Josep Valls Claims Victory in 888poker Live Barcelona €888 Main Event
The action has come to a close on the final day of the 888poker LIVE Barcelona €888 Main Event here at Casino Barcelona. It took just under 11 hours for a winner to emerge from the 11 hopefuls who made it to the final day.
Josep Valls began the day with the chip lead and by the end of the night he was the last player standing with every chip in play. Several other players would take turns with the chip lead throughout the final table but Valls never lost control and was able to fight back into contention every time he found himself short-stacked, ultimately prevailing over Jose Criado after a back and forth heads-up duel to take home the trophy.
Valls came into this tournament with just over $40,000 in career tournament earnings, a number that he has more than doubled with his victory in today's event.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josep Valls | Romania | € 61,550* |
| 2 | Jose Criado | Spain | € 41,985* |
| 3 | Gonzalo Mencia | Spain | € 37,895* |
| 4 | Leo Jubien | France | € 35,570* |
| 5 | Guillem Morgo | Spain | € 15,000 |
| 6 | Jose Massa | Spain | € 10,800 |
| 7 | Scott Fritz | United States | € 8,550 |
| 8 | Fernando Marco | Spain | € 6,900 |
| 9 | Daguang Lin | Spain | € 5,500 |
*Denotes a four-way ICM chop
Final Day Action
The Main Event was another success for 888poker LIVE, attracting 476 entrants to generate a prize pool of €369,450, up from last year's Main Event which drew 369 entrants. Of those 476 entrants, only 11 players managed to advance to the final day.
Valls, Gonzalo Mencia and Criado were at the top of the counts to start the day. Guillem Morgo was short-stacked and all other players held very similar stack sizes in the middle. It took less than an hour before Mindaugas Pagareckas lost a flip to become the first bustout of the day while Florens Feenstra fell in tenth place after a painful runout to make way for the nine-handed final table.
Daguang Lin became the first final table casualty at the hands of Guillem Morgo, who had doubled up more than once to establish himself as one of the bigger stacks at the final table after starting the day with the shortest stack. On the flip side Criado, who had started the day third in chips, found himself very short-stacked at this time until hitting a miraculous three-outer on the river to keep himself in contention.
After Fernando Marco was eliminated in eighth place at the hands of Scott Fritz it would take over an hour for the next elimination to occur. Fritz himself was next to fall in seventh place after losing a flip to Morgo. By that point, Morgo was the outright chip leader with six players remaining.
Following the elimination of Fritz the action again ground down to a halt, with Jose Massa finding himself as the short stack for the better part of two hours. The other players were forced to play conservatively to outlast Massa, who despite showing incredible resilience was finally the next to fall in sixth place. Morgo followed him out the door in fifth after a roller coaster runout against Criado where the lead changed on the flop, turn, and river.
With just four players remaining and effective stacks becoming extremely short the remaining four players agreed to an ICM chop that left €17,700 up top for the winner. In the very next hand after the ICM deal was reached, Leo Jubien was sent to the rail after running Queen-Jack into Mencia’s King-Queen.
Mencia soon found himself short-stacked at the final three after folding the best hand to Criado. He bowed out in third shortly afterward to make way for a heads-up battle between Criado and Valls, who started the day third and first in chips respectively.
Heads-up play lasted for just under an hour. Criado began with a slight lead but both players were close to even. Criado extended his lead early in the duel, but it would not be long before Valls clawed his way back. Criado came close to pulling even a few times but ultimately moved all in with queen-jack after the blinds had rapidly increased leaving both players with very shallow stacks. Valls woke up with an ace and held to take down the final pot of the night, the trophy and the top prize of €61,550.
That’s a wrap from 888poker LIVE Bucharest, but be sure to check out the PokerNews live reporting hub for coverage of events around the globe!