Main Event Day 1a | 2017 Unibet Open London

Player	Chips	Progress
Giulio Mascolo	327,600 52,400	52,400
[Removed:158]	305,800 92,800	92,800
Jerome Brion	296,500 91,500	91,500
Nicholas Hennessy	269,900 10,100	10,100
Christopher Yong	243,700 93,700	93,700
Antonio German	229,200 15,800	15,800
Mateusz Moolhuizen	176,000 4,000	4,000
Gabor Bank	169,800 10,200	10,200
Hannu Matala Aho	157,900 157,900	157,900
Samuel Hilli	152,300 152,300	152,300
Sean Sullivan	137,100 137,100	137,100
Matt Perrins	127,100 7,100	7,100

Zoltan Barabas	125,600 20,600	20,600
Kent Lindberg	121,700 121,700	121,700
Pavlos Xanthopoulos	119,700 88,700	88,700

Tamer Kamel	112,800 99,800	99,800
James Millman	108,200 108,200	108,200
Ilari Tahkokallio	97,700 17,700	17,700
Jakob Linden	93,800 46,200	46,200
Martin Soukup	93,100 56,900	56,900
Cuong Tran	90,000 90,000	90,000

Priyan De Mel	88,500 88,500	88,500
Kevin Barden	84,200 84,200	84,200
Lawrence Bayley	83,500 83,500	83,500
Francis Foord-Brown	80,200 80,200	80,200

Player

Chips

Progress

Giulio Mascolo

327,600

52,400

[Removed:158]

305,800

92,800

Jerome Brion

296,500

91,500

Nicholas Hennessy

269,900

10,100

Christopher Yong

243,700

93,700

Antonio German

229,200

15,800

Mateusz Moolhuizen

176,000

4,000

Gabor Bank

169,800

10,200

157,900

152,300

137,100

127,100

7,100

Zoltan Barabas

125,600

20,600

Kent Lindberg

121,700

Pavlos Xanthopoulos

119,700

88,700

Tamer Kamel

112,800

99,800

James Millman

108,200

Ilari Tahkokallio

97,700

17,700

Jakob Linden

93,800

46,200

Martin Soukup

93,100

56,900

90,000

88,500

84,200

83,500

80,200

Day 1a of the Unibet Open London 2017 Main Event is on the books. A total of 154 players showed up for the first starting day of the tour's first stop of its the 10th season. At the end of the day, hometown player Giulio Mascolo bagged the overnight chip lead with 327,600.

Mascolo leads a star-studded pack of 41 survivors, which includes two-time Unibet Open winner Mateusz Moolhuizen, 2016 Unibet Open Malta winner Martin Soukup and Belgian Unibet Ambassador Charlotte Van Brabander.

It was a clash of generations, between old-and-new-school poker players, as players from all ages and nationalities showed up to contest for the coveted title. Poker legends such as Willie "The Dice Man" Tann, Chris Bjorin, Joe Beevers and Sir Ben Roberts duked it out with the younger generation of stars, headlined by none other than Swedish phenom Viktor "Isildur1" Blom. All these players had one thing in common: They failed to advance to Day 2 and will not lift the trophy on Sunday night.

Reigning champion Dave Shallow's title defense came to an abrupt end in the early stages. Shallow suffered a bad beat with pocket kings against the pocket queens of [Removed:158] when the dreaded queen fell on the river. It wasn't the only former winner eliminated by Van Lancker, as Unibet Open 2016 Copenhagen winner Joni Liimatta also fell to the Belgian. Van Lancker ended the day with 305,800 in chips and sits in second place when Day 2 gets underway.

Zoltan Barabas was a long-time chip leader and looked unstoppable for most of the day. After the dinner break, a big hand with pocket jacks against Mascolo's pocket aces went awry and dropped Barabas down the leaderboard. With Barabas' chips, Mascolo found himself on track to the eventual end-of-day chip lead.

Two-time winner Mateusz Moolhuizen didn't have the best seating draw and had to battle with Soukop, Adrien Allain, Tamer Kamel and Sylvain Loosli for the majority of the day. Moolhuizen eventually emerged on top and finished the day with 176,000 in chips.

Unibet Ambassador Charlotte Van Brabander, who defeated Blom heads up yesterday to claim her third successive Ambassadors Battle Royale victory, also made her way to Day 2. Van Brabander was often seen on the feature table and ended up bagging 76,000 in chips.

Day 1b will start tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. local time, which again will feature 10 levels of 60 minutes each. On Saturday, the field will be combined and all players will return at noon.

The new winner of the Unibet Open 2017 London will be crowned on Sunday night. PokerNews will be on the floor throughout the weekend to provide live action of all the excitement in The Poker Room of the legendary Grosvenor Casino in London.