Day Two at Unibet Open Budapest was a hard-fought ten-level battle to get down to the final table, whittled down from the huge field which gathered in Budapest to play poker this weekend. 105 players reconvened today at the Sofitel Hotel to be mixed in with their alternate starting day brethren and left to fend for themselves. Leading the field at the start of the day were Hungarian Zoltàn Toth, Swede Mats Rahmn and Dane Claus Bek Nielsen, who’d had a substantial stack all the way through his start day and was to continue to finish the second day’s play in third place.
Half way through the day and it looked like a Scandinavian monopoly on big stacks had been set up (with the exception of Spaniard Gonzalo Sanz Santos and Russian Maxim Tyurin). The top nine players at the dinner break were Scandinavian, while Bulgarian Petar Zografov was tenth – he went on to finish 13th, cheered on by his supporters. Amazingly, the player in last place at this stage went on to make the final himself – Dutch Cardplayer editor Anthon-Pieter Wink turned 26,500 into the chip lead by the end of the day.
Also in the top ten at the outset were eventual finalists Joachim Buch and last-two-tablers Petar Zografov and Tapani Miska Lahti; it’s unusual for so many of the day’s leaders to make it to the final 10 and the top prize-money of a tournament. Buch especially has had an impressive run: this result means he has made back-to-back final tables at Unibet Open events! The young Norwegian will start Day Three as a shortstack, but shouldn’t be discounted yet. The lineup in full:
Anthon-Pieter Wink 730000
Christian Kall 235000
Claus Bek Nielsen 576000
Danny Dabbagh 464000
Gáll Zsombor 222000
Joachim Buch 270000
Maksim Tyurin 758000
Mitrovic Hrvoje 139000
Nils Ral 898000
Peder Skaj 309000
One of these players will win the first Unibet Open event of 2010, as well as the first prize of over €170,000! Join us from 2pm for coverage of the final.
