A view from the commentary box…
Roy Brindley
For me the Barcelona leg of the Unibet Open 2011 represented more of the same: more sea, more poker and more fun. Noticeably the line ‘more sun’ is omitted but the small print does state Unibet cannot be held to ransom over such unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances.
Ashamedly my Unibet Open virginity was lost only a few months beforehand at the Maltese leg but, on entering Barcelona’s Grand Casino, the feeling was more Facebook than a lonely hearts column.
Names, faces and characters that I had familiarised myself with in Malta were commonplace underlining claims that the Unibet Open Tour’s faithful are more loyal than the Hollywood icon, Lassie.
Soon with a headset applied, fixated to a monitor, microphone in hand and sat like a neurotic child strapped into his car seat and welded to his security blanket the action was unfolding before me and alternating sidekicks.
First up, amongst the cast stared in Malta’s feature table, was Rodolfo Gaddo. The classy Italian, who makes George Clooney look like Quasimodo, played with the same conservative style that saw him make it all the way to fourth position in Malta but, sadly, a repeat performance was not forthcoming.
In a hand that should surely see a YouTube hit count breach seven digits, Gaddo’s demise had a big something to do with him flopping a full house against an opponent who had flopped four of a kind. Watching his chips slowly going into the pot was as painful as having one’s ear removed with a cheese grater.
Another Maltese final table finisher, Brian Linnet, was also featured beneath the bright lights and before the cameras but he too failed to find the fabled final table.
Ditto Oanh Bui who, unsurprisingly, has had her name simplified to The Beauty by all commentators. Here the Dutch Beauty posted a personal best with a 22nd placed finish. Her presence at the final table and that of her sizeable fan club cheering from the rail would have certainly brightened up proceedings.
As it was Holland was still well represented at this, the plinth on the pantheon, with three players. It was headed by Daniel Reijmer who brought a colossal stack of chips to the party; however, along the way this aggressive player turned into Dr Bruce Banner, tamely departing in seventh position.
Judging by his exit interview on leaving the casino he may well have taken the short walk to the Mediterranean jumped in and began deep breathing exercises.
Amazingly Reijmer was not favourite to take the title when Unibet.com opened their betting market on who would lift the classy winner’s trophy aloft. That distinction went to Davor Pavic who was subject of a colossal gamble from his Swedish supporters.
In a groundbreaking innovation Unibet were offering a host of live in-play betting markets way beyond the conventional ‘who will win the tournament’ market. This included the winner of the next hand dealt and the next player to be eliminated.
Reijmer’s early exit excluded, this went quite predictably with short-stacked Tuan Duy Ngo and Tomas Kesiunas nursing their dwindling chips into eighth and ninth positions. It was a scramble over fifth and sixth between Russian Andrei Vlassenko and home boy Emilio Dominguez Munoz. Both were playing a simple all-in or pass style of game.
On one occasion Vlassenko, with the table image of an Easter Island statue, received a huge slice of luck when his pocket jackets conquered Davor Pavic’s pocket Queens but it was still not enough for him to last beyond fifth position.
Like Reijmer, Vlassenko did not say too much during his exit interview but, in contrast to the Dutchman, it was not because of his dejection but because he does not speak a word of any language apart from Russian! Maybe he was dejected but the smile on his face said something very different.
So four remained and, at this stage, your intrepid commentator declared that making Davor Pavic an odds-on favourite, as Unibet’s finest betting minds were, was insanity. He did not have half the chips in play and he had three opponents to overcome.
Admittedly at this time pieces of my shattered jaw were being swept up from the floor after witnessing Dutchman Pim Van Riet show an Ace-King and pass his hand whilst staring at a King-high flop.
This play was after he had called a preflop raise and then reraised an opening bet on the flop from his rival. I doubt if even Inspector Poirot could figure it out. However I still maintained Davor Pavic’s rivals, Van Riet included, were a better proposition at odds against than him at odds-on.
Make no mistake, he was tearing up the table like a Bugatti Veyron on a test track. However, whilst that car may do 250 miles per hour, at that speed it uses up a full tank of petrol in twelve minutes. By the time you stop and fill up the car at your local petrol station your opponent will be racing in another country.
Yet Pavic, a playground bully who brought his schoolboy antics to the poker table, mercilessly continued to beat his rivals into a jigsaw puzzle.
Watching Pavic’s price tumble below odds of 1.5 and just as I was reaching for a wet towel to wipe the egg from my face there was a glimmer of hope. Young gun Ruben Sanchez Cebollada, who had been sat as quiet as a pig in a synagogue, cried enough and belted the unsuspecting Swede with a reraise all in.
He won the confrontation and immediately distanced himself from the two other unwanted guests at this dinner table. It left Pim Van Riet, who had shown he was prepared to lay down a big hand, and a tricky, unpredictable, Jose Fuentes Marin to fight out the third and fourth placed money.
Marin had played pocket Queens well earlier in the final – getting paid on every street including the river after flopping a set and filling a full house – but he was a serious victim of Pavic’s bludgeoning style thereafter and had to settle for fourth spot.
Once Van Riet hit the rail the scene was set: It was Babyface verses the Bully. For the viewers this three hour brawl may not have been a classic. For the purists just two flops in 25 minutes of play meant no quarter was being asked for, or given.
Ultimately, to the relief of yours truly who was relentless in preaching to listeners and viewers that Pavic’s opponents were a better bet (at the odds on offer) than the Swede, it was the young Spaniard Ruben Sanchez Cebollada that prevailed after both players found an Ace and went to war with it. In fairness either player would have been a worthy winner.
And so the circus has packed its tent and is moving on to Dublin where poker is not a religion, it is something far more serious! I’ll hazard a guess that a new champion will be added to the Unibet Open’s roll of honour in the Irish capital but, beyond that, predictions will be kept to a minimum – until I see the odds on offer, that is.
