Strachinescu Leads 75 Survivors After Day 1b; O'Kearney With Decent Stack

Christian Zetzsche

Level 11 : 1,200/2,400, 400 ante

Dara O'Kearney among the big stacks on Day 1b

The second starting day of the 10-year anniversary edition of the Unibet Open is in the books and another 335 players ponied up the buy-in of €1,100 Main Event at the luxurious JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel to boost the total field to 502 entries. The guarantee was met and, minus the 3% fees for staff, a prize pool of €486,940 was set with the top 71 spots earning at least €1,880 for their efforts while the winner will take home the trophy and first-place payout of €90,925.

Until then it is still a long way to go and yet another Romanian player ended up on top of the chip counts after 11 levels of 60 minutes each. Only 75 hopefuls bagged up and will join the 39 Day 1a survivors to make for 114 survivors in total for Day 2 here in Bucharest. Marian Strachinescu emerged as the Day 1b and overall chip leader after bagging up massive 345,000. Strachinescu's biggest cash so far is a third place in the PokerFest Mamaia Season 3 €600 Main Event back in 2013 for a payday of €13,250.

Strachinescu is followed by fellow countryman Vladut Paun (326,500) and the two Dutchmen Tom Vogelsang (308,000) and Teun Herman (288,000), while other big stacks include Ionut Voinea (254,000), Avi Cohen (252,500), Yasen Dichev (248,000), Stephane Allard (243,000) and Alexander Ioan (239,000). Most of the Unibet Poker representatives took to the tables on Day 1b and three of them will be back tomorrow: Unibet Poker ambassador Dara O'Kearney made it through with 234,000, eSports Star Kevin "Papaplatte" Teller bagged up 130,000 and David Lappin will return with a stack of 90,000, which is just below the average.

Among those Unibet Poker representatives to join the rail throughout Day 1b were the eSports Stars Andrey "Reynad" Yanyuk, Sophia "Djarii" White, Fabien "Kioshima" Fiey, Thijs "Thijs" Molendijk, Fredrik "dbergie" Bergmann, Anssi "AndyPyro" Huovinen, Alan "Hotted89" Widmann and the ambassadors Rauno Tahvonen and Ian Simpson. Widmann was the first to fall when his pocket kings got cracked by the ace-king suited of Simeon Todorov, while White ran with king-ten suited and top pair on the flop in pocket aces. Simpson was caught bluffing and Tahvonen failed to hold up with pocket queens against a suited ace of Tom Vogelsang in the late stages of the day.

There were also several former Unibet Open champions in action today and all but Dan Murariu (51,500) were ousted. Mateusz Moolhuizen's nut flush draw and gutshot straight draw could not get there against two pair and defending Bucharest champion Traian Bostan never managed to run up a stack either. Kaarel Lepik and Peter Harkes busted in the last two levels of the night, while Dmitry Varlamov and Martin Soukup were also among the casualties. Further notables that busted today include Viliyan Petleshkov, Michael Magalashvili, Yngve Steen, Viliyan Petleshkov and €2,200 High Roller champion Olvedo Heinze.

The action resumes at 12 p.m. noon local time on Saturday, December 2nd 2017, with level 12 and blinds of 1,500/3,000 and a running ante of 500. A maximum of 11 levels of 60 minutes each or down to the nine-handed final table are scheduled for the penultimate day in Bucharest, whichever of the two comes first. A break every two levels and a dinner break after the end of the sixth level will see bagging and tagging take place at approximately 1 a.m. local time at the latest. As usual the PokerNews live reporting team will provide all the action from the floor and the live stream of the feature table on the Unibet Poker Twitch Channel commences in the third level of the day.

€1,100 Main Event Day 2 Seat Draw

Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	1	Victor Kait	Israel	62,500	21
1	2	Jorma Vuoksenmaa	Finland	36,000	12
1	3	Christopher Heidelbacher	Romania	129,500	43
1	4	Vladimir Borkunov	Russian Federation	47,000	16
1	5	Nikolay Ivanov	Bulgaria	53,500	18
1	6	Andreas Steiner	Switzerland	132,500	44
1	7	Eric Wasylenko	Canada	119,000	40
1	8	Jean-Serge Baril	Canada	87,000	29
1	9	Henrik Tellving	Sweden	202,500	68

2	1	Robert Vukovic	Croatia	223,000	74
2	2	Johan Goslings	Netherlands	27,000	9
2	3	Arnold Hodatov	Israel	94,500	32
2	4	Bartlomiej Gorzolka	Poland	134,000	45
2	5	Catalin Luca	Romania	164,000	55
2	6	David Lappin	Ireland	90,000	30
2	7	Vladut Paun	Romania	326,500	109
2	8	Anton Markov	Bulgaria	98,000	33
2	9	Marcus Friman	Sweden	112,000	37

3	1	Linus Hjulstrom	Sweden	28,000	9
3	2	Silviu Baltateanu	Romania	210,000	70
3	3	Pavao Veza	Croatia	157,000	52
3	4	Jozsef Liszkovics	Romania	165,500	55
3	5	Ionut Zota	Romania	164,500	55
3	7	Cosmin Nedelea	Romania	157,500	53
3	8	Vasile Zagon	Romania	34,000	11
3	9	Ionut Voinea	Romania	254,000	85

