888poker LIVE Madrid: Ain’t No Place Like Home for Manuel Ledesma

An exciting week of action at 888poker LIVE Madrid has come to an end, but not without a storybook finish for Spain’s Manuel Ledesma under the bright lights of the final table at his home poker room.

After starting the final day as the short stack with just 10 big blinds, the Madrid resident battled his way back at Casino Gran Via, staying alive several times before finishing the night holding the coveted €888 Main Event trophy and taking home €58,000. The win was a test of his endurance, as he survived the Day 1b turbo before bagging at the end of 11 more levels of play on Day 2.

“I’m really happy, honestly, ” Ledesma said after his victory. “I’m a little tired because it was a lot of hours in a row. I came here playing the turbo, and it’s all day, fifteen hours in a row playing, but well, I’m very happy, honestly, really happy.”

Ledesma outlasted a field of 435 entries across four starting flights to take the largest portion of the €333,905 prize pool. The final first-place prize was decided after a heads-up deal with runner-up Juan Lyons, who earned €52,000 for his efforts.

“I’m playing regularly here in Gran Via” continued Ledesma.”I don’t have much time to travel or do circuits, but I could play big festivals like the ones here.” Although he had previously earned larger scores in his poker career, not much can top the feeling of winning at home.

€888 Main Event Final Table Results

* Indicates heads-up deal

Final Table Action

The day began with Ledesma nursing the short stack out of the final nine players, but he was able to avoid trouble early while seeing others hit the rail. George Chiriac was the first to fall in ninth place when his ace-king ran into the pocket aces of Carlos Perez-Dosio.

It did not take long for Perez-Dosio to make his exit as the next to go in eighth spot, while Greg Campbell shoved an inferior ace to end his run in seventh. Action slowed a bit before Mateo Calzoni ran his pocket fours into queens against Lyons to hit the rail in sixth position. From there, the title was sure to be won by a player representing Spain.

By the time action was five-handed, Ledesma had already won a trio of all-ins to start building up his stack, but the biggest one came next against Guillermo Sánchez. Ledesma was able to crack kings, signalling a downward turn for his opponent. Sánchez found another pair of kings but lost once again, this time for his tournament life in fifth place.

The final hand before the dinner break saw Borja Diaz call off with tens against Ledesma, who found aces to score the knockout. After dinner, Ramon Fernandez and Lyons tangled in a pair of big pots sitting side by side. Lyons caught his card both times, the latter of which sealed a third place finish for the start-of-day chip leader.

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Heads-Up Deal

Prior to heads-up play, Lyons held the chip lead as both players agreed to a deal. The agreement still left €11,000 to play for and the 888poker trophy.

Ledesma surged into the lead early and never looked back. Despite some strong play from Lyons, he could only manage to make up some of the ground before calling off against Ledesma’s flopped set of tens. It marked the end of a great week of poker in the Spanish capital, with a hometown hero taking down the title.

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