There were over 12 hours of poker on Day 2 of the ￡1,100 Main Event at the 2023 888poker Live London festival and a field of 385 entries has been dwindled down to the final 15 players. The lion's share of the ￡367,500 prize pool is still up for grabs with the winner eventually walking away with ￡93,000 for their efforts.
Leading the charge into the final day will be none other than Hong Pham who put on a brilliant display of poker throughout the day. Pham got off to a hot start in the early going and that trend continued into the dinner break where she took over the chip lead just four levels into the day. From then, Pham never relinquished her lead en route to bagging a stack of 2,030,000 chips.
Pham's previous poker results only go back to 2021 with the majority of her cashes coming here at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino. While mostly playing smaller buy-in events, Pham has accumulated nearly $100,000 in winnings thus far but is in a great position to lock up the best result of her short career. Pham looked like a seasoned veteran on the felt hiding behind her sunglasses and showing no fear whatsoever. Three-bets, four-bets, and plenty of aggressive action put her in the pole position heading to Day 3.
When she returns tomorrow, she will be seated next to her nearest competitor and adversary, Francis Obadun. A series of bluffs along with some favorable runouts led Obadun to a stack of 1,600,000 as he looks for his largest career score as well. Rounding out the top three stacks after Day 2 is Tobias Kirby who put on an impressive display at the feature table over the last two hours of the night. Kirby bagged up 1,220,000 and will be in a great position for a deep run when Day 3 rolls around.
Day 3 Seat Draw and Chip Counts
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 1 | Raymond Caabay | United Kingdom | 540,000 | 27 |
| 20 | 2 | Dave Mcconachie | United Kingdom | 505,000 | 25 |
| 21 | 3 | Leon Campbell | United Kingdom | 375,000 | 19 |
| 22 | 4 | Tobias Kirby | United Kingdom | 1,220,000 | 61 |
| 23 | 5 | Eliran Argelazi | Israel | 560,000 | 28 |
| 24 | 6 | Paul Nugent | United Kingdom | 335,000 | 17 |
| 25 | 7 | Ryan Otto | New Zealand | 840,000 | 42 |
| 26 | 8 | Jiaze Li | United Kingdom | 430,000 | 22 |
| 21 | 1 | Francis Obadun | United Kingdom | 1,600,000 | 80 |
| 22 | 2 | Hong Pham | Vietnam | 2,030,000 | 102 |
| 23 | 3 | Chris Williams | United Kingdom | 1,045,000 | 52 |
| 24 | 4 | Smit Trivedi | United Kingdom | 815,000 | 41 |
| 25 | 5 | Richard Connolly | United Kingdom | 450,000 | 23 |
| 26 | 6 | ||||
| 27 | 7 | George Pop | United Kingdom | 335,000 | 17 |
| 28 | 8 | Bixi Yao | United Kingdom | 680,000 | 34 |
There were 138 players who began the day of the 385 total entries in this event. Late registration was open until the start of the day and 14 players took their last shot with a 30,000-chip starting stack. It didn't take long for some of the shorties to head to the rail as the field was cut down to just 81 players at the first break. Unfortunately for the 888poker ambassadors, Ricardo Mateus, Lucia Navarro, and Vivian Saliba were all eliminated in the early going and failed to make it into the money.
Upon returning from dinner break, everyone had their sights set on reaching the money as the field was only a few eliminations away. There was no time wasted making it to the hand-for-hand portion of the tournament but on the stone bubble, the action came to a screeching halt. While some of the short stacks doubled up in the first few hands, the bubble continued to drag on for about two hours.
With a few players down to just a single big blind, it was Joshua Kovacs who had his last 5,000 chips in the middle and at risk. Kovacs was unable to connect with anything on the board and Obadun flopped two pair to finally burst the remaining 38 players into the money, locking up at least ￡2,250 for a min-cash.
There was a flurry of eliminations that followed as the short stacks felt the brunt of the torturous bubble that ensued. From 38 players to the final 24 players took less than an hour and the final three tables were redrawn. Some of the late-night casualties included Chris Da Silva, Janice Phillips, and Jack McDermott but all of them at least locked up a piece of the prize pool.
The action is slated to resume at 12:00 p.m. noon local time tomorrow where the final 15 players will square off until a winner is crowned. They will be returning to level 23 with the blinds at 10,000/20,000 and a 20,000 big blind ante. The levels will continue to be 60 minutes in length until just five players remain and they are cut down to 45 minutes. Each player will be given a fresh stack of four time-bank cards, each worth 30 seconds.
The final 15 players have secured themselves at least ￡4,050 thus far, but the pay jumps will become more significant as the tournament progresses. The PokerNews live reporting team will be here all the way to bring you all of the eliminations until a champion is determined.
