Disaster for Bas Michielsen amid asome controversy ivolving him and Pantelis Pavlis, the board was reading and there was some confusion as to what had occurred on the river.

The two players were arguing as Pavlis had apparently made a big bet on the river and Michielsen pushed his chips in while Pavlis seemingly turned over his hand which was for the nuts while Michielsen had a flopped set with .

Michielsen was adamant that he was only making a call (which would’ve left him with about a thousand chips behind) but Pavlis was sure he was moving all-in. The two argued for several minutes before the tournament director came in and conferred with the dealer who stated that Michielsen was moving all-in and the unhappy Dutchman was knocked out of the tournament as a result.

Here’s new Unibet Open Champion Anthon-Pieter Wink with his winning hand forever frozen in trophy form, like a mosquito in amber.  We’ll have to wait and see if he returns to defend his title in Golden Sands, Bulgaria in June…

But for now, thanks from us for watching, we hope you enjoyed this event as much as we did.  Over and out.

Anthon-Pieter Wink raised to 100k on the button, and Peder Skaj (pictured) upped it to 300k (leaving himself 1.4 million behind) – Wink called.

Flop:    Now Skaj just moved all in straight away, first to act.  Two or three minutes later and Wink made the call with the nut flush draw – vs. Skaj’s .  Draw vs. draw and Wink’s ahead… so what came next?  The putting Skaj ahead.

But the river was the , leapfrogging the Dutchman into the win.  What a corker for the audience, who are going nuts next door at this very moment…

Peder Skaj raised to 110k preflop on the button, Anthon-Pieter Wink repopped it to 270k, then Skaj called.

Flop:    Wink checked, Skaj bet 300k.  After a good think, he made the call.

Turn:    Check-check.

River:    Now Wink thought briefly and bet 400k – Skaj tanked for a lot longer and announced, “Call.”  Wink showed which was good – Skaj showed then mucked his hand.

Anthon-Pieter Wink reraises preflop to 220k, and the chip leader makes the call.

The flop: .  Now Skaj check-raised all-in, picking up at least 150k of Wink’s chips which he bet on the flop – only to quickly fold!  This move has worked out well for him on this final – he’s done it four times in the last hour and the hammer-wielding Swede seems to be using his large stack to the best advantage at the moment.

Joachim Buch, having raised preflop, was put to the test with an all-in bet from Maksim Tyurin, and committed them all – with – only to find his opponent with !  Choppity-chop.

Another pot then went Anthon-Pieter Wink’s way – after a threeway flop of (both Claus Nielsen and Peder Skaj had position on him) Wink bet 110k.  Only Skaj made the call.  But on the blank turn, a second barrel from Wink took the lot.

Pictured:  Wink, defiant.

I don’t think I’ve ever written those two words next to each other before.  Button Claus Bek Nielsen raised to 30k preflop (the blinds at 6k/12k ante 1k) and after an intense peer at something at table height (Nielsen’s stack?  The dealer button?) small blind Maksim Tyurin called.  Then big blind Anthon-Pieter Wink (pictured) reached for a few more – it looked like 105k in total from where I was in the spectator stands.  Both other players folded and it was game on.

Christian Kall (pictured) and Maksim Tyurin have been sort of chip-jousting this last level, with Tyurin threebetting Kall out of the way preflop at least once.  However, the last time this happened, when Kall raised under the gun to 23k and Tyurin made it 61k, Kall farily quickly reached for 164k total, which brought the hand to an end and some of those chips back to him.

Players are still deep enough to do this sort of thing, though by tomorrow they may be feeling the sting of the escalating blinds.  But for now, Anthon-Pieter Wink can get away with betting a flop, being check-raised by Claus Nielsen to 52k, then make it 110k (half his stack) and get a fold after an agonising-looking minute in the tank for Nielsen.

Konstantin Tsonev (pictured as if in disguise, with the largest aviators of the tournament on) is busto after losing a crucial race against Anthon-Pieter Wink (and then a 60/40).  First off he raised preflop to 5,300 and Wink shoved over the top.  He called immediately, turning pocket Nines which were in a race, just, with Wink’s .  The came straight away, prompting a sigh from Tsonev, and a sotto voce “Nooooo” as the Ace hit on the river too.

Down to a tiny bowl of rice, he shipped it in the next hand with , not bad at all.  Guess who called?  Wink with .  This stayed ahead and a very disappointed Tsonev slowly got to his feet.

