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Unibet Open Milan has been the biggest, most exciting live event organised by Unibet Poker to date. Located on the shores of the beautiful Lake Lugano in the small town of Campione d’Italia outside of Milan, Nuovo Casinò di Campione is an impressive building; towering over the villas and pizzerias in the town it provided a dramatic setting for this once-in-a-lifetime event.

On the night before the tournament Unibet organised a welcome party at the fifth floor bar at the Casino. The bar offered stunning views of the sun setting behind the Swiss Alps, reflecting off the tranquil surface of Lake Lugano. Players from all over Europe were present, proving how truly international this event really was. Most noticeable was famous Polish pop star, Michał Wiśniewski, with his bright pink hair.

At 15:00 on Friday the 19th of September the cards were already in the air, and with 320 players starting play on Day 1, it was truly an impressive sight. After, only one minute into the game we had our first all-in situation, an unlucky Italian was first out and we were left with 319 players. Day 1 saw 207 players eliminated, leaving 113 to battle it out the following day. Among them: Swedish actor Emil Forselius, Finnish TV-presenter Jussi Heikelä, who was blinded out the first five hours due to a late flight, and Tim van de Riet, runner up at the Unibet Open Madrid earlier this year.

A few big names were eliminated in the early hours of play on Day 2, two of them EPT veterans: Gino Alacqua and Finnish poker pro Jani Karke. Just before the dinner break, the Estonian curse hit Belgian player Laurens de Smet, when he was badly crippled by Estonian Katri Käsper holding pocket rockets. In Madrid, Laurens was kicked out by another Estonian woman, Kairit Leibold, with the same hand, pocket Aces. When De Smet later went all in with Ace Eight against his opponent’s Ace Nine, Lady Luck wasn’t with him and the Belgian went out on the bubble. Day 2 ended with 13 players through to the final day. For players unfortunate enough not to have made it to the final day, Unibet organised a party at the exclusive Club 1 nightclub in Lugano City centre, with loads of free drinks all round!

A little over an hour into the final day we had reached the final nine players. Tim van de Riet’s ambition of reaching the final table two times in a row was cut short as he was kicked out in tenth place. Pushing all in short stacked, he was eliminated by Domenico Tinnirello.

Only two out of the nine players on the table were from outside Italy, Javier Dominguez from Spain and Swede Ojan Faramarzi. Dominguez quickly became a huge favourite for the win with his enormous chip lead – at the start of the final table it was about about three times the size of his closest opponent’s stack. He then continued to build his stack by eliminating two players in a row, Alessandro Meoni and Beniamino Speroni, both Italians. Despite his huge advantage, Dominguez was eliminated in third place by Alessio Masini, making it an all-Italian heads up between him and Domenico Tinnirello. The battle lasted a little less than an hour and it was all over when Tinnirello re-raised Masini all-in with Q, 6 and got called by A, J. Domenico hit his 6 on the flop and that was all it took to claim the title, and of course, the €121,000 pay-cheque!

Final table payouts:

1. Domenico Tinnirello - Italy - € 121,000
2. Allessio Masini - Italy - € 72,000
3. Javier Dominguez - Spain - € 40,500
4. Ojan Faramarzi - Sweden - € 32,500
5. Arnaldo Petino - Italy - € 28,000
6. Beniamino Speroni - Italy - € 23,000
7. Alessandro Meoni - Italy - € 18,600
8. Ennio de Muro - Italy - € 14,000
9. Giovanni Cantonati - Italy - € 9,300