Leonardo Mancuso Wins €2,200 High Roller (€52,000)
While the second starting day of the €888 Main Event was running at the stunning Casino Gran Via Madrid and a Bounty Side Event occupied most other tables that were not already filled with cash game action, one further tournament played down to a champion. After bagging up with the final nine out of a field of 103 entries, the €2,200 High Roller needed another seven levels of 45 minutes each until one contender had collected all the chips.
Jose Manuel Planells seemed destined to be the first on the rail as he returned to just four big blinds and change. However, the Spaniard "won the first flip" as he started on the button and subsequently doubled his stack more than once. Valeriano Toledano became the initial casualty when his ace-nine suited failed to catch any help against the ace-king of Ignacio Molina.
The next two to fall were Dmytro Yevseienko and Daniel Tafur, and 888poker ambassador Sofia Lovgren had to settle for 6th place. Planells had nursed his shorter stack for a long time and eventually ran out of chips when his ace-nine lost a dramatic flip against the pocket treys of Arie Zilberman. A nine on the flop and ace on the turn gave Planells two pair but Zilberman spiked a trey on the river.
Shortly after, Zilberman also struck gold with ten-trey against the ace-ten suited of Andrey Golubev to reduce the field to the final three hopefuls. Yet, it was the player from Israel that headed to the payout desk next and left Leonardo Mancuso with a mountain to climb against overwhelming chip leader Molina.
Scooping the 888poker LIVE €2,200 High Roller trophy with pocket eights and possibly another eight on the board as the winning hand would have sounded unbelievable. Molina certainly tried to strengthen the brand awareness twice but lost a flip against ace-queen before then ending up-second best against pocket jacks.
Ultimately, the blinds caught up on the former dominating chip leader and Molina got it in with jack-eight. Mancuso called with jack-ten suited and a ten-high flop left the Spaniard in need of a nine for a straight or running eights. Two blanks came on turn and river to send the trophy to Italy.
| Place | Player | Country | Payout (in EUR) | Payout (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leonardo Mancuso | Italy | € 52,000 | $57,372 |
| 2 | Ignacio Molina | Spain | € 37,000 | $40,822 |
| 3 | Arie Zilberman | Israel | € 27,000 | $29,789 |
| 4 | Andrey Golubev | Kazakhstan | € 21,000 | $23,169 |
| 5 | Jose Manuel Planells | Spain | € 16,000 | $17,653 |
| 6 | Sofia Lovgren | Sweden | € 12,000 | $13,240 |
| 7 | Daniel Tafur | Spain | € 9,000 | $9,930 |
| 8 | Dmytro Yevseienko | Ukraine | € 7,000 | $7,723 |
| 9 | Valeriano Toledano | Spain | € 5,700 | $6,289 |
| 10 | Andre Moreira | Portugal | € 4,500 | $4,965 |
| 11 | Sonny Franco | France | € 4,500 | $4,965 |
| Total | € 195,700 | $215,916 |
It was the far-biggest score of Mancuso on the live poker circuit, as his biggest cash until now was a cash in the 2019 EPT Barcelona Main Event, also on Spanish soil.
