Ian Simpson was racking in some chips bringing him up to 39,000 and when we asked what the hand was, he shared with us nothing much, "it was just quads."
Simpson mentioned that he flopped a set of tens on a board. His opponent Mark Taylor had a flush, however, the case-ten spiked the board on the river giving Simpson a big pot early in the tournament.
The field continues to get bigger as they are now seating people in a side room in addition to the main room. We are now at 209 players, and the tournament director informed us that there will be no cap on the number of entrants. This means the field could exceed the 450 player cap originally suggested for the tournament.
In addition to Daniel Kapadia, James Bardolph is the other eSports star who was sponsored for Day 1b of the Unibet Open London Main Event.
Bardolph shared with us that he has been playing poker for 13 years, so he is far from new to the game. In fact, he was playing poker before he was involved in eSports. The way he was professionally shuffling the chips proves this point as well.
While Bardolph doesn't have many live poker tournament cashes in his career according to The Hendon Mob, the two he does have were both final table finishes in lower buy-in events.
Thus far, things are going well for Bardolph as during the opening level he was able to increase his opening stack from 30,000 to 34,000 chips.
All of the eSports stars in attendance yesterday were unable to make it to the second break. Today could be different as eSports sensation Daniel Kapadia appears geared up for action. During the first blind level, Kapadia lost a few small pots but not his composure.
However, when comparing a poker to eSports he did admit that the former does move "a bit slower."
Among the players in the field is the United Kingdom's Ian Simpson. We just saw him take down a pot of around 2,000 chips to get back to his starting stack when his gave him top pair. Simpson checked all streets, however, his opponent who mucked his cards at the end of the hand fired out bullets on the flop and turn when checked to him.
Simpson is approaching $1 million in live tournament cashes. While this isn't his first time playing at the Unibet Open, a good amount of his success has come at the PaddyPower Irish Open.
In 2012, Simpson took fourth place in the Irish Open Main Event for €107,500 ($141,623) before winning the event a year later for €265,000 ($339,604). Simpson also had another six-digit haul in 2013 when he took second place in the UKIPT London Main Event for £106,869 ($173,277).
The field in Day 1b is already at 194 players with that number expected to continue to grow as the day goes on. As expected, the field is already bigger than yesterday when 186 players battled it out in Day 1a.
Dutch poker player Peter Harkes has also been noticed among the field for Day 1b which is now approaching 200 players. Harkes nailed down most of his $165,148 in career live tournament poker winnings by appearing on two final tables which includes one win in previous Unibet Open Main Events.
In August 2011, Harkes banked €23,400 ($33,720 ) with a fifth place finish in the Unibet Poker Main Event in Dublin and he followed this up with a victory in the Unibet Poker Riga Main Event for Ls 62,829 ($119,878).
Harkes also appeared on the final table in a Unibet Open Bounty Event in February 2012 collecting €850 ($1,118) for a third place finish.
Among the players just taking their seats is British poker pro and Unibet Poker friend Sam Grafton. Grafton, was excited to be back near home to play at the Victoria Casino, which he refered to as "The Wembley Stadium of Poker".
Grafton also mentioned he always gets a "buzz" coming back to the Vic as it's where he first got his roots into the game of poker. He mentioned he used to get excited to play alongside some of the big names in European poker such as Neil Channing.
The British poker player is now one people get a buzz playing alongside with. The RunItOnce poker training instructor is approaching almost $500,000 career live tournament cashes according to The Hendon Mob.
However, he might even be better known on the online felts where he is known as "samsquid" on PokerStars and "TheSquid" on PocketFives. According to PocketFives, Grafton is now approaching almost $4 million in career online tournament cashes.
The tournament director just announced to the dealers to shuffle up and deal. The big board shows 174 players currently registered for Day 1b with a line of about 40 players waiting to get their seat assignments. Late registration will be open until around 16:30 or until the first cards of Level 5 are dealt.
board. His opponent Mark Taylor had a flush, however, the case-ten spiked the board on the river giving Simpson a big pot early in the tournament.
gave him top pair. Simpson checked all streets, however, his opponent who mucked his cards at the end of the hand fired out bullets on the flop and turn when checked to him.
