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Marius Conan Emerges From His Brother's Shadow to Take Home the 888LIVE London Main Event Title
If a Conan won a big poker tournament, someone wouldn’t be amiss in assuming that it was Arthur. The French super high roller, after all, has more than $4 million in live earnings across some of the largest buy-in tournaments around, including a WSOP bracelet, a WPT title, a High Roller in Las Vegas, and EPT titles. He also won two high rollers here at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London in 2023.
Today at the final table of the 888LIVE London £1,250 Main Event, though, it was Marius Conan, two years Arthur’s junior, who carried the flag for the family on his way to claiming the title and £91,170 top prize. “So, so good. Winning a tournament, especially live, is always something special. That one was really special,” Conan said after defeating Nathan Cohen in a brief heads-up match to prevail over the 379-entry field.
888LIVE London €1,250 Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marius Conan | France | £91,170 |
| 2 | Nathan Cohen | United Kingdom | £60,550 |
| 3 | Nicu Toderascu | United Kingdom | £39,730 |
| 4 | Nikolay Ponomarev | United Kingdom | £26,220 |
| 5 | Michael Hewes | United Kingdom | £17,860 |
| 6 | Guang Yang | United Kingdom | £12,870 |
| 7 | Pascal Pflock | Germany | £9,900 |
| 8 | Robert Buky | United Kingdom | £7,960 |
| 9 | Alexios Zervos | Greece | £6,580 |
Conan Building a Legacy of His Own
Conan doesn’t have the pedigree of his older brother, but he’s also put together a list of poker accomplishments. He won a WSOP Circuit Main Event in Paris in 2017, and also made a deep run at EPT Barcelona in 2018. His win today will push his live earnings up past $500,000. He came into the final table not only as the chip leader but also as one of the most experienced players left, and admits, despite some early pitfalls, he felt comfortable with his position.
“I felt confident, but the start of the final table was not what I was expecting. But, finally, I went good and everything went okay. So that’s nice,” he said.
Conan described his run through the three days of the tournament as a smooth ride where he encountered little adversity. He finished as a top stack on Day 1a, busted Ian Simpson early on Day 2 to shoot up the leaderboard, before finally taking the chip lead as the final table was set. “There’s always been like this, you know?” Conan said, making a steep climbing motion with his hand.
“Upside. Always great. I never really struggled, not been so much short. So it was a real pleasure always playing hands, many hands. I enjoyed it a lot.”
Arthur, who made the final table of the High Roller a few days ago, was right by his side after he clinched the title, and Conan attributes much of his poker success to what his brother has taught him. “It’s really cool, especially so good a player. So it’s very real for me. And he teaches me a lot. So without him, I probably never win this tournament,” he said.
Conan Has Rocky Start to the Final Table
The final nine returned to the Grosvenor Victoria Casino to battle for the title at 1 p.m. local time, with Conan atop the leaderboard with 2,225,000. Alexios Zervos was the first casualty, running ace-ten into the ace-jack of Michael Hewes to fall in ninth place as Hewes quickly took over the chip lead from Conan.
Cohen doubled up off Robert Buky to leave Buky with less than a big blind, and he finished him off a few hands later. Pascal Pflock, who made the trip to London alongside his partner and 888 ambassador Vivian Saliba, then shoved with ace-six and Guang Yang called with ten-nine. Yang ended up making trips to win the pot, and Pflock busted in seventh place.
Nicu Toderascu took the chip lead right before the first break of the day when he made a full house on the turn against Hewes. He moved all in on the river, and Hewes gave up his hand to fall down below 1,000,000. But it was Yang who was next to go, when he moved all in with a pair of sixes, only for Cohen to call with two jacks as Yang fell in sixth.
Conan Never Looks Back After Hitting the Nuts
Cohen picked up two tens to send out Hewes in fifth. Toderascu, meanwhile, started to pull away from the field as he moved up past 5,000,000. Conan had fallen down to the short stack when he was all in for 1,080,000 with two jacks and racing against Nikolay Ponomarev’s ace-king. Conan held on for the double up, leaving Ponomarev as the short stack. Although Ponomarev managed to double up once, Conan soon after took him out in fourth place.
Conan, meanwhile, had moved back into the chip lead in a massive pot against Toderascu. Conan turned the nut straight, and snap-called Toderascu’s river shove to double up. He and Toderascu soon tangled in yet another pot, when Conan bet 820,000 on the turn. Toderascu moved all in for 2,280,000, and Conan again quickly called with top pair of kings. Toderascu could only show a pair of fours, and the former overwhelming chip leader was sent to the rail in third place.
Conan took a commanding 9,830,000 to 1,550,000 lead over Cohen into heads-up. Cohen doubled up by hitting two pair on the river, then won a race holding pocket fours to get back to 3,000,000. Conan bet him out on the river twice to leave him short yet again, and Cohen finally called for his last 1,400,000 with king-ten. Conan had ace-ten, and although Cohen flopped top pair, Conan drilled the nut straight to take a big lead. Cohen got some hope with trips on the turn, but the river was no help and he had to settle for second place.
It brought to an end a graceful run through the tournament for Conan, and he admits he’ll be back next year. “I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot. Of course, every time you win, you enjoy it way more than when you lose. It was a really nice time,” he said. “I will be back in London for sure.”
That concludes PokerNews' coverage of the 888LIVE London Main Event. The series next heads to Madrid in January, so stay tuned for a full schedule of next year's season.