British player Martin Olali has won Unibet Open Dublin, the first stop of 2020, after a tumultuous four-hour heads-up battle against Dutch qualifier Steven Vollers. Olali, who was short-stacked for much of the final table and down 8:1 at one point during heads-up, was celebrating his biggest ever live cash and first-ever score on the Unibet tour.
Unibet Open Dublin took place February 26 to March 1 at the Bonnington Hotel and featured 20+ different tournaments. Special guest Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, who took down the invitational Battle Royale tournament, was among hundreds of players who competed at the festival. The €1,100 Main Event attracted 294 entries creating a total prize pool of €294,000. More than 100 players qualified for the Main Event online after winning their seats or full prize packages online on Unibet Poker.
Olali’s €64,110 victory now takes him just over the $300k mark in live tournament cashes. Vollers, who had a deep run at Unibet Open Sinaia last year and also finished sixth in the Unibet Battle of the Champions, took €40,020 for his runner-up finish.
There were a host of well-known players on the final table including third-placed Alex Hendriks, Sam Baneham – who won the Unibet Deepstacks event at the last Unibet Open in Dublin in 2018, Unibet Ambassador Espen Jorstad, UK player Jamie Nixon and last year’s Irish Poker Open champion Weijie Zheng.
Final table results:
1 Martin Olali, UK, €64,110
2 Steven Vollers, Netherlands, €40,020
3 Alex Hendriks, Netherlands, €27,600
4 Sam Baneham, Ireland, €20,440
5 Weijie Zheng, Ireland, €15,730
6 Espen Jorstad, Unibet Ambassador, Norway, €12,100
7 Ciaran Burke, Ireland, €9,680
8 Jamie Nixon, UK, €7,740
9 Wim Anne Wesselink, Netherlands, €6,190
Jason Tompkins, Niall Farrell and Jack Hardcastle all made the final day, but narrowly missed final table glory, finishing in 10th, 11th and 12th place respectively. A total of 39 players cashed in the event including Dublin Poker Festival High Roller winner John Dwyer, Max Silver, Henrik Tellving, Chris Dowling, Ylva Thorsrud and Finnish Unibet Ambassador Jorma Vuoksenmaa.
Other players who made Day 2 but have bust before the money included ACOP champ Andy Black, John Gough, two-time champion Mateusz Moolhuizen, Unibet Ambassadors Monika Vaka, Alexandre Reard and Dara O’Kearney, John Hanaphy, Dex de Jong, Ludovic Geilich and Dara Davey.
Unibet Open Tallinn
The next stop on the 2020 Unibet Open tour is a five-day festival in Tallinn in May. This will be Unibet Open’s second visit to Estonia’s beautiful capital and satellites are already underway on Unibet Poker. The event is taking place May 20-24 and being hosted by Olympic Park Casino. Tallinn is one of Europe’s most gorgeous cities -the entire walled Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the city centre is packed with great restaurants, bars, shops, museums and galleries. Click here for more details.
Unibet Open Dublin 2020 followed hot on the heels of the Unibet-sponsored Dublin Poker Festival and attracted a huge crowd to the Bonnington. The first-ever combination of the two festivals has provided players with the opportunity to enjoy a real poker holiday in Dublin with two major events taking place back-to-back.
Dublin side event results
Unibet Battle Royale: The first event to be live-streamed from Dublin was the invitational €3k Unibet Battle Royale. Unibet special guest, the Swedish high-stakes poker legend Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, scooped the €1,500 top prize after seeing off competition from a raft of Unibet Ambassadors and other well-known players. Unibet Ambassador and live stream host David Vanderheyden was runner-up, with Norway’s Espen Jorstead finishing third.
Unibet Open-er: The brand new €225 single re-entry “Unibet Open-er” tournament attracted 68 entries with Alex Kulev taking the €3,725 top prize after beating Ylva Thorsrud heads-up. All nine finalists made the money including two-time Unibet champ Mateusz Moolhuizen who finished fifth for €1,050.
€165 NLH Turbo: Swedish player Filip Holmqvist won the first turbo event of the festival, a €165 NLH Turbo held on Thursday. He snagged €2,790 after beating Jamie Nixon heads-up. Unibet Ambassador David Lappin logged a min-cash and finished seventh for €420.
€110 NLH Hyper Turbo: Belgium’s Bart Vanpee won last Friday’s late night €110 NLH Hyper Turbo for €850. A total of 20 players turned out for the freezeout event, playing 10 minute levels with a starting stack of 10,000. Four were paid from the €2k prize pool.
€2,200 High Roller: Ireland’s Tarek Qunber Qunber won the €2,200 High Roller for €11,170 after a three-way deal with Scottish star Niall Farrell and Robbie Toan. Farrell and Toan both snagged €10,000 richer while Dublin-based Londoner Max Silver finished fourth for €4,830.
€330 Super Stack tournament
There were 119 entries into the two-day €330 Super Stack event. Unibet Ambassadors Dara O’Kearney and David Lappin both cashed, with Sjors Harmens taking the €10,000 top prize and 15 players paid overall.
Irish Poker
The €165 four-card Irish Poker tourney drew 25 total runners creating a €3,750 prize pool. Shane Hellyer took first place for €1,100 after a heads-up deal with David Ryan. Phillip Huxley min-cashed in fifth place.
Pot Limit Omaha: The Pot Limit Omaha event attracted 40 entries creating a €6,000 prize pool. Mark Buckley took it down for €2,300 with five players making the money.
Ladies #QueenRules Event
The €90 #QueenRules Ladies Event drew 13 entries. Unibet Ambassador Monica Vaka took down the top prize of €500, with Charlotte van Brabander winning €320 for second, and media influencer Dehlia de Jong third for €220.
Progressive Knockout
Irish player Gabor Csire won the €100 + €100 +€20 Progressive Knockout for €800 after beating a 99-entry field.
€100 + €10 “Mini ME”
Irish player Carl Cullen won the new €110 “Mini ME” event, a single re-entry tournament which mirrored the Main Event’s 30,000 starting stack. Cullen snagged €3,980 with 23 players paid for the €17,160 prize pool. There were 176 entries overall.
Live Stream & Social Media
Unibet Ambassador David Vanderheyden and Henry Kilbane hosted the Unibet Open Dublin live stream on multiple channels including the Unibet Open website, Twitch, youtube and facebook. Unibet Open is also on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr with live updates on PokerNews.
Unibet Open Dublin history
Unibet Open Dublin was the tour’s third visit to the Irish capital. The last Unibet Open in Dublin was held in 2018 with nearly €600,000 awarded in prize money across the whole festival, and 1,500 total entries. British player Paul Jux-Holderness won €74,900 after beating a 359-strong field in the Main Event with 47 players paid from the €359,000 prize pool. Jux-Holderness, who hails from Bournemouth, also finished third in the €2,200 High Roller for a further €8,860.
The first Unibet Open Dublin was in 2011 when English poker pro Paul Vas Nunes took down the Main Event for €105,300 after besting a field of 260 players. It was one of Nunes’ earliest recorded cashes and he has since won more than $1.7 million at live poker tournaments.
About the Unibet Open
The Unibet Open is the hottest live poker tournament circuit in Europe, with ever-growing numbers of players from amateurs to professionals battling for six-figure prize pools in some of the continent’s most glamorous locations. Since 2007, the Unibet Open has been synonymous with a great poker experience – not only running the best tournaments with the Main Event regularly selling out above cap, but also taking advantage of amazing locations and making sure that every Unibet Open player has the time of their life.
