In one hour from now at 12 p.m. local time, the ballroom of the majestic JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel will welcome players from near and far again for Day 1b of the €1,100 Unibet Open Bucharest Main Event. The prestigious tournament comes with a guarantee of €500,000 and yesterday’s first flight already saw 236 players take to the tables, of which 63 bagged up and advanced to Day 2 on Saturday.
Leading the field thus far is Sweden’s Markus Heikkila with 322,000, followed by Jakob Linden (287,000) and William Hens (285,000). Two-time Unibet Open champion Dan Murariu also made it through with very healthy 160,000 and has dashed out a challenge to Mateusz Moolhuizen for the race to become the first ever three-time winner of the circuit. Moolhuizen will be in action today with the likes of Dara O’Kearney, David Lappin and Ladies Battle champion Daiva Barauskaite all expected to join the action also.
All players will receive 30,000 in chips and a total of 11 levels of 60 minutes each will be played. There will be a break every two levels with a 60-minute dinner break at the end of level six, and the registration remains open until the cards are back in the air for level seven. The Unibet Open attendance record is set at 460 thus far, but this number will likely be shattered today. Yesterday’s €115 Rebuy Satellite saw more than 300 entries and 27 tickets for Day 1b were given away.
Day 1b level structure
| Level | Small Blind | Big Blind | Ante |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 50 | 100 | – |
| 2 | 100 | 200 | 25 |
| 3 | 150 | 300 | 25 |
| 4 | 200 | 400 | 50 |
| 5 | 300 | 600 | 75 |
| 6 | 400 | 800 | 100 |
| 7 | 500 | 1,000 | 100 |
| 8 | 600 | 1,200 | 200 |
| 9 | 800 | 1,600 | 200 |
| 10 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 300 |
| 11 | 1,200 | 2,400 | 400 |
The festival runs in cooperation with Pokerfest Romania and offers Side Events varying between €115 and €2,200, the latter being the two-day High-Roller with single re-entry on Saturday and Sunday. The PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to provide all the action until the Main Event champion is crowned this weekend, so make sure to tune back in regularly.
