Adrian Constantin Wins 2019 888poker LIVE London £1,100 Main Event (£100,000)
A marathon final day of nearly 14 hours has wrapped up at the Aspers Casino at Westfield Stratford City and a new champion has been crowned in the 2019 888poker LIVE Festival London £1,100 Main Event as Romania's Adrian-Eugen Constantin staged an incredible comeback in heads-up against Leon Louis to claim the trophy, top prize of £100,000 and package for the 2020 World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas courtesy of event sponsor 888poker.
The flagship event of the festival created a field of 518 entries and the prize pool of £512,820 was split among the top 63 finishers with the lion's share being awarded on the final day, which saw 23 hopefuls return to their seats. Ultimately, Constantin prevailed with the fortune on his side after he survived six all-in showdowns against Louis, who himself doubled once for 90% of the chips in heads-up play and still came up short eventually.
Constantin's name may have particularly familiar ring to it on the 888poker LIVE circuit as fellow countryman Adrian Costin Constantin lifted the trophy for the winner shots at Casino Barcelona back in 2018. What makes the winner story even more remarkable is the fact that the 41-year-old businessman from Bucharest won his entry to the event in an €33 online satellite on 888poker.
Final Result 2019 888poker LIVE London £1,100 Main Event
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in GBP) | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adrian Constantin | Romania | £100,000* | $129,274* |
| 2 | Leon Louis | United Kingdom | £69,770 | $90,194 |
| 3 | Manuel Bueno | Germany | £44,920 | $58,070 |
| 4 | Egidijus Alsauskas | Lithuania | £33,230 | $42,958 |
| 5 | Aleksandrs Golubevs | United Kingdom | £24,920 | $32,215 |
| 6 | Nikolay Ponomarev | Russia | £20,100 | $25,984 |
| 7 | Valdir Cordeiro dos Santos | Brazil | £16,660 | $21,537 |
| 8 | Jose Echevarne Gomez | Spain | £13,280 | $17,168 |
| 9 | Bhavin Khatri | United Kingdom | £10,000 | $12,927 |
*winner also receives an additional package worth $12,500 for the 2020 WSOP Main Event
For Constantin and runner-up Louis, it was the biggest payday on the live poker circuit thus far and third-place finisher Manuel Bueno even recorded his first-ever live cash. While he may have a very Spanish-sounding name, Bueno was born in Hamburg / Germany and currently lives in Brighton, just a short ride away from interesting poker evens in the British capital.
Fourth-place finisher Egidijus Alsauskas is a regular at the Aspers Casino and had several cashes in the 888poker LIVE Local Series to his name already. The Lithuanian won his Main Event ticket through an £60 live satellite at the card room and turned that into a payday of £33,230.
Three other 888poker online qualifiers reached the final day including Jose Echevarne Gomez (8th, for £13,280), Matthew Anderson (18th, for £5,120) and Teresa Purti (23rd, for £3,990). Other notables that returned to their seats for the final showdown were Ramlal Basdeo, 888poker WPT500 London champion Gary Miller, Mark Yi, Valdir Cordeiro dos Santos and Nikolay Ponomarev.
Bueno Goes From Short Stack to Chip Leader
Heading into the final day with 23 players remaining, Teresa Purti was the last woman standing and the 888poker qualifier from Spain would become the first casualty of the day when she jammed with king-queen into aces. By then, fellow short stack Manuel Bueno, who had started the day with 13 big blinds only had doubled, nearly tripled up and also emerged victorious in the perhaps most remarkable and pivotal hand of the day.
In a three-way limped pot, three straight and flush draws collided as Daniel Habib ended up at risk with ace-seven of clubs for the nut flush draw. Bueno had eight-four of clubs for an open-ended straight draw and the second-worst flush draw while Gary Miller had six-five of clubs for a pair and gutshot. Bueno turned an ace for the straight and the river came a blank.
Just one hand later, Miller three-bet jammed with eights and Bueno isolated with pocket tens to cement his status as the chip leader. As the field was slowly but surely whittled down to the final table, online qualifier Matthew Anderson, Ion Albu and Ramlal Basdeo had already visited the payout desk.
