Main Event
Day 1a Started
2017 Unibet Open London
Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2017 Unibet Open London
Buy-in
£825
Prize Pool
£377,100
Entries
419
Level
28
Blinds
60,000 / 120,000
Ante
20,000
Charlotte Van Brabander Beats Viktor Blom in Ambassadors Battle Royale
The five-day Unibet Open London festival got off to terrific start at The Poker Room last night with Belgian Unibet Ambassador Charlotte Van Brabander winning the special £10k invitational Battle Royale freeroll - her third victory in the event in a row.
The former professional Counter Strike gamer and TV presenter beat Swedish high stakes online legend Viktor "Isildur1" Blom heads-up for the £5,000 first prize. Blom, who also competed in the eSports Battle Royale earlier in the day, took £3,000 for his runner-up finish, with poker blogger and podcast host David Lappin taking £2,000 for third place.
The event, which kicked off around 8pm, was broadcast live on Twitch as well as YouTube and Unibet websites. The other six players who competed were Unibet Ambassadors Ian Simpson (the 2013 Irish Open winner and UKIPT London runner-up), Dara O’Kearney, commentator David Vanderheyden, online cash game Twitch streamer Espen Jorsad and two-time Unibet Open winner Dan Murari along with last year's Unibet Open London winner Dave Shallow.
Brabander, 27, who is currently working as a HR consultant but has her eye on a career in politics, said: “Poker is a game of confidence. I didn’t want to know who I was up against and their past achievements in case it got intimidating. Saying that, I really wanted to go heads-up against Viktor – and beat him!”
Alan "Hotted89" Widmann Wins eSports Battle Royale
For Blom, the Ambassadors Battle Royale was something of a “second chance” event. He had already taken part in the eSports edition earlier on. He said: “Playing in both games, you could see the difference between the eSports guys and the Ambassadors. I had loads of fun with the eSports but the Ambassadors were serious, it was proper poker. It was great to see both sides today. I wish someone had warned me Charlotte had won the last two eSport Battles!”
German Twitch superstar Alan "Hotted89" Widmann was the £5k winner of the eSports Battle Royale after staging a remarkable comeback - he was short-stacked most of the event and at one point was down to just 10 big blinds.
This was the fourth eSports Battle and involved Blom against eight celebrated gamers who have a combined Twitch fan base of more than 1.5 million viewers. Hearthstone player Sebastian "Forsen" Fors led for most of the day with Counter Strike Global Offensive streamer Craig "onscreenlol" Shannon" appearing to be his only plausible threat. However “Hotted89”, whose Counter Strike Twitch stream attracts more than 200,000 followers, staged a spectacular recovery and to end up in final three.
The affable 28-year-old from Berlin said: “I went from grinding it out and playing safe, to really going for it in the final three”. Runner-up “onscreenlol”, from the UK, won £3,000 with Sweden’s “forsen” receiving £2,000 for third place. Viktor Blom, who is ranked #14 in Sweden’s all-time money list and has $1.7m in live winnings, was eliminated after onscreenlol hit a full house on the flop to beat his pocket aces.
The others gamers who were competed were Fabien "KioShiMa" Fiey, James "armshouse" Bardolph, Scott "Sco" McMillan, Thijs "Thijs" Molendijk and Sophia "Djarri" White.
Photos by Tambet Kask/Unibet Open
Welcome to London, Welcome to the Unibet Open
The Unibet Open poker tour, kicking off Season 10, returns to London. The poker festival started yesterday, February 22nd with the eSports and Ambassadors Battle Royale and runs through February 26. The location, as it was last year: The Poker Room above Grosvenor Victoria Casino.
The Unibet Open edition in London is the first festival of 2017 after the hugely successful event in Romania last December which broke all records. Unibet is expecting a big turnout for this the coming event as well, as last year's edition saw 418 players sign up. A total of 11 tournaments are planned, high lighted byt the £900 + £90 Main Event and the two-day £2,020 High Roller. A £165 Turbo Bounty tournament, £110 NLH Freeze-out and £330 Unibet Open Deepstack supplement the offering. Four £100 live satellites taking place starting February 20 help people get in even cheaper.
Around 200 players have already qualified for the Main Event online on Unibet Poker. The €2,000 package they received included a Main Event buy-in, hotel accommodation in the Hilton Metropole and €250 toward travel costs. During the Unibet Open Bucharest in December, the organization made a video about the event:
This event promises to be an exciting one. Will Kassouf and Canadian poker pro Griffin Benger are both set to enter and the two have a bit of a history. They were involved in a heated debate deep in the World Series of Poker Main Event last summer. Benger, with aces, eventually busted Kassouf who held kings, but not before a big argument.
Swedish ultra high stakes phenom Viktor "Isildur1" Blom and a slate of Unibet ambassadors are also set to attend. British pro Ian Simpson (the 2013 Irish Open winner and UKIPT London runner-up), Dara O’Kearney and David Lappin from Ireland, Twitch streamers David Vanderheyden and Charlotte van Brabander from Belgium and Espen Uhlen Jorsad from Norway are attending. Also taking part are two-time Unibet Open winner Dan Murariu and Unibet Open Bucharest champion Traian Bostan. Bostan won the Pokerfest.ro Last Longer in Bucharest which resulted in a package for London.
