Last night's trivia contest winner Nicholas Storm is in good spirits despite just losing a big hand to go from 62,000 chips to 20,000 when his was no match for his opponent's .
There may not be any bigger Unibet Open veteran than storm who estimates he has played in 20 different events in the tour's history. He mentioned he keeps coming back since taking part in the Unibet Open is like being part of a big family. He mentioned that he knows a lot of people, that Unibet staff are very nice, and that he feels at home during every event regardless of where in the world it is being held.
Still more than half the field is remaining in Day 1b of the Unibet Open London Main Event. While yesterday the average chip stack remained over 50 big blinds all day long, today the average stack of around 55,000 chips has dipped to around 46 big blinds.
Local poker player John Kagame has been on top of the field for a few hours now. This is one of his first poker tournaments, and he entered after a friend told him about it. Kagame typically enjoys ring games, and it appears that the long hours on the table are starting to make him tired. However, with just a few more hours to play Kagame is in good position to go into Day 2 with a good stack.
On the same table are two of the more experienced players in the field in Ian Simpson & Liutauras Armanavicius. Stacks have changed for both players during dinner breaks, but its been small ups and downs for both. Simpson continues his rise while Armanavicius has recovered slightly after suffering some minor setbacks before the dinner break.
John Kagame has been in the lead for over 2 blind levels. However, things can quickly change before the end of the day with four more blind levels to go. Here is a look at the players currently in the top ten on Day 1b:
The 2016 Unibet Open London Main Event has official set a record as the tour's biggest Main Event in the city. The previous record was 399 players when the Unibet Open last visited the historical city in 2014. Each time since the Unibet Open first came to London in 2009 the field size has grown and grown while the buy-in has become slimmer and slimmer.
Month
Year
Buy-in
Players
Winner
First Place Prize
July
2009
£2.750
266
Thanh Doan
£187.000
December
2010
£1.650
273
Paul Valkenburg
£109.550
September
2012
£1.320
315
Pratik Ghatge
£85.050
December
2014
£1.100
399
Iaron Lightbourne
£70.000
March
2015
£825
418
?
?
If you are curious about the overall Unibet Open Main Event attendance record, we have to head back to 2010 in Budapest when the tournament attracted 460 players. It has come close several times since then in breaking it, but for now the overall record stands strong.
PokerNews' very own Editor-in-Chief Donnie "DP" Peters was voted the Media Person of the Year at the 2016 American Poker Awards. Rich Ryan and Donnie discuss the evening, break down the Global Poker League Draft, and touch upon PokerStars' pending return to the United States this month.
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