Thomas Thang Wins Unibet Open Valencia 2010 for $193,251

The Valencia stop of the 2010 Unibet Open has taken place with the €1,500 buy-in tournament attracting several top European poker players including Pieter de Korver, Jan Sjavik, Claus Nielsen, and Maria Maceiras however none of them could manage to win the event.

Instead it was Danish Poker Foundation President Thomas Thang who took down the win for a payday of €130,080 and his first major poker win. Prior to this, Thang’s only previous recorded cash was victory in a €300 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Turbo event at the 2010 EPT Vilamoura where he defeated a field of 43 players to win €5,631. The reason for lack of tournament experience is that Thang is a cash-game specialist and he has only recently turned his attention to tournament poker.

The event attracted 361 players mainly from Europe and was played over the course of four days. After Day 1A and Day 1B only 94 players were left in the tournament and on Day 3 they played down to the final table.

Thang entered the final table 6th in chips but played excellent poker and when he eliminated Atanas Gueorguiev in 4th place he had ammassed a massive chip advantage and was well on his way to taking down the win. Andreas Hofmann then eliminated Jose Diez in third place to set up a heads-up battle with Thang.

Just a few hands into heads-up play Thang was dealt pocket 8’s and moved all-in pre-flop getting called by Hofmann who held A10. The flop came 245 giving the German several outs, needing any three or heart to win, however the turn was 6 and the river was the K giving Thang his first major win.

The next stop for the Unibet Open is London where the event will take place from 4th-7th December.

Unibet Open Valencia Final Table Results

1st for €138,080 was Thomas Thang from Denmark
2nd for €89,350 was Andreas Hofmann from Germany
3rd for €59,560 was Jose Diez from Spain
4th for €43,320 was Atanas Gueorguiev from Bulgaria
5th for €33,840 was Andrei Grigoras from Romania
6th for €23,010 was Yoni Houri from France
7th for €17,060 was Michael Schuerpf from Switzerland
8th for €12,180 was Tim Van De Riet from The Netherlands
9th for €9,750 was Jose Luis Melia from Spain
10th for €7,310 was Andre Joranger from Norway