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After three days of almost non-stop play, the Unibet Open tournament in Warsaw`s Hyatt Hotel Casino came to an end with a grueling final and the 159,900 PLN prize going to Stale Loske of Norway. With over 500,000 PLN in cash prizes, the tournament was a record-breaking event for both the players and the organizers.

Unibet Open, a first of a kind event of that magnitude in Warsaw, grabbed the attention of players throughout Europe. The 120 participants hailed from multiple countries, including Poland, Sweden, Norway, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Czech Republic, Denmark and the Netherlands. There was no problem with communications though, as we all spoke a common language – poker that is!

The players, divided into two groups of 60, spent the first two days at the qualifying tables. After 24 hours of play the final field was limited to 33 players, who went to the last stage of the tournament with their qualifying stacks.

This made it particularly hard for the short-stackers, who were the first to go in the first hours of the Sunday’s final. The end game included both amateur players, semi-professionals and,
surprisingly, all three of Unibet’s Polish celebrities from the Ich Troje music band.
With two days of non-stop playing behind them, most players relied on liters of coffee to get them going, though that didn’t always help. The final 8 table did not take too long to complete, gathering players from Poland, Norway, Sweden, Italy and the Netherlands. In the end it came down to two Poles, Marcin Piecha and Leszek Krawczynski, Raffaele Steibano of Italy and Stale Loske of Norway.

Steibano with 600,000 chips, almost triple that of the other players, sat back and watched as Lokse eliminated both Poles, sending them home with 39,360 and 54,120 PLN. It was the time for a showdown – Staibano’s cappucino against Lokse’s impassivity. At this point the game ground to a halt, as both the Italian and Norwegian refused to give any ground. After two hours of a stalemate the players attempted to strike a deal, though in the end the idea didn’t pan out. Five hands later it was all over – Lokse’s AcQh against Staibano’s KcQs and the As4sKs river meant that it was all over for the Italian. Lokse grabbed the main 159,000 PLN prize and smiled for the first time in the tournament.

Stale Lokse 159,900 PLN
Raffaele Staibano 88,560 PLN
Marcin Piecha 54,120 PLN
Leszek Krawczyński 39,360 PLN
Jesper Bergga 31,980 PLN
Mats Skjong 24,600 PLN
Willem St. Gestaizen 19,680 PLN
Magnus Anderson 14,760 PLN