Ian Simpson Tops Day 1b; Daniel Clarke Bags the Lead on Day 1c

The final two starting days of the 2018 Unibet Open Dublin €1,100 Main Event are done and dusted, and the tournament easily surpassed the guaranteed prize pool of €250,000 thanks to 198 entries on Day 1b and 64 additional players in the turbo heat 1c. A field of 359 entries has emerged, and 123 survivors are still in contention for their share of the €359,000 prize pool.

A very familiar face topped the counts on Day 1b, as Unibet Poker ambassador Ian Simpson bagged up 284,200 to claim the top spot ahead of John Keown (241,200) and three-time WSOP bracelet winner Benny Glaser. It has been very successful few days for the Brit in the Irish capital, who won the €2,200 High Roller and late-registered Day 1b to finish third in chips with 207,400.

Other big stacks and notables among the 64 Day 1b survivors were Julien Kron (199,600), Irish poker legend Mick McCloskey (144,000), Monica Vaka (118,100), Ivan Tononi (106,200), Jason Tompkins (98,600), 2017 Unibet Open Bucharest finalist Pavao Veza (85,300), and Antoine Vranken (49,800).

The vast majority of online qualifiers took to the tables and they were joined by the Battle Royale XI esports gamers and Unibet Poker ambassadors. Simpson shined the most, beaming with pride on the feature table when his wife Emma came over to rail, but he was by far not the only one that punched the ticket for Day 2 today. Quentin Lecomte (159,400) and David Lappin (107,000) spent the entire day on the same table, where they were joined late on by Lisa “STPeach” Vannatta (77,900). Dara Kearney also made it through on the first bullet and bagged up 65,900.

Tag Team partners Lisa “STPeach” Vannatta and Dara O'Kearney both reached Day 2 of the Main Event in Dublin

In a rough spell for the esports crew in level seven, a trio departed within a few minutes including Scott "Sco" McMillan, Sophia "Djarii" White and Sven “Svennoss” Edelenbosch. White took a flip with ace-queen against pocket jacks and found no help on a six-high board.

Plenty of notables were left empty-handed without anything to show for. The Unibet ambassadors Alexandre Reard and Fredrik Bergmann were among them, both suffering a less than optimal start into the day and bowing out much earlier than they had hoped for. Bergmann had a kicker problem with jack-ten against Scott "Sco" McMillan, who held queen-jack and the superior kicker on a jack-high flop.

Mike Hill, Toni Ojala, Ronni Borg, Kevin Killeen, 2018 Unibet Open champion Andreas Wiborg and Mihai Manole also failed to find a bag for Day 2. Wiborg's attempt to win a second title in the cxurrent year ended in level eight when he moved all in for fewer than 10 big blinds with ace-king. Julien Kron was behind preflop with ace-deuce suited, but running diamonds improved the Frenchman to a flush.

Turbo Heat 1c draws 64 Entries

Hearthstone pro Andrey "reynad" Yanyuk, who won the Battle Royale XI, ran with top pair into a set and re-entered the turbo heat to bag up the third-biggest stack with 90,600 as 35 players out of 64 entries made it through. Only 2014 Irish Open champion and two-time EPT Main Event finalist Patrick Clarke (122,200) and €2,200 High Roller third-place finisher Paul Jux Holderness (105,200) were ahead of Yanyuk.

Also advancing from Day 1c were Unibet Poker ambassador Rauno Tahvonen (86,200), Alan "hotted89" Widmann (29,200) and two-time Unibet Open champion Dan Murariu (27,400), the hopes of Mateusz Moolhuizen to claim a third title at the end of season 11 vanished mid-way through the turbo heat. Andy Black (70,900), Paul Leckey (50,500), Tuomo Niskanen (50,200), and former Unibet Open champion Martin Soukup (37,300) will be back for Day 2, too.