Scott Berko busted in cruel fashion when his queens failed to hold up against the ace-queen of Egidijus Alsauskas. Berko had the three clubs on the flop covered but an off suit ace hit the river. The eliminations of Andrew Connell and Gary Bertram then set up the nine-handed final table and Bueno had almost two-times as many chips as his nearest follower Alsauskas.
Early Eliminations on the Final Table
Leon Louis and Adrian Constantin, who would end up in 2nd and 1st place eventually, were the bottom two stacks at the start of the final table and it was Bhavin Khatri that headed to the payout desk first. Khatri took a flip with ace-queen against pocket eights and an eight on the flop destroyed all his hopes of an even deeper run.
For 888poker qualifier Jose Echevarne Gomez, the end came in 8th place. Left short after his top pair and top kicker ran into the two pair of Louis, Gomez spiked one double before he lost a flip with fours against the ace-jack of Bueno. Louis also knocked out Valdir Cordeiro dos Santos when his kings held up pocket tens and Constantin remained as the only player below one million in chips with six remaining.
Nikolay Ponomarev lost several key showdowns in half an hour to become the next casualty and Constantin upped his aggression to chip up with several successful three-bets. The next casualty was Aleksandrs Golubevs who fell in a battle of the short stacks with Egidijus Alsauskas and that suddenly left just four players in contention.
Key Double Up for Constantin; Heads-Up Drama for Louis
Bueno had not surrendered the comfortable chip lead yet until then and that would all change in a key hand against Constantin. In three-way action, Bueno flopped top two pair with king-six and Constantin invested a big portion of his stack with queen-nine suited for the flush draw. Another spade appeared on the turn and the chips went in, Constantin held up in a crucial spot and took over the lead.
With plenty of chips at his disposal, Constantin amped up his aggression and pulled away further at the top of the leaderboard. Leon Louis sent Alsauskas to the rail when he flopped a full house with pocket tens and rivered quads for the second time on the final day for good measure. First deal negotiations broke out but no agreement could be found.
Only a few hands into the three-handed action, Constantin finished the job he had started earlier and sent Bueno to the rail in third place. The German flopped trips sixes and Constantin turned a straight to enter heads-up against Louis as 3-1 chip leader. However, only 15 minutes later it was Louis that scored the double and was suddenly in the driver's seat.
Constantin was on the ropes several times and all his following seven all-in showdowns ran out in his favor. He doubled six times, some of which came in utterly dramatic and heart-breaking fashion for Louis. When the Brit ended up at risk for the second time in heads-up, he turned two pair with queen-four and Constantin looked him up with ace-jack for top pair and a gutshot. A ten on the river gave Constantin a straight and the event came to a conclusion past 3.30 a.m. local time.
888poker ambassador Sofia Lovgren wins Ladies Event
While the £1,100 Main Event played down to the final three tables on the previous day, the Ladies Event took place and the £50 buy-in attracted a field of 37 unique players, who purchased an additional 22 rebuys to create a prize pool of £2,765. The top seven spots were paid and three 888poker ambassadors finished in the money.
One year ago at the same location, Sofia Lovgren was denied the trophy when she finished second to Natalia Drytchak. This time, Lovgren defeated fellow 888poker ambassador Daria Feshchenko in heads-up to claim the trophy for her cabinet.
Final Result Ladies Event
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in GBP) | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sofia Lovgren | Sweden | £900 | $1,165 |
| 2 | Daria Feshchenko | Russia | £635 | $822 |
| 3 | Helen Lamb | United Kingdom | £410 | $531 |
| 4 | Ana Marquez | Spain | £330 | $427 |
| 5 | Thanh Thom Pham | United Kingdom | £245 | $317 |
| 6 | Andrea Tincombe | United Kingdom | £165 | $214 |
| 7 | Katie Lindsay | United States | £80 | $104 |
That wraps up the PokerNews live reporting from London and the preparations for the next 888poker LIVE festival are already in full swing. At the end of January 2020, the popular mid-stakes tour will be heading to Madrid for the first time and the €888 Main Event at the Casino Gran Via will feature a guaranteed prize pool of €800,000.