British player Ben Winsor is leading the final 19 players in this year’s record-breaking Unibet Open London Main Event. The 31-year-old from Broadstairs in Kent has 2,145,000 in chips, followed by Daniel James (1,590,000) and Adrian Haaberg (1,285,000). All 19 players remaining are chasing a record first prize of £80,200 – and guaranteed at least £4,000.
Winsor is no stranger to success at The Poker Room at the Vic; he secured his best live cash to date here – for £178,600 – back in 2015. He now has more than $1 million live tournament earnings to his name, but this is his first cash on the Unibet Open tour.
Unibet Open London has broken records this year for the biggest field, biggest first prize and biggest prize pool. There were a total of 456 entries for the flagship £990 buy-in event, creating a total prize pool of £410,400, shared by a total of 63 players.
Among those who have already cashed are Unibet’s Belgian ambassador Charlotte Van Brabander (23rd, £3,550), Steve Watts (34th, £2,250), Unibet ambassador Alexandre Reard (40th, £2,250), Twitch streamer Fabien ‘kiocsgo’ Fiey (52nd, £2,000), Unibet esports player Craig “ONSCREEN” Shannon (35th, £2,250), Jeff Kimber (28th, £2,850) and Daragh Davey who snagged £1,600 after just making the money in 63rd place.
Final day action of the Unibet Open Main Event starts at noon today, with the cards-up live stream (on a half hour delay) kicking off at 12.30. You can follow all the action on both Twitch and the Unibet Open facebook page with commentary from David Vanderheyden and Henry Kilbane.
The festival is taking place May 22-26 at the Poker Room at the iconic Grosvenor Victoria Casino on Edgware Road. It’s the Unibet Open’s eighth visit to the UK capital. Other big names who competed were Unibet Ambassadors Ian Simpson, David Lappin, Espen Uhlen Jorstad and two-time Unibet Open champions Dan Murariu and Mateusz Moolhuizen, along with UK stalwarts Laurence Houghton, Willie Tann and James Mitchell. Martin Soukup, another two-time champion, who won the first Unibet Open of 2019 in Sinaia also competed. The field featured players from all over the world including some 160 qualifiers who won full prize packages online at Unibet Poker.
2018: Andreas Wiborg, Norway, won £56,807; 349 entries, £314,100prize pool
2017: Gerret Van Lancker, Belgium, won £71,950; 419 entries, £377,100 prize pool
2016: Dave Shallow, UK, won £62,000;418 entries; £313,500 prize pool
2014: Iaron Lightbourne, UK, won £70,000; 399 entries; £319,200 prize pool
2012: Pratik Ghatge UK, won £85,050; 315 entries; £78,000 prize pool
2010: Paul Valkenburg, NL, won £109,550; 273 entries; £255,000 prize pool
2009: Thanh Doan, Finland, won £187,000; £584,910 prize pool
