Unibet Poker London 2019
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With an amazing year now drawing to a close, Unibet Open would like to thank all the players, colleagues, tournament staff and media who have helped make 2019 one of the best seasons the tour has ever had.
- Photographer: Tambet Kask.
- 2019 was the 13th Unibet Open season and featured four major events in Europe: a debut Ski-edition festival in Sinaia, two giant stops in London and Malta and a record-breaking event in Paris.
We wish you all a very Happy Holidays and look forward to seeing you soon, with our first stop of 2020 taking place in Dublin at the end of February.
2019 was the 13th Unibet Open season and featured four major events in Europe: a debut Ski-edition festival in Sinaia, two giant stops in London and Malta and a record-breaking event in Paris. We also welcomed a new Tournament Director – Irishman Glenn Doyle – who took over the running of Unibet Opens, ably supported by a highly-experienced tournament team.
We also celebrated Unibet Ambassadors Dara O’Kearney and David Lappin winning Best Podcast for “The Chip Race” at the inaugural GPI Global Poker Awards in April and the release of O’Kearney’s best-selling poker guide “Poker Satellite Strategy” in February.
All our events this year featured a cards-up live stream throughout, hosted by Unibet Ambassador David Vanderheyden and Henry Kilbane and produced by XpressHD. We extend our thanks as always to all the Unibet Ambassadors and influencers who attended our events in 2019 along with PokerNews for all the live updates, our video teams, the kHold’em registration team from Kholdem and our long-standing official photographers Tambet Kask and Elena Kask.
Unibet Poker London 2019 Schedule
In addition to the four Unibet Open events, Unibet Poker also hosted the fourth edition of the Unibet Poker Belgian Championship in Blankenberge in August and the first ever World Casino Championships in Malta last month.
Unibet Open Sinaia
The Unibet Open’s 13th season began last February with a debut event in Sinaia, Romania. The #ShuffleUpAndSki festival, held in one of the most beautiful ski resorts in Romania, was the tour’s first ever winter sports festival. Czech player Martin Soukup became a two-time Unibet Open champion when he bested a 366-strong field to take down the Main Event for €71,000. The six-day festival, hosted in conjunction with PokerFest Romania at the New Montana Hotel, featured more than 20 different tournaments and attracted legions of poker, ski and snowboard enthusiasts from all over Europe as well as Canada and the USA.
Unibet Open London
The Unibet Open tour has paid multiple visits to London but this year’s festival, held at the Poker Room at the iconic Grosvenor Victoria Casino in May, was the biggest yet with a record 456 entries and £410,400 prize pool.
British player Daniel James won the £990 Main Event for £80,200 after beating fellow Brit Ben Winsor heads-up. There were 12 different tournaments on the schedule including the two-day £2,200 High Roller won by Main Event finalist Damian Bell for £41,700, a £220 Turbo Bounty tournament, the £460 + £40 Unibet Deepstack Open Cup and the ever-popular £110 #QUEENRULES Ladies Event.
Unibet Open Malta
The Unibet Open tour headed to the sun in September with another record-breaking event, the #ShuffleUpAndSea festival in Malta. British player Alan Carr won the Main Event for €53,400 after besting a 327-entry field. The €327,000 prize pool was the biggest in Unibet Open Malta history and, overall, more than 730 unique players turned up to compete at the luxury InterContinental Hotel in St. Julian’s. This was the Unibet Open’s fourth visit to Malta and featured a packed schedule featuring 14 different tournaments.
Unibet Open Paris
The final stop of Unibet Open 2019 was our #ShuffleUpAndBrie event at Club Circus Poker in Paris three weeks ago. With 480 entries and a €460,800 prize pool, the €1,100 Main Event was the biggest of the season and included nearly 200 players who qualified online. French-Algerian player Omar Lakhdari snagged the €89,070 first prize following a rollercoaster final. Despite a smaller-than-normal schedule, players had a great time in the French capital including a tour of the Paris Saint-Germain football stadium at Parc des Princes.
Unibet Poker Belgian Championship
Unibet Poker also hosted the fourth edition of the Unibet Poker Belgian Championship in Blankenberge in August. Sports teacher Glenn Laureys took down the Main Event on home soil for a career-best cash of €34,614. The 31-year-old from Antwerp beat a tough field of 419 entries to become the third Belgian to win the €550 tournament. A total of 55 players got a share of the €209,500 prize pool with a min cash worth €1,070.
Looking ahead to 2020: Unibet Open Dublin + more
The Unibet Open is delighted to announce the first stop of 2020 will be a five-day festival in Dublin in February at the Bonnington Hotel. This will be the tour’s third visit to the Irish capital – following a record-breaking event in 2018 and the tour’s debut there in 2011. Further 2020 Unibet Open stops will be announced in the New Year.
