Monica Vaka Leads Final 13 Players of 2017 Unibet Open Copenhagen
After 11 full hours of play on Day 2 of the 2017 Unibet Open Copenhagen DDK 8,250 Main Event, a field of 112 hopefuls had whittled down to the final 13. The chip leader heading into the final day is Norway's Monica Vaka, who used her big stack to her advantage and aggressively made her way to 1,881,000 in chips. Even more impressive is the fact that Vaka is thriving during these long days while being seven months pregnant!
Vaka is closely followed by Tomasz Kozub (1,754,000), Kaarel Lepik (1,632,000) and Sigurd Carlsson (1,469,000). Kozub, an experienced Unibet Open regular with over $200,000 in lifetime winnings, already clashed big with Vaka on Saturday. The Pole is seated to Vaka's direct left and has the position, stack and experience to potentially hurt the chip leader.
Lepik continued his good run from Day 1 and Carlsson is holding the honor of the small Faroe Islands high. The four will be joined by nine others and will return in the following order:
Day 3 Seating and Chip Counts
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 1 | Sigurd Carlsson | Faroe Islands | 1,469,000 |
| 9 | 2 | Mikael Johansson | Sweden | 328,000 |
| 9 | 3 | [Removed:402] | Lithuania | 459,000 |
| 9 | 4 | Florian Lanz | Switzerland | 500,000 |
| 9 | 6 | Soren Hansen | Denmark | 978,000 |
| 9 | 7 | Monica Vaka | Norway | 1,881,000 |
| 9 | 8 | Tomasz Kozub | Poland | 1,754,000 |
| 10 | 2 | Kaarel Lepik | Estonia | 1,632,000 |
| 10 | 3 | Thomas Ardai | Romania | 431,000 |
| 10 | 5 | Martin Wendt | Denmark | 558,000 |
| 10 | 6 | Mateusz Krzyzewksi | Poland | 333,000 |
| 10 | 7 | Peter Harkes | Netherlands | 747,000 |
| 10 | 8 | Jes Bondo | Denmark | 584,000 |
The day started off with 112 players, of which 53 would finish in the money. Among the early bustouts were 2017 Unibet Open London winner [Removed:158], Unibet Poker eSports PlayerAlan "Hotted89" Widmann, Unibet Poker Ambassador Dara O'Kearney and Johnny Hansen.
EPT13 Prague winner Jasper Meijer van Putten suffered one of the most brutal beats of his career at the hands of Lepik. Holding pocket aces, Meijer van Putten called a four-bet from Lepik and called an all-in check-raise on a king-high flop. Lepik had ace-king and was drawing very slim but a miracle runner-runner flush sent the pot to the Estonian and left the EPT champion without chips just before the money.
The dubious honor of bubble boy went to Karsten Johansen, who lost pocket jacks against pocket eights to bust. After the bubble burst, Ioana Silvana, Sidsel Nebel and 2016 Unibet Open Malta winner Martin Soukup busted as well. Two-time Unibet Open London final tablelist Bhavin Khatri also missed out on Day 3.
During the last hour of the day, a few more players busted to bring the field down to 13. Uni Gilston was the final player to bust and he did so in the last hand of the day. After being crippled in the penultimate hand with pocket jacks against ace-king, Gilston shoved seven-five into pocket eights and couldn't catch up. With Gilston's bustout, all remaining players are guaranteed at least DDK 44,500 - roughly €6,007.
Besides the aforementioned players, Peter Harkes also made his way to Day 3. Harkes is a former Unibet Open champion and a fixture on the circuit. A win would put the Dutchman on the same level as his good friend Mateusz Moolhuizen and Dan Murariu as a two-time Unibet Open winner.
Play on the final day will resume at noon local time in Level 22 with blinds at 15,000/30,000 and a running ante of 5,000. The live stream will be shown with hole cards and will be on a delay. The PokerNews live reporting team will provide updates of the Main Event until a winner is crowned. Follow us throughout day to see who will lift the trophy in the 40th Unibet Open event!
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.
