Online qualifier Nils Lechner qualified for the €1,100 888poker LIVE Barcelona Main Event from an $11 step satellite and has now made it to the final table. The 23 year old German predominately plays online and has only played live poker a handful of times. Not only has Lechner made the final table but it will be his first reported live tournament cash. Lechner, along with the other eight players, have locked up €7,120 heading into the days proceedings but will all have their eyes on the €66,000 first place prize here at the beautiful Barcelona?Casino.
PokerNews caught up with Lechner at the end of Day 3 and asked him about his journey to the final table. Lechner said "Yeah, I’m often now playing online. I’m not really into live games. I’ve only played live once before. I started through a $11 tournament and then I got in the main for the ticket in the one online and shipped this one. So it was like already, like, pretty big to come here. Just getting the accommodations paid and just enjoying. And I had no expectations going into this."
Lechner went on to say "(I just wanted) to play and enjoy a vacation with my girlfriend and yeah, like it’s insane. Right now I’m feeling really energized and it’s a lot of emotions going on."
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | €66,000 |
| 2 | €44,000 |
| 3 | €33,000 |
| 4 | €26,000 |
| 5 | €20,000 |
| 6 | €15,000 |
| 7 | €12,000 |
| 8 | €9,300 |
| 9 | €7,120 |
However Lechner only comes into the final table as a middle stack with Finn Tero Laurila (3,020,000) coming into the day with the dominant chip lead. Catalan local, and Day 2 chip leader, Albert Grane (1,970,000) will also be hoping for a podium finish as he comes into the day in second position. Laurila's fellow Finn Pekka Ikonen (1,415,000) comes into the day in third place.
Final Table Chip Counts
| 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 |
There was a total of 369 entries which attracted a prizepool of €369,000. Now only nine remain with action resuming at 4:00 p.m. local time with blinds recommencing at 10,000/25,000 with a 25,000 big blind ante.
The final showdown will be broadcasted on a delay of 30 minutes on the 888poker Twitch channel. All PokerNews live updates will be published according to the delayed cards-up coverage.
