Day 2 of the 2017 Unibet Open London Main Event is in the books! With 419 players in total signed up, 122 of them returned to The Poker Room of the Grosvenor Casino to play towards the money. After 11 grueling hours, 13 players remain and will contest on Sunday for the title and the first prize of £71,950.
Francis Foord-Brown claimed pole position on Day 2 and will be leading the pack with 1,980,000 in chips. Russia’s Anton Kuznetsov is in second with 1,600,000. WSOPE Bracelet winner Pavlos Xanthopoulos, one of the biggest names left, sits in fourth with 1,175,000.
The 13 remaining players will be returning at noon local time in the following seating order:
Main Event Day 3 Seating and Chip Counts
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Kevin Barden | Germany | 810,000 |
| 1 | 2 | Francis Foord-Brown | United Kingdom | 1,980,000 |
| 1 | 3 | Rauno Tahvonen | Estonia | 520,000 |
| 1 | 4 | Krzysztof Jaguscik | Poland | 550,000 |
| 1 | 5 | Martin Gallagher | United Kingdom | 1,370,000 |
| 1 | 6 | Manuel Bardon | Spain | 750,000 |
| 1 | 7 | Fabio Miranda | Portugal | 250,000 |
| 2 | 1 | Anton Kuznetsov | Russia | 1,600,000 |
| 2 | 2 | Gerret Van Lancker | Belgium | 1,010,000 |
| 2 | 3 | Tamer Kamel | United Kingdom | 405,000 |
| 2 | 4 | Bhavin Khatri | United Kingdom | 1,150,000 |
| 2 | 5 | Dejan Govedic | Slovenia | 960,000 |
| 2 | 6 | Pavlos Xanthopoulos | Greece | 1,175,000 |
The day started furiously right off the bat, with players taking risks to get themselves in prime position to go deep. One of those players was Mateusz Moolhuizen who saw a massive bluff go wrong when he ran into the stone cold nuts. Moolhuizen, a two-time champion at the Unibet Open, was one of the players to go home empty-handed early.
The last Unibet Ambassador remaining, Charlotte Van Brabander, got eliminated one off the bubble. Van Brabander was short stacked throughout the day and eventually succumbed with pocket tens versus ace-king.
The bubble phase lasted more than an hour, leaving Jan Naderzadeh as the unfortunate bubble boy. In the money, players such as Benjamin Pollak (58th), Rasmus Larsen (56th) and Jerome Brion (55th) got eliminated with a min cash with £1,700.
Near the end of the day, it was Foord-Brown who was slowly ran away from the pack. In a big hand, Foord-Brown got three streets of value with aces versus queens. During the last level of the day, he also took a big pot off Fabio Miranda with a flopped two pair. Besides the big hands, Foord-Brown kept winning coin flips left and right to claim the end of day chip lead.
The biggest Cinderella story of the day was the tale of Ioana Silvana. Silvana qualified by grinding an astonishing 1,200,000 points on Unibet, which got her a Challenge Package worth €2,000. Silvana, who’s previous biggest cash was around €1,000, finished in 15th place. The graduated pharmacist parlayed her freeroll into a sweet payday of £4,900.
Kevin Allen became the last bust out of the day, as he fell in 14th place to Tamer Kamel. Allen was up with ace-four against pocket eights and couldn’t find enough help on the board.
The remaining 13 players will return tomorrow at noon to contest for the title. Players will return in level 22 with blinds of 15,000-30,000 and a running ante of 5,000. The live stream will be shown with hole cards and will be on a delay. The PokerNews live reporting team will provide updates of the Main Event until a winner is crowned. Don’t miss any of the action on Sunday as we crown our new champion here in London!