4	1	Olli Roos	Finland	134,500	45
4	2	Catalin Pop	Romania	55,000	18
4	3	Dor Lan	Israel	104,000	35
4	4	Jan-Willem Nijmeijer	Netherlands	93,500	31
4	5	Anatoli Halca	Romania	238,000	79
4	6	Stan Solomon	Romania	116,000	39
4	7	Kevin Teller	Germany	130,000	43
4	8	Mikolaj Zawadka	Poland	66,000	22
4	9	Marius-Serban Moldoveanu	Romania	66,000	22

5	1	Lucian Mantu	Romania	77,000	26
5	2	Age Spets	Norway	61,500	21
5	3	Dan Murariu	Romania	51,500	17
5	4	Marian Strachinescu	Romania	345,000	115
5	5	Ciprian Filipiuc	Romania	72,000	24
5	6	David Stonehouse	United Kingdom	68,000	23
5	7	Neculai Macovei	Romania	78,000	26
5	8	Georgios-Angelos Tavoularis	Greece	138,500	46
5	9	Emanuel Flesner	Romania	70,000	23

6	1	Ohana Shlomo	Israel	160,000	53
6	2	Vinod Jadav	United Kingdom	153,000	51
6	3	Martin von Zweigbergk	Finland	129,500	43
6	4	Oscar Tompsett	United Kingdom	180,000	60
6	5	Remi Gallot	France	53,000	18
6	6	Razvan Cetanas	Romania	247,000	82
6	7	Tiago Santos	Portugal	97,000	32
6	9	Alexandru Iliescu	Romania	20,500	7

7	1	Vlad Cojocariu	Romania	52,000	17
7	2	Bogdan Ionescu	Romania	128,000	43
7	3	Tim Bruneel	Belgium	52,500	18
7	4	Laurentiu Marius Bunica	Romania	147,500	49
7	5	Guy Ohayon	Israel	245,000	82
7	6	Marius Pertea	Romania	177,000	59
7	7	Ionut Dobre	Romania	97,000	32
7	8	Tudor Bartha Lazar	Romania	324,000	108
7	9	Razvan Constantin	Romania	205,500	69

8	1	Andrei Pirlanescu	Romania	147,000	49
8	2	Alexander Ioan	Germany	239,000	80
8	4	Gheorghe Serban	Romania	60,500	20
8	5	Ronnie Espensen	Denmark	69,000	23
8	6	Tudor Purice	Romania	252,500	84
8	7	Veselin Petrov	Bulgaria	100,000	33
8	8	Tom Givony	Israel	77,500	26
8	9	Daniel Stoian	Romania	110,000	37

9	1	Teun Herman	Netherlands	288,000	96
9	2	Vlad Ruxandari	Romania	185,500	62
9	3	Sorin Caraciobanu	Romania	86,500	29
9	4	Catalin Diac	Romania	104,000	35
9	5	Stilian Atanasov	Bulgaria	78,500	26
9	6	Cristian Tardea	Romania	39,000	13
9	7	Arne Bollmann	Norway	51,500	17
9	8	Aris Tourlakis	Greece	247,500	83
9	9	Bojan Zidar	Slovenia	130,000	43

10	1	Stefan Gheorghe	Romania	210,500	70
10	2	Emil Gramatikov	Bulgaria	87,500	29
10	3	Andrei Grimberg	Romania	325,500	109
10	4	Pit Hemmerling	Luxembourg	121,000	40
10	5	Ran Azor	Israel	211,000	70
10	6	Rico Leestemaker	Netherlands	39,500	13
10	7	Corentin Schmauch	France	79,500	27
10	8	Katsuhiro Muto	Japan	105,000	35
10	9	Alexandru Arnautu	Romania	84,500	28

11	1	Jenny Israel	France	38,500	13
11	2	Arvi Vainionkulma	Finland	84,500	28
11	3	Symeon Stergiopoulos	Greece	160,000	53
11	4	Joris Hermans	Belgium	138,000	46
11	5	Yonatan Koko	Israel	135,500	45
11	6	Josef Machiach	Israel	107,000	36
11	7	Iulian Iacob	Romania	283,500	95
11	8	Stefanita Fachete	Romania	118,500	40
11	9	Amir Shomron	Israel	204,000	68

12	1	Jose Luis Capdevila	Chile	163,000	54
12	2	Dara O'Kearney	Ireland	234,000	78
12	3	Stephane Allard	Belgium	249,000	83
12	4	Mihail Rablou	Romania	140,000	47
12	5	Cornel Oleniuc	Romania	39,500	13
12	6	Ionut Mihaila	Romania	156,000	52
12	7	Tom Vogelsang	Netherlands	308,000	103
12	8	Pasquale Grimaldi	Italy	114,500	38
12	9	Gheorghe Costache	Romania	164,000	55

13	1	Zion Mashiah	Israel	47,500	16
13	3	Ionut Asanache	Romania	62,500	21
13	4	Sergiu Cornea	Israel	47,000	16
13	5	Adrian Chivu	Romania	98,000	33
13	6	Yizhaq Sagi Gal	Israel	59,000	20
13	6	Rafi Yzhak Poor	Israel	55,000	18
13	7	Avi Cohen	Israel	252,500	84
13	8	Yasen Dichev	Bulgaria	248,000	83
13	9	Ionel Tanase	Romania	124,500	42