Himanen Grabs Overall Chip Lead; Lappin Through to Day 2
Day 1b and 1c of the 2018 Unibet Open Bucharest €1,100 Main Event are in the books. Aleksi Himanen grabbed the chip lead on 1b by bagging 303.000 and Anton Markov grabbed the chip lead on 1c by bagging 173,000. Himanen is the overall chip leader of the tournament by just 500 chips, followed by Yaron Turgeman with 302,500 chips from Day 1a, Milad Oghabian from day 1b who bagged 292,500, and Kevin Naegele from day 1b as well with 279,500.
Day 1b turned out to be the biggest day of them all attracting 273 entries. All of the Unibet Poker Ambassadors and Esports players played Day 1b, except for Daiva Byrne and Sophia White so they could play the #QueenRules Ladies Event today. Scott "Sco" McMillan, Nathan "NBK" Schmitt, Tyler "Wildcat" Wine, Thijs "Thijs" Molenaar, Keiron "Scoom" Prescott, Jordy "MojoOnPC" Janssens, and Phil "syrinxx" Schonebaum all didn't make it through to Day 2. White managed to come second in the Main Event behind Carmen Zainescu, who also happened to win the #QueenRules Ladies Event last time the Unibet Open was in Bucharest.
Day 1c was a first at the Unibet Open and it offered players the chance to reenter the tournament. All players that busted out of 1a or 1b got the opportunity to rebuy into the 1c flight which had 20-minute levels instead of 60-minute levels. Day 1c started at 8 p.m. and was done by midnight, just as 1b.
Himanen is the chipleader of Day 1b with 303,000 in chips. The chip leader of Day 1a was Turgeman with 302,500 and Himanen managed to grab the overall chip lead by just 500 chips. Himanen had been playing a big stack for most of the day and he managed to take over Oghabian to end the day as chip leader. Others that made it through on Day 1b include Leon Tavenier (144,500), Unibet Poker Ambassador David Lappin (103,000), Unibet Poker Ambassador and esports legend Alan “Hotted89” Widmann (90,000), and Nicolae Bogdan (63,000).
Markov ended Day 1c as chip leader with 173,000 and that ranks him 22nd on the overall leaderboard. Other players that made it through on Day 1c include Deddi Orpaz (51,000), Unibet Poker Ambassador Dara O’Kearney (39,000), and Unibet Poker Ambassador Rauno “Estonian Jesus” Tahvonen (19,500).
The tournament will resume tomorrow with the field combined at noon local time. The plan is to play down to a final table or 11 60-minute levels, whichever comes first. The PokerNews live reporting team will be there to provide updates throughout the entire day.