Muehloecker Bags the Lead on Day 1b; Mizrachi, Moorman and Nitsche Also Advance
The second of five starting days of the 2018 888poker LIVE Festival London £1,100 Main Event has wrapped up and it was a familiar face that topped the counts after 12 levels of 40 minutes each at the Aspers Casino. More than 360 entries have set the event on track to easily meet the guaranteed prize pool of £400,000.
Mid-way through the day, it already became clear that the field size of Day 1a, which attracted a field of 97 entries in total, would be surpassed and the re-entries kept pouring in. Ultimately, there were 107 unique players that purchased another 21 re-entries, and 39 players bagged up chips.
High Roller regular Thomas Muehloecker finished with 253,000 and remained ahead of Wenbin Chen, who bagged up 243,000. There is already a small gap between the duo at the top, as Jun Young Park (180,000), Leon Louis (174,500) and James Parker (171,500) follow, separated by just a few big blinds each.
Other big stacks and notables through to Day 2 include Iaron Lightbourne (158,500), Manuel Bardon (145,000), Michael Mizrachi (142,500), Orpen Kisacikoglu (94,000), Benjamin Winsor (91,500), Ludovic Geilich (81,500), Toni Ojala (74,500), Kevin Allen (70,000) and Bollywood actress Minesha Lamba (56,500). Defending champion Tom Hall, who finished 2nd in the £2,200 High Roller the previous night, made it through with 38,500.
Team 888poker saw Dominik Nitsche (89,000) and Chris Moorman (55,000) bag up for the night. Sofia Lovgren was less fortunate and busted when jamming queen-nine suited into pocket aces. The 2017 WSOP Main Event champion Scott Blumstein also failed to bag up for now, along with other notables such as John Hesp, Andrew Hulme, Antoine Saout, Manig Loeser, and Daniel Tighe.
888poker LIVE London £1,100 Main Event at a Glance
| Day | Date | Time | Entries | Survivors | Further Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1a | November 29th 2018 | 18:00 | 97 | 23 | Play 12 levels of 40 minutes each, re-entry available |
| 1b | November 30th 2018 | 13:00 | 128 | 39 | Play 12 levels of 40 minutes each, re-entry available |
| 1c | November 30th 2018 | 18:00 | 130+ | tba | Play 12 levels of 40 minutes each, re-entry available |
| 1d | December 1st 2018 | 13:00 | tba | tba | Play 12 levels of 40 minutes each, re-entry available |
| 1e | December 1st 2018 | 19:00 | tba | tba | Play 12 levels of 20 minutes each, re-entry available |
| 2 | December 2nd 2018 | 14:00 | tba | tba | Registration closes at start; Level duration 60 minutes |
| 3 | December 2nd 2018 | 14:00 | tba | tba | Play down to a champion; live stream with hole cards |
Action of the Day
By the end of level two, Albert Sapiano had already fired a third bullet for the day and would bust once more to run out of chips. Sapiano wasn't the first to bust, as that unfortunate honor belonged to Ronit Chamani when she ran with queens into kings. John Hesp was off to a great start on an interesting table that included Sapiano, Kevin Allen and Minesha Lamba, but the 2017 WSOP Main Event finalist vanished prior to the lunch break at half time.
By then, things looked somewhat grim for Thomas Muehloecker, but the Austrian doubled with a rivered full house against a turned straight to pick up a lot of momentum. Muehloecker also cracked the pocket tens of Jonathan Schuman when he check-raised with a pair and open-ender, spiking two pair on the river, before taking a big chunk off Manig Loeser in a battle of the blinds.
Sofia Lovgren joined the rail in level eight when her move with queen-nine suited almost cracked pocket aces, and fellow 888poker ambassador ended up all in and at risk in a three-way all in against Tom Hall and Daniel Tighe in level 10. Nitsche had the best of it preflop with pocket tens against two ace-kings, and tripled up to avoid a re-entry in late flight.
Towards the very end of the day, Michael Mizrachi shifted gears and collected pots left and right, but the four-time WSOP bracelet winner then doubled Benjamin Winsor in the last level of the night to drop back into the middle of the pack. Jun Young Park won the biggest pot of the day in the last level of the night when his nutflushdraw with ace-deuce suited cracked a set of kings and he bagged up a top five stack as a result.
At the time of bagging and tagging, the evening flight 1c had already surpassed the field size of Day 1b and attracted a field of more than 130 entries with another five levels to go for the night. Among those in contention were former WSOP Main Event finalist Fernando Pons, 2018 WSOP Main Event runner-up Tony Miles, Lena Evans, Kully Sidhu, and Usman Siddique to name just a few.
The final numbers and chip counts of the third starting day will be published once the PokerNews team receives them, the action is expected to conclude at 3 a.m. local time. On Saturday, December 1st, 2018, another two starting days will take place to give players the opportunity to run up a big stack for Day 2. Day 1d with levels of 40 minutes each kicks off at 1 p.m. local time and the turbo heat 1e with a level duration of 20 minutes is scheduled as of 7 p.m. local time.