Pascal LeFrancois Wins 2018 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Grand Final Barcelona Main Event

The 2018 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Grand Final Barcelona €10,300 main event featured a massive €10,000,000 guarantee, which was easily surpassed when a total of 1,175 entries were made to grow the final prize pool to €11,397,500. In the end the lion’s share of that was awarded to 31-year-old Canadian poker pro Pascal LeFrancois, who emerged victorious with the title and the first-place prize of €1,700,000 ($2,108,000 USD). This was by far the largest payday of LeFrancois’ career, and it increased the former World Series of Poker bracelet winner’s lifetime live tournament earnings to $5,142,717. In addition to the money and the title, LeFrancois was also awarded 2,400 Card Player Player of the Year points, enough to see him catapult into seventh place on the overall POY leaderboard.

LeFrancois had to overcome not just a massive field in this event, but also a final table stacked with plenty of highly accomplished competition. Less than a week after winning a €26,000 high roller event here at the Casino Barcelona for €700,000 ($861,000 USD), Davidi Kitai survived all the way to the final seven players in this event before he was sent to the rail with €325,000 ($403,000 USD).

German poker pro Jan Eric Schwippert was the next big name to hit the rail, with his A9 losing an all-in preflop race against Adam Owen’s pocket sevens.

Three-time WSOP bracelet winner Dominik Nitsche got his last chips into the middle in a good position, shoving from the small blind with the K6 for just less than 9 big blinds and getting called by LeFrancois’ K3. The board ran out 10425A to give LeFrancois the wheel, sending Nitsche to the rail in fourth place with €800,000 ($992,000 USD) and 1,200 POY points. This was his fifth final table finish of the year, and this huge score was enough to see him climb into fifth place in the POY standings.

LeFrancois and Nitsche were not the only players to make a major move in the POY rankings as a result of this event. Stephen Chidwick finished third for €1,000,000 ($1,240,000 USD) and 1,600 points. The British poker pro was fresh off a runner-up finish in the €101,000 super high roller for $1,364,000 USD just four days earlier. This latest huge score marked his tenth final table finish of the year, with two titles won along the way. With 4,710 total POY points and $5,479,663 in year-to-date earnings Chidwick has surged into the lead in the POY race, and now sits more than 900 points ahead of the nearest competitor in Toby Lewis.

LeFrancois captured Chidwick’s last chips to take roughly a 5-to-2 lead over fellow poker pro Adam Owen. Owen was able to close the gap and take the lead, but LeFrancois regained the momentum eventually. By the time the final hand arose he held roughly a 3-to-2 lead. With blinds of 6,000,000 and 12,000,000 and a big-blind ante of 12 million, Owen raised to 38 million. LeFrancois three-bet to 105 million, only to have Owen move all in for 451 million. LeFrancois made the call with the AJ and found himself in a dominant position against Owen’s A10. The board ran out Q5537 and LeFrancois’ kicker played, earning him the pot and the title. Owen took home €1,300,000 ($1,612,000 USD) for his runner-up finish. The 2,000 POY points he was awarded for this deep run were enough to see him jump to 11th place in the overall standings.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Winner photo courtesy of partypoker.

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