Vitalii Belyaev was first to act and made it 22,000. His neighbor Mark Taylor three-bet to 53,000 and Irena Macesovic under the gun plus two shoved for 259,000. Action folded back to Belyaev and he reshoved. Taylor called all in just about instantly.
Vitalii Belyaev:
Mark Taylor:
Irena Macesovic:
"Wow! Wow!" said Charlo Azzopardi as he called over someone on the rail to witness it all.
The flop came and Macesovic asked for a blank on the turn so the two would be drawing dead; "No 2 no nothing!"
The on the turn was a blank and the made things official.
The following hand happened 30 minutes ago, but to not spoil the stream only appears online right now.
From first position Vitalii Belyaev made it 25,000 to go. Over on the button Irena Macesovic three-bet to 70,000 and small blind Griffin Benger contemplated what to do for a bit before calling. Belyaev folded.
The flop came and Benger checked. Macesovic bet 100,000 with 247,000 behind. Benger announced call in and Macesovic made the call.
Irena Macesovic:
Griffin Benger:
The on the turn sealed it for Benger and the on the river was there just to make things official.
Macesovic eliminated in 17th place. Another Unibet Open without a lady at the final table, something that happened just once in Unibet Open's long history.
Not too long ago, Bas de Laat was one of the shorter stacks in the room. He turned things around though, as he busted two players in a row and now is one of the biggest ones in the room.
Leandre Omeir shoved all in under the gun for 282,000 and Bas de Laat over shoved right next to him. [Removed:158] tanked for a bit before folding, the other players folded right away.
Leandre Omeir:
Bas de Laat:
The board ran out and Omeir made his exit.
Not much later, action folded to De Laat and he limped in from the small blind. Big blind Pekka Ikonen shoved for about 350,000 and De Laat instantly called.
Bas de Laat:
Pekka Ikonen:
The board ran out and De Laat knocked out Ikonen. Down to 10 now.
Ninety-three players returned to Casino Malta to battle it out for the trophy and €65,000 first-place prize on Day 2 of the 2016 Unibet Open Malta Main Event.
The first hurdle to tackle would be reaching the money, with 36 players cashing. Losing 57 players proved an easy task as they busted out left and right to get things going.
Jorma Vuoksenmaa from Finland was the first one to go, followed out the door by the likes of Miroslav Hrivnak, Simon Griffin, and many others.
Before you knew it, the tournament was getting to the bubble stage, with at least three very short stacks. All three of them would survive though, as Unibet Open regular Johan Goslings ended up busting in a bit of a cooler. He open-shoved his medium stack in with ace-king but soon found out his neighbor Mads Junker had aces and covered him by just a couple thousand.
Junker, former professional soccer player with seven caps for the Danish national team, made 36 players very happy, but busted out himself a level or two later.
The bubble hand was just about the only hand Canadian Global Poker League commentator Griffin Benger wasn't involved in. He raised most of his hands, wasn't afraid of showdowns, and won most the pots he was in. Besides having his experience help him along the way, Griffin ran extremely good as well, winning 30-70s and 40-60s like it was nothing.
For quite some time, Benger's name was on top of the chip counts by a wide margin. The last couple of levels he wasn't able to extend his lead and in fact saw several players catch up with him, and drop down a bit himself. Amongst the players to catch up was Dutch online professional Bas de Laat, who went from the role of short stack to that of chip leader in a matter of minutes. He doubled up and busted two players to get to 1.758 million.
After 10 levels of play, the tournament was halted for the night.
The final day will start at 1 p.m. local time with two tables of five players. Once one player hits the rail, the two tables will combine to the official final table. As you by now can expect from the Unibet Open, the final table will be broadcasted live with cards-up coverage.
PokerNews.com will again be on site for all the updates and photos of the event, so stay tuned.
and Macesovic asked for a blank on the turn so the two would be drawing dead; "No 2 no nothing!"
on the turn was a blank and the 
made things official.
and Benger checked. Macesovic bet 100,000 with 247,000 behind. Benger announced call in and Macesovic made the call.
on the turn sealed it for Benger and the 
and Omeir made his exit.
and De Laat knocked out Ikonen. Down to 10 now.
