Unibet Open London: Tripodi Leads Main Event, Sitbon Wins High Roller

February 23, 2018

The 2018 Unibet Open London £990 Main Event is off to a good start after 147 players took to the tables of the iconic Grosvenor Victoria Casino in the heart of London on the first of two starting days. After 11 levels of 60 minutes each, just 36 players bagged up at "The Vic" and Clement Tripodi (photo) claimed the overnight spotlight with a stack of 275,000.

Second in chips after Day 1a is Bhavin Khatri with 249,000, followed by Denmark's Peter Kaae (226,500). Other big stacks and notables that bagged up include Laurent Polito (223,500), Lorenc Boci (203,000), Nicolas Cardyn (140,000), Jeremy Pantin (106,500), two-time Unibet Open champion Mateusz Moolhuizen (79,000), Hendon Mob co-founder Joe Beevers (59,000), Sylvain Loosli (59,000,) and Benjamin Morrison (57,500).

Team Unibet Poker saw two players advance in ambassador Espen Uhlen Jorstad (144,500) and eSports Star Philip "syrinxx" Schoenebaum (76,500), while most of their teammates were dispatched throughout the day. Alan "Hotted89" Widmann ran with queen-jack into queens, Dara O'Kearney failed to crack aces, and Jeffrey Brusi's open-ended straight draw with ace-six ended up second best to the overpair of Polito in the final level of the night.

Prior to that, Sophia "Djarii" White, Scott "Sco" McMillan, David Lappin, Fredrik Bergmann, two-time Unibet Open champion and Unibet Poker ambassador Dan Murariu as well as Colin "Koolein" Wijnholds had all failed to run up a stack already.

Other notable casualties on Day 1a were Antoine Saout, Ross Boatman, Benjamin Philipps, 2017 Unibet Open Bucharest third-place finisher Pavao Veza, Katie Swift, Bojan Zidar, Adrien Allain, Vincent Gabel, Benjamin Philipps and defending champion [Removed:158]. The dreams of back-to-back victories in London ended for the Belgian in level 10, and it was a simple flip that went wrong. Van Lancker's pocket jacks were slightly ahead against the ace-king of Peter Kaae, but the Dane spiked a fourth spade on the river to improve to a flush.

£2,200 High Roller Results

While the Main Event was in full swing, the £2,200 High Roller saw more than 40 players return to the tables, and the registration was open for the first level of Day 2. A field of 78 entries emerged to create a prize pool of £156,000, and the top 11 spots were paid. Neophytos Neophtou ended up as the bubble boy after ending up second-best with his ace-five against the pocket queens of Ivan Deyra.

Among those to cash were Catherine Ivgy, Giuseppe Zarbo, Christopher Yong, Rauno Kiviloo and Morten Mortensen. Ivan Deyra and Julien Sitbon cut a deal heads up, leaving the trophy and £4,500 up for grabs.

It would only take 15 minutes for the two Frenchmen to get their stacks in. Deyra was at risk with ace-eight and Sitbon looked him up with ace-jack. Despite flopping best on king-eight-seven, Deyra was left drawing dead on the deuce of spades turn which gave Sitbon a flush. The 6♠ river was a formality. Sitbon, who won the 2015 Unibet Open Cannes Main Event for €80,000, added a second trophy of the popular live circuit to his collection.

Final Result £2,200 High Roller

^{*denotes deal of the last two players}

* Photos courtesy of Tambet Kask/Unibet Open

Live Reporter