Paul Leckey had lost a big pot and was left with 400 chips, forced all in from the small blind and not in his seat when the cards were back in the air. When he had arrived to his seat, there had been significant action already as 2018 Unibet Open London champion Andreas Wiborg moved all in for 13,100 in the cutoff and was called by Julien Kron on the button.
Leckey, however, had not been dealt any cards and the floorman was called to determine the proper proceeding. Since Leckey would have been forced all in and his cards mucked already at that point, it was ruled as a live hand and Leckey's elimination was confirmed prior to the showdown. Only then, Wiborg and Kron tabled their cards.
Andreas Wiborg:
Julien Kron:
The board came and Kron rivered a flush to eliminate Wiborg.
Leckey had already returned with a new ticket in the hand, a glass of wine in the other, and headed over to the turbo heat 1c.
Karol Wojciechowski ran with his last 28,600 and into the of John Byrne and found no help on a board of .
In real time, another two players already busted in Michael Conaty and Alexandru Cinca.
Conaty had a rough setup against none other than Lisa “STPeach” Vannatta and rivered a full house with only for Vannatta to show for the superior full house on a board of .
Soon after, Quentin Lecomte took out Alexandru Cinca when his faced and the board came to give Lecomte a winning flush.
Over on the feature table, Quentin Lecomte, Lisa Vannatta and David Lappin are still going strong while Ian Simpson and Dara O'Kearney chipped up on the outer tables. O'Kearned won chips off John Keown, who then got them all back, while Simpson knocked out Mihai Manole.
Manole had a miracle double against Barrie Pietersz with versus when he got it in on the flop. The turn and river gave the Romanian a full house. Shortly after, he lost a flip with ace-king to the sixes of Simpson.
Andrey Yanyuk was left with a miracle and his cards, king queen suited, were already in the muck while he paid off the 68,600 of Peter Curry. The latter had flopped a set and turned a full house on the board. Yanyuk ended up all in with soon after and turned top two pair, but rivered the wheel.
Ian Simpson has taken over the lead and also had Linda Nguyen at risk for around 9,000 with versus , and they chopped it up.
In the last few hours, Greg King was indeed the king at his table even though his stack went up and down quite a bit. However, he was always well above the average, which has now changed in dramatic fashion.
The turn showed and King bet 21,000 into a pot of 25,000, triggering a jam by John Keown for 102,400. King contemplated about his decision for a fair bit and opted to call, which set up the following showdown:
John Keown:
Greg King:
Keown was ahead with his pair of aces, but had a lot of outs to dodge. He successfully did with the river and soared towards the top of the leader board.
The final two starting days of the 2018 Unibet Open Dublin €1,100 Main Event are done and dusted, and the tournament easily surpassed the guaranteed prize pool of €250,000 thanks to 198 entries on Day 1b and 64 additional players in the turbo heat 1c. A field of 359 entries has emerged, and 123 survivors are still in contention for their share of the €359,000 prize pool.
A very familiar face topped the counts on Day 1b, as Unibet Poker ambassador Ian Simpson bagged up 284,200 to claim the top spot ahead of John Keown (241,200) and three-time WSOP bracelet winner Benny Glaser. It has been very successful few days for the Brit in the Irish capital, who won the €2,200 High Roller and late-registered Day 1b to finish third in chips with 207,400.
Other big stacks and notables among the 64 Day 1b survivors were Julien Kron (199,600), Irish poker legend Mick McCloskey (144,000), Monica Vaka (118,100), Ivan Tononi (106,200), Jason Tompkins (98,600), 2017 Unibet Open Bucharest finalist Pavao Veza (85,300), and Antoine Vranken (49,800).
The vast majority of online qualifiers took to the tables and they were joined by the Battle Royale XI esports gamers and Unibet Poker ambassadors. Simpson shined the most, beaming with pride on the feature table when his wife Emma came over to rail, but he was by far not the only one that punched the ticket for Day 2 today. Quentin Lecomte (159,400) and David Lappin (107,000) spent the entire day on the same table, where they were joined late on by Lisa “STPeach” Vannatta (77,900). Dara Kearney also made it through on the first bullet and bagged up 65,900.
In a rough spell for the esports crew in level seven, a trio departed within a few minutes including Scott "Sco" McMillan, Sophia "Djarii" White and Sven “Svennoss” Edelenbosch. White took a flip with ace-queen against pocket jacks and found no help on a six-high board.
Plenty of notables were left empty-handed without anything to show for. The Unibet ambassadors Alexandre Reard and Fredrik Bergmann were among them, both suffering a less than optimal start into the day and bowing out much earlier than they had hoped for. Bergmann had a kicker problem with jack-ten against Scott "Sco" McMillan, who held queen-jack and the superior kicker on a jack-high flop.
Mike Hill, Toni Ojala, Ronni Borg, Kevin Killeen, 2018 Unibet Open champion Andreas Wiborg and Mihai Manole also failed to find a bag for Day 2. Wiborg's attempt to win a second title in the cxurrent year ended in level eight when he moved all in for fewer than 10 big blinds with ace-king. Julien Kron was behind preflop with ace-deuce suited, but running diamonds improved the Frenchman to a flush.
Turbo Heat 1c draws 64 Entries
Hearthstone pro Andrey "reynad" Yanyuk, who won the Battle Royale XI, ran with top pair into a set and re-entered the turbo heat to bag up the third-biggest stack with 90,600 as 35 players out of 64 entries made it through. Only 2014 Irish Open champion and two-time EPT Main Event finalist Patrick Clarke (122,200) and €2,200 High Roller third-place finisher Paul Jux Holderness (105,200) were ahead of Yanyuk.
Also advancing from Day 1c were Unibet Poker ambassador Rauno Tahvonen (86,200), Alan "hotted89" Widmann (29,200) and two-time Unibet Open champion Dan Murariu (27,400), the hopes of Mateusz Moolhuizen to claim a third title at the end of season 11 vanished mid-way through the turbo heat. Andy Black (70,900), Paul Leckey (50,500), Tuomo Niskanen (50,200), and former Unibet Open champion Martin Soukup (37,300) will be back for Day 2, too.
2018 Unibet Open Dublin €1,100 Main Event Schedule
Main Event Day
Date
Time
Entries
Remaining
Further Information
1a
Thursday, November 22nd, 2018
12:00
97
24
Play 10 levels of 60 minutes, late reg start of level 7 approx. 19:30
1b
Friday, November 23rd, 2018
12:00
198
64
Play 10 levels of 60 minutes, late reg start of level 7 approx. 19:30
1c
Friday, November 23rd, 2018
21:00
64
35
Play 10 levels of 20 minutes, late reg start of level 7 approx. 23:15
2
Saturday, November 24th, 2018
12:00
359
123
Play max. 11 levels of 60 minutes or down to final table
3
Sunday, November 25th, 2018
12:00
tba
tba
Play down to a champion
Once all players of both heats today had bagged up their chips, a remaining field of 123 hopefuls emerged and they will be back in their seats at the Bonnington Hotel in Dublin when Day 2 kicks off at 12 p.m. local time on Saturday, November 24th, 2018. More than half of them will miss out on the money, and the payout structure will be announced when the cards go back in the air.
Along with the PokerNews live updates, you can also follow the action on the Unibet Open Twitch stream, which broadcasts all hole cards on a security delay of 30 minutes until a champion is crowned at the end of the weekend.