-in preflop, got unlucky. Others like Hougaard, simply got to the river with good hands only to find they had been beaten, the Dane having flopped two pair against bottom pair only for the latter to backdoor into a flush.
The always watchable Micke Norinder amassed quite a healthy stack but had to really fight back hard when he lost a huge pot blind on blind to Thijs Wessels. The flop was :::3c :::Kc :::5s with both players happy to get their entire stacks in, Norinder with :::Kh :::3d while Wessels flipped :::Qc :::5c for a pair and a flush draw. The :::6c put the Dutchman ahead of the Swede and the :::5h river changed nothing for a 64,000 chip pot which was huge at the time.
Famous faces were also around on Day 1b as EPT Monte Carlo champion Pieter de Korver put in an appearance that was brutally cut short when he ran kings into aces. Unibet’s Player of the Year for 2010, Simeon Naydenov, had a great start with set over set and was the early chip leader after just a couple of levels. However, it wasn’t to be for the Bulgarian and he lost a flip late in the day when he called off his stack with :::Ac :::Js against Jorn Larsen’s :::9c :::9s. Lithuanian Matas Dilpsas finished the day with the overall chip lead, sitting on 155,900 just ahead of Adria Maria Balaguer of Spain who had 135,000.
Exactly 200 players had been eliminated after the start days leaving us with 93 returning to Day 2, of whom only 29 would actually get paid. Unibet Open Prague 2010 winner Henri Ojala was one of the first to be eliminated. He 4-bet shoved Q-T right into Johannes Jansen’s Aces and never even got a sniff of help from the board. As we reached the money the tournament got incredible tight and we had one of the longest bubbles in Unibet Open history.
In a spectacular turnaround, it was Michael Lundsgaard who was the bubble, having previously been one of the chip leaders. Having bluffed off much of his stack, he pushed with K-7 only to be called by Balaguer’s A-K meaning he was to be the last player to leave with nothing. The remaing stacks quickly fell into a push-bot routine as our remaining field was whittled down very quickly to the following final table:
1. Adria Maria Balaguer 933,000
2. Tobias Peters 631,000
3. Sampo Ryynanen 560,000
4. Mikkel Christensen 528,000
5. Rodolfo Gaddo 496,000
6. Mateusz Moolhuizen 440,000
7. Matas Dilpsas 386,000
8. Rene Freymann 309,000
9. Brian Linnet 148,000
Unibet Open London finalist Rene Freymann was the first to fall when his Big Slick ran into Mateusz Moolhuizen’s pocket Aces; Brian Linnet soon followed running a short-stacked K-2 into Rodolfo Gaddo’s Jacks. Soon after, Samp Rynanen took out former chip leader Dilpsas in a coinflip and we were down to six players in very quick time.
Balaguer (who lost a big flip to Rynanen) went out next before the relatively quiet Mikkel Christensen pushed blind on blind with :::Td :::8d into Moolhuizen’s Queens. Italian poker media and all-around nice chap Rodolfo Gaddo finished in 4th place leaving us with two Dutchmen and the lone Finn.
It was all going Moolhuizen’s way at this point – he was picking up the big hands and crucially get action – when Rynanen set him all in after a button raise. Moolhuizen snap-called with pocket Aces once more and Rynanen’s pocket Threes failed to spike an extra crab. Crippled, Rynanen made a final stand with Threes once more but this time Moolhuizen had A-Q and hit a lady on the flop to ensure an all-Dutch heads-up meeting against Tobias Peters.
Moolhuizen started with a big chip lead, but Peters fought hard taking over the chip lead when Moolhuizen made a big bluff with just a gutshot on the turn. Just as we were settling in for the long run, two big hands occurred in quick succession. First Moolhuizen doubled up with A-K against K-T to regain the chip lead from his compatriot, then in a 3-bet pot and with the board reading :::Qc :::9d :::Ks all the money went in. Peters turned over :::Kc :::6d but Moolhuizen was holding :::Kh :::Th, needing just to avoid a six to win it all. The :::7s turn changed nothing and the :::Td river improved the chip leader to two pair on the river to secure the title!
Moolhuizen won €117,000 for his efforts while Peters couldn’t feel too bad about taken home €76,000 for his second place finish. The Dutch continue to dominate the Unibet Open – can they make it three in a row in Barcelona? You’ll have to tune in to find out!
1st €117,000 Mateusz Moolhuizen
2nd €76,000 Tobias Peters
3rd €49,000 Sampo Rynanen
4th €32,000 Rodolfo Gaddo
5th €23,500 Mikkel Christensen
6th €19,500 Adria Maria Balaguer
7th €15,500 Matas Dilpsas
8th €11,500 Brian Linnet
9th €8,000 Rene Freymann
10th €6,200 Jiri Ruprecht
11th €5,300 Michiel Brummelhuis
12th €4,300 Aleksej Zobov
13th €4,300 Marina Adriaans
14th €3,100 Lieuwe Zevenhuisen
15th €3,100 Niels Vesterlund
16th €3,100 Sebastian Haack
17th €3,100 Thijsr Wessels
18th €3,100 Teemu Vihla
19th €3,100 Tim Verbon
20th €3,100 Laurens De Smet
21st €3,100 Thomas Svengard
22nd €3,100 Koen Schiepers
23rd €2,525 Soren Blanner
24th €2,500 Ilkka Heikkila
25th €2,500 Mikael Norinder
26th €2,500 Johan Karlsson
27th €2,500 Michal Ligocke
28th €2,500 Gisle Olsen
29th €2,500 Daniel Petersen
