There was a bit of confusion today about how many players entered due to at least one player taking the wrong seat assignment and the fact that not all players that preregistered showed up. However, the dust has settled and we are officially at 186 players entered with 125 of them still remaining.
The Tournament Director also informed us that there will be no deviation from 10 levels being played on the day, which means the action will likely end for surviving players around midnight.
Erik van den Berg was off to a good start, however, his tournament suddenly came to an end after getting it all-in on a king-high board with . Van den Berg was dismayed when learning his opponent Raymond Forde had him out-kicked with . Van den Berg was unable to improve his hand while Forde is among the chip leaders after winning perhaps the biggest pot of the day thus far.
The one hour dinner break will take place at the conclusion of level 6. With many players are either eating or already ate at the tables, we expect many players to relax in other ways besides eating during the dinner break.
Iaron Lightbourne was witnessed entering and exiting the tournament very quickly. We caught up with him while he was playing in a pot limit Omaha ring game when he shared with us he got it all in with preflop in the Main Event and lost to .
He pretended to justify his preflop all-in by jokingly stating that, "But I hit a queen on the flop!"
Lightbourne is known for his good humor and has had numerous wins along with his over $1.2 million in live cashes. Among his wins include shipping the Unibet Open Main Event in November 2014 for £70,000.
It's lights out for all the eSports stars on Day 1a with Charlotte Van Brabander went all-in pre-flop for her remaining 10 big blinds with . Despite flopping a flush draw, she was unable to improve her hand and lost to her opponent's .
Late registration is over, but we are still awaiting what the final player count for the day is. According to the big board, we are at 203 players on the day. However, this includes 16 players that pre-registered and have yet to show up. Tournament organizers are expecting to push these players into the Day 1b player pool which would bring the official count down to 187 players. We will update this again once this information is official.
After some initial good fortune, Firoz Kadirbaks struggled. With just a few blinds left, he got it all in with and he left the tournament area after he was unable to out flip Jesse Chambers who held .
Belgian Charlotte Van Brabander, who is also known for her poker skills, is the last of the four eSports pros in action in the Unibet Open London Main Event Day 1a.
Brabander shared with us on break that her stack dwindled down to 16,000 shortly after her table moved off the feature table after flopping top pair with . Her fellow country-mate and opponent Timothy Schutter stayed along to the river with and was rewarded with the case for a set. Brabander couldn't get away from her hand with two pair and now has about 16,000 chips.