Who Will Win the 2018 888pokerLIVE Bucharest €888 Main Event?
Only 11 players out of a 469-entry strong field remain in the first-ever 888pokerLIVE Festival €888 Main Event in Bucharest and the lion's share of the Grand Ballroom of the €360,192 prize pool will be up for grabs when the finalists return to the Grand Ballroom of the stunning JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel as of 12.15 p.m. local time. All of them have €5,700 guaranteed for their efforts, while all eyes are set on the trophy and payday of €71,042 that comes along with it.
Stefan Fabian thrones atop the counts with 2,460,000 and there are further eight Romanians in contention to keep the title on home soil in Madalin Cornel Petraru (1,450,000), Bogdan Diaconu (1,415,000), Marian Strachinescu (1,365,000), Andrei Racolta (1,225,000 ), Ferenc Csaba Pal (900,000), Catalin Pop (895,000), Radu Pitic (475,000) and Andrei Alecu (315,000). Pop has already won two trophies on the 888pokerLIVE circuit, winning the Main Event at the King's Casino in Rozvadov for €80,000 and emerging victorious in the €2,200 High Roller in Barcelona in 2017.
Furthermore, two 888poker online qualifiers are among the finalists: Krzysztof Chmielowski from Poland (2,000,000) bought in directly into the $109 satellite and Sinisa Radovanovic from Serbia (1,590,000) started his journey in a $5 satellite, then won his seat for the trip to Romania's capital in the very same $109 qualifier. They sit in 2nd and 3rd place respectively when action resumes in level 22 with blinds of 15,000/30,000 and a running ante of 5,000.
Seat Assignments for the Final Day
| Seat | Table 2 | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds | Seat | Table 3 | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stefan Fabian | Romania | 2,460,000 | 82 | 2 | Ferenc Csaba Pal | Romania | 900,000 | 30 |
| 3 | Madalin Cornel Petraru | Romania | 1,450,000 | 48 | 4 | Marian Strachinescu | Romania | 1,365,000 | 46 |
| 4 | Radu Pitic | Romania | 475,000 | 16 | 6 | Sinisa Radovanovic | Serbia | 1,590,000 | 53 |
| 6 | Bogdan Diaconu | Romania | 1,415,000 | 47 | 7 | Krzysztof Chmielowski | Poland | 2,000,000 | 67 |
| 9 | Andrei Racolta | Romania | 1,225,000 | 41 | 8 | Andrei Alecu | Romania | 315,000 | 11 |
| 9 | Catalin Pop | Romania | 895,000 | 30 |
The €2,200 High Roller restarts at 1 p.m. local time and the registration remains open until the cards are back in the air. So far there were 32 entries in total of which 20 bagged up after seven levels of 40 minutes each. All new entries will receive 30 big blinds worth with upcoming blinds of 500/1,000 and a running ante of 100 and Razvan Bordei leads the field with 97,700, narrowly ahead of €230 Opening Event champion and Main Event 28th place finisher Narcis Gabriel Nedelcu (94,800). Ana Marquez (74,400), 888poker ambassador Sofia Lovgren (65,400), Ran Shahar (58,100), Marius-Alexandru Gicovanu (49,800) and Alexandru Papazian (43,000) are some of the notables still in.
The PokerNews live updates of both Main Event tables will be published right away before the nine-handed final table will then switch over the live stream with commentary and hole cards displayed on a 30-minute delay on the 888poker Twitch channel.