Ferran Corominas Leads Last 17; Martin Jacobson in Contention
The penultimate day of the 2019 888poker LIVE Barcelona �1,100 Main Event has concluded and 17 players out of a 551-entry strong field remain to battle for the top prize of �110,000. Among the finalists at Casino Barcelona is also 888poker ambassador and 2014 WSOP Main Event champion Martin Jacobson, however, the overnight spotlight belongs to Ferran Corominas.
While the name may not ring a bell at the international poker tables yet, Corominas is known as a professional football player and the 36-year-old currently plays as a forward for Indian club FC Goa. Corominas also has several cashes on home soil and in Las Vegas to his name, and may very well have to travel to Sin City again in a few weeks time if he were to take down the flagship event of the festival in Barcelona.
A late surge in which Corominas knocked out four players in the final two levels of the night put the Spaniard in prime position for the added $12,600 package for the eventual champion, courtesy of WSOP sponsor 888poker. Corominas bagged up 2,170,000 and fellow countryman Samuel Hernandez follows in second place with 1,540,000, Italy's Gabriele Rossi sits in third place with 1,395,000.
The trio at the top of the leader board will not only face Jacobson (1,285,000), but also former WSOP Main Event finalist Fernando Pons (1,020,000), Zhong Chen (810,000), Tom-Aksel Bedell (600,000) and Stefano Schiano (580,000).
888poker ambassador Sofia Lovgren cashed the second 888poker LIVE Main Event in a row and was eliminated by Jacobson in the final hands of the night to bow out in 18th place. Other notables that cashed but failed to make it to the final day were Kully Sidhu, Luca Marchetti, Salvatore Camarda, Pablo Rojas, Julian Menhardt, Dorde Jovanovic, and Casey Kastle.
Day 3 Seat Assignments
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37 | 1 | Laszlo-Istvan Salamon | Romania | 1,295,000 | 52 |
| 37 | 2 | Samuel Hernandez | Spain | 1,540,000 | 62 |
| 37 | 3 | Frederik De Linde Farrington | Denmark | 475,000 | 19 |
| 37 | 4 | Gabriele Rossi | Italy | 1,395,000 | 56 |
| 37 | 5 | Martin Jacobson | Sweden | 1,285,000 | 51 |
| 37 | 6 | Ricardo Pinto | Portugal | 1,125,000 | 45 |
| 38 | 1 | Fernando Pons | Spain | 1,020,000 | 41 |
| 38 | 2 | Kristian Larsson | Norway | 625,000 | 25 |
| 38 | 3 | Jai Saha | United Kingdom | 1,160,000 | 46 |
| 38 | 4 | Henrik Ahlstroem | Sweden | 530,000 | 21 |
| 38 | 5 | Zhong Chen | Netherlands | 810,000 | 32 |
| 38 | 7 | Stefano Schiano | Italy | 580,000 | 23 |
| 39 | 2 | Cornelis de Jong | Netherlands | 1,005,000 | 40 |
| 39 | 3 | Mikael Johansson | Sweden | 505,000 | 20 |
| 39 | 4 | Ferran Corominas | Spain | 2,170,000 | 87 |
| 39 | 5 | Tom-Aksel Bedell | Norway | 600,000 | 24 |
| 39 | 6 | David Hu | Netherlands | 460,000 | 18 |
The late registration remained open until the cards went back in the air, and another nine players opted to enter with a fresh stack of 30,000 to boost the field to 551 entries and ensure that the top 56 spots would get paid. Among them were the 888poker ambassadors Ana Marquez and Vivian Saliba, but both bowed out very quickly.
Chris Moorman also failed to make it to the dinner break and the field was quickly cut down in half. Race car driver Daniel Juncadella, Maya Geller, 2017 Barcelona champion Luigi Shehadeh, Vicente Delgado, Sonny Franco, Sergi Escote, Pedro Cairat, Pedro Cairat and Jesus Cortes were just some of the notables that had to leave empty-handed.
In one of the most-spectacular hands of the day, Gereon Sowa saw his hopes of a cash vanish when his aces were cracked by the ace-jack of Patrick Sanfilippo. Day 1c Dario Salamone was also involved in the action with a pair of jacks and flopped top set, only for Sanfilippo to hit running diamonds for a miracle flush. Neither Salamone nor Sanfilippo made it to the payouts, though.
Daiva Byrne, 2017 WSOP Europe Main Event champion Marti Roca de Torres and defending champion Adrian Costin Constantin also ran out of chips before the money bubble and Erik Ostergaard saw his pocket aces cracked by the ace-king of Tom-Aksel Bedell two off the money. Ankit Mehta became the bubble boy when his king-jack lost a race against the pocket deuces of Fernando Pons and that opened the floodgates for dozens of casualties after the dinner break.
In the biggest pot of the tournament until then, Xavier Riera was at risk with pocket aces against the pocket queens of Martin Jacobson over on the feature table and the river provided one of the two remaining queens in the deck to oust Riera and vault Jacobson towards the top of the leaderboard.
Ferran Corominas went from a below-average stack to chip leader in the final stages of the night. First he doubled with the nut straight, then knocked out Pablo Rojas, Sergey Rodin, Kully Sidhu and Rayco Ramos. Sidhu four-bet jammed with ace-king right into the pocket aces of the Spaniard, who then flopped a gutshot and flush draw with nine-eight suited against Rayco. Another nine on the turn improved Corominas to trips and Ramos failed to get there with top pair and an open-ended straight draw.
The all in showdowns kept on coming even during the final three hands of the night and Salvatore Ritrovato as well as Sofia Lovgren missed out on making Day 3 by a few minutes. Ritrovato check-jammed with a pair of sixes into the set of deuces of Cornelis de Jong and Lovgren failed to hit a flush with ace-five suited against Jacobson's ace-king to become the final casualty of the night.
Day 3 is scheduled to commence at 3 p.m. local time with blinds of 10,000/25,000 and a 25,000 big blind ante. There will be a redraw at 16 and 9 players remaining and the action will be streamed on the 888poker Facebook page and YouTube channel with hole cards displayed on a 30-minute security delay. The PokerNews team will provide all the action until a champion is crowned.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize (in EUR) | Prize (in USD) | Place | Prize (in EUR) | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | �110,000 | $123,121 | 7 | �14,000 | $15,670 |
| 2 | �80,000 | $89,542 | 8 | �11,000 | $12,312 |
| 3 | �55,000 | $61,560 | 9 | �8,500 | $9,514 |
| 4 | �35,000 | $39,175 | 10-12 | �6,500 | $7,275 |
| 5 | �26,000 | $29,101 | 13-16 | �5,500 | $6,156 |
| 6 | �19,000 | $21,266 | 17 | �4,700 | $5,261 |