Two Chances to Reach Day 2 at the 2019 888poker LIVE Festival London £1,100 Main Event
The 888poker LIVE Festival London takes place for the fourth time and the flagship £1,100 Main Event at the Aspers Casino at the Westfield Stratford in London comes with a guaranteed prize pool of £500,000, the winner also takes home a package for the 2020 World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas worth $12,500.
Since 2015, the Aspers Casino has been a fixture on the yearly 888poker LIVE schedule for the Local Series and Main Event. Previous champions include Ka Li in 2016, Tom Hall in 2017 and James Williams in 2018.
One year ago, cash game specialist Williams topped a field of 656 entries and defeated Derek Lawless in heads-up to secure the biggest slice of the £649,440 prize pool, banking a payday of £121,000 and a package for the 2019 WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas.
Hall and Lawless already entered yesterday's first flight which attracted a total of 58 entries but they were not among the 13 survivors. Of the 888poker ambassadors, only Martin Jacobson jumped into the action after busting before the money £2,200 High Roller and made it through to Day 2 with 60,000.
Fellow 888poker ambassadors Sofia Lovgren, Vivian Saliba, £2,200 High Roller champion Chris Moorman, Kara Scott, and Ana Marquez are all expected to join in one of the remaining flights within the next two days. There are five starting days in total and all of them play 11 levels on their respective flight.
The first four starting days feature levels of 40 minutes each while the turbo heat 1e is the only one with a level duration of 20 minutes. As of Day 2, the blind levels increase to 60 minutes each until the conclusion of the tournament. The tournament also features the popular big blind ante format and a 30-second shot clock with four 30 time bank extensions per day is in play for the entirety.
Main Event Day 1b and 1c Blind Level Structure
| Level | Duration | Small 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 |
The five starting days at a glance:
Day 1a: 58 entries, 13 survivors
Day 1b: November 29th, 2019, at 1 p.m. local time
Day 1c: November 29th, 2019, at 6 p.m. local time
Day 1d: November 30th, 2019, at 1 p.m. local time
Day 1e: November 30th, 2019, at 7 p.m. local time
There is a 25-minute break every three levels and the action for today will wrap up in the early morning hours. The PokerNews updates for the day will focus on Day 1b as of 1 p.m. local time and the chip counts and a brief recap for Day 1c will be published he following morning.
river and her 
for aces and nines was no good as Sapiano had 
for trips queens to score the first knockout of the day.
board.
flop was a sweat but the 
river brought no upset.
for the nut flush draw while Sofia Lovgren had him crushed with 
for the flopped full house.
turn and 
river.
versus 
, which gave Demetriou a full house.
for a pair and gutshot.
river.
turn to quickly call the shove of Yang.
and had already locked up the double for 78,800 by the time the meaningless 
fell on the river.
and that sent all the chips to Schechter.