With the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure something of the past and partypoker beginning their live poker year at the Dusk Till Dawn felt in Nottingham, 888poker had a chance to be the first major brand to venture to mainland Europe as they welcomed players to the Spanish capital of Madrid for the first stop on their 2020 tour.
With a very healthy 1,067 entries and an €800,000 prize-pool, the 888poker LIVE Madrid Main Event cost just €888 to enter and had plenty of takers for a huge value tournament.
In the end it was Italy’s Marco Biavaschi who took the title, winning a career-high €150,000 after beating Kazakhstani player Daniyar Aubakirov heads-up.
The Casino Gran Via in Madrid was the setting for the first Main Event on the 888LIVE tour, and the final day didn’t disappoint. All the field were in the money from the get-go, so the aim of almost everyone in the room was to build a stack with which to attack the latter stages of play and fight for the really big prizes.
It was into the midnight hour when the final nine players assembled for their collective photograph, one of the traditions that live poker cannot outgrow no matter how much it tries.
Aubakirov was one of the biggest aggressors, but one player who never got going was the Spanish hopeful Ruben De Pedro, who busted first. Next to go was Ran Shahar, and he was followed out of the door by his countryman, Gilad Yam-Hod. With six players remaining, there were still three homegrown players from Spain and two Italians along with Kazakhstan’s finest, Aubakirov. It would be an Italian who busted next, but not the champion Biavaschi, instead Marco D’Amico, who couldn’t survive to see the six-figure score some of his earlier play in the tournament looked like it might earn.
With the three remaining Spanish players departing in short order, Miguel Tejero, Pablo Paez and David Gonzalez Delgado were no more. It was a duel between the aggressive nature of Aubakirov and the slightly more pragmatic style of Marco Biavaschi.
Heads-up was a topsy-turvy affair, Aubakirov racing into an early lead but unable to see it out. Just when it looked to be over, Biavaschi would double back into it, frequently then drawing himself back up to parity. Eventually, he took the lead, and he was able to see it out at an early opportunity.
For Aubakirov, it was a heartbreaking defeat, but for Biavaschi, it was a dream come true for the player who qualified from the event by winning a €100-entry live satellite. The Italian won’t just be heading to Bucharest in March to go for back-to-back Main Event wins on the 88LIVE tour, he’ll be heading for Las Vegas, as his prize included a package to play the 2020 World Series of Poker Main Event, sponsored of course by 888poker.
888poker LIVE Madrid Main Event final table results:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1st | Marco Biavaschi | Italy | € 150,000 |
| 2nd | Daniyar Aubakirov | Kazakhstan | € 105,000 |
| 3rd | David Gonzalez Delgado | Spain | € 70,000 |
| 4th | Pablo Paez | Spain | € 45,000 |
| 5th | Miguel Tejero | Spain | € 32,000 |
| 6th | Marco D’Amico | Italy | € 24,000 |
| 7th | Gilad Yam-Hod | Israel | € 18,000 |
| 8th | Ran Shahar | Israel | € 14,000 |
| 9th | Ruben De Pedro | Spain | € 11,200 |
