Saliba, 'Tonkaaaa' Highlight Best Moments from 888Live London Festival
The 888Live Festival London with £800,000 in guarantees wraps up Monday at Aspers Casino with the final day of the £1,100 buy-in £400,000 Guaranteed Main Event. One exciting part of the festival has been the introduction of the Action Clock in both the Main Event and in the £2,200 buy-in £50,000 Guaranteed High Roller. You can see it in action at the Main Event final table which is being livestreamed here.
Opening Event
The series kicked off on Oct. 5 with the £220 buy-in £120,000 guaranteed Opening Event which drew 771 entries, including 250 rebuys, for a prize pool of £142,758. After a deal three-handed, Christopher Kyriacou won the trophy and £20,000.
Last year’s 888Live London Main Event champion Ka Him Li claimed second place for £17,900 while Terry Simpson pocketed £17,675 for third. In addition, all final tablists received a ticket to the Main Event worth £1,100.
Turbo Deepstack
The third event of the series was the £80 buy-in £8,888 guarantee Turbo Deepstack which attracted 108 total entries, three entries short of the guarantee, meaning a small overlay for the players. The final three made a deal for an even chop of the cash and to play for the trophy. Ali Sakallioglu won the trophy while he, Jan Ronningen and Yilfer Shevket all took home £1,800.
High Roller
The High Roller event started on Oct. 11 and with 69 entries and a prize pool of £136,626, the £50,000 guarantee was smashed. This event attracted some of the biggest names in the game including WSOP Main Event Champ Martin Jacobson, Team 888Poker Ambassador Chris Moorman, Niall Farrell, Ludovic Geilich, Tom Hall, Jack Salter and another 888 Ambassador Dominik Nitsche, who made a brief appearance on Day 2.
The final day was a marathon, starting at 5 p.m. and finishing up at 6 a.m. with Jamie Lunt claiming the title, the trophy and £34,985 after a heads-up deal with Jonathan Bowers. Bowers took £36,115 for second place.
Woman's Event
Another highlight of the 888Live festival was the £55 buy-in Woman’s Event, which was offering a WSOPE Rozvadov Main Event package worth $13,000 for the winner. A total of 51 ladies played and with the bonus package up for grabs, there were 75 re-entries. Vivian Saliba took it down and talked with PokerNews’ Sarah Herring about her win. You can watch below.
While Saliba was wiling to re-buy as many times as needed to try to get her hands on the Main Event package, she was able to win the tournament on one bullet after being down to around three big blinds at the 150/300 level, making her victory all the more impressive. We can expect to see more of Saliba at WSOPE Rozvadov.
Main Event
The Main Event drew 427 entries, bringing the prize pool to £427,730 with £88,888 reserved for the winner. A total of 45 players would be in the money with a minimum payout worth £2,365. Among the big names to participate in the event but fall short of the money were 2017 WSOP Main Event fourth Place finisher John Hesp, Niall Farrell, Ludovic Geilich, Alex Goulder, Tiffany Michelle and Steve Watts.
Monday marks the final day of the Main Event as 17 players returned to play down to a winner. Parker "tonkaaaa" Talbot was among them, but he fell short of the final table, having to settle for £5,280 for 15th place. Tom Hall, who came into the day as the chip leader, held a massive chip lead to begin the final table, which is being played now.
Follow the Action
You can follow Live Updates here and you can watch the final table play out on 888poker’s Twitch channel featuring commentary by David Tuchman as well as guest commentary from 888poker Ambassadors Talbot and Chris Moorman.
