The flagship event of the 2018 888poker LIVE Festival London is off to a decent start thanks to 97 entries on the first starting day and two further chances await for players to secure their seat for Day 2 and have a shot at the six-figure prize pool at the Aspers Casino in the Westfield Stratford City. The £1,100 Main Event comes with a guaranteed prize pool of £400,000 and that number is likely to be surpassed by quite some margin.
Defending champion of this event is UK's Tom Hall, who came close to winning another 888poker LIVE trophy last night and chopped heads-up with Matas Cimbolas in the £2,200 High Roller at 2.30 a.m. local time. Whether or not Hall will already take a shot at defending his title today or joins the action on the last two starting days on Saturday, December 1st, 2018, remains to be seen.
Leading the 23 survivors thus far is 2018 WSOP Main Event 9th place finisher Antoine Labat with 300,500. All those that want to take over chip lead will need to turn their starting stack of 30,000 into more than ten times of that. There are 12 levels of 40 minutes each scheduled for today's flights with a break every three levels.
888poker LIVE London £1,100 Main Event at a Glance
| Day | Date | Time | Entries | Survivors | Further Information |
|---|
| 1a | November 29th 2018 | 18:00 | 97 | 23 | Play 12 levels of 40 minutes each, re-entry available |
| 1b | November 30th 2018 | 13:00 | tba | tba | Play 12 levels of 40 minutes each, re-entry available |
| 1c | November 30th 2018 | 18:00 | tba | tba | Play 12 levels of 40 minutes each, re-entry available |
| 1d | December 1st 2018 | 13:00 | tba | tba | Play 12 levels of 40 minutes each, re-entry available |
| 1e | December 1st 2018 | 19:00 | tba | tba | Play 12 levels of 20 minutes each, re-entry available |
| 2 | December 2nd 2018 | 14:00 | tba | tba | Registration closes at start; Level duration 60 minutes |
| 3 | December 2nd 2018 | 14:00 | tba | tba | Play down to a champion; live stream with hole cards |
Day 1b kicks off at 1 p.m. local time and Day 1c gets underway as of 6 p.m. local time, wrapping up close to 3 a.m. the next morning. Re-entries are available throughout each Day 1 and the registration closes at the start of Day 2. The event also features two recent innovations that have become quite popular at poker tournaments all over the world: A 30-second Action Clock and the big blind ante. All players have 30 seconds to act when it is their turn and will receive four 30-second time banks that automatically go into play once the time of consideration is up.
Main Event Day 1b and 1c Blind Level Structure
| Level | Duration | Small Blind | Big Blind | Big Blind Ante |
|---|
| 1 | 40 | 100 | 100 | 0 |
| 2 | 40 | 100 | 200 | 0 |
| 3 | 40 | 100 | 200 | 200 |
| 4 | 40 | 200 | 300 | 300 |
| 5 | 40 | 200 | 400 | 400 |
| 6 | 40 | 300 | 500 | 500 |
| 7 | 40 | 300 | 600 | 600 |
| 8 | 40 | 400 | 800 | 800 |
| 9 | 40 | 500 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| 10 | 40 | 600 | 1,200 | 1,200 |
| 11 | 40 | 800 | 1,600 | 1,600 |
| 12 | 40 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 |
The winner of the £1,100 Main Event Main Event here in London can not only look forward to the trophy and the bragging rights that come along with it, but a 2019 WSOP Main Event package is also up for grabs on top of it. As usual, the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to cover all the action. Today's updates will focus on Day 1b and the chip counts of 1c will be published the next morning.
Tags:
Antoine LabatMatas CimbolasTom Hall
