2015 Unibet Open Glasgow Main Event champion Daniel Chutrov found in early position and he raised to 160,000. It folded to Anton Vinokurov on the button and he woke up with . Vinokurov three-bet to 450,000 and it folded back to Chutrov. Chutrov called the three-bet to see the flop.
The flop came down and Vinokurov took the lead with a set of queens. Chutrov checked to Vinokurov and the chip leader checked behind.
The turn was the and Vinokurov improved to a full house. Chutrov was drawing to only two outs when he fired a bet of 375,000. Vinokurov peeked at his cards again before calling the bet.
The river completed the board and Chutrov had 1,285,000 left while the pot was 1,860,000. Chutrov moved all in on the river and Vinokurov snap called with his full house.
That means that we have lost Daniel Chutrov and he will not be a two-time Unibet Open champion just yet.
Unibet Open Tournament Director Kenny Hallaert has always had a job ever since he started playing poker in 2004 including for the last decade in the poker industry. He was approached by Unibet a couple of years ago and agreed to become the Unibet Open tournament director the day before the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event began.
He impressively made the final table in the Main Event. It was the last year the tournament featured the November Nine and after a couple of months break he took sixth place for almost $1.5 million.
However, the announcement wasn’t made until after Hallaert made the final table, leaving open some public speculation about the timing of his agreement to join the Unibet Open team.
“In 2016, I decided to work for the Unibet Open,” said Hallaert. “I had an agreement with Unibet the day before I started playing the Main Event. Unibet Open’s Head of Live Events Nataly Sopacuaperu was in Las Vegas during that summer and we had a final meeting just before I started playing the WSOP Main Event. It wasn’t communicated to the public straight away since there were still some things that needed to be taken care of. Then all of a sudden, one week later, I made the final table of the Main Event. But, the timing was a whole coincidence.
“I never thought about quitting the job,” said Hallaert. “I have a lot of passion for the game in general whether it is me playing or me running events. I enjoy both sides of the table. I have always had a job next to playing poker. For me, I found a good balance in there in life and just in general. Every time I am playing poker I am looking forward to running the next event and every time I am running an event I look forward to playing. Also financially, I have a job and an income that pays the bills and separately I have a poker bankroll. I could always separate those two, so I never had to worry about having to make some money so at the end of the month the bills can be paid. I could just freely play and if I go broke with my poker bankroll, so be it, I still have the job. That also reduce the stress while playing poker.”
Passion on the Felt Still Strong
Hallaert’s passion to play poker hasn’t slowed down since becoming the Unibet Open tournament director and he still finds plenty of time to play the game he loves both live and online.
“I still do find a lot of time to play myself,” said Hallaert. “I am currently working exclusively for Unibet and that means I am running the Unibet Open, which has four stops per year, and a fifth event, which is a regional event in Belgium that will take place next month. So, next to that there is still plenty of time for me to play a little bit of poker myself. Whether that is online or live, I still do find enough time. I would say that all the work I do for Unibet consumes about 1 ½ months a year of my time, so there is still plenty of time for me to play poker myself. I can also work behind the scenes remotely before and after events which makes things convenient for me as well.”
For many, it would be easy to quit working a day job after winning a seven-figure haul at the WSOP Main Event. However, this thought never crossed Hallaert’s mind.
We were curious whether Hallaert is treated different as a player by the other players when battling it out on the felt.
“It happens sometimes where players are looking at me and asking me what the ruling is in a certain spot,” shared Hallaert about what might be different. “When that comes up I tell them that today I am here as a player and not as a tournament director. That I have to respect the rulings that the floor people make. I might not agree on it but I still have to respect it.”
Hallaert elaborated that tournament directors can look at the same situation differently.
“Sometimes players asked me what I would have ruled and I will let them know if I might have ruled it differently,” Hallaert said. “It is like any sport with a referee. It is not different than in a basketball game and one referee might rule a play a foul and another referee might not. We are all still human beings and not everyone will think exactly the same. Of course, we always try to keep the game integrity as high as possible and take fair play into consideration of every decision.”
Hallaert feels his experience on the felt has also helped him as a tournament director.
“My experience as a poker player has helped me a lot in my job as a tournament director because I do play a lot and have spent a lot of time in between poker players,” said Hallaert. “So, I kind of know how the players are thinking and when I have to make a ruling my experience as a player helps a lot.”
Anton Vinokurov seems unstoppable. Vinokurov raised to 180,000 with from middle position. His left hand neighbor, Amir Shomron, called the bet holding and they went heads-up to the flop.
The flop came down and both players checked. The turn was the and Vinokurov hit a straight, while Shomron had two over cards and a flush draw.
Vinokurov bet 150,000 and Shomron raised to 315,000. Vinokurov moved all in, covering Shomron by a mile. Shomron called the all in and was at risk.
