Saderne Takes Over the Lead on Day 1b; Foord-Brown and Pertea Bag Big Stacks
As expected the second starting day of the 2018 Unibet Open £990 Main Event at "The Vic" attracted a bigger field and ultimately saw 202 players in action in the heart of London. Along with the 147 entries of Day 1a, a field of 349 entries in total emerged in this Freezeout and the prize pool is set with £314,100, of which the top 47 spots will earn their share. The minimum cash is worth £1,870 while the winner walks home £65,580 richer and with the stunning Unibet Open champion's trophy in his bag.
After 11 levels of 60 minutes each, Day 1b saw it's field whittled down all the way to just 52 hopefuls, and combined with the 36 survivors of Day 1a, that makes for 88 remaining players for Day 2 at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino. All survivors will be combined on 11 eight-handed tables and the action is set to resume at 12 p.m. noon local time with level 12 and blinds of 1,500/3,000 and a running ante of 500.
The chip leader of Day 1b and new overall chip leader of the tournament is Jeremy Sardene, who soared all the way to the top with a massive stack of 302,000. Francis Foord-Brown, who finished 4th one year ago at this very venue for £23,000, is in a prime position once more for a big payday after bagging up 292,500. Sardene jumped into a big stack after winning a flip with pocket jacks against the ace-king of Benjamin Lebor and forced £2,200 High Roller champion Julien Sitbon into a big fold in the last level of the night to secure the top spot.
Other big stacks and notables after Day 1b include [Removed:402] (243,500), Marius Pertea (230,000), Gary Fisher (204,500), Yngve Steen (170,500), Preben Stokkan (161,500), Toni Ojala (120,000) and Daniel Laming (90,500), Julien Sitbon bagged up 10 big blinds for Day 2 with 31,000.
Pertea won the last Unibet Open Main Event on home soil in Bucharest and added a deep run at the WPT European Championship in Berlin one month ago. The Romanian cracked the pocket kings of Unibet Poker ambassador Rauno Tahvonen with ace-ten suited and scored a massive double with aces versus tens soon after versus Hong Wang to end the day with a big smile on the face.
It was a dark day for the Unibet Poker representatives as none of them made it through. The eSports Star Mark Purdy was among the first players to bust, and he would later be followed by Ian Simpson, Daiva Byrne and the two UnibetPoker.fr sponsored pros Alexandre Reard and Quentin Lecomte. The latter lost his stack in back-to-back hands in level nine and headed to the rail.
Former Unibet Open champions Martin Soukup and Peter Harkes, who celebrated his 30th birthday today, also ran out of chips. Other notables among the casualties of Day 1b were such familiar names as Benny Glaser, Steven Watts, Albert Sapiano, Kfir Ivgi, Matt Perrins and Richard "Chufty" Ashby.
Action for the penultimate tournament day here in London kicks off at noon and a maximum of 11 levels or down to the final table are scheduled, the Unibet Open players party also awaits in the late evening as well. Make sure to tune back in to find out who will reach the money.
2018 Unibet Open London Main Event Day 2 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1 | Van Pham | United Kingdom | 110,000 | 37 |
| 4 | 2 | Redmond Toth | Hungary | 66,000 | 22 |
| 4 | 3 | Lorenc Boci | Albania | 203,000 | 68 |
| 4 | 4 | Thomas Cazayous | France | 205,500 | 69 |
| 4 | 5 | David Clark | United Kingdom | 125,000 | 42 |
| 4 | 6 | Joe Beevers | United Kingdom | 59,000 | 20 |
| 4 | 7 | Thomas Stocker | United Kingdom | 31,500 | 11 |
| 4 | 8 | Andrei Ciobanu | Romania | 138,500 | 46 |
| 5 | 1 | Laurent Polito | France | 223,500 | 75 |
| 5 | 2 | Gerald Ringe | United Kingdom | 71,000 | 24 |
| 5 | 3 | Krisztian Arvai | Hungary | 72,500 | 24 |
| 5 | 4 | Lukasz Cygan | Poland | 57,000 | 19 |
| 5 | 5 | Emil Brunnberg | Sweden | 63,000 | 21 |
| 5 | 6 | Benjamin Morrison | United Kingdom | 57,500 | 19 |