Unibet Open Dublin, which takes place at the Bonnington Hotel, kicks off on February 26. In addition to the flagship €1,000 + €100 Main Event, other highlights of the festival will include the invitational Unibet Tag Team Championship and Unibet Battle Royale tournament. The schedule also features a two-day €2,200 High Roller starting February 26 with a single re-entry option. Other tournaments on offer include the #QueenRules Ladies Event, Turbo, Hyperturbo and flip tournaments, a Pot Limit Omaha event, a SuperStack tourney, Progressive Knockout and the popular Unibet Community Freeroll.
Satellites are already underway on Unibet Poker with €2,000 packages up for grabs that include Main Event buy-in, four nights’ accommodation at the Bonnington Hotel for qualifier and guest, plus €250 spending money, a free dinner every night, must-have Unibet merchandise and full access to the Welcome Drinks and Players Party. Feeder satellites start from as little as one cent with five packages guaranteed in the weekly €250 qualifier on Sundays.
Other Unibet events in 2020 will include the fifth season of the Unibet UK Tour – taking in four stops in Newcastle and London and starting in March. Unibet will also be sponsoring the 11-day Dublin Poker Festival which kicks off at the Bonnington Hotel on February 13 – just a few weeks before the start of Unibet Open. Players can qualify for any of these events in satellites running on Unibet Poker.
Unibet Open event manager Kasia Scanlon said: “2019 has really been the most amazing year. We’ve welcomed thousands of players to our four stops in Sinaia, London, Malta and Paris and had a really great time. We look forward to kicking off the 2020 season in February with a rip-roaring Unibet Open Dublin.”
After 10 hours of action at 'The Vic' Poker Room, the Unibet Open London £990 Main Event record field of 456 entries has been reduced down to just 19.
The prize pool in London was set at £410,400, with the winner set to walk away with £80,200. Ben Winsor will lead the way on Day 3 with a stack worth 2,145,000.
Winsor is no stranger to success at the historic 'Vic' Poker Room, and secured his best live cash to date at the venue for £178,600, back in 2015.
Daniel James (1,590,000) and Adrian Haaberg (1,285,000) will be Winsor's nearest challengers when the action resumes.
Due to the popularity of the event, the decision was made for the play to stop after ten levels rather than continuing on to the scheduled final table of nine.
When the Day 2 action got underway at Noon, there were plenty of Unibet ambassadors in the field looking to make their mark, however, David Lappin's participation ended sooner than most.
Lappin, who started the action with a 22 big blind stack, departed after just 30 minutes when he ran ten-nine into pocket fours blind-on-blind and was unable to connect with the board.
Ian Simpson, Monica Vaka and Unibet esports player Vincent 'Mista' Timans followed Lappin out the door not long after, with two-time Unibet Open champion Mateusz Moolhuizen, and former Day 2 chip leader Jesse Chambers also departing short of the money places.
Hand-for-hand action began with two places from the money, and the tense proceedings lasted almost an hour. Josef Fauszt saw his Main Event dream end with a cruel awakening after his pocket aces were unable to hold against pocket nines.
Both Dost Ghrabie and George Dimuleasa were able to survive in the same round of hands, but when Jan Vandenbogert thought he had found the perfect spot to double, he didn't have such luck.
Vandenbogert's three-bet jam with pocket kings was called by Yiqian Song with pocket queens, and a crowd gathered to see the outcome. With many players hoping for a shock to occur, they got precisely what they wished for when a queen appeared in the window of the flop and propelled Song into the lead. There was to be no miracle for Vandenbogert, and he was confirmed as the unfortunate bubble player.
The likes of Daragh Davey, Unibet esports player Fabien 'kiocsgo' Fiey, Daniel Samson, Day 1a chip leader & Unibet ambassador Alexandre Reard, and High Roller third-place finisher Danny Pyke then all found a place in the money before they hit the rail.
Unibet esports player Craig 'ONSCREEN' Shannon had been happily building a stack before his luck changed in an instance. 'ONSCREEN' as he is known to his Twitch following, progressed to Day 2 after he hit a miracle runner-runner house to survive and was not letting his lifeline go to waste. But a top pair versus flush defeat against Charlotte Van Brabander paved the way for his demise and ultimately hit the rail in 35th place.
When the final three tables of eight were set, Van Brabander then found herself on the end of a cooler, after she ran ace-queen into pocket aces on an ace-high flop. Van Brabander's three-bet all in was snap-called by Daniel James, and the Belgian Unibet ambassador collected 23rd place.
Unibet Poker London 2019 Dates
That's all for now, but join us back here at PokerNews for continued coverage from the Main Event from Noon on Sunday, May 26 as a winner is crowned in London.