To celebrate the holiday this past weekend, 888poker hosted the 2017 888Live Easter Edition London Main Event at Aspers Casino Stratford.
The £440 ($561) buy-in tournament attracted 303 entrants, and after three days of play it was Krzysztof Pregowski who walked away with a £21,118 ($26,900) prize after a three-way deal.
Lövgren & Moorman Both Cash 888Live Easter Edition
After Kanan Farzaliyev exited as the 888Live Easter bubble boy in 37th place, the result of his pocket sevens falling to a set of four, the final 36 players were guaranteed a minimum £815 ($1,040) payday. The two most notable players in the money were 888poker Ambassadors Sofia Lövgren and Chris Moorman, and as fate would have it the former busted to the latter.
“I’m always kind to my friends so I decided to give Chris Moorman my remaining chips,” Lövgren jokingly tweeted afterward. “GL to him now!”
Lövgren took home a min-cash for her 30th-place finish while Moorman went on to finish 13th for £1,580 ($2,016).
In Moorman’s final hand, the blinds were 8,000/16,000/2,000 when Moorman moved all in for 221,000 holding the Q♥10♥ and Romania’s Ciprian Panunesco called him with the J♦J♠. The board ran out a dry 8♠6♠4♣K♦8♥ and just like that online poker’s most accomplished tournament player hit the rail.
Terry Jordon Comes Up One Spot Shy of Being Two-Time Champ
At the time the deal was struck, Terry Jordon held the chip lead. In January 2015, Jordan took down the 888Live Local London Main Event for £14,490 ($21,905), and that put him in a position to become the first-ever two-time winner of an 888Live event.
Eventually, Panunesco exited in third place after his picket nines fell to Pregowski’s ace-queen, and that is when action heated up. Over the course of the next three hands, the duo move all in blind, which resulted in the chip lead changing every time.
In the fourth, and what would be final hand, the shorter-stacked Jordon was all in blind holding the 10♣4♥ and Pregowski had him at risk with the 5♥2♣. The J♣9♣5♠ flop gave Pregowski the lead, but Jordon picked up gutshot outs on the 7♦ turn. Unfortunately for him, the J♠ river was a blank and he had to settle for runner-up.
“The whole idea behind it was that every tournament when you come to heads-up, everyone sits there all serious for hours and hours,” Pregowski told PokerNews after the win. “Someone mentioned earlier that a tournament took ten hours heads-up before it finished. So, we thought we’d just give it a spin and see what happens. Let the cards decide, not the players, and that’s what we’ve done!”
Prior to the win, Pregowski had just $5,843 in live tournament earnings, which included $2,337 for finishing 12th in the 888Live Local Series London in March 2016.
Final Table Results
1 Krzysztof Pregowski (UK) £21,118/$26,900*
2 Terry Jordan (UK) £21,000/$26,749*
3 Ciprian Panunesco (Romania) £15,000/$19,107*
4 Robert Lim (UK) £8,855/$11,279
5 Mark Harding (UK) £6,645/$8,464
6 Amar Al Hossana (UK) £5,315/$6,770
7 Jen Yue Chiang (USA) £4,415/$5,623
8 Graeme Bester (South Africa) £3,535/$4,503
9 Egidijus Alsauskas (Lithuania) £2,659/$3,387*Denote three-handed deal
