It is officially a wrap for 888poker when it comes to live tournaments for this year, with the Coventry festival nicely concluding an exciting and action-filled season.
The Coventry stop of 888poker LIVE ran October 10 — 21, culminating in the Main Event, which ended up attracting the largest field of the year.
When it was all said and done, the tournament clock was showing 812 entries, and this number was more than enough to blow the original £500,000 guarantee out of the water, bringing the final prize pool to over £617,000.
Combining Affordable Entries & Big Prize Guarantees
Over the years of organizing its live festival, 888poker has made it a point to offer affordable yet well-organized tournaments with large guaranteed prize pools. The Coventry Main Event was no exception to this rule.
With a buy-in of £888, the tournament came with a promise of £500,000, offering plenty of motivation to get involved. There were six starting flights on the schedule and players were allowed unlimited reentries, which created a lot of action and helped prize pool soar.
By the time the registration concluded for all Day 1s, there were 812 entries in total, resulting in the prize pool of £617,200 — over £100k in excess of the original promise.
Breaking the guarantee is always nice, but it was a special moment for 888poker as this was also the largest Main Event field we saw in the 2024 LIVE season. With Coventry being the last stop of the year, it was a great way to wrap things up and start preparing for the next year.
Six Figures for the Winner
When all the numbers were in and all the calculations done, players still in the Main Event found out that they were competing for the first place of £125,000, a hefty return on the £888 buy-in.
All players finishing in the top 101 positions made the money, with the smallest payout being £1,700, which meant that everyone who made it past the bubble got to nearly double their money.
The final table started with eight players, featuring predominantly players from the United Kingdom, with just one player, Conor Odriscoll, hailing from Ireland.
Chris Da-Silva, the man who eventually took down the title, started the final stage of play in the middle of the pack chips-wise, but with a stack of over 50 big blinds, he was certainly in contention.
Over the course of the final table, Da-Silva managed to find a few good spots to chip up and send a couple of players to the rail, and by the time the heads-up battle started, he was holding a 3-to-1 chip lead over his last remaining opponent, Mindaugas Kurlenskas.
The final skirmish wasn’t all smooth sailing for Da-Silva, as his opponent managed to find one double-up to get back in the game. However, on the second attempt, Chris was able to finish the job and take down the title and the accompanying £125,000 prize.
As always, the Main Event action was broadcast by 888poker, allowing players and poker fans worldwide to tune in. With the conclusion of the Coventry festival, the operator wraps things up for 2024 as far as live tournaments go, but it’s safe to assume they’ll be back in no time with many more affordable tournaments in 2025!
