In the first 10 seasons, the Unibet Open has already visited Romania and hosted three events in Bucharest, and the popular live event series kicks off the 2019 season with a special edition. The first ever winter sports festival in Sinaia, known as the Pearl of the Carpathian mountains, is the closest ski resort to Bucharest and lies just 77 miles north of the capital – around 1.5 hours from Bucharest airport.
The resort was once home to the Romanian Royal family who built the spectacular, fairytale Peles Castle in the 1880s. The Unibet Open Ski-edition takes place February 12-18 with a six-day festival at the New Montana Hotel and gives all participants plenty of time to take full advantage of the nearby ski resort and numerous other attractions.
Unlike other Unibet Open editions, one additional tournament day has been added to the schedule and the €1,100 Main Event kicks off at 3 p.m. local time every day to jump from the slopes right into the poker action. All players receive 30,000 in chips and the late registration for each Day 1 is available in the first six levels.
A total of three starting days take place with Day 1a and Day 1b featuring eight levels of 60 minutes each, while the turbo heat 1C with 20-minute levels is the last chance for players to secure their seat for Day 2. All those that bust on the first two starting days are allowed a single re-entry on Day 1c, which also applies for those that enter the event for the first time in the final heat.
The festival is held in cooperation with PokerFest Romania, Unibet’s partners for the previous Unibet Open Bucharest festivals. Besides the €1,100 Main Event, several other events take place such as the €2,200 High Roller, the €330 SuperStack and the €550 DeepStack Open. On top of that, the usual Unibet fun events are part of the schedule with the Unibet Esports Battle Royale, the Tag Team Championship and #QUEENRULES Ladies Event.
Yesterday, the festival kicked off with a Main Event satellite and a Turbo Side Event, along with the invitation-only Battle of the Champions. Former Unibet Open champions battled against qualifiers and it was [Removed:402] who came out on top and lifted the trophy. Rinkevicius finished 16th in the 2018 Unibet Open Bucharest Main Event and secured his entry through a live event leaderboard.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to provide updates throughout the €1,100 Main Event until a champion is crowned.
On a flop of , Vesa Kekalainen bet 500 and Zoltan Vrancsik raised it up to 2,700, which Kekalainen called. The fell on the turn and Kekalainen check-called a bet of 3,900 before doing so again for 10,800 on the river. Another player at the table suspected a flush, but instead, Vrancsik tabled only for a pair and busted straight flush draw, which Kekalainen had beat with the for a set.
There were already more than 10,000 in the middle and the flop showed . Ionut Voinea bet 3,500 out of the big blind and Anghel Catalin made it 8,000 to go, which Voinea called.
After the turn, Voinea check-shoved into a bet of 12,000 and Catalin called.
Ionut Voinea:
Anghel Catalin:
Catalin sighed when Voinea had tabled top set and the miracle one outer never came, as the river completed the board. Voinea doubled for 18,200 and Catalin was left with just 9,000 and a setup hand to share.
Adrian Nica has just sent two players to the rail and he skyrocketed to the top of the leader board by quite some margin at the end of the third level of Day 1a. After a squeeze to 3,700 by Nica, one player had called and Dan Mihoci got his short stack in. Andrei Spataru called, as did Nica, and the flop of then also saw Spataru all in at risk with Nica making the call.
Dan Mihoci:
Andrei Spataru:
Adrian Nica:
Spataru had the best of it with top two, but the turn and river run out improved Nica to the better two pair.
In a battle of the blinds the flop showed and Sandor Hadnagy bet 2,000 into 3,600, which Mateusz Moolhuizen in the big blind called. Hadnagy also bet the turn for 4,000 and Moolhuizen almost beat him into the pot by moving all in for 11,900.
Hadnagy double-checked his cards, glanced over at Moolhuizen and made the call.
Mateusz Moolhuizen:
Sandor Hadnagy:
On top of his flush draw, Moolhuizen also had the three remaining queens as outs. It wasn't meant to be, however, as the river failed to improve the Dutchman.
David Lappin was down to half the starting stack the last time he was spotted in his seat over on table three and has since vanished. The Irishman will have to re-enter in the turbo heat 1c in order to claim a stack for Day 2.
Eirik Gravdal has avoided that fate for now, as he just doubled. Gravdal jammed for 9,900 over a raise to 1,300 by Adrian Neculae and a call by Tomasz Olejnik. Only Neculae called with and Gravdal held up with thanks to a board of .
Last but not least, Steffen Clausen won a pot off Padraig O'Neill when he check-shoved the turn for 17,500 when facing a bet of 4,000 by O'Neill, as the Irishman folded.
