BUDAPEST 2010 SUMMARY

Four days of nonstop poker at the Sofitel Hotel Budapest saw a field of 460 players thin to a final in the early hours of Sunday morning, and then ultimately one last man standing – Anthon-Pieter Wink, who took the Unibet Open Trophy and €172,500 first prize!

Both starting days were at capacity, with last-minute would-be entrants turned away from this sell-out event, and watching the tournament progress with its good structure and unique mix of players from all around Europe, you could see why. The field contained models of both sexes, pro players, previous finalists, celebrities like Michal Wisniewski and Mads ‘Le Chiffre’ Mikkelsen, and satellite winners from over 25 countries with one thing in common – a love of the game and a competitive drive to go for the win and the impressive first prize.

10,000 chips, hour levels and still both Day Ones together brought just 105 players into the second day, which was a hard-fought ten-level battle to get down to the final table. Leading the field at the start of the day were Hungarian Zoltàn Toth, Swede Mats Rahmn and Dane Claus Nielsen. Half way through the day and it looked like a Scandinavian monopoly on big stacks had been set up (with the exception of Spaniard Gonzalo Sanz Santos and Russian Maxim Tyurin). The top nine players at the dinner break were Scandinavian, while Bulgarian Petar Zografov was tenth – he went on to finish 13th, cheered on by his supporters. Amazingly, the player in last place at this stage was Dutch Cardplayer editor Anthon-Pieter Wink, who turned 26,500 chips into over €170,000.

The final table lineup was tough, multinational, multilingual, and had plenty of surprises, reversals of fortune, and general action we’ve come to expect from the climax of Unibet Open events. The players were led in chips by Belgian Nils Ral, with Russian Maksim Tyurin and Dutchman Anthon-Pieter Wink close beind him. Also in contention: Hungarian Zsombor Gall, Swede Peder Skaj, Claus Nielsen, Christian Kall and Danny Dabbagh (all from Denmark) as well as Norwegian Joachim Buch (on his second consecutive Unibet Open final) and Croatian Mitrovic Hrvoje.

Shortest stacked Hrvoje was hardly at the table five minutes before a premium A-K came his way – unfortunately for him Peder Skaj picked up pocket Kings and sent him to the rail. There followed a period of chip manoeuvring without too many showdowns as the structure had left the start of the final pretty deep. It was Zsombor Gall who got it all in next, but won a race against Nils Ral, which started the decline of the once chip leader, but Gall was to finish in 7th place, just above Christian Kall who also fell to Skaj (K-Q vs. A-J).

Skaj made a habit of busting shorter stacks, picking up these crucial pots to challenge the chip lead by dinner time. Gall was knocked out by Anthon-Pieter Wink, his pocket Eights failing to hold against A-Q. Wink, who’d come back from the brink of elimination to build a commanding stack, was busy in the first few levels, picking up a few chunky pots and cementing his comfortable stack position. Outside the casino, he’s the editor of Cardplayer Nederland, and clearly being involved in the poker journalism industry may have its benefits; Claus Nielsen too has been known to frequent the odd press room in blogging capacity.

Even before the dinner break, it was Peder Skaj and Anthon-Pieter Wink out in front over the million chip barrier, while Maksim Tyurin had started off heading the same way, before losing a 120k pot to Skaj when he turned a set of Nines on a 5-2-A-9 board, only to find Skaj sitting on 3-4 for the flopped straight. No pair on the river, and a promising start turned into what ended up as 4th place. Before that, however, Danny Dabbagh pressed his luck moving in four times in five hands when he found himself the short stack as the blinds rose, eventually being picked off by Joachim Buch with a slightly stronger Ace. Also Claus Nielsen, off-and-on chip leader all the way through three days, found himself short and busted in 5th in similar circumstances, his A-5 staying behind Joachim Buch’s A-9.

Three handed after Tyurin suffered an eye-watering outdraw when his A-A failed to hold against 9-9, all in preflop, and there was a big difference between the Big Two, Skaj and Wink with nearly two million apiece, and 500k-stacked Buch. He made a play back at Skaj with 9-T suited, but this time the Swede had raised with Queens and sent him to the rail in the same finishing position he’d made at the last Unibet Open in Prague! Back to back thirds and a €74,175 payday, not bad.

Still, the trophy and title were yet to be claimed, and it was a level on before the heads up reached its conclusion. Starting off pretty even in chips, Wink built up a lead of about a million before seeing a Qh-9c-3h flop and calling Skaj’s shove with the Ace-high flush draw. He was actually ahead of Skaj’s J-T for the straight draw, and although the crowd held its breath when Skaj hit a Ten on the turn, the third heart on the river ended the hard-fought final. Wink will have to wait until June to defend his title at the next stop on the tour – in Golden Sands, Bulgaria, where the cards will return to the air, the commentators to the livestream and hundreds of players to Unibet Open.

Results

• Points
• Cash
• Country

1.		Anthon-Pieter Wink	366
2.		Peder Skaj	339
3.		Joachim Buch	317
4.		Maksim Tyurin	299
5.		Claus Nielsen	283
6.		Danny Dabbagh	270
7.		Nils Ral	259
8.		Zsombor Gall	248
9.		Christian Kall	239

1.		Anthon-Pieter Wink	€ 172,500
2.		Peder Skaj	110,400
3.		Joachim Buch	74,175
4.		Maksim Tyurin	53,475
5.		Claus Nielsen	41,400
6.		Danny Dabbagh	28,290
7.		Nils Ral	21,045
8.		Zsombor Gall	14,835
9.		Christian Kall	12,075

1.		Sweden	1956
2.		Hungary	1421
3.		Netherlands	1245
4.		Bulgaria	1085
5.		Denmark	1015
6.		Norway	918
7.		Russia	894
8.		France	758
9.		Finland	500

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