A total of 308 players descended on the spectacular Royal Casino in Latvia’s capital city Riga December 1-4 for the grand finale of the Unibet Open 2011 season, generating a 307,238 LVL (€438,900) prize pool. After four long days of play, young Dutchman Peter Harkes claimed the trophy and the 62,829 LVL (€90,016) first prize. It was only his second ever live cash, his first having come just a few months ago at Unibet Open Dublin, where he made the final table and finished in fifth place – among the most impressive poker debuts in recent years.
The Royal Casino was a spectacular venue for Harkes’ first major live win. The lush gilded interior of the tournament, glittering with chandeliers, was just a lovely place to play poker, and the generosity of the casino extended to offering a consolation prize to the first player out on Day 1a. Paulo Rodrigues was the recipient of the wooden spoon provided in association with Welcome2Riga.com – a trip out to the Latvian countryside to shoot guns. What better way to let off steam after a bad beat.
Going all the way wasn’t plain sailing for Harkes – at one point on Day 1a, he flopped three sets in a row and lost every time, reducing him from a big stack to just 8,500 in the space of a few minutes. While Harkes recovered from his setbacks and went on to be crowned champion, others did not fare so well. Players who came and went before the money included Unibet Ambassadors Alex Rousso and Paul Valkenburg, EPT finalist Paul Berende and Dutch model Ancilla Tilia. Also failing to make the money was back-to-back Unibet Open finalist Pim van Riet, formerly the frontrunner for the annual Leaderboard. His failure to cash at Riga cost him the Leaderboard top spot and it looks as though he’s finished the season in third place behind fellow Dutchman Tim Verbon and fellow back-to-back finalist Harkes.
Finland dominated the top of the chip counts in the early stages of the tournament – three of the four biggest stacks going into Day 2 were Finnish – but it didn’t last for long. Overall Day 2 chip leader Jami Juutila and Day 1b chip leader Teemu Autio didn’t even make the money. Ilkka Heikkila made it as far as 18th place, but it was only Lithuanian Vytautas Milvydas – third in chips going into Day 2 – who made it as far as the final table.
The bubble was a swift but dramatic affair – dramatic largely because of the twin fates of the only husband and wife team playing the event, Henri and Katri Kasper. Henri was just a few places from the money when he got his stack in with :::Qd :::Qc against Andy Bell’s :::Ad :::Jh and looked set to double up when he flopped a full house against Bell’s trips. But the full board ran out :::Qh :::Jc :::Jd :::Ts :::Js giving Bell quads on the river, and Kasper busted out. Just a few minutes later, wife Katri busted out too. It was a straightforward coinflip – :::Ac :::Qc against Peter Harkes’ :::Jh :::Js – but it was no doubt made much worse by the fact that Katri busted out in the last place before the money, the official bubble spot.
Once the remaining 39 players were in the money, the pace of play increased markedly. The chip lead swung back and forth: at the dinner break Jarkko Mammela led; two hours later it was the turn of Loek van Wely. Within a few hours, 30 players including Unibet Ambassador Atanas Gueorguiev, EPT finalist Koen De Visscher and brand new Leaderboard winner Tim Verbon had been awarded payouts ranging from 2,151 LVL (€3,082) to 7,220 LVL (€10,344) and sent home. The last exit of the night took place at 11.50pm, just in time for the midnight start of the legendary Unibet Open Players’ Party – Pim van Wieringen succumbed in 10th place to dominant Dutchman Peter Harkes, and play was over for the day. Nine players remained.
Peter Harkes carried a substantial chip lead into the final day – at 1,720,500 he had nearly a third of the chips in play, and only one other player – Maksim Martynov on 1,001,000 – had even broken the million mark. Despite doubling up several players during the course of the final, Harkes never lost the chip lead once during the entire course of the final table.
The final table kicked off with double ups for short stacks David Janssen and Vytautas Milvydas, and with the stacks a little more even it took almost two hours for the first finalist to hit the rail. The ninth place finisher was Ricardo Klaassen, who shoved with :::Jh :::9c and was picked off by Maksim Martynov holding :::Ah :::7d. He took home 8,295 LVL (€11,884). This was one of the few eliminations that was not the work of Peter Harkes – Harkes was soon responsible for the exits of Rytis Grunovas in eighth place (9,524 LVL/€13,645), Loek van Wely in seventh place (10,753 LVL/€15,408) and Vytautas Milvydas in sixth place (13,211 LVL/€18,929), all of these in quick succession. By now Harkes had around half the chips in play.
The pattern was only broken when David Janssen’s pocket :::Jd :::Jc were outdrawn by Jarkko Mammela’s :::Kc :::Td, the board running out :::2h :::Qc :::Kh :::Tc :::6c to send the Belgian home with 16,898 LVL (€24,211) for fifth place. It wasn’t the start of a great comeback for Mammela though – he soon became fourth place finisher after failing to outflip Maksim Martynov, Mammela’s :::Ac :::Kh playing Martynov’s :::Jc :::Jh, and took home 21,506 LVL (€30,817).
Three handed, Harkes remained the chip leader but there wasn’t much in it between him and Maksim Martynov. Arkadiusz Olszowy by contrast continued to nurse a relatively short stack, as he had all day. So it came as something of a surprise when Harkes and Martynov almost immediately began to get involved with one another. They had one minor scuffle – Harkes won – before all the chips went in. Martynov opened and Harkes reraised before Martynov went all in with :::Ah :::Jc. Harkes snap-called with :::Kc :::Kd. There was no help for Martynov on the board and he busted out in third place for 29,187 LVL (€41,814).
Harkes had more than a 6:1 chip lead over Arkadiusz Olszowy when the heads up began, and it looked like it could all be over immediately when Olszowy went all in on the first hand. The players had seen a :::9d :::2h :::2s flop and the chips had gone in, Olszowy holding Q-9 against Harkes’ K-9 – but an ace on the river chopped the pot. A few minutes later Olszowy doubled up with :::Ah :::Qc against Harkes’ :::Ad :::9h, and was now on 1.45 million to Harkes’ 4.65 million – still at a disadvantage, but now relatively deep.
After an hour of slowly chipping away at Olszowy’s stack, Harkes found a dream spot. He min-raised from the button and Olszowy called to see a :::9s :::8d :::6d flop, which he liked enough to go all in. Harkes snap-called with :::7d :::5h for the straight, and Olszowy could only muster :::9h :::4d for top pair. The :::Kd turn and :::7c river were not enough to save Olszowy, and he had to settle for second place and 42,705 LVL (€61,176). Harkes meanwhile took the trophy, a 62,829 LVL (€90,016) payday and third place on the Leaderboard, the full official result of which will be published in the next few days.
