Unibet Open Bucharest: 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 while Anton Markov bagged the biggest stack on 1c with 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.
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 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) (lead photo), 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).
Top 10 Going Into Day 2 of Unibet Open Bucharest
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aleksi Himanen | Finland | 303,000 |
| 2 | Yaron Turgeman | Israel | 302,500 |
| 3 | Milad Oghabian | Netherlands | 292,500 |
| 4 | [Removed:124] | France | 279,500 |
| 5 | Adrian Voiculescu | Romania | 270,000 |
| 6 | Amir Shomron | Israel | 252,000 |
| 7 | Carmen Zainescu | Romania | 240,500 |
| 8 | Hristo Bogdanov | Bulgaria | 214,500 |
| 9 | Mateusz Moolhuizen | Netherlands | 212,000 |
| 10 | Ionut Decher | Romania | 211,500 |
The tournament will resume on Saturday with the field combined at noon local time. The plan is to play down to a final table or eleven 60-minute levels, whichever comes first. The PokerNews live reporting team will be there to provide updates throughout the entire day, so check the Unibet Open Bucharest Live Reporting page to stay up to date.
Milko van Winden has been a part of the poker media corps since 2017. Starting out as [I]PokerNews[/I] contributor and live reporter, Milko is now the Digital Media Manager at [i]PokerNews[/i].
