In 90 minutes from now at 12 p.m. local time, the stunning JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel welcomes back the last 15 hopefuls out of a record-breaking 603-entry strong field of the inaugural €1,100 Unibet Open Bucharest Main Event. Throughout the previous three days of the action-packed festival, the Grand Ballroom was bursting with players, but today is the day everyone has been looking forward to.
All 15 finalists have €7,120 locked up for their efforts, but all eyes are set to the first-place payout of €100,000 as well as lifting the elusive Unibet Open trophy for the winner pictures. In prime position to do so is Ireland’s Eli Heath with 2,460,000, closely followed by Eugen Chiva with 2,400,000. Day 2 chip leader Gabriel Gavrile kept up his run good and bagged 2,080,000, while fellow countryman Ionut-Alin Tambura (2,075,000) and Nikita Malinovskiy (1,935,000) also have big stacks.
One other name stands outs in particular among the other finalists: Dan Murariu. The Romanian knows exactly what it means to win a Unibet Open Main Event after emerging victorious in Bulgaria (2010) and on Saint Martin (2012). Murariu made it through with 880,000 and may become the first player to make it three wins on the popular tournament series. Eight of the last 15 players are from Romania and also battle for a €2,000 package to the next stop in London as part of the local Pokerfest promotion. This includes Cristian Dan (1,270,000), Adrian Stefan Calusaru (910,000), Cosmin Cimpeanu (635,000) and Traian Bostan (570,000).
Roei Motola (880,000), Juho Launonen (660,000), Gordon Plomp (565,000), William Hens (405,000) and Martin Wendt (345,000) bring in additional international flair, each representing a different country.
Day 3 Seat Assignments
| Table 1 | Table 2 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seat | Player | Nationality | Chip Count | Player | Nationality | Chip Count |
| 1 | Eli Heath | United Kingdom | 2,460,000 | Adrian Stefan Calusaru | Romania | 910,000 |
| 2 | Cosmin Cimpeanu | Romania | 635,000 | empty | ||
| 3 | Gordon Plomp | Netherlands | 565,000 | Martin Wendt | Denmark | 345,000 |
| 4 | Nikita Malinovskiy | Russia | 1,935,000 | Ionut-Alin Tambura | Romania | 2,075,000 |
| 5 | Cristian Dan | Romania | 1,270,000 | Roei Motola | Israel | 880,000 |
| 6 | empty | Eugen Chiva | Romania | 2,400,000 | ||
| 7 | William Hens | Netherlands | 405,000 | Juho Launonen | Finland | 660,000 |
| 8 | Dan Murariu | Romania | 880,000 | Gabriel Gavrila | Romania | 2,080,000 |
| 9 | Traian Bostan | Romania | 570,000 | empty |
The action of the Main Event resumes with level 23 and blinds of 20,000-40,000 and a running ante of 5,000. A live stream of the feature table including hole cards will be available on a half hour security delay and the PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to provide all the key hands until a winner is crowned.
There are also 15 players remaining in the €2,200 High Roller with the top nine spots paid, Sam Grafton is leading the field of hopefuls with several notables still in. The winner can look forward to a payday of €36,300 and both events will play down to a winner today.
