Live poker is booming and record fields aren't just limited to the US. 888poker just held its final LIVE event of the year in Coventry, and 812 players paid the $888 entry fee in the Main Event to create a prize pool of £617,120, smashing the guarantee of £500,000. That's not just the biggest 888poker LIVE prize pool of the year, but the biggest since pre-lockdown in 2020.
UK pro Chris Da-Silva took full advantage, winning a career-best score of £125,000 when he beat Mindaugas Kurlenskas heads-up after a thrilling final table.
Kurlenskas held the chip lead on the final table, closely followed by Sunil Mistri. Kurlenskas took out Brandon Garris in ninth with pocket tens against pocket fives, and he did for Mistri as well. With four players remaining, Mistri got it in with 
and found himself up against the 
of Kurlenskas. You can see the end of Sunil's sun run below.
Two doubles too much for Kurlenskas
Conor O'Driscoll was upended in third place by Da-Silva, who took a 3:1 lead into the heads-up battle. Kurlenskas threatened a comeback when he hit running spades to complete a flush, but he couldn't find a second double.
The final hand saw all the money go in preflop with Kurlenskas needing his 
to improve against Da-Silva's 
. You can see how that hand ran out below.
Kurlenskas shouldn't be too unhappy with his £91,900 for second place. He had an incredible 888poker LIVE festival, winning the £440 Mystery Bounty for £7,120 and the £200 UKPL Turbo Dash for £3,150. He also made another final table in the £230 UKPL Voyage event.
That's a six-figure score in total and his runner-up finish in the Main Event is his biggest career cash by far. Arriving in Coventry, Kurlenskas had $38,083 in winnings with a best cash of £12,589 when he came third in the Grosvenor 25/50 Series in Manchester last year.
888poker ambassador Ian Simpson couldn't be beaten in the Beat the Ambassador event.The 888poker ambassadors didn't fare too well in the Main Event, with Lucia Navarro winning the last longer in 52nd place for a cash of £2,220. However, elsewhere Ian Simpson did a lot better, winning the £200 Dragon Rumble for £4,380 and the (in retrospect, poorly named) Beat the Ambassador event for £4,000. We'd have loved PokerOrg columnist Nick Eastwood to come home with a trophy, but the consolation is that it gives him more to moan about in next week's column. You can read about his adventures in the UKPL Main Event from the Coventry festival here.
888poker LIVE Coventry Main Event results
| Place | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Da-Silva | £125,000 |
| 2 | Mindaugas Kurlenskas | £91,900 |
| 3 | Conor O'Driscoll | £60,720 |
| 4 | Sunil Mistri | £37,770 |
| 5 | Jiang Pu | £23,760 |
| 6 | Harriwin Selvarajoo | £16,290 |
| 7 | Jack Jaeger | £14,140 |
| 8 | Alex Todd | £11,970 |
And that closes the curtain on 888poker LIVE for 2024. It's been a hugely successful season with stops in Coventry, Madrid, Bucharest, Barcelona, and Manchester. The tour will be back in 2025, and we'll bring you the launch schedule as soon as it's announced.
