The second day of the €1,000 + €100 Main Event of the Unibet Open at the Casino Barriere in Cannes saw 121 hopefuls return to the tables, and after nine one-hour levels just 16 bagged for the showdown on Sunday. Start-of-the-day chip leader Julien Sitbon is still in, albeit among the short stacks, while Fred Weiss has taken over the reigns with 2,113,000 in chips.
Right from the start action was fast and furious, in fact 39 players had hitthe rail within the first two hours. Among them was one of the three remaining former Unibet Open champions in Mateusz Moolhuizen, who had a roller coaster experience and ultimately lost a flip with queens versus ace-king. Only one level later, the next former champion fell as Peter Harkes lost a flip himself with the :::3s:::3c against the :::As:::Qc of Pierre Antona.
Other notables to miss the payouts included Christer Nagell, Vincent Verdickt, Peter Eichhardt, Olivier Jach, David Ozman, and Benjamin Westergaard, who fell after a huge bluff went wrong. The bubble burst in Level 16 just prior to the dinner break when Herman Hjelm’s pocket deuces were counterfeited, which meant all remaining participants locked up €2,210.
2013 Irish Open champion Ian Simpson busted as the first player in the money after his pocket queens were two-outed on the feature table. Quentin Lecomte, the third and final former Unibet Open champion and current UnibetPoker.fr Team Pro, busted in the very last hand before dinner in a flip against Jussi Heikels.
Arkadiusz Olszowy and Paulo Rodrigues were sent to the rail in the first payout step, and then Salah Amran’s badly timed bluff on the feature table saw Karl Stark become the first player above one million in chips. The Swede stayed on top for most of the remaining three levels and settled for second at the end of the night with 1,617,000.
Despite many short stacks, the action somewhat slowed down before picking up speed again in Levels 18 and 19. Day 1b chip leader Julien Pecheur was among those to fall within quick succession and the Frenchman had to settle for 26th place and €2,920. With the elimination of Maxime Rouillot, the last two tables were reached and it was decided to play the last 14 minutes of Level 19 before bagging and tagging. Within that time, Kimi Heiskanen and Nicolay Langfeldt both ran out of chips.
The French make up for 50% of the title contenders here in Cannes as eight of them bagged up chips. Florian Ferroni is in third place with 1,081,000 closely followed by Lois Francois (1,046,000). Six Scandinavians, one Hungarian and one Russian are trying to avoid a home victory and David Hefner (940,000) as well as Jussi Heikels (889,000) carried over the biggest stacks. Day 1a chip leader Sitbon (353,000) as well as Vyacheslav Igin (182,000) will be under immediate pressure when play resumes.
The Main Event action continues at 13:00 local time with blinds at 12,000/24,000/4,000. All remaining participants have €4,220 guaranteed, but their eyes are all set on the first-place payout of €80,000. Let’s hope the hangover is not too severe as the players party kicked off at midnight and may continue into the early morning hours.
Meanwhile, Day 2 of the €2,200 High Roller Event restarts at 15:00 local time with 12 out of 33 players left and top five paid, the min-cash is worth €4,500 and €24,000 are up for grabs for the winner.
