For the first time, the 888poker LIVE festival is heading to Madrid and the Casino Gran Via right in the centre right next to one of the busiest streets is hosting the first major live poker tournament. The flagship tournament is certainly the €888 Main Event which comes with a guaranteed prize pool of €800,000 and there are four starting days in total.
The first three Day 1s will take place as of 5 p.m. local time as of January 30th, 2020, and the turbo heat 1d follows on Sunday, February 2nd, 2020, as of noon local time with the level duration cut into half.
Today's first starting day will feature a total of 11 levels of 50 minutes each with a break after each two levels. After the end of level four, there will be a 60-minute dinner break and the final three levels of the night will be completed without any break to wrap up the action in the early morning hours.
All participants receive 88,000 in chips and the late registration will remain open for the first two levels on Day 2. During the registration period, unlimited re-entries can be purchased and players can participate in as many Day 1s as they wish to then pick the stack they wish to bring forward to Day 2. It will also be possible to surrender the stack at the end of the registration period and re-enter with a full stack.
Day 1 Level Structure
Level
Small Blind
Big Blind
Big Blind Ante
1
100
200
2
100
200
200
3
200
300
300
4
200
400
400
5
300
500
500
6
300
600
600
7
400
800
800
8
500
1,000
1,000
9
600
1,200
1,200
10
800
1,600
1,600
11
1,000
2,000
2,000
The event features the popular big blind ante format and there is also a 30-second shot clock in play from start-to-finish. Several 888poker ambassadors joined the action on Day 1 of the €2,200 High Roller. On top of that, the guaranteed prize pool and the $12,500 package for the 2020 WSOP Main Event courtesy of event sponsor 888poker will certainly attract poker enthusiasts from near and far.
Stay tuned for all the action right here on PokerNews as the 888poker LIVE kicks off the year with a bang.
Besides the €888 Main Event, the second highlight of the poker festival in the Casino Gran Via Madrid is the €2,200 High Roller. Day 1 has already attracted a big field of 76 entries of which 41 players bagged up chips after 11 levels of 45 minutes each.
Two familiar faces are on top of the leaderboard as Sonny Franco (417,900) and Ignacio Molina (406,300) bagged up the most chips in the early morning hours. Right behind them is 2019 WSOP bracelet winner Carl Shaw (370,500) and two 888poker ambassadors claimed top 10 stacks to their name in Martin Jacobson (344,200) and Sofia Lovgren (310,000).
Fellow 888poker ambassadors Chris Moorman (192,900), Vivian Saliba (68,000), and Dominik Nitsche (59,100) also made the cut. All those that wish to join the action can do so for the first two levels of Day 2, which has just kicked off at 5 p.m. local time.
The blinds are currently 1,200/2,400 with a big blind ante of 2,400, and the starting stack is 100,000. Among those that entered and re-entered before the cards went in the air were 888poker LIVE Barcelona champion Luigi Shehadeh, Jon Gurrutxaga, and 888poker ambassador Daria Feshchenko.
The tournament is scheduled to play down to a champion tonight and the full results will be published on PokerNews the following day.
The cards of Khalil Youssafi were already in the muck as the stack of Jorge Ufano was counted. Ufano's and the board were still visible and Youssafi nodded when asked if he had pocket kings.
Youssafi was not covered as Ufano doubled for 83,700, but the German saw his stack cut down to just 4,500.
One hand later, Lukasz Jochymczyk raised to 600 and called the shove of Youssafi.
Khalil Youssafi:
Lukasz Jochymczyk:
The board came and that spelled the end for Youssafi.
Jose Carlos Garcia was one of the up and coming players in Poland and dominated the online tables a while ago. He was then nowhere to be found for a few years and has suddenly emerged on Day 1a here in Madrid, and just scored a massive pot to take over the lead in level four.
It all started with a raise to 900 and a three-bet to 3,500. Garcia cold four-bet to 9,000 and the three-bettor was the only caller. On a board of , Garcia fired all the way with barrels of 8,000, 22,000 and 100,000. His opponent check-called each bet and called all-in for around 80,000 on the river.
Garcia tabled the for top two pair and had the of the three-bettor beat.
888poker's inaugural Madrid poker festival is underway, with the preliminary high roller tournament tripling its guarantee and seeing a stacked field on Day 2, including Martin Jacobson, Chris Moorman, Sofia Lovgren, Daria Feshchenko, Dominik Nitsche, and Ana Marquez.
