Abel Gongora put on a commanding effort to defeat the final table and win the 65,101 888poker Live Madrid 20th Anniversary Edition. In a very short period of time, Gongora was able to eliminate the remaining five opponents, including Bernat Carreras in their head-to-head battle. Gongora prevailed over a field of 374 competitors to win the majority of the approximately 20,714,225 prize money.
With a little bit of luck from the deck and the chip lead going into the final table, Gongora put on a masterful performance of crushing his rivals. The Spaniard will get 4,142,845 as compensation for his efforts, making it by far his biggest tournament victory ever. The game was completed off when Gongora flopped the nut straight and was met with check-raises on the flop and turn from Carreras. Gongora won the match by faking his opponent’s flush draw with all of his chips in the center on the turn.
Table payouts at the end
| PLACE | PLAYER | COUNTRY | PRIZE (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abel Gongora | Spain | 4,142,845 |
| 2 | Bernat Carreras | Spain | 2,959,175 |
| 3 | Paulo Castelo | Portugal | 2,130,606 |
| 4 | Antonio Dascenzo | Italy | 1,657,138 |
| 5 | Miguel Mora | Spain | 1,302,037 |
| 6 | Jose Puente | Spain | 1,035,711 |
| 7 | Palma Ferro | Portugal | 793,058 |
| 8 | Bienvenido Sanchez | Spain | 591,835 |
| 9 | Sebastian Moreno | Spain | 464,057 |
Taking Place on the Last Day
On the third and final day of the competition, there were 39 players who returned to their seats. Each of these players had secured a minimum cash prize of 124,285 before to returning to their seats. Sebastian Moreno, who was in the lead for chips at the beginning of the second day, got off to a solid start by eliminating many players before the first break and expanding his advantage over the rest of the competition. Ian Simpson was the last member of the 888poker crew that was still competing in the tournament. Despite his best efforts, he finished in 26th place and was eliminated from the competition.
The short stacks continued to lose players at a quick clip, and by the time the first break of the day rolled around, there were just 21 players remaining. Gongora, after he had returned to the felt, immediately started making his way toward the top of the scoreboard. As soon as they made it to the final table, Gongora established a commanding advantage over the rest of the players in the tournament. It appeared like the deck was stacked against Moreno, as he lost an early hand while holding ace-king against Paulo Castelo’s pocket kings.
The short stacks of Bienvenido Sanchez and Palma Ferro were the next to hit the rail, each of them walking away with a pay day in the six figures as a result of their work today. At that point, Gongora, who had been waiting patiently, proceeded to make his move with the assistance of the deck smacking him directly in the face. Gongora, who had a fairly good chip lead at the time, proceeded to place ICM pressure on the small stacks and also started to strike several cards at the same time.
The field was reduced to five players after pairing against Jose Puente’s ace-high, and Gongora then emerged from the blinds against Miguel Mora with the stronger of two pocket pairs. When Antonio Dascenzo was down to only one huge blind, Gongora flopped a straight to finish him off.
With three players remaining, Gongora had a brief glitch in which he doubled up both of his opponents, but he quickly recovered when he flopped another straight against Castelo’s top pair. That brought to the heads-up game, where Gongora controlled the majority of the available chips. A few of the early all-ins ended in chopped pots, and then Carreras opened the action with a double-up. With his third flopped straight in less than two hours, Gongora ended the competition three hands later.
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