888poker LIVE Sochi: Money Bubble Looms, Feshchenko Joins as Ambassador
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The second tournament day of the 2019 888poker LIVE Sochi Main Event has wrapped up and a field of 569 entries has emerged in the first-ever 888poker LIVE festival on Russian soil in cooperation with Poker Club Management and Casino Sochi.
The money bubble is looming when the 87 remaining players return to their seats in the luxurious casino complex in the mountains of Krasnaya Polyana after a good night's sleep, as just the top 80 spots will take home a portion of the prize pool.
All survivors of the five starting days combined to one field for the first time and the registration remained open for the first four 60-minute levels and the following break, which resulted in an action-packed start and plenty of early casualties. Ultimately, another 83 new entries boosted the field further and the buy-ins of the 32 online qualifiers that couldn't make it to Sochi were also added to the prize pool.
Once the seven scheduled levels were wrapped up, the money bubble was all but reached. Several players were gunning for the overnight lead and it was Evgeniy Golenko that claimed the top spot with 862,000. Another five hopefuls are within eyesight of the Kazakh as Damir Gabdullin (836,000), Ravil Khamatgareev (816,000), Aleksandr Chernikov (810,000), Alexsey Gatsko (790,000) and Leonid Semenyuk (753,000) are not far behind.
2019 888poker LIVE Sochi Main Event at a Glance
| Day | Date | Level Duration | Entries | Survivors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1a | August 10th, 12 p.m. | 40 min | 100 | 41 |
| 1b | August 11th, 12 p.m. | 40 min | 83 | 32 |
| 1c | August 12th, 12 p.m. | 40 min | 135 | 64 |
| 1d | August 12th, 8 p.m. | 25 min | 77 | 48 |
| 1e | August 13th, 10 a.m. | 15 min | 59 | 44 |
| 2 | August 13th, 1.30 p.m. | 60 min | 83 | - |
| 3 | August 14th, 12 p.m. | 60 min | 569 | 87 |
| 4 | August 15th, 12 p.m. | 60 min | tba | - |
Other notables in the hunt for a Russian flag include Andrey Malyshev (505,000), Dmitrii Sukhorukov (505,000), Vartan Manucharyan (443,000), Aleksey Istomin (387,000), Elena Litvinyuk (369,000), Maksym Lavrov (335,000), Petr Bartagov (291,000), Nikolay Fal (208,000), Sergey Pichugin (167,000), Dmitry Gromov (101,000), Dmitry Vitkind (90,000) and Fraser MacIntyre (89,000).
Daria Feshchenko latest 888poker ambassador
For the 888poker ambassadors Vivian Saliba and Sofia Lovgren, the day on the Main Event tables was not crowned by success. The same also applied for Daria Feshchenko, however, the Russian cash game player had reason to celebrate during the dinner break as she was revealed as the newest 888poker ambassador.
Saliba saw her pocket aces cracked by pocket kings and jumped back into the action soon after, but her short-stacked jam with king-jack resulted in a three-way all-in and Ramin Gasanov saw his hopes of a deep run shut down when his pocket kings were also cracked by the ace-king of Oleg Volkov as an ace appeared on the river.
Michael Mizrachi among bustouts
Michael Mizrachi re-entered twice on Day 2 and the third attempt appeared to be a charm when he quickly ran up a stack and was moved over to the feature table. However, a four-bet jam with ace-king for 43 big blinds was called by Hristo Dechev with ace-queen and the Bulgarian spiked one of his three outs on the flop to send Mizrachi to the rail.
Joining the five-time WSOP bracelet winner on the rail throughout the day were familiar names such as Anatoly Korochenskiy, Vladimir Shabalin, Natalia Panchenko, Oleg Egorov, Viktor Kudinov, Gor Kazaryan, Luca Esposito, Pavel Kovalenko, Vahe Martirosyan, and Mikhail Zamyatin.
Kudinov's fate was sealed when his pocket jacks on a four-high flop were no good, as Aleksandrs Natalcenko had flopped the nut straight with six-five suited. Demis Vasilov was caught in the crossfire with top pair and a flush draw but found no help either. Korochenskiy ran out of chips late in the day when his queen-high flush draw on the feature table bricked off against the top pair and top kicker of Dmitriyu Batuev.
The poker action for the night was not done yet for Chernikov, MacIntyre, and others as the former also entered the penultimate day of the High Roller with the chip lead among 31 players out of 80 entries remaining. The event is scheduled to play seven levels of 40 minutes with two levels of late registration remaining and the 888poker ambassadors Sofia Lovgren and Daria Feshchenko were among those with chips at their disposal as well when the cards went back in the air minutes after the Main Event had wrapped up.
Day 3 of the Main Event will recommence at 12 p.m. noon local time with blinds of 4,000-8,000 and a big blind ante of 8,000. A total of eight levels are scheduled or down to the final table, whichever comes first. Only the top 80 spots will get paid and the money bubble is expected to burst prior to the first break of the day.
As of the third level, the live stream with hole cards displayed will also be available on the 888poker Facebook and YouTube channel and the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to provide all the action from Sochi until a champion is crowned.
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