
Another exciting season of 888poker LIVE festivals is behind us and it ended in the best way possible, with a record-setting 888poker LIVE festival in Coventry.
Running for 10 days between October 10 and 20, the festival brought out thousands of players from across the UK and beyond, and it was British grinder Chris Da-Silva who took home the most prestigious title of them all, as he won the Main Event for £125,000.
On his way to the title and his career-best score, Da-Silva bested a field of 812 players, which made 888poker LIVE Coventry not only the biggest 888 event this year, but in the post-COVID era.
Da-Silva’s victory marks the end of another successful season for 888poker’s flagship live poker tour, which will be back shortly with more events in exciting locations.
Da-Silva Dominates in the Main Event
16 players made it back for the final day of action at the Coventry Building Society Arena on Monday, with Chris Da-Silva entering as the second in chips.
The action in the early levels was fast and furious, and the field dwindled down to just eight in short order, as numerous short stacks were still left in the field.
Seven of the eight players at the final table hailed from the UK, with one Irish player in the mix, while no players from mainland Europe or beyond made it to the final stages of the tournament.

Alex Todd was the first final table casualty when he ran into Da-Silva’s pocket Aces, and the momentum from that hand would help Chris get to the finish line.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Da-Silva either, as he doubled up several short stacks before finally winning a big one against Conor O’driscoll, eliminating him in third place, which meant the event was down to a single heads up battle.
On the other side of the table was Mindaugas Kurlenskas, a player with just $38,000 in tournament cashes before Coventry, who has an amazing series and won two of the side events for over £10,000 in the build up to the Main Event.
Kurlenskas also made another final table in Coventry, making him the one player everyone was talking about, but in the end he simply wasn’t meant to take home the biggest trophy.

Despite losing the heads up battle in the Main, Kurlenskas took home £91,900 in cash, taking him over the £100k mark for the series as a whole, a massive result in its own right.
Da-Silva was left to celebrate the big victory, along with the £125,000 in cash, a huge return on the £888 buyin that all players initially paid to play in this one.
Here is a look at all the final table payouts:
Place | Player | Prize |
1st | Chris Da-Silva | £125,000 |
2nd | Mindaugas Kurlenskas | £91,900 |
3rd | Conor O’Driscoll | £60,720 |
4th | Sunil Mistri | £37,770 |
5th | Jiang Pu | £23,760 |
6th | Harriwin Selvarajoo | £16,290 |
7th | Jack Jaeger | £14,140 |
8th | Alex Todd | £11,970 |
888poker Ambassadors Have a Modest Showing in Coventry
The 888poker LIVE Coventry series was not incredibly successful for the team of 888poker Ambassadors who came out to play, with Ian Simpson getting the best results this time around.
Simpson took down the £200 Dragon Rumble event for £4,380, along with the Beat the Ambassador event for another £4,000, which was enough of a consolation prize for lack of success in the Main Event.
It was Lucia Navarro who went the deepest in that one, but she eventually fell in 52nd place, failing to get into Day 3 and the contention for final table.
888poker’s Vivian Saliba did not get any big results in Coventry, but after winning her first WSOP bracelet just weeks ago, she was surely able to enjoy the series and the modest stakes events played in Coventry.
The Team now takes a short break from live event appearances, as 888poker goes back to the drawing board in preparation for another season of 888poker Live.
Another Exciting Season in the Books
888poker Live is easily one of the best mid-stakes tournament series in Europe, and this year it saw a total of five festivals played across three different countries and five different cities.
Madrid, Bucharest, Barcelona, Manchester, and Coventry all played host to 888poker LIVE events this year, with the Coventry event breaking all records and awarding a first-place price over twice the size of the one paid in Barcelona in May.
The likes of Manuel Ledesma, Razvan Morar, Josep Valls, Stephen Barnes, and Chris Da-Silva marked the 2024 season of 888poker LIVE, and will all surely be back next year in pursuit of more titles and more more success in their poker careers.
You can expect the 888poker LIVE to be back in early 2025 with new opportunities to play for hundreds of thousands of dollars and compete against 888poker Ambassadors and other poker celebrities in the process.
In the meantime, there is plenty of live tournament action at 888poker, so head on over there and practice your tournament poker skills as you await the next live poker festival.