Eliot Hirn Wins 888Live Austria Main Event; Torelli Exits in 10th Place
After two days of action, France’s Eliot Hirn left the Innsbruck Casino as the champion of the first 888live Main Event of 2016 and pocketed a €8,610 cash prize after a three-way deal.
To win the event, Hirn outlasted a field of 127 entrants who ponied up the $400 buy-in and survived an intense heads-up battle with Italy’s Ivan Mairhofer.
The second and final day started at 14:00 local time with 67 of the 128 total entries still in play. High-stakes player Alec Torelli was leading the pack with 138,000 in chips followed by France's Hirn, who ended Day 1 in the second position with a stack of 116,000.
"My wife and I were in Milan and we decided to head up to Innsbruck as she always wanted to bring me here," Torelli explained. "We've heard about the first 888poker event of the year so we said why not?”
During the first levels of the day, 888poker pro Sofia Lövgren managed to build up a decent stack as she started Day 2 with less than 20 big blinds, but eventually ran into aces with a pair of kings, lost all her chips, and finished in 46th place.
"I couldn't avoid the shove after he raised my three-bet, it was just a cooler," Lövgren said.
A few levels later, it was time for the other 888poker pro still in play, Germany’s Dominik Nitsche, to hit the rail. Nitsche started Day 2 with a short stack and finished the tournament in 36th place. In the decisive hand, the player showed AxQx suited and was called by an opponent who held 10x5x suited. Unfortunately for Nitsche, a 10x on the flop killed his dream of winning the first 888live event in his career.
"I busted the Aussie Million so quickly that I decided to spend few days at home and now I'm here playing the 888live Main Event," Nitsche explained. "The atmosphere is awesome here, people are so friendly and I have to admit that I got unused to playing with german speaking poker players, but it's nice and I wish there were more tournaments here."
After Nitsche’s bust out, the action continued until Germany's Florian Hoffman bubbled the tournament and the remaining players left the tournament room for a dinner break. One level later, the final table was set with a short-stacked Torelli still in the game. He busted a few hands later though, shoving with Qx4x to the big blind, who called with AxKx.
The nine finalists played for about three more hours until the last three players made an ICM deal when Ivan Mairhofer was the chip leader. He got most of the money and they agreed to play for €990 plus the trophy for the winner.
In the final hand of the tournament, Hirn showed the 2♠2♥ and ended up best against Mairhofer's J♦J♣ after the board ran out 2♣7♥6♥Q♦3♥.
Final Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eliot Hirn | France | €8.610* |
| 2 | Ivan Mairhofer | Italy | €8.740* |
| 3 | Michael Hill | Austria | €6.700* |
| 4 | Matthias Fahrion | Germany | €3.510 |
| 5 | Marian-Ionut Farcas | Romania | €2.530 |
| 6 | Zeynal Danisman | Austria | €2.150 |
| 7 | Hector Caldero Urbina | Spain | €1.780 |
| 8 | Andrea Di Fusco | Italy | €1.440 |
| 9 | Antony Mezzarobba | France | €1.150 |
| 10 | Alec Torelli | USA | €990 |
| 11 | Steven James Mikajewski | Australia | €880 |
| 12 | James Anthony Grogan | Ireland | €880 |
| 13 | Stephen Loane | Ireland | €880 |
| 14 | Rade Marinkovic | Austria | €790 |
| 15 | Thomas Molnar | Germany | €790 |
*Denotes three-handed deal
Lead image courtesy of Fabian Grubler - Fabfotos
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