Tiffany Michelle speaks with Casino Gran Via poker manager, David Luzago about the overwhelming turn out for the 888poker LIVE Madrid poker festival - the casino's first ever international tournament, with the Main Event resulting in nearly 1,000 entries!
All four starting days of the 2020 888poker LIVE Madrid €888 Main Event have wrapped up and there have been a total of 980 entries thus far with at least 534 players returning to their seats at the Casino Gran Via Madrid at 5 p.m. local time. Three players bagged up twice and will carry over their biggest stack into Day 2.
The blinds will recommence at 1,200-2,400 with a big blind ante of 2,400, the registration and re-entry period will remain open for the first two 50-minute levels and following break. From there on out, the tournament is essentially a freezeout and the livestream will commence on the 888poker social media channels.
Leading the field into Day 2 is 1c chip leader Lin Ruida with 588,000, followed by Kfir Ivgi (535,000) and Jose Carlos Garcia (505,200) who topped their respective starting day. Plenty of other players have hundreds of big blinds at their disposal including such big names as Claudio Di Giacomo (453,000), Valentin Cristea (368,800), Marius Gicovanu (363,100), Francisco Pulido (348,600), Alessandro Borsa (290,000), and Abdelhakim Zoufri (283,900), Jordi Corominas (269,000), Ebony Kenney (267,700), Federico Anselmi (267,200), and Carl Shaw (251,800) are all way above the average.
Team 888poker will also have a full line-up for Day 2 as Martin Jacobson (194,000), Vivian Saliba (190,700), Chris Moorman (170,400), Ana Marquez (167,800), and Dominik Nitsche (78,800) made it through from the first starting day. Daria Feshchenko joined them via the third flight with a stack of 130,000 and Sofia Lovgren may still take advantage of the late registration, as will Kara Scott.
All four starting days at a glance
| Day | Entries | Survivors |
|---|---|---|
| 1A | 180 | 93 |
| 1B | 286 | 149 |
| 1C | 420 | 229 |
| 1D | 94 | 67 |
| 2 |
A long day of poker is ahead of all those that want to make it one step further as the tournament is scheduled to play down to a winner the following day. Stay tuned to find out who makes the cut here in Madrid and follow the action right here on PokerNews.
"If you know it's gonna come, it is easy," Will Kassouf said in table chat while Nikolay Ponomarev was left stunned and had to fork over a big portion of his stack. Ponomarev had been the preflop aggressor and Alvaro Puchol had defended the big blind. Puchol's 
struck gold on the 
board in which he flopped a gutshot and rivered the eight-high straight.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
290,000
143,400
|
143,400 |
|
70,000
-149,100
|
-149,100 |
Nuno Andrade and Ronen Mirakov clashed when a 
flop was check-raised to 40,000 and the 
fell on the turn. Andrade check-called all-in and the cards were turned over.
Nuno Andrade: 
Ronen Mirakov: 
The river was the 
and Andrade jumped out of his chair to celebrate the double up.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
180,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
150,000
-115,000
|
-115,000 |
Kfir Ivgi was on a losing run for most of the day and had dropped to around 50,000, but has since won a lot chips back. He then clashed with Javier Conde and raised to 25,000. Conde squeezed to 39,000 and received an instant call from Ivgi, who said "just put it all in, I call."
That was before the flop brought 
, on which Conde pushed for around 65,000. Within one second, Ivgi had tossed in a chip for the call.
Javier Conde: 
Kfir Ivgi: 
The turn gave Ivgi trips and the river failed to improve Conde, further improving Ivgi to a full house.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
685,000
435,000
|
435,000 |
|
||
|
|
Busted | |
Petros Theodosiou opened to 12,000 and Dominik Nitsche three-bet to 40,000. Theodosiou moved all-in and Nitsche quickly called.
Petros Theodosiou: 
Dominik Nitsche: 
The board came 
and Nitsche's rise before the dinner break was canceled out as he dropped back to the starting stack.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
260,000
100,000
|
100,000 |
|
80,000
20,000
|
20,000 |
|
||
Final numbers are in for 888poker LIVE Madrid Main Event. Over 1,067 entrants came out for the first international tournament Casino Gran Via Madrid has ever held. Tiffany Michelle previews the big names still left in the field.
Xiao Jiang pushed from the hijack for 116,000 and behind him, Victor Ruiz Melgar in the cutoff and Amit Aroch in the small blind also went all-in.
Xiao Jiang: 
Victor Ruiz Melgar: 
Amit Aroch: 
Jiang shook his head and said in Spanish "I have nothing," yet he had two live cards against two opponents. Ruiz was calling for clubs and his wish was granted on a spectacular run out of 
.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
400,000
207,400
|
207,400 |
|
|
100,000
48,600
|
48,600 |
|
|
Busted |
An excited Lin Ruida had jumped out of his seat and could not believe what had just happened, as his stack skyrocketed to well over a million in chips.
"Wow, you called me with sixes?" Ruida asked and 888poker ambassador Kara Scott replied "now you have a million, you are welcome," with a bright smile on the face despite the fact that her stack was reduced to around three big blinds. The cards were still showing with Scott holding 
and Ruida raking in the pot with for a straight on the 
board.
One hand later, Scott moved all in and it folded around to Selim Souissi in the big blind. "Is it just me and her? I call but I have a really shitty hand," Souissi admitted to the dealer.
Scott replied "me too" and turned over her 
while Souissi had that beat with the 
.
The board came 
and that spelled the end for Scott.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,300,000
540,000
|
540,000 |
|
||
|
650,000
650,000
|
650,000 |
|
Busted | |
|
|
||
The top 125 spots will earn at least €1,840 for the efforts while the winner walks away €150,000 richer.
| Place | Payout (in EUR) | Payout (in USD) | Place | Payout (in EUR) | Payout (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | €150,000 | $166,353 | 10-12 | €9,000 | $9,981 |
| 2 | €105,000 | $116,447 | 13-15 | €6,900 | $7,652 |
| 3 | €70,000 | $77,631 | 16-18 | €5,400 | $5,989 |
| 4 | €45,000 | $49,906 | 19-27 | €4,300 | $4,769 |
| 5 | €32,000 | $35,489 | 28-36 | €3,500 | $3,882 |
| 6 | €24,000 | $26,616 | 37-54 | €2,870 | $3,183 |
| 7 | €18,000 | $19,962 | 55-72 | €2,400 | $2,662 |
| 8 | €14,000 | $15,526 | 73-99 | €2,000 | $2,218 |
| 9 | €11,200 | $12,421 | 100-125 | €1,840 | $2,041 |
