Lepik Wins Unibet Open Copenhagen For €75,000

6 years ago
Lepik Wins Unibet Open Copenhagen For €75,000
12:04
29 May

Estonia’s Kaarel Lepik has taken down the €75,996 Unibet Open Main Event top prize and title after an enthralling heads-up battle in Copenhagen with Faroe Islands player Sigurd Carlsson – the fight lasting 3 and a half hours, with Lepik clawing his way back from the brink of defeat on several occasions.

The final day of the DDK7500 ($1100/€1000) buy-in Unibet Open Main Event had seen an original field of 402 players whittle down to just 13, with players from a host of the northern European countries vying for the tournament trophy, an event run under the watchful eye of Director Kenny Hallaerts, the November Nine WSOP finalist from last year who ‘moonlights’ as an organizer when not playing.

The impressive Casino Copenhagen was the venue and the entire event was live-streamed, your scribe joining the broadcast just in time to see Peter Harkes bust out in 3rd when his pocket 6’s couldn’t hold up against Faroese youngster Sigurd Carlsson’s Ace-rags, the river bringing another deadly bullet for Carlsson, leaving him to fight off the stony-faced Estonian Kaarel Lepik in an epic heads-up affair.


It looked as though Lepik would fall several times in the match, but every time Carlsson got it in with a good hand, Lepik had a better one – the A8 of the Faroes man walking into the dominating A9 of the Estonian.

With Lepik only having 5 cashes to his name, all in his homeland, and Carlsson sporting one solitary cash from back in the 2008 PCA in the Bahamas, the €27,000 difference between 1st and 2nd here in Copenhagen was more than both men’s earnings at the tournament tables combined.

The players were desperate not to break up the play for dinner, but eventually they had to get some sustenance, Unibet Open ambassador and commentator David K. Lappin earlier showing what lack of rest can do to a poker player!

The end, when it came, saw shocking. Carlsson, whose chip lead had been whittle down from 7-1 at stages to almost even insta-called a river shove from Lepik, the young Faroese having rivered trips. He was aghast when he saw what the viewers at home had seen all the way through the hand – Lepik had turned a wheel and completely reversed the match.

With Carlsson looking stunned and disgusted, the very next hand ended the tournament, Lepik’s call of Carlsson’s small-stack shove seeing his K9 dominate the K3 of the younger man.

Five cards later it was all over and Lepik was triumphant – the trophy and the €75k+ all his. Carlsson walked off with a career best by far payday of €48,938, but will take some time to recover from this horrendous bad beat.


The full final table results were as follows:

1Kaarel Lepik
Estonia
562,300 DKK / €75,996
2Sigurd Carlsson
Faroe Islands
362,100 DKK / €48,938
3Peter Harkes
Netherlands
249,900 DKK / €33,774
4Mikael Johansson
Sweden
185,000 DKK / €25,003
5Deivis Rinkevicius
Lithuania
142,200 DKK / €19,197
6Martin Wendt
Denmark
109,400 DKK / €14,769
7Monica Vaka
Norway
87,600 DKK / €11,826
8Florian Lanz
Florian Lanz
70,100 DKK / €9,463
9Soren Hansen
Denmark
56,100 DKK / €7,573

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Andrew from Edinburgh, Scotland, is a professional journalist, international-titled chess master, and avid poker player.Read more

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