Belgian player Steven Rothheut has won this year’s Unibet Poker-sponsored International Poker Open for €45,240. The festival featured more than 20 different tournaments at the Bonnington Hotel in Dublin including the €25,000 guaranteed Luxon Pay Super High Roller.
Rothheut, who hails from Tongeren near the Dutch border, was railed by his girlfriend Yana as he battled his way through a huge field in the €310 + €40 buy-in Main Event. For Rothheut, the massive prize was by far his biggest live tournament score. His live winnings before the IPO totalled just $12,205.
Ireland’s Barry Moore, who started the final day as chip leader, had to settle for second place, winning €27,810 – also a personal best when it comes to live tournament cashes. In the final hand, Moore shoved with T4 on a T84 flop. But Rothheut, holding KT and a more than 5:1 chip lead, hit a K on the turn to secure the biggest win of his life.
The International Poker Open has been held annually since 2008 and Unibet Poker has sponsored the event for the last six years – including hosting an online version during the pandemic.
There were 794 entries in this year’s Main Event with players competing across five single re-entry starting flights. Dozens of players won their entry into the event online on Unibet Poker and many of them cashed.
A total of 103 players took a share of the €239,986 prize pool including Barry Carter, Paul Fox, Noel Murphy, Andrew Dooley, Martin Olali, Simon Williams, Luke Boynton, Unibet Ambassador Dara O’Kearney, Annette O’Carroll and Peter Wigglesworth.
Side events
Irish player Nicholas Newport took down the €25k guaranteed Luxon Pay Super High Roller for €11,905 after beating fellow Irishman Thomas Harvey heads-up. Main Event runner-up Barry Moore was third for €5,230. There were 33 entries in all, creating a €32,175 prize pool. Annette O’Carroll, Ireland’s most successful female live tournament player, won the Chip Race Classic for €4,506 after seeing off competition from more than 100 entries. Ireland’s Shane Kelly took down the IPO Mini Main event for €4,340.
Damien Hogan won the Dublin Poker Club Loads’a Chips tourney for €1,816 while the Club’s Cheap n’ Deep tourney was won by Pablo Maroney for €1,690. Nicky Levene from the UK took down the Leslie McLean High Roller for €9k while runner-up Helen Henry, who won her seat in a satellite, snagged €8k.
Players from all over Ireland, the UK and Europe attended this year’s IPO as well as players from Brazil, Jamaica, Vietnam and many more.
Nataly Sopacuaperu, Unibet Open’s Head of Events, said: “Congratulations to the newest IPO champion Steven Rothheut on his fabulous victory. And many thanks to all the players who took part, especially our Unibet qualifiers. The IPO is a real institution in the world of poker enjoying huge popularity amongst grassroots players and giving players the chance to win great prizes for a very affordable buy-in. Unibet Poker is delighted to be involved yet again as headline sponsor.”
Tournament director Nick O’Hara said: “We’re thrilled at the turnout for this year’s event and well done to Steven Rothheut who played a strong game to take down a very competitive Main Event. I’d like to thank our sponsor Unibet Poker, the amazing team of IPO colleagues who made the whole event possible and everyone who came along to the Bonnington this week to take part. It’s been a very successful event.”
For full details and full results, please visit https://internationalpokeropen.ie/live-updates/.
Unibet Open Bucharest
The next Unibet event is in Bucharest with a giant Unibet Open festival taking place at the stunning JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel from November 29 to December 3. Click here for details.
