Marius Pertea Wins Unibet Open Bucharest Main Event

Romania’s Marius Pertea (cover image) emerged as the last man standing from among 502 entries to claim the title at the 10-year anniversary edition of the Unibet Open €1,100 Main Event at the Grand Ballroom of the luxurious JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel.

Marius became the third Romanian to win the trophy in the last ten years and collected €90,925 first prize which is almost twice as much as he did at this year’s PokerStars Champion Monte-Carlo Main Event for finishing at his career-best 11th place.

The top 71 players took home a share of the €486,940 prize pool.

Some of the notable players to cash were Ran Azor (70th place for €1,880), eSports Star Kevin ‘Papaplatte’ Teller (66th place for €1,880), Tudor Purice (61st place for €2,105), Unibet Poker ambassador Dara O’Kearney (55th place for €2,105), Stephane Allard (45th place for €2,355), Eric Wasylenko (37th place for €2,640), two-time Unibet Open champion Dan Murariu (30th place for €3,310), Jean-Serge Baril (18th place for €4,650), Yasen Dichev (14th place for €5,990), and Tom Vogelsang (11th place for €7,405).

The tournament journey was like a roller-coaster ride for the 37-year-old general manager from Buzau, as he lost almost his entire stack thrice only to get back in the game and ultimately triumphed.

The final table outing at the event was proof enough that poker is a popular game all around the globe. Three Romanians, three Israelis, two Croatians and one Swedish and one Slovenian player comprised the nine-handed final table.

Final Table Recap

The final day began with ten finalists taking down their seats and it took 40 minutes to reach the official final table of nine with the elimination of Bogdan Ionescu.

Israel’s Dor Lan started off well but could not manage to hold on to his position and made an exit in ninth spot for €9,110.

He was quickly followed by Henrik Tellving who slowly but surely lost most of his chips to eventually perish in eighth place for €10,930.

Christopher Heidelbacher was ousted by Avi Cohen and the Romanian walked out with a seventh place finish earning €13,665.

Next on the list of casualties was Guy Ohayon, who hit the rail in sixth spot. Ohayan four bet all in with king-jack suited and was called by Robert Vukovic with pocket aces. The former took home €17,080 in earnings.

Continuing his elimination streak, just a few hands later, Vukovic sent Bojan Zidar packing in fifth place.

Four-handed play lasted for quite some time where Cohen stayed on top of the counts almost exclusively. However, Pavao Veza ensured that things do not remain that way and eliminated Cohen a few hands later in fourth position for €28,860.

Veza however, failed to carry on the momentum and was eliminated in third place soon thereafter for €38,965.

That set up an intriguing heads-up battle between Vukovic and local crowd favorite Pertea. Both exchanged the lead as the chips went back and forth but eventually the stack of the Croatian plummeted. On his final hand, Vukovic tried totriple barrel bluff with ace-queen for a gutshot straight but unfortunately for him, Pertea called with king-six suited for flopped two pair ending things in a dramatic way!

Final Table Results (EURO)

1. Marius Pertea – €90,925

2. Robert Vukovic – €56,500

3. Pavao Veza – €38,965

4. Avi Cohen – €28,860

5. Bojan Zidar – €22,200

6. Guy Ohayon – €17,080

7. Christopher Heidelbacher – €13,665

8. Henrik Tellving – €10,930

9. Dor Lan – €9,110