The Unibet Open kicks off season 11 at the Grosvenor Casino in London in the heart of British capital and the historic poker room is better known as ‘The Vic” among poker enthusiasts from near and far. It is the 7th ever Unibet Open to take place in London and last year's 419 entries have set the record thus far. Belgium's [Removed:158] took home the lion's share of the £377,100 prize pool and claimed the trophy and payday of £71,950.
Van Lancker will be back in action to defend his title along with many familiar faces of the popular tournament series. The Unibet ambassadors such as Fredrik Bergmann, Ian Simpson, Dara O'Kearney, David Lappin, Espen Uhlen Jorstad and Daiva Byrne are all expected to join the action on one of the two starting days. Furthermore, the eSports stars will also take a shot at poker glory at "The Vic" after determining their champion in the eSports Battle Royale VIII SNG last night. Thijs "Thijs" Molendijk emerged victorious and claimed the £5,000 first-place prize, defeating Phil "syrinxx" Schoenebaum in heads-up, who received £3,000 for his efforts. Last but not least, Scott "Sco" McMillan finished third and took home £2,000.
Unibet Open Events in London at a Glance
Year
Buy-In
Entries
Prize Pool
Winner
Country
Prize
Prize in US$
2009
£2,750
266
£665,000
Thanh Doan
Finland
£187,000
$305,326
2010
£1,650
273
£409,500
Paul Valkenburg
Netherlands
£109,550
$171,408
2011
£1,320
315
£378,000
Pratik Ghatge
United Kingdom
£85,050
$136,305
2014
£1,100
399
£319,200
Iaron Lightbourne
United Kingdom
£70,000
$110,163
2016
£825
418
£313,500
Dave Shallow
United Kingdom
£62,000
$86,747
2017
£990
419
£377,100
[Removed:158]
Belgium
£71,950
$89,722
Day 1a of the £990 Main Event kicks off at 11 a.m. local time and each of the two starting days will play a total of 11 levels of 60 minutes each with a break every two levels. There will be a dinner break after the end of level six, and all participants receive 30,000 in chips. The registration for the Freezeout tournament will remain open until the start of level seven and action is scheduled to conclude around midnight local time.
Day 1 Level Structure
Level
Small blind
Big blind
Ante
1
50
100
0
2
100
200
25
3
150
300
25
4
200
400
50
5
300
600
75
6
400
800
100
7
500
1,000
100
8
600
1,200
200
9
800
1,600
200
10
1,000
2,000
300
11
1,200
2,400
400
Follow along right here on PokerNews as the live reporting team will provide all the action until a winner is crowned on Sunday, February 25th 2018.
Joining up the action on the turn, Eirik Sorlie in the small blind checked and called a bet of 3,150 by Unibet Poker ambassador David Lappin on the button. Sorlie quickly checked again the on the river and Lappin et 7,525. Sorlie was sent into the think tank and called after more than two minutes.
Lappin turned over the for a straight and that won a decent pot only minutes after Lappin had sat down.
With plenty of chips already in the middle and the flop showing , George Dimuleasa checked and faced a bet of 5,000 by table neighbor Kalman Dohany. Dimuleasa moved all in and Dohany snap-called for his last 17,250.
Kalman Dohany:
George Dimuleasa:
The turn and river kept Dohany in the lead and he doubled.
The excellent start of Asif Warris has vanished and the Brit suddenly sits on a mere 10 big blinds while Mohammed Suhail in the last seat was all smiles and explained what happened. According to Suhail, he faced a raise to 900 and a call, which he called as well. Warris three-bet big to 5,100 and Suhail was the only caller with to flop the nut straight. Warris got it in with top set and failed to improve.
From under the gun, Dmitrii Prusov raised to 1,500 and picked up one caller in Benjamin Morrison. The latter called a continuation bet on the flop and did so again for turn to create a pot of around 13,000. Prusov checked the river and Morrison moved all in, Prusov called for the size of the pot and was shown for a straight by Morrison.
Prusov mucked face up and quickly left the tournament area.
In a hand that lasted well over eight minutes into the new level, Pasi Sallinen three-bet a raise of Nicolas Cardyn from 1,500 to 4,200 out of the small blind and Cardyn called. The flop of brought a continuation bet of 5,100 by Sallinen and Cardyn came along to see the on the turn.
Now Sallinen checked and faced a bet of 6,300 by Cardyn, which he called after spending three minutes in the think tank. With some 13,000 behind, Sallinen checked the river and Cardyn bet 20,000. Another 90 seconds of consideration followed and Sallinen called all in with pocket kings, but was no good as Cardyn flipped over for a straight.
Janice Phillips raised to 3,000 and Mirjan Hykaj called from one seat over. Mateusz Moolhuizen in the blinds gave it a long thought and moved all in for his last 9,000, which Phillips called. Hykaj moved all in over the top and Phillips folded.
Mateusz Moolhuizen:
Mirjan Hykaj:
The board ran out and Moolhuizen flopped an ace, then rivered the nut flush to secure the triple up. Fellow two time Unibet Open champion and Unibet ambassador Dan Murariu was less fortunate. He got chipped down over the past few hours and lost his last 15 big blinds with against .
Gordon Plomp was spotted while leaving his table and the Belgian, who had qualified for this event in one of the first Satellites on Unibet Poker, had gotten it in for nine big blinds with . Another similar short-stacked player had the and a king on the flop all but sealed Plomp's fate.
Pavao Veza, who finished third in the Unibet Open Bucharest back in December 2017, was also among those to bust. He three-bet all in with king-queen and initial raiser Markus Heikkila called with ace-queen to immediately spike an ace on the flop.
The cards were all but rushed away as Michael Dunleavy exited the tournament area. Dunleave had three-bet shoved with queen-ten and Philip Schoenebaum instantly called with . The flop left Dunleavy drawing to running queens, and he was drawing dead as soon as the fell on the turn.
A blank river was a mere formality and the pot was shipped to Schoenebaum.
On the three-way flop of , Zoltan Boszormenyi bet 7,000 from early position and Espen Uhlen Jorstad called while the third player in the hand folded. The paired the board on the turn and Boszormenyi made it 16,000 to go with about as much behind.
Jorstad, who currently lives in Hungary, asked to see the remaining chips of the Hungarian and then raised to more than 40,000 in order to give Boszormenyi just the option to call all in or fold. The latter was the final result and Jorstad claimed the pot to jump over six four times the starting stack.