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Day 1a Completed
2017 Unibet Open Bucharest
Main Event
Day: 1a
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Level 11
: 1,200/2,400, 400 ante
The first of two starting days of the 2017 Unibet Open Bucharest €1,100 Main Event gathered a field of 167 entries of which 39 hopefuls advanced to Day 2 in the Grand Ballroom of the luxurious JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel. The 10-year anniversary edition of the popular tournament series has a guaranteed prize pool of €500,000 and nine out of the first ten players at the top of the counts were from Romania.
Andrei Grimberg (325,500) narrowly beat Tudor Bartha Lazar (324,000) to the top spot while Tudor Purice (252,500) bagged up the third-most chips. Among the other big stacks at the end of Day 1a were Razvan Cetanas (247,000), Guy Ohayon (245,000) and Marius Pertea (177,000).
Jose Luis Capdevila, who currently travels the world with his girlfriend, noticed the event while in Eastern Europe and bagged up 163,000. Other notables include Vinod Jadav (153,000), Martin von Zweigbergk (129,500), Pasquale Grimaldi (114,500), and Emanuel Flesner (70,000).
It wasn't all smiles for everyone as some familiar faces of the Unibet Open circuit joined the rail far earlier than expected. Dorin Rauta was among the early casualties and Ben Bensimhon was also gone well before the dinner break. Unibet Poker ambassador Espen Uhlen Jorstad exited the €2,200 High Roller and jumped into the Main Event only to bust soon after as well. Fellow ambassador Daiva Byrne came back from 4,000 chips to an above-average stack, but was eventually ousted in a three-way all in just after the dinner break with ace-king against the pocket nines of Adrian Nica and the pocket queens of Martin von Zweigbergk.
Also among those to bust were Luciana Manolea, Nandor Solyom, Ioana Silvana Apostol and Serghei Lisii. Two former Unibet Open champions took to the tables and were both felted. Joni Liimatta busted in the early stages while Daniel Chutrov joined the rail in a three-way all in. Markus Heikkila, who led the field after Day 1a one year ago here in Bucharest, three-bet all in with ace-five and Chutrov moved in over the top with ace-ten suited. Initial raiser Tudor Bartha Lazar quickly called with kings and held up on a queen-high board.
At the time of writing, the €2,200 High Roller was down to eight players out of 99 entries, all guaranteed at least €6,605 for their efforts. Dorin Rauta bubbled in 14th place when his ace-jack suited lost a flip against the pocket nines of Olvedo Heinze. After that, Elvis Petcu (13th, for €4,160), Mihai Niste (12th, for €4,160), Florin Elisei (11th, for €4,785), Unibet Poker ambassador Dara O'Kearney (10th, for €4,785) and Andrei Boghean (9th, for €5,505) joined the rail in the money.
The nine-handed eSports Battle Royale VII was won by Fredrik "dbergie" Bergmann (€5,000), Thijs "Thijs" Molendijk (€3,000) and Andrey "Reynad" Yanyuk (€2,000) rounded out the top three spots in the money.
Action recommences at 11 a.m. local time with Day 1b of the €1,100 Main Event and the respective Satellite generated 161 entries for 21 seats and €326 to the 22nd place finisher.
Level 11
: 1,200/2,400, 400 ante
The screens showed 40 players remaining and below are assorted counts. The full counts of all Day 1a survivors will be published when PokerNews receives them and a recap of today's action is to follow.
Level 11
: 1,200/2,400, 400 ante
Carmine Venditti busted shortly before the end of the night while the attempt of Vladimir Borkunov to double his short stack only claimed a raise and the blinds and antes. Marius Pertea had raised to 5,500 and the Russian shoved for 35,100 in the hijack. Razvan Cetanas in the small blind seemed interested and asked for a count before folding, as did Cetanas.
Level 11
: 1,200/2,400, 400 ante
The clock has been stopped with 14 minutes remaining and four more hands were drawn for tonight.
Level 11
: 1,200/2,400, 400 ante
There are only 41 players remaining and among those to bust before bagging and tagging were Gabso Haim, Marius Ion Geanta and Bogdan Domnitanu. Carmine Venditti has dropped into the red zone as well while the beer count of Martin von Zweigbergk has increased, but his chip count has taken the opposite trend.
Level 11
: 1,200/2,400, 400 ante
Jorma Vuoksenmaa raised to 5,100 and was called by the small blind and Tudor Purice in the big blind. Only Purice check-called a bet of 8,000 on the 
flop before the 
turn was checked through. On the 
river, Purice bet 15,000 and Vuoksenmaa folded.
Purice scooped a bigger pot in a battle of the blinds with Tom Givony after betting the 
river for 20,000. Givony called and mucked when Purice flashed 
for the nut flush.
The very next hand, Emanuel Flesner shoved from under the gun and Vuoksenmaa called for less with 
in the big blind. Flesner had 
and the board came 
.
While Purice has a massive stack, the current chip leader appears to be Andrei Grimberg.
Level 11
: 1,200/2,400, 400 ante
Until the turn of a board 
, there were around 80,000 in the middle and Guy Ohayon shoved for 47,300 with fellow Israeli player Gabso Haim looking him up.
Guy Ohayon: 
Gabso Haim: 
The on the river gave Ohayon the better full house and he doubled in spectacular fashion, while Haim tossed over his chair after jumping up in disgust.
Level 11
: 1,200/2,400, 400 ante
Vinod Jadav raised to 5,500 from the hijack and Silviu Baltatenu called on the button. Nicolas Geniale shoved for around 56,000 in the big blind and Jadav called, Baltatenu folded.
Nicolas Geniale:
Vinod Jadav: 
The board ran out 
and Geniale was sent to the rail, Adrian Veghinas and Martin Magal followed soon after. Before the dinner break, Jadav was down to around 18,000 and has since recovered nicely.
Level 11
: 1,200/2,400, 400 ante
Short stack Alexandru Iliescu patiently waited for a chance to double and got his chips in with . Tudor Purice looked him up with 
and the board came 
.
