Onoufriou Tops Day 1d; Lewis and MacIntyre Among Big Stacks on Day 1e
The final two starting days of the 2018 888poker LIVE Festival London ��1,100 Main Event promised plenty of action and the poker room of the Aspers Casino was filled with poker enthusiasts from near and far. Half an hour into Day 1d, it was already certain that the guaranteed prize pool of ��400,000 had been surpassed and the entries kept pouring in by the minute.
Ultimately, Day 1d attracted a field of 171 unique players and 37 re-entries, while the final starting day brought a field of 59 unique players and seven re-entries. Upon bagging and tagging, 64 hopefuls remained from the afternoon flight and the final hurrah in the turbo heat 1e with levels of 20 minutes saw another 27 players advance. In total, at least 194 players out of 639 entries will return for Day 2 as of 2 p.m. local time on Sunday, December 2nd, 2018.
The current prize pool stands at ��632,610 and the payout details will be released once the registration has officially closed. All these numbers are not final yet, as the registration remains open until the first hand is dealt. New players will receive 30,000 in chips and the blinds recommence at 1,500/2,500 with a big blind ante of 2,500.
A bumper field emerged on Day 1d with a total of 208 entries and it was Antonios Onoufriou that topped the counts with 301,500, followed by Tamer Kamel (237,000) and Arkadi Kilman (213,500). Kamel comes fresh off a runner-up finish in the GUKPT Grand Final for ��110,000 and has his sights firmly set on another deep run. Onoufriou has also taken over the overall lead, fewer than one big blind ahead of Day 1a chip leader Antoine Labat (300,500).
Other notables that made it through from Day 1d include Eoghan O'Dea (212,500), Mark Gardner (179,000), Ramon Miquel Munoz (150,000), Marc Inizan (114,000), Ning Lu (101,500), 888poker ambassador Sofia Lovgren (77,000), Ben Morrison (62,500) and Ramlal Basdeo (32,500). John Hesp and Will Kassouf were eliminated in the final hands of the night, the former with ace-queen suited versus ace-king and the latter with king-ten versus pocket aces.
The final starting day was a brief affair with halved level duration and especially in the final two levels, the seat open announcements came by the minute. Helmut Hauser (156,000) edged past Romain Lewis (153,000) to claim the most chips. Fraser MacIntyre, who had fired three bullets on Day 1d without success, got his money worth this time and bagged up 144,000.
Also advancing from the turbo heat were Neophytos Neophytou (123,500), Fuad Serhan (115,500), Albert Sapiano (109,000), Kelly Saxby (87,000), Kfir Ivgi (75,500), Kalidou Sow (46,000), and Julien Sitbon (35,000). Among those to bust were Rehman Kassam, Gary Miller, Henri Vaisanen, Lena Evans and Kully Sidhu.
888poker LIVE London ��1,100 Main Event Schedule
| Day | Date | Time | Entries | Survivors | Further Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1a | November 29th 2018 | 18:00 | 97 | 23 | Play 12 levels of 40 minutes each, re-entry available |
| 1b | November 30th 2018 | 13:00 | 128 | 39 | Play 12 levels of 40 minutes each, re-entry available |
| 1c | November 30th 2018 | 18:00 | 140 | 41 | Play 12 levels of 40 minutes each, re-entry available |
| 1d | December 1st 2018 | 13:00 | 208 | 64 | Play 12 levels of 40 minutes each, re-entry available |
| 1e | December 1st 2018 | 19:00 | 66 | 27 | Play 12 levels of 20 minutes each, re-entry available |
| 2 | December 2nd 2018 | 14:00 | 639 | 194 | Registration closes at start; 10 levels of 60 minutes each scheduled |
| 3 | December 2nd 2018 | 14:00 | tba | - | Play down to a champion; live stream with hole cards |
Action of the day
Only three minutes had passed and the first player had been eliminated, as Albert Sapiano ran with trips into a flush. The Brit would bust another two times on Day 1d before finding a bag in the turbo heat. Fraser MacIntyre was twice left short before getting it in with dominated hands and he also bowed out a third time, same as for Sapiano Day 1e was the charm for the Scotsman.
Several other notables were less fortunate. The list of casualties on Day 1d included Lena Evans, Ali Zihni, Gary Fisher, Daniel Rudd, Catherine Hanna, Mudasser Hussain, James Mitchell, Usman Siddique and Kelly Saxby. Mixed game aficionado and poker commentator extraordinaire Ali Nejad also jumped into the action in the last levels of the night, but found his master in Eoghan O'Dea.
Nejad eventually lost a flip with pocket nines against ace-king suited and will instead shine with his commentator skills in the remaining two days of the festival. Julien Sitbon put his hopes on pocket nines, too, when he jammed an eight-high flop with the overpair and gutshot straight draw. Ash Miah called with top set and dodged the two-outer and straight draw of the Frenchman.
In the penultimate level of Day 1d, two runaway chip leaders emerged in Tamer Kamel and Antonios Onoufriou. Kamel won a big pot with a flopped set of sixes and Onoufriou made a big hero call with ace-king high, putting his opponent on a busted straight and flush draw. Indeed, Jen-Yue Chiang was caught with the fingers in the cookie jar, only had ace-queen of clubs for a missed straight and nut flush draw.
All five starting days are now completed and the remaining 194 players will return to 10 levels of 60 minutes each for Day 2. It remains unlikely that the final table will be reached on the penultimate tournament day, and the action of the live stream table will also be streamed on the 888poker Twitch channel. The PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to provide all the action until a winner is crowned.
While the starting days of the Main Event were winding down, the feature table setup was put to use already for a special 888poker promotion, the Bros vs Pros cash game. Online qualifiers had the chance to play against some of the biggest names in poker such as Michael Mizrachi, 2017 WSOP Main Event champion Scott Blumstein and the 888poker ambassadors.
Photos courtesy of Tomas Stacha/888poker