Charles Bonnet, Franck Boyer and Clement Tripodi were spotted by Tommy Mandel, who is covering the French Unibet blog for this event. The field has grown to more than 170 entries already and the second level kicked off a few minutes ago. After this level, the first short break of Day 1a will take place.
Level: 2
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 25
UnibetPoker.fr Ambassador Pierre Menes joked to staff nearby that the dealer was talking in English while chatting with table neighbor Julien Sitbon in French just before the next hand kicked off. Then, a raise to 250 was called by three players including Damian Porebski, Menes and Sitbon.
The 
flop was checked to Porebski and he won it with a bet of 600. Menes called over tournament director John Scanlon and they joked over the English and French chatter to share some laughs.
Kimi Heiskanen opened to 300 from under the gun and was called by Mateusz Moolhuizen in the small blind as well as the player in the big blind. The Finn continued for 700 on a flop of 
and was check-called by both his opponents before Moolhuizen fired 1,200 on the 
turn.
Only Heiskanen made the call before folding the 
river to a bet of 3,000 by the Dutchman.
Besides the friendly atmosphere, players can also take advantage of free drinks such as water and coffee. Another specialty as quick snack and motivation up for grabs are the "Madeleines", a cake-like gift to boost the creativity at the tables.
Up to 25 tables can be used today including the feature table and the field size has increased to 165 entrants. Once someone runs out of chips, the tournament is over though as the event is run as Freezeout.
After a preflop raising war with Gregory Luttke, Damian Porebski out of the big blind and the Frenchman had both invested 1,875 chips and headed to a flop of 
, which got checked through. There was no betting action on the turn either before Porebski made it 1,200 to go on the 
river.
Luttke called and then mucked when he was shown the 
.
Pierre Menes and Julien Sitbon share a table with Damian Porebski and Dmitry Varlamov. Especially the latter is well known on the Unibet Open circuit after having made several final tables while Porebski has cashed in the last event in Dublin and plays many of the international tournaments in Europe with a buy-in of €1,000 and less.
Mateusz Moolhuizen, Jonathan Rozema and Quentin Lecomte have all taken their seats after about 10 minutes of play and the screens have since been updated to 155 entries. The late registration will be open until the end of level four and it appears to be a decent turnout for this first out of two starting days.
Another notable in the field is Peter Harkes.
It started rather innocent with a battle of the blinds and limped pot between Ahmed Sellaoui and Frank van Honk over on table 13. Both players then checked the 
flop and van Honk check-raised the 
turn from 500 to 1,000. Sellaoui called and the Dutchman fired the river for 1,600.
Sellaoui tossed in some chips without saying anything and van Honk turned over his cards, it was the 
for a flush. The floor was called and it turned out to not be a call but a raise while the dealer had mucked the cards of Sellaoui. A few minutes passed by with discussion in French and English before the pot was shipped to the Dutchman.
Among the more well known faces on Day 1a are Fabian Stache and Zoltan Kapitany while many of the participants where the qualifier badge. Others are also already registered but haven't taken their seats yet, included in that group are Quentin Lecomte, Mateusz Moolhuizen and Jonathan Rozema.
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