Kfir Ivgi Tops 13 Survivors on Day 1a; Chris Moorman Wins High Roller
Day 1a of the 2019 888poker LIVE Festival London £1,100 Main Event has wrapped up and out of a field of 58 entries including six re-entries, 13 players made it through the 11 levels of 40 minutes each at the Aspers Casino in Westfield Stratford London.
Kfir Ivgi is the dominating chip leader and he was among those to fire a second entry as his first attempt ended within 15 minutes and he steamrolled through the tables after to turn his 30,000 into an impressive 419,000. A trio of players ended up over 200k including Iaron Lightbourne (256,000), Gary Miller (231,500) and Lukas Gloor (221,500).
What follows is a big gap as Neil van der Merwe finished the first of five starting days fifth in chips with 92,000. Other notables that advanced to Day 2 already were Irena Macesovic (85,500), Alexander Zeligman (80,000), 888poker ambassador Martin Jacobson (60,000), and Manh The Nguyen (54,500).
Miller and Lightbourne spent the late stages of Day 1a on Ivgi's table and both were almost dying in laughter from the incredible table action and banter of Ivgi as he made his way to the top of the leader board.
“This table should be on TV, they still wouldn't believe it,” Miller exclaimed in the final level of the night and wished to have the same line-up for the stream table on Day 2. Whether or not that wish comes true remains to be seen as players from another four flights will advance in the next two days.
Among those to bust on Day 1a were Dillan Patel, Keith Hoang, Matthew Eardley, Ion Mican, Francois Pirault, Leon Louis and Ramlal Basdeo to name just a few. The 2017 champion Tom Hall as well as last year's runner-up Derek Lawless also took a shot at the action but ran out of chips early on.
Miller sent Lawless to the rail once when he flopped a jack-high straight and dodged a king-high flush draw. Right after coming back from the break, Miller then felted Serkan Ersoy when he called the big jam with ace-ten for flopped top pair and second pair on the turn. Ersoy only had ten-seven suited for the same pair and inferior kicker.
After that it was Ivgi that assumed control of the table chat and eliminations. Ho Shom Kian was one of the casualties when he came up short with ace-king versus kings, and Ivgi also rivered trips nines with ten-nine suited against the ace-king of Jurij Kolesnikov and the queen-jack for flopped top pair of Ion Mican.
Iaron Lightbourne knocked out several shorter stacks towards the end to become the second-biggest stack as just 13 players bagged and tagged for the night. The following two days will feature two flights each as the event will grow bigger and attracted poker enthusiasts from near and far.
888poker ambassador Chris Moorman Wins £2,200 High Roller
Besides Day 1a of the Main Event, the £2,200 High Roller also came to a conclusion. The 888poker ambassadors Martin Jacobson, Ana Marquez and Chris Moorman were among the Day 1 survivors and Moorman was the only one to cash. Among others, the 2019 WSOP Main Event finalist Nick Marchington, Ivan Deyra and Christopher Yong bowed out before the money.
Jose Planells ended up as the bubble-boy in a field of 39 entries and the top six spots were guaranteed a portion of the £77,220 prize pool. Fellow Spaniard Raul Martinez had to settle for the min-cash and Antoine Saout, as well as Nicholas Lee, headed to the payout desk next.
Benjamin Winsor pulled into a 2-1 lead in heads-up but Moorman doubled once to claim the lead. Ultimately, Winsor was down to around seven big blinds when he jammed with ace-trey suited and Moorman looked him up with ace-nine. The kicker played on a ten-high board and Moorman posed for the winner shots shortly after.
Final Result £2,200 High Roller
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (in GBP) | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Moorman | United Kingdom | £27,000 | $34,865 |
| 2 | Benjamin Winsor | United Kingdom | £17,000 | $21,952 |
| 3 | Nicholas Lee | Australia | £12,000 | $15,496 |
| 4 | Antoine Saout | France | £9,000 | $11,622 |
| 5 | Damian Bell | United Kingdom | £7,000 | $9,039 |
| 6 | Raul Martinez | Spain | £5,220 | $6,741 |
The Main Event will continue with Day 1b as of 1 p.m. local time followed by Day 1c at 6 p.m. local time. Both flights play 11 levels of 40 minutes each and the PokerNews team will provide all the action from the tables.