It was built on a moment of great fortune — but then again, what poker victories aren’t?
When one of the more active players in the tournament shoved and Adrian Garcia looked down at pocket aces, he must have thought that it was his day. And so it was. Garcia topped a 514-entry field to win the 2023 888poker LIVE Madrid Main Event for €92,000
He defeated Oleg Bystrenin heads-up at the Casino Gran Via. Meanwhile, it was also a case of so close and yet so far for 888poker Stream Team member Ricardo Mateus and 888poker Ambassador Lucia Navarro, who finished in third and fourth place, respectively.
888poker LIVE Madrid Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Payout (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adrian Garcia | Spain | € 92,000 |
| 2 | Oleg Bystrenin | Russia | € 60,000 |
| 3 | Ricardo Mateus | Portugal | € 39,600 |
| 4 | Lucia Navarro | Spain | € 27,000 |
| 5 | Jonas Ten Cate | Netherlands | € 20,700 |
| 6 | Saam Pishvaie | France | € 16,300 |
| 7 | Tom Orpaz | Israel | € 13,000 |
| 8 | Jaime Pedraza | Spain | € 10,044 |
| 9 | Mario Sousa | Portugal | € 7,400 |
Day 3 Recap
The day began with 39 players and four 888poker team members, one of which — Alexandre Mantovani — would double on the very first hand. Another int he shape of Josh Manley would run tens into jacks and pocket a €2,000 cash for his 35th place finish.
Start-of-day chip leader Nicolae Suciu still held onto the lead with three tables remaining. However, the chip lead was wrenched from his hands by Tom Orpaz, who flopped Suciu dead to soar into the lead.
Mantovani would subsequently be eliminated (20th place – €2,800) along with Suciu (19th – €2,800), with Orpaz holding more than double the next player with 18 players left.
However, the chip lead would once again change hands in spectacular fashion as Oleg Bystrenin (pictured) picked up aces to beat the kings of Orpaz, and the ace-king of Victor Caballero and replace Orpaz atop the chip counts.
And by the time the final table was reached, Bystrenin was in command with close to triple the chips of his nearest rival and almost a third of the chips in play. He used this stack to good effect in the early stages, with Orpaz also using aggression to close the gap to the Russian.
There would be two doubles from Jonas Ten Cate through Bystrenin that would clip his wings somewhat, and when Orpaz shoved from under the gun with pocket sixes, Garcia couldn’t believe his luck when he looked down at pocket aces. They, of course, held, and we had yet another monster chip lead deep in the Main Event.
This time there would be no throwing it away. Garcia would eliminate three of the remaining four players — including both 888poker team members (pictured) — and close it out shortly before midnight local time.
That concludes the PokerNews coverage of the 888poker LIVE Madrid Main Event. Stay tuned for our next live event coverage from the 888poker LIVE Tour!
Executive Editor E.U.
Will Shillibier is based in the United Kingdom. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German, and then studied for a NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism at Sportsbeat in Manchester. He previously worked as a freelance live reporter, and video presenter for the World Poker Tour.