Kaarel Lepik Engineers Huge Comeback to Win Unibet Open Copenhagen
Estonian Kaarel Lepik went into Copenhagen as part of a group of six players, all trying to qualify for the Main Event. Lepik was the only one out of six to actually qualify, and eventually he went all the way.
Lepik overcame Sigurd Carlsson after a fiercely contested heads-up battle in which Lapik was trailing heads-up.
2011 Unibet Open Riga winner Peter Harkes saw his bid at a second title end in third place. Start-of-the-day chipleader Monica Vaka, who had a chance to become the first ever female Unibet Open champion, fell in seventh place.
2017 Unibet Open Copenhagen Final Results
| Position | Player | Country | Prize in DKK | Prize in € |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kaarel Lepik | Estonia | DKK 562,300 | €75,996 |
| 2 | Sigurd Carlsson | Faroe Islands | DKK 362,100 | €48,938 |
| 3 | Peter Harkes | Netherlands | DKK 249,900 | €33,774 |
| 4 | Mikael Johansson | Sweden | DKK 185,000 | €25,003 |
| 5 | [Removed:402] | Lithuania | DKK 142,200 | €19,197 |
| 6 | Martin Wendt | Denmark | DKK 109,400 | €14,769 |
| 7 | Monica Vaka | Norway | DKK 87,600 | €11,826 |
| 8 | Florian Lanz | Switzerland | DKK 70,100 | €9,463 |
| 9 | Soren Hansen | Denmark | DKK 56,100 | €7,573 |
Thirteen players returned to Casino Copenhagen at noon local time on Sunday to try and capture the coveted Unibet Open title. For Mateusz Krzyzewksi, the day ended after mere minutes after shoving ace-six in ace-jack. Thomas Ardai was the next to go: he lost the classic ace-king versus the pocket queens of Carlssen. It was a pivotal pot to Carlsson, who grabbed a big chip lead after the hand.
Tomasz Kozub started the day second in chips. After losing a few pots in the early stages, Kozub four-bet shoved pocket jacks into Vaka's pocket queens, didn't improve and finished in 11th place. Jes Bondo became the final table bubble by shoving pocket queens into Lepik's pocket aces.
The nine remaining players were seated as follows:
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Removed:402] | Lithuania | 1,070,000 |
| 2 | Monica Vaka | Norway | 2,875,000 |
| 3 | Mikael Johansson | Sweden | 750,000 |
| 4 | Soren Hansen | Denmark | 1,020,000 |
| 5 | Martin Wendt | Denmark | 480,000 |
| 6 | Peter Harkes | Netherlands | 1,100,000 |
| 7 | Florian Lanz | Switzerland | 525,000 |
| 8 | Kaarel Lepik | Estonia | 1,600,000 |
| 9 | SIgurd Carlsson | Faroe Islands | 2,830,000 |
A triple-barrel bluff with ten high spelt the end for Soren Hansen in ninth place. Harkes had flopped two pair and called every street to send Hansen home. Florian Lanz was the next to go. Short stacked, he shoved eight-trey into jack-eight and didn't improve.
The next one to go was start-of-the-day chipleader Monica Vaka. An unfortunate series of events spelt the end for the last female standing. Vaka lost pocket kings against Harkes' pocket aces and never gained any traction after that. Down to around ten big blinds, Vaka open-shoved pocket fives from the small blind but Mikael Johansson picked up pocket kings in the big blinds to send Vaka to the rail.
Martin Wendt finished in sixth place after getting pocket nines in against Carlsson's pocket tens. [Removed:402] quickly succumbed to Carlsson as well by losing king-queen to ten-nine. Lepik then eliminated Johansson with pocket fours against jack-eight to get play three-handed.
2011 Unibet Open Riga winner Harkes was in contention for a second title for a long time. Being short against the two big stacks Carlsson and Lepik, Harkes tried to start his comeback with pocket sixes against Carlsson's ace-trey. An ace on the flop spelt the exit for Harkes, who recorded his third lifetime Unibet Open final table.
Holding a 2-to-1 chiplead, Carlsson started the heads-up running over Lepik. The Estonian found himself below the dreaded 20 big blind mark multiple times, but he was able to hold on each time. Lepik was behind for hours before finally grinding back up to nearly even stacks.
Then, in one hand, Lepik dealt the decisive blow with ace-five against Carlsson's nine-seven. In a three-bet pot, the flop came down seven-four-trey and both players checked. The turn was a deuce, completing Lepik's straight, and Carlsson check-called a big bet. The seven on the river gave Carlsson trip sevens and he check-called all in for nearly all his chips. In the next hand, Lepik finished it off with king-nine against king-trey to become the 40th Unibet Open champion!
That's all from Casino Copenhagen in the stunning Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel. The Unibet Open will be back in September for a special stop at a still to be announced location. PokerNews will once again be on hand again to provide you all the live updates from the floor as it happens.
A former professional poker player with a background in sports marketing and journalism. Yori has been a part of PokerNews since 2016 and manages the content team.
