2019 888poker LIVE Festival Bucharest

The second of four starting days of the 2019 888poker LIVE Bucharest Festival €888 Main Event promised a bumper field and had already eclipsed the Day 1a field in the second level of the day. Once the registration closed at the end of level eight, a field of 133 entries had emerged in the ballroom of the Intercontinental Bucharest Hotel and that field was cut by more than half at the end of 12 levels of play.

With 200 entries in total after two flights, the flagship event of the festival, in cooperation with PokerFest Romania, is on track to surpass the guaranteed prize pool of €300,000 and the eventual champion can look forward to the coveted 888poker LIVE trophy, a hefty payout and a 2019 WSOP Main Event package worth $12,600, provided by WSOP sponsor and host 888poker.

In a tight race for the Day 1b lead among the 47 players that bagged up, it was Aldo Monteleone who claimed the top spot with 206,000 in chips. He is followed by Gennaro Proscia (196,000) and Radu Lungu (185,800). Proscia skyrocketed into a massive stack early on and dominated before and after the dinner break, but had to settle for the second-biggest stack eventually.

Other notables that bagged up on Day 1b were Zhiping Zeng (166,900), Sergiu Cornea (162,400), Marius-Alexandru Gicovanu (105,300), Danut Chisu (89,500), €230 Opening Event champion Sorin Radulescu (86,800), Jason Gray (84,700), Narcis Gabriel Nedelcu (82,900), Ozgur Arda (71,800) and Ramlal Basdeo (57,800).

Defending champion Andrei Racolta, who had been eliminated on Day 1a, gave it another shot and advanced with a stack of 50,600 to keep his title defense alive.

For the 888poker team, it was a rough day at the tables, however, as Ana Marquez, Chris Moorman and Sofia Lovgren all ran out of chips. Marquez had a nearly identical bustout hand as the previous day when her ace-queen came up short against pocket queens. All three are expected to join again for Day 1c, along with fellow 888poker ambassador Martin Jacobson.

All of the busted still have another two shots at making Day 2 with Day 1c kicking off at 1 p.m. local time and the turbo heat, 1d, scheduled for 9 p.m. local time.

Estonian Victory in Ladies Event

Siiri Saar has a few cashes on home soil and other destinations to her name already and is part of the Estonian live stream crew. She was sweated by her colleagues on the way to claiming the title in the €60 Ladies Event, taking home €403 in a field of 19 entries. Saar entered heads-up against Mirela Marin with a massive lead, but was at risk once before a crucial double sealed the win.

On top of the money and bragging rights, she also received a package for the 888poker LIVE Barcelona Main Event at the end of May 2019 and may need to look for a replacement for the livestream duties. Carmen Zainescu and Aleeyah Jadavji round up the money spots, earning themselves Romanian flags on their Hendon Mob profile.

Final Result Ladies Event

^{Photos courtesy of Gema Cristobal / 888poker}

The remaining 47 players out of 133 entries have bagged and tagged for the night and will return for Day 2 on Saturday. The full chip counts and a recap of today's action are fo follow.

In the penultimate hand of the night, three players ended up all in and at risk with Danut Chisu holding the biggest stack.

Cosmin Trandafir:
Adrian Andronache:
Danut Chisu:

The board came and Andrei Andronache missed out on the clubs draw to bow out, as did Cosmin Trandafir.

One table over, Dan Murariu was ousted at the very end as well.

There are 49 players remaining and they will play another three hands before bagging and tagging on Day 1b.

On the three-way flop of , Angelos Valilis check-shoved into a bet of 20,000 by Pedro Gabriel Andrada Martin on the button and the Spaniard called it off with another 36,000 behind.

Pedro Gabriel Andrada Martin:
Angelos Valilis:

The turn was a blank, but Valilis went ballistic when the river saved his opponent and the most common Greek swear word followed more than once: Malaka. A potential chip leader pot slipped away from Valilis, while Andrada Martin recovered from a previous bad beat story.

Sergiu Cornea limped the small blind and called a raise to 7,000 by Jason Gray in the big blind. On the flop, Cornea checked and called a bet of 6,000 before doing so again for 8,000 on the turn.

Cornea then led the river for 19,000 and Gray reluctantly called.

Cornea rolled over the for a flush and Gray mucked.

"Wrong bet on the turn," Narcis Gabriel Nedelcu chimed in and Cornea added: "you gave me a good price."

Helder Pinho called a raise and faced the shove of Florin Iliescu. The initial raiser folded and Pinho asked for a count, but folded when it 3was deemed to be for 36,300.

Eight after the action remained at the table as Ozgur Arda opened and was three-bet to 12,500 by Andrei Jambor. Arda jammed for 75,000 and Jambor used two time banks before opting to fold.

Daniel Ionescu got his below-average stack in with the and had a classic flip against Derek Reid and his . Reid flopped top pair on and turned trips with the , the river was a mere formality and Ionescu headed to the rail.