In a hand that lasted a few minutes into the last break, a four-way pot to the flop emerged in which 1,500 chips went in preflop. Alberto Blanco led for 5,000 and was called by Marcin Jaworski and Tom-Aksel Bedell.
Marjan Mitrovski then simply moved all-in with his massive stack which covered all his opponents and Blanco folded. Jaworski made the call and Bedell got out of the way.
Marcin Jaworski:
Marjan Mitrovski:
Nothing changed on the turn and river to end Jaworski's first bullet on Day 1a after a mere five minutes.
"I always have big hands just before the break, " a delighted Mitrovski said before he headed into the break.
2014 WSOP Main Event Champ Martin Jacobson admits that 2019 was the worst year of his poker career, and shares his mindset and plans for approaching 2020... PLUS admits his biggest poker superstition!
The first 888poker LIVE Main Event in Madrid has attracted a field of 180 entries for the first of four starting days and around 100 players bagged up their chips in the early morning hours at the stunning Casino Gran Via Madrid. While most of the participants hailed from Spanish-speaking countries, it was a player from Poland that topped the counts at the end of 11 levels of 50 minutes each.
Jose Carlos Garcia may indeed sound very Spanish but the former online and live poker prodigy is in fact from Poland. He had not been spotted on the live circuit for some time and just played his first four-figure buy-in in three years. Garcia still sits in 9th place on the all-time money list of Poland with more than $1.1 million and steam-rolled through the day to claim 505,200 to his name.
Others that came close to the bragging rights for Day 1a include his countryman Rafal Nikiel (330,100), Francois Robert (320,400), Marjan Mitrovski (305,900), and Yimin Yang (302,600). Mitrovski had to crack aces with kings in the second level to avoid a re-entry, then had the better and of a set-over-set battle with Marcin Jaworski to become the first player above half a million. After running extremely hot in the first half of the day but slipped towards the end, still bagging up an above-average stack.
The rise to the top of the leaderboard of Garcia kicked off in the fourth level when he four-bet ace-jack suited and flopped two pair, his opponent called down all the way to the river with ace-king and hit the rail. From there on, it was a grind and Garcia never left the top five stacks anymore.
But not just locals and online qualifiers battled back and forth at the tables, team 888poker was also well represented after bowing out before the money in the €2,200 High Roller. Among the ambassadors, Martin Jacobson made the most of it after his late entry and bagged up 194,000, narrowly ahead of Vivian Saliba (190,700), Chris Moorman (170,400), and Ana Marquez (167,800). Dominik Nitsche also joined the mix and missed out on a trademark stack for his sponsor by two chips as he advanced with 78,800.
Other notables that have already secured a bag for Day 2 include Fernando Pons (247,800), Ori Hasson (239,600), Francis Foord-Brown (228,000), Carl-Fredrik Tingvall (205,300), Jorge Ufano (121,300), and popular vlogger Brad Owen (28,000). All those that busted or are unhappy with their stack thus far can participate in as many of the three remaining starting days as the best stack will go forward to Day 2.
Familiar faces that are very likely expected back at the tables are Nikolay Ponomarev, Tom-Aksel Bedell, Andrey Demidov, Paul Lozano, and Antonio Smeraglia.
103 Entries in €2,200 High Roller, Nine Remain
Day 1b will kick off at 5 p.m. local time with the same structure as the first heat. One hour prior than that, the final table of the €2,200 High Roller recommences. Only nine players out of 103 entries remain and bagged up for the night once the final table was reached close to 4 a.m. local time, resulting in the need for an additional unscheduled third day of the event.
The current average with 18 minutes left in level 23 at blinds of 15,000/30,000 and a big blind ante is nearly 40 big blinds and 888poker ambassador Sofia Lovgren is among the finalists. Ignacio Molina, who headed into the second day as one of the big stacks, has retained his top spot and will be the man to beat. The current guaranteed payout is €5,700 and the winner will take home €52,000 for the efforts.
€2,200 High Roller Final Table Line-Up
Seat
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Ignacio Molina
Spain
1,895,000
63
2
Dmytro Yevseienko
Ukraine
1,450,000
48
3
Leonardo Mancuso
Italy
1,000,000
33
4
Arie Zilberman
Israel
695,000
23
5
Sofia Lovgren
Sweden
1,690,000
56
6
Valeriano Toledano
Spain
905,000
30
7
Daniel Tafur
Spain
1,470,000
49
8
Jose Manuel Planells
Spain
130,000
4
9
Andrey Golubev
Kazakhstan
1,025,000
34
Stay tuned for all the action here in Madrid as the PokerNews team will be there from start to finish in the days to come.