Christopher Yong Leads Unibet Open London Final Nine
The unofficial nine-handed final table of the 2018 Unibet Open London £990 Main Event is set and Christopher Yong leads the last nine at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in the heart of the city. It took just under ten full levels of 60 minutes each to determine the finalists after 88 hopefuls out of the 349-entry strong field had returned to the tables.
Yong holds a commanding lead with almost two times as many chips as his nearest competitors after bagging up 2,378,000. Second in chips is Oliver White with 1,325,000, followed by Jussi Vanhanen with 1,217,000. Another four of the finalists will return with more than one million in chips: Honglin Jiang (1,204,000), Jonathan Schuman (1,130,000), serial WPT National champion Laurent Polito (1,087,000), and Andreas Wiborg (1,066,000).
Last but not least, the two Frenchmen Thomas Cazayous (735,000) and Tony Blanchandin (337,000) round up the line up for tomorrow.
2018 Unibet Open London Main Event final table
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oliver White | United Kingdom | 1,325,000 | 55 |
| 2 | Andreas Wiborg | Norway | 1,066,000 | 44 |
| 3 | Jonathan Schuman | United Kingdom | 1,130,000 | 47 |
| 4 | Honglin Jiang | New Zealand | 1,204,000 | 50 |
| 5 | Thomas Cazayous | France | 735,000 | 31 |
| 6 | Christopher Yong | United Kingdom | 2,378,000 | 99 |
| 7 | Tony Blanchandin | France | 337,000 | 14 |
| 8 | Jussi Vanhanen | Finland | 1,217,000 | 51 |
| 9 | Laurent Polito | France | 1,087,000 | 45 |
Day 2 Recap
After more than 30 players had been eliminated in the opening two levels of the day, the money bubble burst in the third level. It was Daniel Clark that lost a flip with ace-queen against the pocket tens of Thomas Cazayous to become the last player to leave empty-handed. Prior to that, such big names as £2,200 High Roller champion Julien Sitbon, Sylvain Loosli, two time Unibet Open champion Mateusz Moolhuizen, Unibet Poker ambassador Espen Uhlen Jorstad, and eSports Star Philip "syrinxx" Schoenebaum were already gone.
Among those to bust in the money on Day 2 were 2015 Unibet Open Cannes runner-up Karl Stark (41st for £1,870), Gary Fisher (34th for £2,100), Monica Vaka (30th for £2,350), Yngve Steen (25th for £2,630), 2017 Unibet Open Bucharest champion Marius Pertea (24th for £2,630), Preben Stokkan (19th for £3,300), Nicolas Cardyn (18th for £3,300), Bhavin Khatri (14th for £4,140) and Clement Tripodi (12th for £4,760).
Pertea was the last former champion in the field and was ousted immediately after the field had redrawn to the last three tables. The Romanian failed to get there with ace-ten suited against the pocket jacks of Lorenc Boci. A big three-way clash on the feature table saw the hopes an even deeper run of Gunnar Wedde and Jeremy Pantin vanish, while Oliver White went from almost zero to hero with a double up and near triple up within a few minutes. Boci then clashed with Christopher Yong and his turned top two pair ended up second-best, as the very same card gave Yong the nut straight. Boci never recovered from that and busted soon after.
Another big story was the impressive performance of Bhavin Khatri, who had reached the final table of this very event in the last two years. The businessman from the UK all but made it three in a row and fell agonizingly close with his bid after departing in 14th place. A crucial hand saw him lose all but a few chips when three-bet shoving with queen-nine suited into the pocket kings of Nicolaj Bonnichsen.
It would then be the elimination of the Dane that ended the day. On the outer table, Bonnichsen limp-shoved his shorter stack with king-jack and Yong called with ace-queen to remain ahead on a nine-high board.
The action will recommence at approximately 12 p.m. local time on Sunday, February 25th, 2018 with 17:18 left in level 21 at blinds of 12,000/24,000 with a running ante of 4,000.
As usual, the Unibet Poker Twitch channel will provide the live stream on a security delay of 30 minutes with hole cards displayed. The PokerNews live reporting team will be back for the big showdown tomorrow and provide all the action until the latest player will join the Unibet Open champion's club in the first stop of season 11.
Photos by Tambet Kask/UnibetOpen
