Chess personality Alexandra Botezwill return for Day 3 of the €1,100 888poker LIVE Barcelona Main Event along with 26 others as the remaining players battle to try and reach the final table here at the beautiful Barcelona?Casino.
Botez fired multiple bullets in Day 1c but wasn't able to secure a bag. However Botez reentered at the start of Day 3 with 30,000 chips and managed to spin it up to 307,000 which put her right in the middle of the pack heading into Day 3.
Play is set to kick off at 4 p.m. local time with the blinds starting at 5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 big blind ante as players continue to battle for the bulk of the €369,000 prizepool with a €66,000 for first place prize waiting for the eventual champion.
Catalan local Albert Grane (1,060,000) will come into the day with the chip lead after having a big stack for the whole of Day 2. He will be closely followed by Patrick Donohue (1,000,000) who also bagged over a million chips.
Albert Grane Will Come into Day 3 as Chip Leader
Start of Day 3 Top 10 Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Albert Grane
Spain
1,060,000
101
2
Patrick Donohue
United Kingdom
1,000,000
100
3
Lin Xia
Spain
809,000
81
4
Dorian Dizy
Spain
668,000
67
5
Juan Jose Garcia
Spain
664,000
66
6
Alessandro Pichierri
Italy
664,000
66
7
Tullio Bertoli
Venezuela
660,000
66
8
Nils Lechner
Germany
569,000
57
9
Remi Castaignon
France
508,000
51
10
Juri Nereu
Spain
490,000
49
888poker will stream on their twitch channel from 4:30 local time. Stay tuned to PokerNews for live reporting throughout the event until a champion is crown on Monday 21st May 2023.
Marius Stancescu was all in for his final 140,000 from early position against Alexandra Botez in the big blind.
Marius Stancescu: K?Q?
Alexandra Botez: A?K?
Stancescu was dominated from Botez and needed help. The flop came Q?9?3? which was domination rotation in Stancescu's favour. The J? came on the turn which gave Botez a broadway straight draw. The river was gin for Botez as it came the 10? to give her the straight and eliminate Stancescu from the tournament.
Nuno Duarte raised to 55,000 with 9?9? from under the gun. Kristian Larsson moved all in for 185,000 from the cutoff with 7?7?. Action folded back to Duarte who called.
Kristian Larsson: 7?7?
Nuno Duarte: 9?9?
Larsson was all in for his tournament life and dominated by Duarte's superior pocket pair. The flop came Q?6?6? which was of no help to Larsson. The turn came a brick when it came the 10? and the A? river ensured Larsson's elimination in 10th for a payday of €6,040. The final 9 players will return tomorrow for the final table to fight for the €66,000.
Finn Tero Laurila will go into Day 4 with a big chip lead, having bagged 3,020,000 from his starting stack of 165,000 at the start of the day. Laurila will be in pole position to take home the €66,000 first place prize as he will come into tomorrow's play with over 100 big blinds here at the beautiful Casino Barcelona at the €1,100 888poker LIVE Barcelona Main Event.
However, the tournament's story so far has been German Nils Lechner, having qualified for this event from an $11 online satellite on 888poker.com. It is one of the first times the 23-year-old, who predominately plays online, has played a live poker tournament. Lechner came into the day as a top 10 stack and managed to survive to secure a minimum payday of €7,120.
Nils Lechner Sattied in for $11
Chip Counts After Day 3
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Tero Laurila
Finland
3,020,000
121
2
Albert Grane
Spain
1,970,000
79
3
Pekka Ikonen
Finland
1,415,000
57
4
Nuno Duarte
Portugal
1,065,000
43
5
Nils Lechner
Germany
1,015,000
41
6
Tullio Bertoli
Venezuela
945,000
38
7
Lin Xia
Italy
765,000
31
8
Juri Mereu
Italy
500,000
20
9
Sergi Alonso
Spain
370,000
15
A total of 27 players came into Day 3, but all eyes were on chess streamer Alexandra Botez, who came into the day in the middle of the pack. Botez was on the feature table throughout the day and managed to survive as the field thinned. Botez found a crucial double-up when she got her chips in good with ace-king against Marius Stancescu's king-queen. However, Botez didn't eliminate Stancescu the easy way as the flop gave Stancescu top pair only for Botez to river a straight when she picked up a Broadway draw on the turn.
just setting up my twttr
— jack (@jack)
Botez was eventually eliminated when she got her final chips in the middle with ace-deuce against Lin Xia's ace-queen to be eliminated in 16th place for €5,000.
Alexandra Botez Couldn't Make It to the Final Table
Start of day chip leader and Catalan local Albert Grane maintained his chip stack throughout the day and was helped when Giacomo Raddi picked an ill time to four-bet bluff. Grane had three-bet in the cutoff before Raddi four-bet all in with queen-five but was eliminated when Grane snap-called with ace-king. Raddi didn't get there and was eliminated in 12th place for €6,040.
Gran's momentum would continue when Juan Jose Garcia (11th- €6,040) moved all in with ace-eight only to run into the aces of Gran which elevated Gran up the leaderboard behind Laurila.
Albert Grane
The final table bubble lasted a while with hand-for-hand in place. Still, it was Day 1b chip leader Kristian Larsson who would eventually fall as he three-bet shoved his pocket sevens only to lose against Nuno Duarte's pocket nines.
Kristian Larsson Final Table Bubbled
Action will resume at 3:30 p.m. local time, with action being streamed on 888poker's Twitch channel on a 15-minute delay. Blinds will continue at 10,000/25,000 with a 25,000 big blind ante. Stay tuned to PokerNews for updates from the final table until a champion is crowned.
