€888 Main Event
Day 1cd Completed
€888 Main Event
Day 1cd Completed
The third and final regular starting day of the 2020 888poker LIVE Madrid €888 Main Event made it very clear from the start that it would turn out to be the far strongest flight and a total of 420 entries at the Casino Gran Madrid right in the centre shopping street boosted the field size to 886 entries thus far.
However, that number will certainly increase as the turbo heat as of noon local time on Sunday, February 2nd, 2020, remains and has been capped to 100 players for capacity reasons. The first two levels of Day 2 just a few hours later as of 5 p.m. local time also provide the opportunity to enter and re-enter with a fresh stack of 88,000.
With recommencing blinds of 1,200-2,400 and a big blind ante of 2,400, many poker enthusiasts from near and far may be very tempted to join the action for a shot at the guaranteed prize pool of €800,000. On top of that, a package for the 2020 World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas worth $12,500, courtesy of event sponsor 888poker, represents an additional incentive.
Another 420 players have bagged up chips, some of which may have done so multiple times throughout the three starting days thus far and will carry over their biggest stack into Day 2. A new chip leader has emerged as China's Lin Ruida topped Day 1c with a stack of 588,200. He comes fresh off a deeper run at the 2019 EPT Prague, his only recorded live cash thus far, and will aim to make the second flag on his Hendon Mob profile count.
Daniel Rodriguez Bureta follows in second place with 487,500 and emerged near the top of the leaderboard in the final level of the night when he hit quads against George Demetriou and saw his river raise paid off. Three further players from Spain follow in Cesar Garcia (424,000), David Nuñez Argúello (409,700), Jorge Perez Abarca (404,700) while Portugal's Nuno Chiou (401,600) narrowly missed out on the top five.
Other big stacks belong to such familiar names as Valentin Cristea (368,800), Marius Gicovanu (363,100), George Demetriou (333,200), Petru Tarlev (317,600), €2,200 High Roller third-place finisher Arie Zilberman (307,400), Mehdi Hsissen (270,000), Evangelos Bechrakis (222,000), Ka Kwan Lau (221,000), and Tom-Aksel Bedell to name just a few.
Two 888poker ambassadors took part on Day 1c along with a plethora of online and VIP qualifiers. While Sofia Lovgren was eliminated during the final hands of the night and will have to re-enter on Day 1d or during the first two levels on Day 2, fellow ambassador Daria Feshchenko avoided the same fate and advanced with a stack of 130,000.
Adrian Constantin, the last player to lift the 888poker LIVE Main Event trophy for the winner shots at the Aspers Casino in December 2019 also made it through, albeit with just 77,700, while the London runner-up Leon Louis will return with an above-average stack of 192,900.
Tomorrow's penultimate scheduled tournament day in Madrid will feature an exciting early stage with plenty of possible chip movements and the race to the money during the late stages. Tune back in to PokerNews then to find out will make it one step closer to become the latest champion of the popular mid-stakes circuit in Europe.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Lin Ruida |
588,000
588,000
|
588,000 |
|
||
Daniel Rodriguez Bureta |
487,500
-2,500
|
-2,500 |
Cesar Garcia |
424,000
424,000
|
424,000 |
|
||
David Nunez Arguello
|
409,700
409,700
|
409,700 |
Jorge Perez Abarca |
404,700
404,700
|
404,700 |
Nuno Chiou |
401,600
401,600
|
401,600 |
Endrit Geci |
396,000
396,000
|
396,000 |
Jose Esteban Martinez Granados
|
385,000
385,000
|
385,000 |
Valentin Cristea |
368,800
18,800
|
18,800 |
Marius Gicovanu |
363,100
23,100
|
23,100 |
Fernando Garcia |
362,000
362,000
|
362,000 |
Juanba Martin | 360,000 | |
Xiao Jiang
|
356,000
106,000
|
106,000 |
Francisco Pulido |
348,600
348,600
|
348,600 |
Jeronimo Roman
|
340,000 | |
George Demetriou |
333,200
213,200
|
213,200 |
Olegs Gorjacevs
|
332,000
332,000
|
332,000 |
Roi Havilio
|
321,400 | |
Maryna Khatskevich |
318,600
318,600
|
318,600 |
Lofti Boughanmi |
318,200
318,200
|
318,200 |
Petru Tarlev |
317,600
17,600
|
17,600 |
Cristinel Costin |
308,000
308,000
|
308,000 |
Arie Zilberman |
307,400
17,400
|
17,400 |
Francesc Davila
|
305,000 | |
Valeriu Rosca | 304,300 |
Assorted counts and a recap of today's action are to follow as Day 1c has wrapped up with around 220 players remaining out of 419 entries.
Humberto Galindo was the player at risk in a flip with against the of 888poker ambassador Sofia Lovgren and the board came to improve Galindo to kings and treys.
One hand later, Galindo opened to 5,000 and Lovgren jammed for her final 8,000, which Galindo called.
Sofia Lovgren:
Humberto Galindo:
On a board of , ace-high remained ahead and that spelled the end for Lovgren.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Humberto Galindo
|
165,000
165,000
|
165,000 |
Sofia Lovgren | Busted |
The clock has been stopped with 10 minutes remaining in the final level of the night and the final seven hands were drawn.
Tournament staff also announced a cap for tomorrow's turbo heat 1d, which will be limited to 100 players and kicks off at noon local time.
In three-way action to the flop, the big blind check-raised all in for 76,100 when facing a continuation bet worth 11,000 by Daniel Sanchez Tome in the cutoff and a flat-call by Valentin Cristea on the button. Sanchez Tome called and that forced out Cristea.
Big blind:
Daniel Sanchez Tome:
The turn gave Sanchez Tome more outs with his pair and he then spiked the on the river.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Daniel Sanchez Tome
|
400,000 | |
Valentin Cristea |
350,000
-10,000
|
-10,000 |
A short stack jammed for around 20,000 with the and Francesco Di Profio moved all-in for slightly more than that, which forced out everyone else. Di Profio was ahead with the and ace-high ended up as the winner after a board of .
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Petru Tarlev |
300,000
160,000
|
160,000 |
Mehdi Hsissen | 290,000 | |
Pasquale Grimaldi |
125,000
-15,000
|
-15,000 |
Francesco Di Profio
|
62,000
62,000
|
62,000 |
Tamer Kamel |
50,000
-25,000
|
-25,000 |
Daniel Rodriguez raised to 5,000 and was called two ways including George Demetriou in the small blind. They checked the flop and Demetriou then bet the turn for 15,000, which only Rodriguez called.
After the river, Demetriou made it 30,000 to go and Rodriguez tossed in a raise to 100,000. Demetriou used a time bank before making the reluctant call and was shown the for quads by the Spaniard, who jumped up to nearly half a million in chips.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Daniel Rodriguez Bureta |
490,000
490,000
|
490,000 |
Valentin Cristea |
360,000
-20,000
|
-20,000 |
George Demetriou |
120,000
-175,000
|
-175,000 |
Some recent re-entries in the final level of the night include Gary Miller and Tamer Kamel. It appears that there is no runaway chip leader yet with several players pushing past 350,000, however, that may all change in the blink of an eye as the clock for Day 1c is running down.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Gary Miller |
85,000
5,000
|
5,000 |
Tamer Kamel |
75,000
75,000
|
75,000 |