The river was the and Shomron was eliminated from the tournament in 8th place.
It folded to Anton Vinokurov on the cutoff and he moved all in with . Vitalijs Zavorotnijs called from the big blind with .
The board ran out with a flop, giving Vinokurov the lead. The turn was the and the river the and Zavorotnijs wasn't able to catch up on the chip leader, who now extended his lead again.
The level duration will be reduced to 45 minutes from this point on. If the tournament gets 3-handed the duration of the levels will be reduced to 30 minutes.
Anton Vinokurov moved all in with from middle position. Vojtech Susta called from the cutoff with and Cosmin Cimpeanu called from the button with .
Vinokurov was in the position to bust two players from the tournament. The flop was and that didn't change anything. The turn was the and didn't change anything either. The river was the which gave Cimpeanu the best hand to double up and eliminate Susta.
Adrian Ionescu moved all in from the under the gun position with . Anton Vinokurov woke up in the small blind with and called the bet. The player in the big blind folded and it was up to the dealer.
The dealer put out the board and Ionescu wasn't able to double up one more time.
We've lost three players in the past 20 minutes and Vinokurov has a commanding chip lead. Florin Elisei is the second biggest stack and has just 30 big blinds.
PokerNews caught up with Unibet Poker ambassadors Espen Uhlen and Rauno "Estonian Jesus" Tahvonen to talk about the Unibet Open, their 1 Year 1 Million vlog, and more.
Florin Elisei moved all in with from the small blind and big blind Anton Vinokurov called with .
The board ran out and Elisei was eliminated from the 2018 Unibet Open Bucharest Main Event. Elisei got to collect €32,720 at the payout desk for his 4th place finish.
The players are going on an impromptu 10-minute break.
Carmen Zainescu moved all in from the button with . After Anton Vinokurov was out of the way it was Cosmin Cimpeanu with the call as he found in the big blind.
The board ran out and Cimpeanu managed to eliminate the back-to-back Unibet Open Bucharest Ladies Event champion from the Main Event.
A new and exciting promotions dubbed the Battle of the Champions was announced during the first Unibet Open in London this year. The buzz around the promotion was instantly huge when announced and continues to grow as the year progresses.
Events Coordinator for Unibet Kasia Scanlon was instrumental in bringing the Battle of Champions to life as a way to reward Unibet's live and online players under one umbrella.
"We wanted to create something for players to bring together our most successful online and live players of the year," Scanlon shared with PokerNews.
The Battle of the Champions will take place at the end of the year and feature four online players and five live player battling it out for a prize package valued at €10,000 including two Unibet Open packages, 10 Supernova tickets, two UK Tour packages, and two Cash Game Festival packages. The winning player will also hold the honor of becoming the Unibet Player of the Year.
The other eight players will each win 25,000 bonus points in their Unibet Poker account valued at €250.
Each of the four online players that will have a seat in the Battle of the Champions tournament will earn their spot through winning any of the four the Unibet Online Series Overall Leaderboard. Thus far there have been two Unibet Online Series and there are still two to come.
Four players at the Battle of Champions will earn their seats via the Live Events leaderboard. Players in the Unibet Open Bucharest Main Event earned points just by playing. Those that cashed earned even more points depending on what place they finished in the tournament.
The final spot will be awarded to the year-long Unibet Deepstack Open leaderboard.
in early position and he raised to 160,000. It folded to Anton Vinokurov on the button and he woke up with 
. Vinokurov three-bet to 450,000 and it folded back to Chutrov. Chutrov called the three-bet to see the flop. 
and Vinokurov took the lead with a set of queens. Chutrov checked to Vinokurov and the chip leader checked behind. 
and Vinokurov improved to a full house. Chutrov was drawing to only two outs when he fired a bet of 375,000. Vinokurov peeked at his cards again before calling the bet. 
river completed the board and Chutrov had 1,285,000 left while the pot was 1,860,000. Chutrov moved all in on the river and Vinokurov snap called with his full house. 
from middle position. His left hand neighbor, Amir Shomron, called the bet holding 
and they went heads-up to the flop. 
and both players checked. The turn was the 
and Vinokurov hit a straight, while Shomron had two over cards and a flush draw. 
and Shomron was eliminated from the tournament in 8th place.
. Vitalijs Zavorotnijs called from the big blind with 
and the river the 
and Zavorotnijs wasn't able to catch up on the chip leader, who now extended his lead again. 
and Cosmin Cimpeanu called from the button with 
. 
and that didn't change anything. The turn was the 
which gave Cimpeanu the best hand to double up and eliminate Susta.
.
and Elisei was eliminated from the 2018 Unibet Open Bucharest Main Event. Elisei got to collect €32,720 at the payout desk for his 4th place finish. 
