888poker Live BCN Opening Event Breaks Records

From Day 1A, it looked as if this 2018 edition of 888poker Live Barcelona was going to be special. The series is set to run from 24 May through 4 June 2018, offering $1,000,000 (~ €800,000) in guarantees spread over a two-week period.

Again, we were headed to the beautiful Casino Barcelona – one of Europe’s most vibrant and energetic cities.

We kicked things off with the €100,000 GTD Opening Event, which drew a phenomenal 720 entries in 2017. Would we be able to crack that number in the 2018 event?

Firstly, let’s hear what 888poker ambassador had to say about the Barcelona Series:

“I love this city, and it was great to be back. I even got the chance to meet up with an old University friend of mine who has moved here, and I hadn't seen for over 10 years! The opening event was bigger than I thought it was going to be. It was cool to make a semi-run at it even if it ended in just a minimum cash for me.

“I think the main event will have a similar amount of runners as the opening event but will obviously be way bigger because of the higher buy-in. The money on offer to those who make the final table will be substantial for what is a relatively low buy-in.”

We couldn’t have said it any better, Chris!

888pokerLive Barcelona Day 1s

There were four Day 1s scheduled for the Opening Event:

24/5/2018 – Day 1A

25/5/2018 – Day 1B

26/5/2018 – Day 1C

26/5/2018 – Day 1D

Here are the numbers that each day generated:

Day 1A - 209 entries

Day 1B – 265 entries

Day 1C – 282 entries

Day 1D – 73 entries

After all the numbers were tallied, we crushed the 2017 Opening Event numbers with 829 entries creating a total prize pool of €159,168. Of the total entries, 60 were 888poker qualifiers.

Pay Outs and Cashes

With €59,168 over the guarantee, there was bound to be a fair bit up top to battle for – and a respectable 90 places were paid.

1st - €30,000

2nd - €18,000

3rd - €12,678

4th - €9,500

5th - €7,300

6th - €5,900 

7th - €4,750

8th - €3,500

9th - €2,500

Once we reached the money, the action sped up and it was not long before we were facing down the final table of 9.

Final Table Action

Once the final table was set, the players started to dig in for a long night ahead. With a massive difference of €27,500 between the top and bottom spots, this was to be expected.

And, we were wrong! It took only a few hours to get heads-up and another couple of hours of heads-up play – after a deal was made - to declare a winner, Luka Cencelj.

He beat out 888poker qualifier, Anton Malinovskii for title and top pay out.

*denotes deal made

We’ll give the final words to our winner, Luka:

"The tournament was amazing. Really long, we played today for 12 hours and, I don't know, it's been a great experience that's all I can say.

I played here last year I think in Barcelona. This is actually the biggest I won so far.

I was planning on playing the Main anyways, so definitely going to play it now. 

That's the biggest so far; hopefully, in a few days, it will be the main event. "

Well played, Luka and good luck in the Main!