Parisian stalwart Michel Leibgorin is leading the Unibet Open Paris Main Event after finishing yesterday’s initial Day 1 with 532,000. Leibgorin, who has live tourney results going back nearly 35 years and has won more than $1.2 million, survived a hectic day at Club Circus Paris with a total of 122 local players taking their seats for the first day of the €1,100 Main Event. A total of 18 players made it through to Day 2 including Unibet Open Cannes High Roller winner Omar Lakhdari and David Jaoui.
Simpson & RotterdaM snag Tag Team trophy
Nine teams took part in last night’s invitational Tag Team Championship with Unibet Ambassador Ian Simpson and Kevin “RotterdaM” van der Kooi taking top honours. The pair beat off competition from the likes of David Lappin & Fabien ‘kiocsgo’ Fiey, Dehlia de Jong & Melania Mylioti, Charlotte Van Brabander & Vitalii “v1lat” Volochai and David Vanderheyden & Alexandre “FunKa” Verrier. In addition to winning the coveted Tag Team champions’ trophy, Sinpson and RotterdaM also win a #ShuffleUpAndBrie goody bag each from Paris and €100 to spend on Unibet poker. The other teams taking part were: Dan Murariu & Yoan Merlo, Alex Reard and NOI, Mateusz Moolhuizen and Ana “Monkeyism” Bila plus Monica Vaka & Avori Henderson.
Among the hundreds of players expected to compete on Day 1 of Unibet Open Paris today are Unibet Ambassador David Lappin, Unibet Open Malta champion Alan Carr, two-time champion Martin Soukup and Traian Bostan who won Unibet Open Bucharest in 2016 and was third in Sinaia in February.
The #ShuffleUpAndBrie Unibet Open Paris is taking place at Club Circus Paris until Sunday, December 1. Nearly 200 players qualified for the event online on Unibet Poker. There are a total of four Day 1s – yesterday’s “Paris Edition” yesterday, Day 1a at 10am today (November 28), Day 1b and a 1c turbo tomorrow.
Among those who took part in today’s Paris edition were French poker legend Roger Hairabedian, reigning Unibet DSO leaderboard champion Quentin Lecomte, Erwann Pecheux and Laurent Polito. All Main Event players get a 30,000 starting stack with late registration open until the end of Level 6 and a single re-entry option into 1c. The final takes place on Sunday, December 1. Also on the schedule are a €200 + €20 NLH Progressive Knockout tournament and €150 + €15 NLH Turbo.
Live stream & social
Tonight’s Battle Royale will be live streamed on Twitch, youtube and facebook from 7.15pm. Coverage of the Main Event will start tomorrow from level 2 of Day 1b at 13.05.
You can follow all the action from Unibet Open Paris on your favourite platform: YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | Flickr | Instagram | Twitch.
Among those competing in Paris will be Unibet Ambassadors David Lappin and Dara O’Kearney, winners of Best Podcast for “The Chip Race” at this year’s inaugural GPI Global Poker Awards alongside fellow Ambassadors Ian Simpson, Espen Jorstad, Alexandre Reard, Monica Vaka and two-time winner Dan Murariu. Also set to take part are Finnish poker legend Patrik Antonius, two-time champion Mateusz Moolhuisen and his girlfriend Dehlia de Jong plus Belgian Open Poker Championship runner-up Nicolas Cardyn, Unibet Belgian Ambassador Charlotte Van Brabander and two-time champion Martin Soukup. A number of popular Twitch streamers and influencers are competing in the Main Event and tonight’s Battle Royale: Charles “NOI” Lapassat, Yoan “ToD” Merlo, Anastasiya “monkeyism” Bila, Avori Henderson, Kevin “RotterdaM” van der Kooi, Fabien “kioShiMa” Fiey, Vitalii “V1lat” Volochai, Melania Mylioti and Mathias “CasinoDaddy“ Joelsson.
Off the felt
Off the felt, there will be plenty of opportunities for players to have fun at Unibet Open Paris.
Unibet has arranged three tours of the nearby Paris Saint Germain football stadium today and all players at Club Circus Paris are eligible to sign up at the poker club info desk. Capacity is restricted to 50 people per tour so wristbands will be given out on a first come, first served basis. The tours take place at 16:00, 17:00 and 18:00, each lasting around 30 minutes. The stadium is just eight minutes’ walk from the Club Circus tournament venue.
Unibet qualifiers – already full of Parisian “joie de vivre” after winning their €2,000 package online – will have even more to celebrate with an exclusive invitation to tonight’s “Aperitivo” style Welcome Drinks in a private function room at the Paris Saint Germain football stadium from 8pm to 10.30p.
The official Unibet Players Party – open to all players – is being held at the stunning Palais Maillot nightclub on Saturday night, starting from 11.45pm.
Unibet Open Paris marks the tour’s second visit to the French capital. The first event took place in 2012 with Polish player Jaroslaw Barglik beating Swedish pro Kent Lundmark heads-up to take down the Main Event for €140,539. There were 439 entries in all, generating a €653,671 prize pool.
