Kfir Ivgi Claims Overall Lead in Madrid After Day 1b
The second of four starting days of the 2020 888poker LIVE Madrid €888 Main Event at the Casino Gran Via in the heart of Madrid attracted a field of 286 entries to boost the total number of entries at half time to 466 entries, and the event is on track to surpass the guaranteed prize pool of €800,000. On top of the cash prize, the winner can also look forward to a package for the 2020 WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas worth $12,500, courtesy of event sponsor 888poker.
With the upcoming weekend and two flights remaining, a regular heat on Saturday, February 1st, 2020, and a turbo heat prior to Day 2 on Sunday, February 2nd, 2020, staff expects very busy two days to come. Similar to Day 1a, essentially half of the field made it through as 149 hopefuls bagged and tagged for the night.
The overall chip lead has also changed, as Kfir Ivgi managed to spin a late entry in the final three levels of the night into the top stack of 535,000, and he is followed by Karmel Varas Tierro (478,800), Claudio Di Giacomo (453,000), Krasimir Kirilov (440,800) and Gleb Novik (436,500).
Ivgi doubled through Irena Macesovic when his jack-eight suited flopped trips and turned a full house while Macesovic's eight-seven suited only made trips. He then knocked out Tom-Aksel Bedell - both had exchanged banter when they were joking about getting the chips in blind, which they did soon after - and that vaulted him above half a million.
The Brit with roots in Israel is no stranger to the live poker circuit and the 888poker LIVE circuit. Last December, he had a big chip lead after Day 1 at the Aspers Casino in London, yet busted just before the money after running bad when it mattered.
Other notables that advanced with healthy stacks are Alex Montgomery (386,700), €2,200 High Roller finalist Daniel Tafur (287,000), Antonios Onoufriou (285,300), Abdelhakim Zoufri (283,900), Jordi Corominas (269,000), Ebony Kenney (267,700), Federico Anselmi (267,200), and Carl Shaw (251,800).
Montgomery was part of a memorable hand in the late stages of the day when he came out on top of a three-way all-in with a turned set of aces against the flopped set of jacks of Sinisa Radovanovic and the top two pair of a third player. Kenney also had a strong finish to the night thanks to a key hand in which she flopped a jack-high flush and sent an opponent with the ten-high flush to the rail.
Not all big names were as fortunate. Luigi Shehadeh, who lifted the trophy at the 2017 888poker LIVE Barcelona Main Event, was ousted in the last level of the night. In a three-bet pot, he flopped top pair with ace-jack and called the shove of Frederico Da Rocha. The Portuguese only had six-four suited for second pair but spiked a four on the river.
The only 888poker ambassador to take part on Day 1b was Sofia Lovgren, who had finished 6th in the €2,200 High Roller earlier on the day. Unfortunately, Lovgren was not able to find a bag and will try again in one of the two remaining starting days.
All those that busted or want to give it another shot to accumulate more chips can do so again on Day 1c and Day 1d. In case participants bag up more than once, they can pick a stack for Day 2 and the other stack(s) will become void.
As usual, the PokerNews team will be on the floor to provide all the action and there will also be a live stream on the 888poker social media channels after the first break on Day 1c.