Joel Isla Heads Into the Final Day of the 888poker LIVE Barcelona Main Event in the Chip Lead
After nearly 11 hours of play, Spain's Joel Isla heads into the final day of the 2018 888poker LIVE Barcelona €1,100 Main Event at Casino Barcelona in the chip lead with 27 players remaining with 2,015,000 in chips.
Regardless of how Isla finishes the event, he will at least double his career cashes according to The Hendon Mob.
His only recorded cash prior to the Main Event came in a Spanish tournament in September 2017 when he took a fourth-place prize of €2,150.
Isla's closest competitors are Spain's Adria Diaz Dalmau (second - 1,662,000), French Day 1a chip leader Gianny Dominique Morano (third - 1,466,000), American Mark Max McMillin (fourth - 1,413,000), and Canadian poker streamer Courtney Gee (fifth - 1,385,000).
The day began with 201 hopefuls competing, which included 196 players bagging chips during the three opening flights and five more players that bought in for 10 big blinds after the end of play yesterday and before the start of Day 2.
Eliminations took place to start the day at a fast and furious pace. One of the early eliminations was 888poker Ambassador Parker Talbot, who got it all in for close to 25 big blinds with ace-king on an ace-king-ten flop and wasn't able to get lucky after his opponent called with a straight with queen-jack.
Payouts were announced after the first break with 72 players in the field guaranteed to walk away with €3,400 or more than triple the buy-in.
It was also announced that the winner is slated to win a massive €140,550 top prize, a sizeable increase of the €110,000 won in this event last year by Italy's Luigi Andrea Shehadeh. The Italian has a chance to become a back-to-back champ in Barcelona as he is still in the field bringing forth a 10th place chip stack of 953,000 into the final day tomorrow.
The bubble burst shortly before the dinner break after Andrea De Georgio got it all-in with ace-king and his hand couldn't hold against the ace-jack held by Tomasz Aleksander Chmiel with jacks spiking the flop and the river.
While the duo was waiting for the hand to be played out, De Georgio told his opponent, "If I don't win this, I hope you do."
De Georgio's wishes are still alive as Chmiel heads into tomorrow with an eighth-place stack of 1,115,000.
Shortly after the bubble broke, Turkish high roller Orpen Kisacikoglu (64th - €3,300), who entered the day as the chip leader, and 888poker Ambassador Martin Jacobson (63rd - €3,540), who won the WSOP Main Event in 2014, were both eliminated.
The day ended after Jon Kyte got short on the feature table and unsuccessfully jammed 11 big blinds with pocket fives against the sevens held by Dalmau.
The final day begins Monday, June 4 at 2 p.m. CEST at the beginning of Level 22 with blinds at 12,000/24,000 with an ante of 3,000. As was the case today, blind levels go up slowly with increases taking place every hour of play. All remaining players are guaranteed a payday of at least €4,750.
Stay tuned at PokerNews as we bring you the conclusion of the 888poker LIVE Barcelona Main Event.
*Lead image courtesy of Gema Cristobal.