The 888Live Barcelona Opening Event Ends with 9-Way ICM Deal
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Another event has come to an end here at the 2017 888Live Poker Festival Barcelona! Only 143 hopefuls out of a 720-entry strong field returned to the tables of Casino Barcelona on Sunday May 14th for Day 2 of the €200+20 Opening Event. The tournament crushed the initial guarantee to create a prize pool of €138,240 and the top 81 spots were to receive a return on their investment.
After an action-filled day, the last nine players gathered for the unofficial final table, took a group picture and looked into ICM numbers. Only 10 minutes later, they shook hands and called it a night, and it was Alejandro Vazquez Gomez who walked away with the most money and the 888Live festival trophy. The Spaniard held the chip lead when the deal was cut and received €11,775 for his efforts, while Fernando Ortola Ferragud took second for just €40 less.
Joachim Lob as shortest stack with 12 big blinds received more than double of the regular 9th place prize and was just one of two non-Spanish players represented in the deal. That being said, Portugal's Andre Filipe Quelhas, who claimed €6,870, actually works here and calls Barcelona his second home.
Final Result €200+20 Opening Event
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (EUR |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alejandro Vazquez Gomez | Spain | 11,775* |
| 2 | Fernando Ortola Ferragud | Spain | 11,735* |
| 3 | Sergio Manuel Martinez Pascual | Spain | 10,820* |
| 4 | Juan Font Espina | Spain | 9,950* |
| 5 | Eduard Munoz Martin | Spain | 9,775* |
| 6 | Ivan Olivas Uliaque | Spain | 9,315* |
| 7 | Angel Callen Mozos | Spain | 7,495* |
| 8 | Andre Filipe Quelhas | Portugal | 6,870* |
| 9 | Joachim Lob | Switzerland | 6,700* |
*reflects ICM deal of the last nine players
The start of Day 2 saw 20 players depart within the first level and the money bubble was soon reached. Among those to bust before the money were Guillem Cusco Bach, Max Rotko,Jon Ignacio Chipongian, Harcharan Dogra Dogra, Marco Della Tommasina, Josep Maria Galindo Lopez and Francois Evard to name just a few.
In level 17, the bubble burst after Gregory Torrents lost a flip with ace-queen against the pocket sixes of Day 1a chip leader Sergio Alonso Camunas. The eliminations kept on coming quickly and Maria Lozano Valero, as well as Susana Bonastre Rodriguez, were sent to the rail in the first payout step. Lauri Saaskilahti and Aleksei Istomin followed soon after before Kaido Koorits' four-bet jam with pocket jacks came at the worst possible timing. Xavier Sola Vall held pocket aces and flopped a full house to send Koorits out in 45th place.
Thomas Hargreaves was one of two 888poker qualifiers that made it into the money, and the short-stacked Brit saw his hopes of a deeper run when his pocket queens got cracked by jack-ten suited. Fellow 888poker qualifier Suliko Kheladze reached the last three tables and had to settle for 26th place and €915. Olga Mirasol was the first player to take home at least €1,000 and the last woman in the field lost back-to-back coin flips to run out of chips. The pace of eliminations barely slowed down, and soon after the last two tables were set.
Former big stacks Marcos Paton Bao, Xavier Sola Vall and Yannick Pernot all bowed out in quick succession, before Sergio Alonso Camunas and Fernando Campomar Concha became the last two casualties of the night. Alonso Camunas had lost most of his stack previously and then ran with ace-jack into the ace-king of Juan Font Espina not long after coming back from the dinner break as chip leader with 15 left. Campomar Concha shoved with jack-deuce in a battle of the blinds and Ivan Olivas Uliaque looked him up out of the big blind with ace-six suited. An ace and a six appeared on the flop and it was all over on the turn to set up the unofficial final table. This ultimately resulted in the ICM deal with stack sizes ranging between 12 and 35 big blinds, and the nine finalists shook hands.
The €100+10 "The Breeze" Side Event saw four players bag up last night and return at noon local time. It was all over within less than 35 minutes, and Antonio Perez Vico Barba emerged victorious to take home the lion's share of the prize pool for €4,870 and 888Live Side Event trophy.
A deal was cut in the €45+5 High Noon Turbo Event, which attracted a field of 121 entries and prize pool of €5,228. Hector Germino Cabus Maseda (€1,202) and Ivan Arcos Alba (€1,186) took home the most money.
Last but not least, the €100+10 The Hurrican kicked off at 6 p.m. local time and another decent field of 190 entries emerged. At the time of writing, the money bubble was just reached with a minimum payout of €175 guaranteed. The winner can look forward to a payday of €4,400 and among those still in were Douglas Wheatland, Rafael Achermann and Harcharan Dogra Dogra.
The PokerNews live reporting team will provide updates from the festival at Casino Barcelona for the remainder of this week and the next two highlights are the €2,200 High Roller as of Wednesday May 17th and the €1,100 Main Event with a guarantee of €500,000, which kicks off on Thursday Max 18th.