Scicluna Tops Day 1b; Jordon and Morrison Among Big Stacks
The second starting day of the 2019 888poker LIVE Festival London £1,100 Main Event attracted a field of 62 unique players and 14 re-entries at the Aspers Casino in Westfield Stratford, of which 24 players bagged and tagged for the night after 11 levels of 40 minutes each.
It was UK's Justin Scicluna that came out on top of the leaderboard with a stack of 259,000, followed by Robert "Bobby" James with 235,000 and Terry Jordon follows in third place with a stack of 200,000.
Especially Jordon is well-known in the casinos of London as a player that can be among the big stacks or on the rail rather quickly. For Day 1b, both scenarios were the case as Jordon had to re-enter in order to become one of the chip leaders.
Top Five Counts for Day 1b
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Justin Scicluna | United Kingdom | 259,000 |
| 2 | Bobby James | United Kingdom | 235,000 |
| 3 | Terry Jordon | United Kingdom | 200,000 |
| 4 | Alexander Schechter | United Kingdom | 179,500 |
| 5 | Ramlal Basdeo | Trinidad and Tobago | 177,500 |
Other notables that advanced are Trinidad's Ramlal Basdeo (177,500), Ben Morrison (125,500), Leon Louis (92,500), Sinead Priestley (83,500), Charlie Combes (51,500), WSOP bracelet winner Pavlos Xanthopoulos (48,000) and former French football striker Jimmy Kebe (37,000).
Three 888poker ambassadors entered the second flight and fresh off his victory in the £2,200 High Roller, Chris Moorman needed just one bullet to claim 82,000 to his name. Sofia Lovgren also punched her ticket for Day 2 with a stack of 41,000 while Ana Marquez was one of the early casualties.
Other big names that came and left without anything to show for were James Mitchell, Artan Dedusha, local legend Albert Sapiano, Christopher Yong, Katie Lindsay, Nikolay Ponomarev, and Natalia Breviglieri.
Defending champion James Williams entered after the second break of the day and his flush draw came up short against the ace-ten of Andy Achillea, who had turned top pair. Fellow 2018 London Main Event finalists Aleem Kanji and Christos Xanthopoulos also departed before it came to bagging and tagging.
For Sapiano the day was a roller-coaster ride as he became the first player to bust an opponent, became short, doubled twice and then hit the rail in cruel fashion. Sapiano turned two pair with ace-deuce and got it in against the ace-four of Tom Winstone, the river paired the seven and the kicker four played as two pair were no longer good.
In the final two levels of the day, the action at the tables started to heat up with all-in showdowns every other minute. Ramlal Basdeo, who hails from Trinidad and Tobago and has been taking part in the 888poker LIVE festivals regularly, flopped a set of tens and Yimin Yang tried to push him out on the turn with top pair only to create the biggest pot of the day.
Kanji ran out of chips for the third time when his ace-five was no good against the pocket queens of eventual Day 1b chip leader Justin Scicluna and right after the same table provided a three-way showdown. Sanjay Patel was all-in with king-jack and Max Deveson got his stack in with ace-jack, Alexander Schechter called with queens and one jack on the board wasn't enough for the upset. Right before the end, Natalia Breviglieri ran with jacks into the kings of Bobby James and couldn't get there.
Many of those that fell jumped right into the evening flight 1c which had already attracted more than 100 unique players by the time level six came to an end.
The Five Starting Days at a Glance
Day 1a: 58 entries, 13 survivors
Day 1b: 76 entries, 24 survivors
Day 1c: November 29th, 2019, at 6 p.m. local time
Day 1d: November 30th, 2019, at 1 p.m. local time
Day 1e: November 30th, 2019, at 7 p.m. local time
While the first three starting days had a rather moderate attendance, that is expected to change for Day 1d on Saturday, November 30th. The final starting day with levels of 40 minutes gets underway at 1 p.m. local time and the turbo heat 1e with levels of 20 minutes is scheduled for 7 p.m. local time.
The registration and re-entry period remains open until the start of Day 2 at 2 p.m. local time on Sunday, December 1st, 2019, and the PokerNews team will be on the floor from start-to-finish until the latest 888poker LIVE Main Event champion is crowned.