Ian Simpson Leads After Day 1b of 2015 Unibet Open Antwerp Main Event
The second starting day of the €1,100 Unibet Open Antwerp Main Event attracted a field of 196 entries in "De Shop" to create an overall field of 321 entries for the first-ever stop in Belgium's "Diamond City." After 10 levels of 60 minutes each, only 65 players bagged up chips and resulted in exactly 100 survivors for Saturday's Day 2. The top 36 spots will get paid at least €2,087, and all eyes will be set on the Unibet trophy and first-place payout of €71,260.
Ian Simpson, champion of the 2013 Irish Open, bagged up 292,800 in chips for the lead after Day 1b, and he was closely followed by Mateusz Moolhuizen with 274,900. Moolhuizen, the Dutchman, was one of only two former Unibet Open champions that advanced to the second day. The other was Quentin Lecomte, but the Frenchman will be looking for an immediate double up when play resumes on Saturday because ehe finished on just 19,500 in chips.
It seemed like it was meant to be for Simpson, as he was responsible for the first elimination of the day after flopping a set of fives against Amit Girdhari's ace-queen. The money went in on the turn, and Girdhari was eliminated.
Other notables and big stacks that advanced through the second starting day included David Janssen (202,400), Krisztian Arvai (157,400), Tobias Peters (147,600), Laurens de Smet (128,300), Jonas ten Cate (126,700), Johan Verhagen (121,700), Jessy Marillaud (108,800), Marcel "The Flying Dutchman" Luske (101,000), Johan Goslings (74,700), Micha Hoedemaker (68,800), Rolf Slotboom (64,500), Ruben Visser (63,600), Philip Meulyzer (51,000), Raoul Refos (40,600), and Pascal Vos (27,400).
Kevin "Civel" Vandersmissen's two pair on the flop ended up second best to the 
of Davy de Cooman, who rivered a straight to bust the Belgian. Then, 2015 Master Classics of Poker fourth-place finisher Kees van Brugge ran 
into the pocket aces of Verhagen.
Pierre Neuville, a member of the recent World Series of Poker November Niner, had his pocket aces cracked by Arvai's 
. The Hungarian four-bet shoved into the short stack of Neuville and made a runner-runner flush.
Peter Harkes, one of the three former Unibet Open champions participating today, lost a flip over on the feature table with pocket sixes against the ace-king of Marc Dogge. Other notables that didn't make it included Raf de Wever, Paul Berende, Alina Volodina, Szymon Bujok, Dennis Lavrijsen, Anaras Alekberovas, Walter Buss, Niels van Leeuwen, Koen de Visscher, 2015 Cannes finalist Jussi Heikela, and Sam Grafton.
Day 1a chip leader Niko Koop remained as the overall leader and will headline the remaining 100 survivors on Saturday. Play will commence at 12 p.m. local time when action resumes in Level 11 at blinds 1,200/2,400 and a running ante of 300. The seat draw for Day 2 will be published in the morning and the paid places will be reached during Day2. All those that bust early can find some consolation in the Unibet players party next door.
That's all for now, but be sure to tune back into the PokerNews on Saturday for more live coverage.