Mehdi Hadj Rabah opened from middle position, only to see Javier Elorza move all in from the big blind. Rabah snap-called and immediately turned his cards over.
Mehdi Hadj Rabah: A♠A♣
Javier Elorza: A♥Q♠
Elora ran into pocket aces, unable to improve on the 10♣3♦8♠7♣6♠ runout as Rabah stayed alive and doubled his stack.
Tournament staff have paused the clock with 10:00 remaining on the last level of the night and announced that three more hands will be dealt before players bag up for Day 2.
Another day of action has come to an end at the 888poker LIVE Madrid series here at the beautiful Casino Gran Via. After a second flight of the €888 Main Event,
42 players found a bag at the end of the night, joining the 20 players from Day 1a. In all, the day saw 129 entries to bring the overall total to 214 thus far.
The action saw the chip leaders balanced for most of the day, but Federico Estrada was able to pull away late in the night to bag the top spot on Day 1b with 492,000 chips. He trails overall chip leader Paolo Boi of Italy, who finished Day 1a with 535,000.
Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Federico Estrada
Argentina
492,000
123
2
Carlos Perez-Dosio
Spain
383,000
96
3
David McConachie
United Kingdom
327,000
82
4
Marian Dicu
Romania
267,500
67
5
George Chirac
Romania
260,000
65
6
Pier Angelo Perazzi
Italy
260,000
65
7
Federico Piroddi
Italy
253,000
63
8
Jesus Ramos Vazquez
Spain
229,000
57
9
Manuel Sanchez Morito
Spain
222,000
56
10
Lirong Hu Yu
Spain
206,000
52
Vivian Saliba
The day saw several 888poker Ambassadors take their shot at securing chips for Sunday, with Vivian Saliba (59,000) and Alexandre Mantovani sitting as two that were successful on this day.
Ian Simpson fired just once on Friday after three entries on Day 1a, but will have to try again tomorrow. He was joined on the rail by Lucía Navarro, along with 888poker Stream Team member Ricardo Mateus. Fellow streamer Nick Eastwood was bagging at the end of the night, finding his way to Day 2.
Among the notable names from Day 1b were Natalia Breviglieri (125,000), who is looking to improve on a third-place finish earlier this week in the Opening Event in Madrid.
Paulo Castelo vaulted up the leaderboard later in the day by finding a call on the river against Nandor Fejes (177,000). However, by day's end it was Fejes bagging while Castelo was eliminated.
Spanish professional footballer Aleix Vidaldoubled his short stack late in the night, but was unable to build from there and did not survive to make Day 2.
Aleix Vidal
Day 1c gets underway at 5 p.m. local time on Saturday, January 27. Players will take their seats with a starting stack of 50,000 chips. Blinds will begin at 100/300 and a 300 big blind ante. Following the same structure as the opening two flights, the day will see 11 levels lasting 45 minutes each. Players will get 15-minute breaks after every three levels, with a 60-minute dinner break scheduled after Level 6.
Players can reenter as many times as they wish, with late registration closing at the start of Day 2. The turbo Day 1d flight will be played Sunday, January 28 at 1 p.m.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be covering all of the action from Casino Gran Via on the way to crowning an 888poker champion.
