Main Event
Day 2 Completed
2016 888Live Austria
Main Event
Day: 2
Elliot Hirn took down the 888Live Austria Main Event at the Innsbruck Casino after an intense battle against his opponent Ivan Mairhofer.
The second and final day started at 14:00 local time with 67 players out of 128 total entries. Alec Torelli was leading the pack with 138,000 chips followed by France's Hirn, who ended Day 1 in second position with 116,000 in chips.
888poker pro Sofia Lövgren managed to build up a decent stack as she started with less than 20 big blinds, but eventually ran into aces with a pair of kings, lost all her chips, and finished in 46th place.
"I couldn't avoid the shove after he raised my three-bet, it was just a cooler," she said.
A few levels later, it was Domink Nitsche's turn to leave the 888Live Austria Main Event. The 888poker pro started Day 2 with a short stack and finished the tournament in 36th place. In the decisive hand, Nitsche showed 
suited and was called by an opponent who held 
suited. Unfortunately, a on the flop killed his dream of winning the first 888live event in his career.
The action at the Innsbruck Casino continued until Germany's Florian Hoffman bubbled the tournament and the remaining players left the tournament room for a dinner break. One level later, the final table was set with a short-stacked Torelli still in the game. He busted a few hands later though, shoving with 
to the big blind, who called with 
.
The nine finalists played for about three more hours until the last three players made an ICM deal when Ivan Mairhofer was the chip leader. He got most of the money and they agreed to play for €990 plus the trophy for the winner.
In the final hand of the tournament, Hirn showed the 
and ended up best against Mairhofer's 
as the board ran out 
. With that, Hirn became the 888Live Austria champion and celebrated the victory with his friends.
With the Day 2 of the 2016 888live Austria Main Event only a few hours away, the 67 survivors from yesterday’s starting flight are all getting ready to head back to the Casino Innsbruck and fight to secure their share of the €41,820 prize pool on tap.
High stakes poker player and poker strategy guru Alec Torelli will start Day 2 comfortably in the lead, with a stack of 138,000 in chips. As he told us yesterday, Torelli found out about the 888live event in Innsbruck while he was enjoying some time off in Milan with his wife - did you know Alec LOVES doors? - and decided to come here to have a look at the event.
“My wife and I were in Milan and we decided to head up to Innsbruck as she always wanted to bring me here," Torelli explained. "We've heard about the first 888poker event of the year so we said 'why not?'. I got here two hours late but I think things went really went well for me today. I had an amazing run of cards and made a couple of good reads - so, here I am on top of the count!"
Although Torelli is one of the most experienced players still in the Main Event, he will have to follow every single one of the strategy tips he published here on PokerNews over the years - as he is not the only one who is heading back to the casino to fight for the title and the €11,710 top cash prize.
Need any examples? With the second-biggest stack in play, Eliot Hirn is well-determined to best his biggest score so far, a 4th-place finish at the Barriere Poker Tour Ribeauvillé in 2013.
Also, three-time WSOP bracelet winner and 888poker pro Dominik Nitsche is still in and is looking for a way to forget his unsuccessful adventure in Australia earlier this year. ”I busted the Aussie Million so quickly that I decided to spend few days at home and now I'm here playing the 888live Main Event. The atmosphere is awesome here, people are so friendly and I have to admit that I got unused to playing with german speaking poker players, but it's nice and I wish there were more tournaments here."
Amongst the day's short stacks there is also the other 888poker pro in play, Sweden’s Sofia Lovgren. “Unfortunately, I've been without good cards all day and I finished with approximately 19,000 chips. I made a few steals and a couple of bluffs to stay in play so tomorrow I'll have to risk something. However, this has been a lot of fun so far!"
The Day 2 starts at 14:00 UTC+1. Make sure you follow PokerNews for all your live updates from the first 888live event of 2016.
Main Event
Day 2 Started