Yngve Steen moved all in for 35,000 from early position and Thomas Stocker reshoved out of the small blind, Kyriakos Papadopoulos forfeited his big blind.
Yngve Steen:
Thomas Stocker:
The board came kept Steen in the lead and Stocker lost one third of his stack.
A raise to 6,000 by Tomas Martinsson was followed by a three-bet to 21,000 by Monica Vaka in the big blind and Martinsson called. On a flop of , Vaka continued for 20,100 and Martinsson called.
Vaka slowed down on the turn and checked, prompting Martinsson to bet 30,000. Vaka gave him a stare down and called with 51,000 behind, then checked the river. Martinsson carefully counted his stack slid forward a bet of 58,300 and left himself just 400 chips behind. "Do you show if I fold?" Vaka asked after spending some time in the think tank. No answer followed and the Norwegian open-mucked the .
Julien Sitbon raised to 5,300 and the player on the button called. Jeremy Saderne in the small blind had other plans and three-bet 22,000, which only Sitbon called. On a flop of , Saderne continued for 11,000 and Sitbon called. Saderne shoved the turn for effectively 60,000, as that's what Sitbon had left.
Sitbon eventually folded and Saderne all but resisted the urge to show his cards, but did so at the last minute with the .
Charles Chattha, Alexandros Papadopolos and Kfir Ivgi were all eliminated while Monica Vaka built her stack once again. Vaka check-shoved the flop for 64,900 into a bet of 15,000 by Augustine Nwaukoni and forced a fold.
Willie Tann and Lars Jonsson were gone by the time the clock was stopped and won't be involved in the last three hands of the night anymore. There are just 54 players left in contention on Day 1b.
Honglin Jiang raised on the button and Christopher Yong just called out of the small blind. On the flop, Yong check-raised from 4,000 to 20,000 and Jiang called. Yong shoved the turn for 55,000 and Jiang called instantly with for the flopped straight.
Yong had and the on the river gave the Brit the winning flush.
Paul Dunne and Neophytos Neophytou were less fortunate and busted, reducing the field to 52 hopefuls after Day 1b.
As expected the second starting day of the 2018 Unibet Open £990 Main Event at "The Vic" attracted a bigger field and ultimately saw 202 players in action in the heart of London. Along with the 147 entries of Day 1a, a field of 349 entries in total emerged in this Freezeout and the prize pool is set with £314,100, of which the top 47 spots will earn their share. The minimum cash is worth £1,870 while the winner walks home £65,580 richer and with the stunning Unibet Open champion's trophy in his bag.
After 11 levels of 60 minutes each, Day 1b saw it's field whittled down all the way to just 52 hopefuls, and combined with the 36 survivors of Day 1a, that makes for 88 remaining players for Day 2 at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino. All survivors will be combined on 11 eight-handed tables and the action is set to resume at 12 p.m. noon local time with level 12 and blinds of 1,500/3,000 and a running ante of 500.
The chip leader of Day 1b and new overall chip leader of the tournament is Jeremy Sardene, who soared all the way to the top with a massive stack of 302,000. Francis Foord-Brown, who finished 4th one year ago at this very venue for £23,000, is in a prime position once more for a big payday after bagging up 292,500. Sardene jumped into a big stack after winning a flip with pocket jacks against the ace-king of Benjamin Lebor and forced £2,200 High Roller champion Julien Sitbon into a big fold in the last level of the night to secure the top spot.
Other big stacks and notables after Day 1b include [Removed:402] (243,500), Marius Pertea (230,000), Gary Fisher (204,500), Yngve Steen (170,500), Preben Stokkan (161,500), Toni Ojala (120,000) and Daniel Laming (90,500), Julien Sitbon bagged up 10 big blinds for Day 2 with 31,000.
Pertea won the last Unibet Open Main Event on home soil in Bucharest and added a deep run at the WPT European Championship in Berlin one month ago. The Romanian cracked the pocket kings of Unibet Poker ambassador Rauno Tahvonen with ace-ten suited and scored a massive double with aces versus tens soon after versus Hong Wang to end the day with a big smile on the face.
It was a dark day for the Unibet Poker representatives as none of them made it through. The eSports Star Mark Purdy was among the first players to bust, and he would later be followed by Ian Simpson, Daiva Byrne and the two UnibetPoker.fr sponsored pros Alexandre Reard and Quentin Lecomte. The latter lost his stack in back-to-back hands in level nine and headed to the rail.
Former Unibet Open champions Martin Soukup and Peter Harkes, who celebrated his 30th birthday today, also ran out of chips. Other notables among the casualties of Day 1b were such familiar names as Benny Glaser, Steven Watts, Albert Sapiano, Kfir Ivgi, Matt Perrins and Richard "Chufty" Ashby.
Action for the penultimate tournament day here in London kicks off at noon and a maximum of 11 levels or down to the final table are scheduled, the Unibet Open players party also awaits in the late evening as well. Make sure to tune back in to find out who will reach the money.
2018 Unibet Open London Main Event Day 2 Seat Draw