Viktor Blom Joins Battle Royale Action
Coming Feb. 22, the day before Day 1a of the Main Event, Unibet will be bringing together its roster of star eSport gamers and Unibet Ambassadors for a special “Battle Royale.” All nine members of each group will compete against each other to find the "Best Unibet eSport poker player" and the "Best Unibet Ambassador." The eSport Battle starts at 1 p.m. local time, followed by the ambassadors contest at approximately 7 p.m. Swedish high-stakes online legend Blom will be taking part in both.
Both tournaments are £10,000 freerolls with the prize pool split £5,000, £3,000 and £2,000 for the top three in each. Battling on the eSport table willbe Blom, Alan “hotted” Widmann, Sebastian "Forsen" Fors, Thijs "ThijsNL" Molendijk, Craig “onscreen” Shannon, Scott “Sco” McMillan, Sophia “djarii” White, Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey and James "JZFB" Bardolph.
Unibet Open London live stream
Unibet London will have a live stream running on Twitch throughout the five-day festival. Commentators Marc Convey and David Vanderheyden will be following the action on the feature table, chatting to special guests in the booth and running competitions and promotions.
Parties
Off the felt, there will be plenty of opportunities for players to have fun. Enjoy welcome drinks Feb. 23 from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the fabulous canal-side Grand Union Bar Paddington, just a stone’s throw from The Poker Room. The eagerly-awaited Unibet Players Party is Feb. 25 from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. at The Loop Bar in Mayfair, one of London’s most exciting party venues.
“We’re thrilled to be returning to London this month with a very exciting festival planned at The Poker Room," Nataly Sopacuaperu, Unibet Open’s head of events and sponsorship, said. "We look forward to welcoming hundreds of players to the UK capital. Unibet London is a great opportunity for our players to experience high quality poker in a fantastic tourist location with plenty of culture.”
Unibet Open London History
Last year there were 418 entries with British pro David Shallow taking it down for £62,000. There were 55 players in all who got a share of the £313,500 prize pool. The Main Event victory marked Shallow’s third biggest win; he also won the World Poker Tour Dublin Main Event for €222,280 in 2012 and the UKIPT Nottingham High Roller in 2014 for £68,000. Among others who cashed were French poker pro Nicolas Cardyn, who was third, ex-Irish football international Tony Cascarino and Adrien Allain.
| Year | Buy-in | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | £2,750 | 266 | €584,910 | Thanh Doan | £187,000 |
| 2010 | £1,650 | 273 | £255,000 | Paul Valkenburg | £109,550 |
| 2012 | £1,320 | 315 | £78,000 | Pratik Ghatge | £85,050 |
| 2014 | £1,100 | 399 | £319,200 | Iaron Lightbourne | £70,000 |
| 2016 | £825 | 418 | £313,500 | Dave Shallow | £62,000 |
* Please note that although the Unibet Open has been running since 2007, there were no London events the first two years or in 2011 and 2015.
Level: 1
Blinds: 50/100
Ante: 0
Unibet Open London Has Begun!
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
The first Unibet Open of the year has kicked off! Today will feature ten levels of 60 minutes each, with a 60-minute dinner break scheduled after level 6 (5:30 p.m. local time). Late registration will be open until the start of level seven. As per Unibet tradition, the tournament is in a freezeout format, giving every player one single bullet to fire.
Tournament Director Kenny Hallaert announced the shuffle up and deal.
135 Players At The Start
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
So far, 135 players have registered on Day 1a. The number is expected to rise throughout the day. It's a diverse field, with a lot of different nationalities being represented in the field.
MyStack Available for this Event
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
The PokerNews MyStack App is available for players here at the Unibet Open in London, allowing players to directly update their chip count on the PokerNews Live Reporting page for their friends and family to see.
You can download the app for iPhone or Android now to get started. Then, create a new PokerNews account or update your current one to start updating your status immediately. Your followers can see all the live action that you're involved in.
Familiar Names Enter
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
More and more players are taking their seats and familiar names are popping up. One of them is legendary British grinder Willie Tann, aka "The Dice Man". Two-time Unibet Open winner Mateusz Moolhuizen, Miss Finland 2012 Sara Chafak and Hans de Hond also took their seats.
Belgian Unibet Open Ambassador Charlotte van Brabander, fresh off her third straight victory (!) in the Ambassador's Battle Royale tournament last night, is playing Day 1a as well. Van Brabander defeated none other than Viktor "Isildur1" Blom heads-up to claim the first prize of £5,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
30,000 | 30,000 |
|
30,000 | 30,000 |
|
30,000 | 30,000 |
|
30,000 | 30,000 |
|
|
25,000 | 25,000 |
Straight Flush Gets Paid
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
Belgium's Domien Van Der Elst just made a straight flush in the early stages, which got paid off quite handsomely as well. After two players limped in, Van Der Elst completed with 
in the small blind. The flop came down 
and all players checked.
On the 
turn, both players in the blinds checked to the first limper, who bet half the size of pot. Only Van Der Elst made the call.
The 
on the river was Van Der Elst's dream card, and he came out blasting with an overbet of 1,000. His opponent wasn't backing down, however, and raised to 2,000. Van Der Elst took a while before three-betting to 7,000 and his opponent snap-called. With a solemn look on his face, Van Der Elst's opponent flashed the 
before mucking.
"Why didn't you raise more?" asked Van Der Elst's opponent.
"I didn't know you would call more" said Van Der Elst.
"Of course, I can't put you on the five!" his opponent replied.
With the straight flush, Van Der Elst is up to 33,500.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
33,500 | 33,500 |
Level: 2
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 25