2018 Unibet Open Dublin €1,100 Main Event Schedule

Main Event Day	Date	Time	Entries	Remaining	Further Information
1a	Thursday, November 22nd, 2018	12:00	97	24	Play 10 levels of 60 minutes, late reg start of level 7 approx. 19:30
1b	Friday, November 23rd, 2018	12:00	198	64	Play 10 levels of 60 minutes, late reg start of level 7 approx. 19:30
1c	Friday, November 23rd, 2018	21:00	64	35	Play 10 levels of 20 minutes, late reg start of level 7 approx. 23:15
2	Saturday, November 24th, 2018	12:00	359	123	Play max. 11 levels of 60 minutes or down to final table
3	Sunday, November 25th, 2018	12:00	tba	tba	Play down to a champion

Once all players of both heats today had bagged up their chips, a remaining field of 123 hopefuls emerged and they will be back in their seats at the Bonnington Hotel in Dublin when Day 2 kicks off at 12 p.m. local time on Saturday, November 24th, 2018. More than half of them will miss out on the money, and the payout structure will be announced when the cards go back in the air.

Along with the PokerNews live updates, you can also follow the action on the Unibet Open Twitch stream, which broadcasts all hole cards on a security delay of 30 minutes until a champion is crowned at the end of the weekend.

Day 2 Seat Draw

Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chips	Big Blinds
1	1	Trevor Dinneen	Ireland	59,400	25
1	2	Nicolas Torossian	France	30,900	13
1	3	Charlotte Van Brabander	Belgium	47,600	20
1	4	Ricardo Klaassen	Netherlands	123,000	51
1	5	Ivan Tononi	Italy	106,200	44
1	6	Oystein Nordli	Norway	61,200	26
1	7	Antoine Vranken	Netherlands	49,800	21
1	8	Ana Raluca Bulboaca	Romania	70,600	29

2	1	Henri Koivisto	Finland	330,500	138
2	2	John Byrne	Ireland	14,600	6
2	3	Jonathan Lowe	United Kingdom	49,100	20
2	5	Alan Widmann	Germany	29,200	12
2	6	Tomas Montrimas	Lithuania	50,800	21
2	7	Ville Hakala	Finland	28,700	12
2	8	Scott Robinson	Ireland	149,400	62

3	1	Monica Vaka	Norway	118,100	49
3	2	Alexandre Poux	France	78,300	33
3	3	Jakub Groblewski	Poland	44,800	19
3	4	Feargus Murphy	Ireland	43,700	18
3	5	Kevin Fitzpatrick	Ireland	56,200	23
3	6	Anko Hoogendijk	Netherlands	40,000	17
3	7	Janos Szappanos	Hungary	85,700	36
3	8	Christopher Heidelbacher	Romania	74,700	31

4	1	John Farrell	Ireland	108,700	45
4	2	Phillip Huxley	United Kingdom	26,300	11
4	3	Georgios Tavoularis	Greece	34,700	14
4	4	Gunnar Wedde	Norway	62,400	26
4	5	Andrew Whitehouse	United Kingdom	142,900	60
4	6	Markus Jordan	Germany	86,200	36
4	7	Miikka Kaihovaara	Finland	61,800	26
4	8	Dara O'Kearney	Ireland	65,900	27

5	1	Erik Bloma	Sweden	36,500	15
5	2	Mikko Koponen	Finland	84,600	35
5	3	James O'Brien	Ireland	91,000	38
5	4	Gary Stokes	Ireland	37,200	16
5	5	Alex Irwin	Ireland	60,000	25
5	6	Bogdan Petrascu	Romania	104,500	44
5	7	Zoltan Boszormenyi	Hungary	25,300	11
5	8	Jan Marcus Ohman	Sweden	157,900	66

6	1	Andrey Yanyuk	United States	90,600	38
6	2	Lisa Vannatta	Canada	77,900	32
6	3	Daniel Effendy	Germany	72,300	30
6	4	Robbie McCormack	Ireland	75,300	31
6	5	Tuomo Niskanen	Finland	50,200	21
6	6	Christopher Nash	United Kingdom	68,300	28
6	7	Jaakko Kayhko	Finland	30,300	13
6	8	Markus Heikkila	Sweden	104,300	43

7	1	Greg King	Ireland	85,500	36
7	2	Thomas Fitzgerald	Ireland	236,600	99
7	3	Daniel Price	Isle of Man	29,000	12
7	4	Per Helge Gaassand	Norway	367,000	153
7	5	Pierre de Montesquiou	France	168,800	70
7	6	Paul Kristoffersson	Sweden	40,000	17
7	7	Paul Leckey	Ireland	50,500	21
7	8	Peter Self	United Kingdom	60,600	25

