Welcome to Day 1b of the 2018 Unibet Open London £990 Main Event
Day 1b of the 2018 Unibet Open London £990 Main Event will kick off at 11 a.m. local time at the iconic Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London and the venue, known to most poker players simply as "The Vic" is expecting a busy day. Yesterday's first starting flight saw 147 entries take to the tables and 36 of them bagged up with Clement Tripodi in the lead with 275,000.
The 7th ever Unibet Open to take place in London aims to set a new record and best the 419 entries of 2017, in which Belgium's [Removed:158] emerged victorious to take home the trophy and a payday of £71,950. Van Lancker won't be able to defend his title after running out of chips in the penultimate level of Day 1a. However, Bhavin Khatri, who finished 5th and 2nd at "The Vic" in the previous two years, is off to a flying start once again and bagged up 249,000 last night.
Most of the eSports Battle Royale VIII participants already took part with mixed results on Day 1a, as were the majority of the Unibet Poker representatives. The Unibet Poker ambassadors Ian Simpson and Daiva Byrne will certainly be in action today, though.
Unibet Open Events in London at a Glance
| Year | Buy-In | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | Country | Prize | Prize in US$ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | £2,750 | 266 | £665,000 | Thanh Doan | Finland | £187,000 | $305,326 |
| 2010 | £1,650 | 273 | £409,500 | Paul Valkenburg | Netherlands | £109,550 | $171,408 |
| 2011 | £1,320 | 315 | £378,000 | Pratik Ghatge | United Kingdom | £85,050 | $136,305 |
| 2014 | £1,100 | 399 | £319,200 | Iaron Lightbourne | United Kingdom | £70,000 | $110,163 |
| 2016 | £825 | 418 | £313,500 | Dave Shallow | United Kingdom | £62,000 | $86,747 |
| 2017 | £990 | 419 | £377,100 | [Removed:158] | Belgium | £71,950 | $89,722 |
All players will receive 30,000 chips in this Freezeout tournament and a total of 11 levels of 60 minutes each are scheduled with a break every two levels. There will be a dinner break after the end of level six, and the registration closes at the start of level seven at approximately 6.30 p.m. local time. Bagging and tagging for the night is expected just after midnight.
Day 1 Level Structure
| Level | Small blind | Big blind | Ante |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 50 | 100 | 0 |
| 2 | 100 | 200 | 25 |
| 3 | 150 | 300 | 25 |
| 4 | 200 | 400 | 50 |
| 5 | 300 | 600 | 75 |
| 6 | 400 | 800 | 100 |
| 7 | 500 | 1,000 | 100 |
| 8 | 600 | 1,200 | 200 |
| 9 | 800 | 1,600 | 200 |
| 10 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 300 |
| 11 | 1,200 | 2,400 | 400 |
A live stream of the feature table will kick off as of level three on a security delay of 30 minutes on the Unibet Poker Twitch channel, and the PokerNews live reporting team will provide all the action from the tournament floor.