Unibet Open Cannes: Final Day Starts with 17 Players

After starting with 164 players yesterday, the Unibet Main Event field has been reduced to just 17 players who will be returning today to finish what they’ve started. But first thing on the agenda yesterday was trying to reach the money. Notorious bubble was set to burst at 54 players, making all the important difference between padding your pockets with some cash and going home at least €1,100 in the red.

Early levels of the day saw number of eliminations as those who came back nursing short stacks were going for busto or robust, trying to double up and put themselves back into contention. By the time the first break got underway, the field was down to 126 players.

As Level 15 played out, the tournament was swiftly approaching ITM with only 78 hopeful runners remaining. Finally, as Level 17 was getting under way, the tournament director announced the start of hand for hand phase, meaning that the money was just inches away now. After Andrei Mjagkov got railed in 56th, there was just one elimination standing between the players and the cash.

The one to finish in the unluckiest position in any tournament was Arkadiusz Olszowy who ran his Ace-Ten into Ace-King of Mark Taylor. Board decided not to cooperate with Olszowy and five cards later, it was lights out for him as he made his way to the rail, bringing the invisible bubble-boy trophy with.

With the matter of cash out of the way, players could now focus on what really matters – making the final table and, subsequently, the top spot worth €88,000. One by one (and sometimes in groups) players were leaving the tournament area and heading to the cashout cage until eventually only seventeen players were left standing at the end of Level 20.

Of those seventeen, Dane Michael Nielsen has really high hopes, as he leads the pack with 2,442,000 stack. That is nearly a million ahead of the second place Alain Roy. Frenchman is coming back with 1,547,000, which is still a respectable number considering the only other stack over a million belongs to Swede Daniel Johansen. The four players who will be in the most imminent danger today are Laurent Benhayoun, Andorran Julia Vassort-Salvans, Antoine Bacci and Argo Garamaga.

The final table of Unibet Open Cannes will be streamed live, with hole cards and appropriate delay – the stream should be starting in about two hours and you can follow it here if you are in the mood for some real-time exciting poker action!