8	1	Nicolas Storm-Christensen	Denmark	55,900	23
8	2	Sean Foley	Ireland	116,300	48
8	3	Ian Simpson	United Kingdom	284,200	118
8	4	Cornelis Aantjes	Netherlands	44,200	18
8	5	Periklis Charmpilas	Greece	51,700	22
8	6	Cristian Dina	Romania	92,600	39
8	7	Patrick Clarke	Ireland	122,200	51
8	8	Mariusz Niski	Poland	34,700	14

9	1	John Keown	Ireland	241,200	101
9	2	Rauno Tahvonen	Estonia	85,100	35
9	3	Mick McCloskey	Ireland	144,000	60
9	4	Andy Black	Ireland	70,900	30
9	5	Vamshi Vandanapu	England	66,500	28
9	6	Rory De Vos	Netherlands	60,200	25
9	7	Bjorn Kadgien	Germany	29,700	12
9	8	Daniel Pettersen	Norway	90,500	38

10	1	Elias Vaaraniemi	Finland	379,200	158
10	2	Ovidiu Tureac	Romania	137,600	57
10	3	Quentin Lecomte	France	159,400	66
10	4	Lauri Kervinen	Finland	82,000	34
10	5	Rune Torbla	Norway	99,300	41
10	6	Martin Soukup	Czech Republic	37,300	16
10	7	Michael Brock	United Kingdom	140,200	58
10	8	Toby Locke	United Kingdom	48,300	20

11	1	Stephen Kavanagh	Ireland	27,800	12
11	2	Joachim Gjerstad	Norway	54,700	23
11	3	Emil Brunnberg	Sweden	57,800	24
11	4	Hendrik Mertens	Netherlands	46,300	19
11	5	Pavao Veza	Croatia	85,300	36
11	6	Jamie Byrne	Ireland	61,400	26
11	7	Barry McMahon	Ireland	108,900	45
11	8	Peter Curry	Ireland	29,800	12

18	1	Mario Linno	Estonia	71,300	30
18	2	Richard Oneill	Ireland	105,700	44
18	3	Jason Tompkins	Ireland	98,600	41
18	4	David Lappin	Ireland	107,000	45
18	5	Barrie Pietersz	Netherlands	49,900	21
18	6	Kevin Mathers	United States	55,000	23
18	7	Dan Murariu	Romania	27,400	11

19	1	Raiko Vannas	Estonia	67,900	28
19	2	Robert Franks	United Kingdom	48,400	20
19	3	Keith Brennan	Ireland	154,200	64
19	5	Larry Ryan	Ireland	62,400	26
19	6	Joseph Ellis	United Kingdom	131,600	55
19	7	Emmett Mullin	Ireland	82,800	35
19	8	Luke Walsh	Ireland	135,200	56

20	2	Konstantinos Souliotis	Greece	103,700	43
20	3	Marina Adriaans	Netherlands	65,000	27
20	4	Sergiu Covrig	Romania	54,000	23
20	5	David Schable	France	46,600	19
20	6	Jack Sinclair	United Kingdom	64,700	27
20	7	Julien Kron	France	199,600	83
20	8	Kasper Mellanen	Finland	166,000	69

21	1	Michael Tucknott	United Kingdom	110,400	46
21	2	Jason Keating	Ireland	46,000	19
21	3	Benny Glaser	United Kingdom	207,400	86
21	4	Jari Hurri	Finland	75,500	31
21	5	Peter Cahill	Ireland	153,000	64
21	6	Paul Jux Holderness	United Kingdom	105,200	44
21	8	Mark Rink	Netherlands	80,400	34

22	1	Apostol Beg	Romania	87,500	36
22	2	Klemen Kregar	Slovenia	73,400	31
22	3	John Hanaphy	Ireland	50,000	21
22	4	Jorma Vuoksenmaa	Finland	24,000	10
22	5	Antti Tiainen	Finland	34,600	14
22	6	Kasper Henrikson	Denmark	12,700	5
22	7	Pascal Rabany	France	124,000	52
22	8	Chris Dowling	Ireland	62,900	26