“I hate you,” he deadpanned, smiling at Wink.  Suddenly the rail burst into applause for the young Bulgarian, and he made this very courtly little bow before heading to the cash desk, finishing 22nd to win €4,209.

They’ve set up hand for hand at every pay jump now, but there seems to be no repeat of the bubble area – players are throwing themselves into the pots like lemmings off cliffs made of potential prize money.

The last couple to make their way to the Casino to be paid were both sent packing by the river.  Frederic Bottoli (left) picked up the monstrous , and also a preflop caller – Gonzalo Sanz Santos – and there came an unassuming flop of .  He moved in, and got a call – Santos had the nut flush draw with .  The turn was safe enough, but the river was the card to bust Bottoli.  Santos couldn’t help a rejoicing clap on the river but then shook Bottoli’s hand as he whispered a sad, “Good Game.”

The next to go was Jeffrey Schurman, who called all in with when Anthon-Pieter Wink moved all-in preflop in early position.  Wink held , but it looked like the flop helped the shorter player:  .  The turn was harmless, but the river was the   giving Wink the broadway straight and busting Schurman.

Jan Sjavik, never among the chip leaders so far, but never among the danger-stacks either, just added a chunk to his neatly-piled towers courtesy of Anthon-Pieter Wink.  Sjavik raised to 3,400 preflop, called by the Dutch Cardplayer editor in the cutoff.

The flop:    Out bet Sjavik – 5k.  Call.

Turn:    Out he bet bigger – 12k.  Call.

River:    Out he bet smaller again – 6k.  Call.

Sjavik showed expressionlessly, and Wink mucked his hand, rolling his eyes heavenwards as if to say that the little value bet on the Ten worked out, and possibly that until that time his hand had been ahead.

A huge pot just went the way of Espen Kristoffersen (pictured back near the start of the day when he didn’t have around 60k).  The unwilling benefactor – Joost Mengerink – whose Aces cost him his tournament.  I only saw this hand right at the last stage, when gasps came as hands were revealed on the river.

The board:   Up against Mengerink’s AA was Kristoffersen’s , of course two pair by this stage.  It turns out that the big bet had come on the river, when Mengerink had moved in for something like 23k, called by his opponent and sent to the rail.

It appears that Kristoffersen has been pretty aggressive today, and building a stack back every time he was knocked down (remember he was one of the ones running QQ into AA earlier on).

Zoltan Toth, who’s right up there near the leaders with 45k at the moment, turns out to be quite a chatty guy in the right situations.  Plus players who stack their chips in many many stacks of exactly ten are dear to chip-counters’ hearts.  He just added to one of them courtesy of Daniel van Kalkeren, who re-raised him out of the blinds.  Toth just made the call.

The flop came down , and first to act van Kalkeren bet out 2,125.  Over to Toth, who calmly made it 6k, then sort of stared into the middle distance calmly.  Van Kalkeren thought about it for a while and didn’t look like he really wanted to fold.  Toth helped him out, “If you show it for me, I will show it for you…”

Van Kalkeren didn’t want to, apparently, and passed, while Toth reminded him, “You didn’t show for me,” as he threw his cards back face down and scooped in the pot.  “I had a good hand,” grumbled van Kalkeren who must still have believed Toth held better.

You can tell when there are only minutes left until the start because the foyer starts playing loud music.  Yesterday it was T-Rex, today Blur.  Tomorrow Rage Against the Machine?

The fresh batch of players are mingling outside the tournament area, another sellout crowd waiting to take up every available seat in the spacious Las Vegas Casino (or Convention centre).  We have a larger Dutch contingent coming in today, including but not limited to:

Horace Cohen
Ruben van der Meer
Tim van de Riet
Marco Adams
Paul Valkenburg
Daniel van Kalkeren
Huub Verdonschot

We’ve also got 2009’s Unibet Open Prague winner Fuat Can in the lineup, as well as a few others we’ve seen before – Imre Leibold, Kim Herold, Nicolas Dervaux and Branimir Brunovic.

With the board reading Boudewijn Wubbels fired out 1,600 which Maciej Swicarz called fairly quickly. The river was the and Wubbels moved all-in for his last 4,100,  Swicarz agonised temporarily over the call but  then threw the chips over the line before immediately mucking when Wubbels flipped not just the but also the for a full double up. A little bang on the table in delight from the Dutchman as he’s up to about 14,000.