| 5 | 7 | Mads Elle | Norway | 145,000 | 48 |
| 5 | 8 | [Removed:402] | Lithuania | 243,500 | 81 |
| 6 | 1 | John Wind | Netherlands | 119,000 | 40 |
| 6 | 2 | Philip Schoenebaum | Germany | 76,500 | 26 |
| 6 | 3 | Sylvain Loosli | France | 59,000 | 20 |
| 6 | 4 | Augustine Nwaukoni | Nigeria | 51,000 | 17 |
| 6 | 5 | Tomas Martinsson | Sweden | 176,000 | 59 |
| 6 | 6 | Catherine Ivgi | United Kingdom | 62,500 | 21 |
| 6 | 7 | Tony Blanchandin | France | 100,000 | 33 |
| 6 | 8 | Jonas Ketelsen | Denmark | 159,000 | 53 |
| 7 | 1 | Florian Lanz | Switzerland | 55,500 | 19 |
| 7 | 2 | Daniel Laming | United Kingdom | 90,500 | 30 |
| 7 | 3 | Jonathan Schuman | United Kingdom | 71,000 | 24 |
| 7 | 4 | Clement Tripodi | France | 275,000 | 92 |
| 7 | 5 | Colin Heus | Netherlands | 49,500 | 17 |
| 7 | 6 | Robert Green | United Kingdom | 57,500 | 19 |
| 7 | 7 | Niko Raappana | Finland | 95,000 | 32 |
| 7 | 8 | Simonas Eigminas | Lithuania | 32,500 | 11 |
| 8 | 1 | Mike Hill | United Kingdom | 53,500 | 18 |
| 8 | 2 | Kyriakos Papadopoulos | Greece | 34,000 | 11 |
| 8 | 3 | Mohammed Suhail | United Kingdom | 100,500 | 34 |
| 8 | 4 | Jakob Tostesen | Denmark | 106,500 | 36 |
| 8 | 5 | Joseph Field | United Kingdom | 146,500 | 49 |
| 8 | 6 | Oliver White | United Kingdom | 125,500 | 42 |
| 8 | 7 | Nicolay Langfeldt | Norway | 137,500 | 46 |
| 8 | 8 | Juan Ares Gozalo | Spain | 117,000 | 39 |
| 9 | 1 | Orestis Kanakopoulos | Greece | 75,500 | 25 |
| 9 | 2 | Daniel Toffel | United Kingdom | 205,000 | 68 |
| 9 | 3 | Lennaert Joostens | Netherlands | 95,500 | 32 |
| 9 | 4 | Bhavin Khatri | United Kingdom | 249,000 | 83 |
| 9 | 5 | Thomas Wenner | Germany | 136,500 | 46 |
| 9 | 6 | Tobias Andersen | Denmark | 170,500 | 57 |
| 9 | 7 | Julien Sitbon | France | 31,000 | 10 |
| 9 | 8 | Toni Ojala | Finland | 120,000 | 40 |
| 10 | 1 | Jussi Vanhanen | Finland | 209,000 | 70 |
| 10 | 2 | Alvaras Baranauskas | Lithuania | 93,500 | 31 |
| 10 | 3 | Nicolas Proust | France | 184,500 | 62 |
| 10 | 4 | Antony Wickert | United Kingdom | 158,000 | 53 |
| 10 | 5 | Kasper Mellanen | Finland | 57,000 | 19 |
| 10 | 6 | Marius Pertea | Romania | 230,000 | 77 |
| 10 | 7 | Mounir Tajiou | Sweden | 73,000 | 24 |
| 10 | 8 | Toby Locke | United Kingdom | 162,500 | 54 |
| 11 | 1 | Karl Stark | Sweden | 75,500 | 25 |
| 11 | 2 | Erik Le Goff | France | 105,000 | 35 |
| 11 | 3 | Thomas Svendgaard | Denmark | 75,000 | 25 |
| 11 | 4 | Mahrdad Saffari | United Kingdom | 96,000 | 32 |
| 11 | 5 | John Heming | United Kingdom | 91,500 | 31 |
| 11 | 6 | Jeremy Saderne | France | 302,000 | 101 |
| 11 | 7 | Markus Heikkila | Sweden | 28,500 | 10 |
| 11 | 8 | Yngve Steen | Norway | 170,500 | 57 |
| 12 | 1 | Preben Stokkan | Norway | 161,500 | 54 |
| 12 | 2 | Dennis Lindmark | Sweden | 28,000 | 9 |
| 12 | 3 | Oystein Eileraas | Norway | 171,500 | 57 |
| 12 | 4 | Jari Mahonen | Finland | 174,000 | 58 |
| 12 | 5 | Nikolay Kostyrko | Ukraine | 64,500 | 22 |
| 12 | 6 | Erlend Grodal | Norway | 171,000 | 57 |
| 12 | 7 | Honglin Jiang | New Zealand | 113,000 | 38 |
| 12 | 8 | Peter Kaae | Denmark | 226,500 | 76 |
| 13 | 1 | Nicolas Cardyn | France | 140,000 | 47 |
| 13 | 2 | Gary Fisher | United Kingdom | 204,500 | 68 |
| 13 | 3 | Andreas Wiborg | Denmark | 187,500 | 63 |
| 13 | 4 | Radoslaw Matyjaszczyk | Poland | 55,000 | 18 |
| 13 | 5 | Dinarte De Sousa | Portugal | 40,000 | 13 |
| 13 | 6 | Mateusz Moolhuizen | Netherlands | 79,000 | 26 |
| 13 | 7 | Monica Vaka | Norway | 80,500 | 27 |
| 13 | 8 | Jari Suuronen | Finland | 46,500 | 16 |
| 14 | 1 | Aaron Woodcock | United Kingdom | 62,500 | 21 |
| 14 | 2 | Francis Foord-Brown | United Kingdom | 292,500 | 98 |
| 14 | 3 | Christopher Yong | United Kingdom | 160,500 | 54 |
| 14 | 4 | Jeremy Pantin | Trinidad and Tobago | 106,500 | 36 |
| 14 | 5 | Janice Phillips | United Kingdom | 50,000 | 17 |
| 14 | 6 | Gunnar Wedde | Norway | 190,000 | 63 |
| 14 | 7 | Nicolaj Bonnichsen | Denmark | 102,000 | 34 |
| 14 | 8 | Espen Uhlen Jorstad | Norway | 144,500 | 48 |