Francisco Togores Nearly Pulls Off a Repeat on Day 1c of the 888poker Live Madrid Main Event
Francisco Togores was looking to match his performance from a year ago when he ended as chip leader, and while the young Spaniard didn’t quite reach the top of the leaderboard, he’s still firmly in contention after Day 1c of the €888 888poker Live Madrid Main Event.
Togores busted a player early in the day when his bottom pair of fours was good against ace-king. He spent the rest of the night as a big stack before ending up with 254,000, good for fifth place among 52 surviving players of the largest starting flight.
He’s looking up at Daniel Wu, who bagged the chip lead with 335,000. Mehdy El Fki nearly didn’t make it through the day as he was part of a four-way all in as the shortest stack, but his sevens held up to earn him the quadruple up. He then raked in a massive pot when his two nines busted Luismanuel Fernandez, briefly pushing the Tunisian up to 400,000 before he slid down to 321,000.
Day 1c Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daniel Wu | China | 335,000 | 112 |
| 2 | Mehdy El Fki | Tunisia | 321,000 | 107 |
| 3 | Alberto De La Fuente | Spain | 279,000 | 93 |
| 4 | Abel Aspas | Spain | 275,000 | 92 |
| 5 | Francisco Togores | Spain | 254,000 | 85 |
| 6 | Vincenzo Pinna | Italy | 235,000 | 78 |
| 7 | Sebastian Perez | Spain | 232,000 | 77 |
| 8 | Juan Martin | Spain | 231,000 | 77 |
| 9 | Jacobo Nieder | Spain | 222,000 | 74 |
| 10 | Jorge Diego | Spain | 219,000 | 73 |
Alberto De La Fuente saved his highlight for the last level. De La Fuente spiked a straight on the river to bust Claudio Di Giacomo in a big pot as he finished with 279,000. Abel Aspas, who won this event in 2022, rounds out the top five with 275,000.
Other players to advance include 2006 WSOP Main Event finalist Erik Friberg (207,000), last year’s EPT Monte Carlo runner-up Khossein Kokhestani (178,000), Daniel Tafur (140,000), Di Giacomo (117,000), past champion Adrian Garcia (93,000), and Julien Loire (78,000). David McConachie wasn’t so lucky as he failed to find a bag for the third flight in a row.
Day 1c promised to bring the biggest field yet to the Casino Gran Via, and it delivered with 141 entries. The total field stands at 299 entries after the three starting flights, with 111 returning tomorrow for Day 2 at 5 p.m. There is also a turbo Day 1d flight tomorrow at noon, while late registration remains open for the first level of Day 2, so there are still plenty of opportunities for the field to grow even larger.
PokerNews will be back tomorrow for Day 2 as the field finds out what they are playing for and begins their march down to the final table.