Congratulations then to Henri Ojala, who started off the final table as one of the shorter stacks but managed with a little bit of luck to turn everything into an advantage. Three crucial pots seemingly made the difference, firstly when Ojala beat Perica Bukara’s A-4 with J-8 and then eliminated the Serb in the next hand with Aces against Ace-King.

But more important than those two was the huge three-way all-in we had when four-handed and Ojala’s A-Q beat Michal Maryska’s 9-9 but more crucially eliminated the very dangerous Jan Skampa’s A-K. This set up the Finn with a 3:1 chip lead over Nino Ryschawy and Ojala dominated the heads-up throughout and never really looked like he would ever relinquish the chip lead. Finally, all it took was the simple holding of a coinflip for Ojala to secure the title and pick up his biggest ever win to the tune of €157,000.

Helsinki may be a decent flight away but the Finnish players will be celebrating tonight!

From Unibet Open Prague, it’s over and out. We will see you all next in Valencia at the start of October!

It was a flurry of preflop action and suddenly Nino Ryschawy was all-in preflop once more against Henri Ojala in a classic coinflip matchup.

Ryschawy:
Ojala:

The flop of helped neither player but the German picked up a flush draw and many more outs on the turn but Ojala managed to dodge everything on the river, making Sevens and Sixes to become the newest Unibet Open Champion!

Nino Ryschawy though, deserves great credit, he played few hands early on but those he did were played very well including an excellent trapping move against the ever-dangerous Jan Skampa. Ryschawy takes home over €100,000 for his second place finish.

Both players continue to min-raise the button virtually every hand. Nino Ryschawy is short enough now that he is occasionally moving all-in against Henri’s Ojala’s raise. There aren’t many flops at the moment because Ryschawy is not deep enough to really play many pots.

Of course having mentioned that, the next pot sees Ryschawy raise preflop to 80,000 and Ojala called. The flop came and Ojala check-called a bet of 90,000. Ojala then led out for 120,000 on the turn and Ryschawy called now to see the river.

Ojala checked the river and Ryschawy thought for a minute or two before checking behind, the Finn showed and Ryschawy flipped for a split pot.

With the board reading A-3-T-x-6, Henri Ojala put in a huge 250,000 bet on the river which had Nino Ryschawy intrigued enough to call, but the German had to muck when Ojala showed him A-6 for a rivered two pair.

Henri Ojala moved all-in from the small blind and Nino Ryschawy called all-in.

Ojala:
Ryschawy:

The board came and Ryschawy doubled up to around 1.3 million. We’re back to where we started at the beginning of the heads-up.

Henri Ojala opened to 65,000 on the button but Nino Ryschawy made his first reraise of heads-up to 180,000. Undeterred, Ojala thought for a moment before moving all-in and Ryschawy folded fairly quickly. The German is very short now and it’s looking as though the Finn is unstoppable.

Nino Ryschawy raised to 60,000 from the button and Henri Ojala called.

The flop came and Ojala checked, Ryschawy fired out 70,000 but then the Finn check-raised to 170,000. Ryschawy looked a little uncomfortable and folded, dropping below 800,000 which as the commentators noted, means he loses a few options.

Ojala raised the next to 65,000 and Ryschawy called but then check/folded on the flop.

Ryschawy made it 60,000 and Henri Ojala called. The flop came and Ojala check-called a bet of 60,000. Both checked the turn and river, and then they both showed K-7 for a split pot. Interesting…

Nino Ryschawy is facing an uphill struggle, he’s sitting with 1.1 million against Henri Ojala’s 3.2 million. No huge pots so far, though Ojala picked up a decent one when he fired 110,000 on the turn of a board, Ryschawy made the call but then folded to a 300,000 bet on the river.

Most of the pots since then have been raise and take it with the young Finnish player just shading the action so far.

Short stacked Michal Maryska might have been poised to get his stack in any moment, but no one could have predicted the huge threeway preflop all-in which sent two players to the rail and brought the Prague final table abruptly to the heads-up stage!

On their backs:

Maryska:
Skampa:
Ojala:

This was poised to hand at least the 700k side pot to Jan Skampa, changing the dynamic once again, but the flop came !  That little pair represented Ojala’s chance to rocket to a monster chip leader, and it held over the turn and river.

Small break while a team of staff stack Henri Ojala’s chips for him, with a crane.

Henri Ojala is on a roll now that the table is short handed and his stack tops 1.3 million.  He picked up a small pot from Jan Skampa to kick off this level, before the following hand spelled Disaster for Benjamin Jensen:

The pot was opened by Michal Maryska off the short stack, and Jensen moved in over the top.  Round to Henri Ojala, who moved in out of the blue!  Maryska found a fold and Jensen’s went up against the huge of the Finn.  The board arrived sending yet another player to the rail, and whipping the Finnish cheering section into a brief frenzy.  It appears that some small percentages are out in the crowd and Ojala is a popular player back home – he’s definitely best placed at the moment.

As level 22 draws to a close, the frankly dizzying pace of the early part has slowed.  The players pushing preflop the hardest are winning some chunky blinds and antes, and at the moment it’s Skampa and Ojala (pictured left) raising most frequently, although Michal Maryska moved all in over the top of Skampa once (no call).  He did this twice late last night as well; as yet Skampa hasn’t wanted to look him up.  Nino Ryschawy too won a pot with a threebet preflop, although his opponent here (Ojala) won about 100k back playing a pot on the button and betting 135k on the river of a board.