Day 1a of the 2019 Unibet Open Sinaia €1,100 Main Event is in the books and the ski-edition of the popular midstakes live poker tournament circuit is off to a good start thanks to 120 entries on the first of three starting days for the festival highlight.
Only half the field made it through the eight levels of 60 minutes each and UK's Nikolay Ponomarev bagged up the lead at the New Montana Hotel, while two-time Unibet Open champion and Unibet Poker ambassador Dan Murariu is on track for another deep run on home soil.
Ponomarev topped the 56 survivors with a stack of 141,200, Finland's Johannes Vaeisaenen follows close behind with 139,500. Best local player on the first starting day is Andrei Jambor, who scored a dramatic late knockout with queens versus aces when he rivered the flush against top set and soared up all the way to 135,500.
Other big stacks and notables who already punched their ticket for Day 2 include Razvan Bizera (120,300), Padraig O'Neill (110,100), Gilles Huet (99,200), Anko Hoogendijk (96,700), Ionut Voinea (78,300), Eduard Norel (74,600), and Mihai Niste (68,100). The sole Unibet ambassador who bagged and tagged was Dan Murariu, who advanced with an above-average stack of 77,700.
Less fortunate were David Lappin and Quentin Lecomte, who both ran out of chips and will have to re-enter in the turbo heat 1c in order to join Murariu for Day 2. The list of Day 1a casualties also contains Tomasz Kozub, Johan Goslings, Christopher Cunliffe, Narcis Gabriel Nedelcu, Mateusz Moolhuizen, Georgios Tavoularis, Florian Duta, Robert Vukovic and Antoine Saout.
The day started with around 80 players in their seats and the only two-time champions Moolhuizen and Murariu were battling for another chance to make it three Unibet Open titles. For Moolhuizen, the first attempt came to an end in level six when his queen-high flush draw didn't get there. Sandor Hadnagy called in a battle of the blinds with ace-ten for the second pair and further improved to two pair on the river.
Adrian "NMPfan" Nica was the first player to boast a six-figure stack after a double knockout with ace-king suited versus king-queen and a short stack with nine-seven suited. Andrei Spataru flopped best with top two pair when the bigger side pot emerged, but Nica spiked an ace on the river to make the best hand. The second half of the day wasn't as kind to the Romanian, but he made it to Day 2 with 58,000.
In the final level of the night, 2017 Unibet Open Bucharest runner-up Robert Vukovic lost a flip with queens against the ace-king of Tymur Kasilov. Ultimately, more than half of the field bowed out and can take another shot the following day in the turbo heat. A bumper field is expected for Day 1b and the action will be streamed on the Unibet Poker Twitch channel.
"Rotterdam" Wins esports Battle Royale XII - "Swifty" and Reard Tag Team Champions
Two of the popular Side Events took place today and claimed the spotlight of the feature table. First, the Tag Team Championship crowned a champion and it were Alexandre Reard and John "Swifty" Pyle who claimed the bragging rights and a deluxe treatment at the spa.
After a short break, all nine esports streamers were back in action with Pyle right back at it. He seemingly couldn't lose an all in showdown on the way to back-to-back victories. However, his bid came short by one spot as Kevin "Rotterdam" van der Kooi took the lion's share of the €10,000 prize pool. The top three were supposed to be paid and the final four contenders made a bubble deal to ensure €300 to the fourth-place finisher.
That happened to be Kevin "Papaplatte" Teller, and he was followed by Radu "Rdu" Dima. Once the bubble had burst, van der Kooi was the overwhelming chip leader and reduced the field from three to one in consecutive hands. First he sent Dima to the rail with versus as the board came to give the Dutchman two pair. In the very next hand, Pyle held and two live cards against the of van der Kooi. On a board of , the esports Battle Royale XII champion was crowned in van der Kooi.
Final Result esports Battle Royale XII
Place
Player
Country
Prize (in EUR)
Prize (in USD)
1
Kevin "Rotterdam" van der Kooi
Netherlands
€4,900
$5,519
2
John "Swifty" Pyle
United States
€2,900
$3,266
3
Radu "Rdu" Dima
Romania
€1,900
$2,140
4
Kevin "Papaplatte" Teller
Germany
€300
$338
Most of the esports streamers will join the action on Day 1b of the €1,100 Main Event, which kicks off at 3 p.m. local time on Thursday, February 14th. The third and final heat with 20-minute levels then starts at 10 p.m. local time. Both starting days will feature eight levels and six levels of late registration, only players that busted in the previous two flights can re-enter and entirely new participants can also enter and re-enter once on Day 1c.
Tune back in for more action from here in Sinaia, as PokerNews will be your one-stop-shop for the remainder of the festival.
Photos courtesy of Tambet Kask and Elena Kask/Unibet