The hugely successful partypoker Live MILLIONS tour made its final stop in Barcelona for the Grand Final which kicked off this weekend with multiple events, the most exciting of which were the two High Rollers. With buy-ins of €25,000, the events drew around 90 entrants each and granted winners over €4 million in prizes.
With their guaranteed prize pools of €2 million, the two No-Limit Hold’em High Roller events were the highlight of the 2018 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Grand Final Barcelona series which started April 7 at Casino Barcelona. The tour is certainly among the most attractive live poker championships as it promises €23 million GTD which will be granted over its nine major events. During its opening weekend, the festival, running through April 15 in the beautiful Spanish city, drew sizable entry field and increased the prize pools of the two High Rollers, topped by German poker player Andreas Eiler and three-time WSOP bracelet winner Davidi Kitai. Both winners took home the prestigious trophies and the attractive prize of €700,000 each.
Along with the two €25,000+500-entry High Rollers, the 2018 Millions series comes with an even more thrilling tournament for those poker pros who fancy really high-stakes games. The €50,000+1,000 Super High Roller began on Monday with a €2 million in guarantees. With nearly 18 million chips, Finnish player Patrik Antonius led the final table on Tuesday, followed by Sergio Aido who had almost 13 million chips. Action at the seven-seated final table started at noon (local time) and the winner would be known by the end of the day. The others are Keith Tilston, Jean-Noel Thore, Sam Greenwood, Joao Simao, and Matthias Eibinger. The remaining seven players have secured nice cash prizes of at least €110,000 and the one who manages to reach the first place will receive €1 million.
€25,000 Buy-In partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Grand Final Barcelona High Rollers
The first €25,000 High Roller kicked off Saturday, April 7, attracting 88 players who competed against each other in the 30-minute levels. With a little over 19 million chips, out of the total 90 million chips that were in play, Eiler reached the final 9-seat table as the chip leader on Sunday. He was joined by notable players such as eight-time WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel, two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Kristen Bicknell, 2016 Super High Roller Bowl champion Rainer Kempe, Alex Foxen, Juan Pardo Dominguez, Orpen Kisacikoglu, and WSOP bracelet winners Byron Kaverman and Adrian Mateos. When the board came out T-3-3-4-5, Kempe’s Ace-Six was defeated by Eiler’s Ace-Nine and after the short heads-up battle between the two countrymen, Eiler came out victorious taking home €700,000.
The second High Roller event started Sunday with the same guarantee, buy-in and structure, and it drew 90 entries who created a prize pool of €2,182,500. Only eight players made it to the final table lead by Juan Pardo Dominguez who eliminated Justin Bonomo and made him the first to leave the table with a cash prize of €60,000. Jake Schindler was next, taking 7th place for €90,000. The two U.S. players were soon joined by another American, 2013 WSOP main event champion Ryan Riess, who took home €120,000.
Having eliminated Bonomo and Riess, Dominguez continued to dominate the table by winning against Manig Loeser (5th, €162,500), Adrian Mateos (4th, €215,000), and Kamal Bejjani (3rd, €325,000). In the final heads-up, Belgium’s Davidi Kitai put an end to Dominguez’ elimination spree and beat him, leaving him second with a consolation prize of €450,000. Kitai took the High Roller title and the top prize of €700,000.
