Markus Heikkila Leads After Day 1a in Bucharest; Dan Murariu Among Big Stacks to Eye Third Title
The first of two starting days of the €1,100 Unibet Open Bucharest Main Event attracted a total field of 236 entries to put the tournament well on track to meet the guarantee of €500,000 and set a record for the tour. So far, that stands at 460 entries back in Budapest 2010 when Anthon-Pieter Wink claimed the title and a payday of €172,500.
Registration closed at the start of level seven after the dinner break, and after 11 levels of 60 minutes each only 63 hopefuls bagged up chips with Markus Heikkila in the lead on 322,000. The Swede was among the biggest stacks for most of the last few levels and turned a full house in the last hands of the night with a pair of treys to get paid off by Vasile Paul Plastoi, who then himself doubled through Anton Haegglund and advanced with 190,000.
In second place after Day 1a is Heikkila's countryman Jakob Linden (287,000), while William Hens (285,000), Eli Heath (250,000), Aldo Monteleone (232,500), Gheorghe Caplescu (202,000) and Tristan Guiodo (178,500) all claimed big stacks as well. Hens was at one point down to just 1,600, two big blinds at the time, before turning on an incredible heater. Eduard Norel's pocket queens were no good against the turned set of jacks of Hens when the stacks went in and that pushed the Dutchman to third place.
Dan Murariu, who is one of just two players to already win two Unibet Open Main Events thus far, dominated the early stages and ultimately bagged up 160,000. The other two-time champion is Mateusz Mooolhuizen and the Dutchman will join the action on Day 1b. Other notables that made it through Day 1a include Gordon Plomp (148,000), Ozgur Arda (110,000), 2016 Unibet Open Malta champion Martin Soukup (107,000), Luciana Manolea (100,000), Mate Mecs (84,500), Olof Haglund (63,500) and Dan Glimne (59,000).
Among those that took to the felt and busted were such familiar names as Alexander Staengle, Jasper Wetemans, Sam Grafton, Tudor Purice, Kevin Killeen, Boris Kuzmanovic, Dany Parlafes and 2015 Glasgow champion Daniel Chutrov. [Removed:158] finished 3rd at the 2016 Unibet Open on Malta and lost a flip with pocket sevens against ace-queen, an ace showed up on the river. Live stream commentator David Vanderheyden, who won a package via Unibet, also joined the competition and busted on the feature table before taking over his usual duty until the end of the day.
At some point, all 39 tables in the ballroom of the JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel were in use at the same time with cash games and a €115 Rebuy Satellite for Day 1b running, and the latter saw massive 311 entries and 27 tickets in total for the second flight as of 12 p.m. local time on Friday. Another full house is expected when the cards go back in the air, make sure to tune back in and follow the PokerNews live updates until a winner is crowned on Sunday.
, the action escalated between Farook Ghafoor and Martin Soukup in a battle big blind versus button. Soukup was in prime position to double into a big stack with the 
and Ghafoor had 
for the worse two pair.
turn and 
river were both blanks and Soukup suddenly became the biggest stack over on the feature table.
flop and Newport then bet the 
river, Newport shoved for around 14,000 with the 
for top pair and Murariu snap-called with 
for the straight.
on a flop of 
. Ghafoor had that beat with 
and turn and river both bricked.
versus 
on the turn, it was again checked to Grafton and he shoved for around 16,000. Carvalho called and Lindberg folded.
on the river changed nothing and Grafton has been eliminated.
