The 888poker XL Winter Series Main Event crowned its champion on January 31 when Russia's "D.Bogachev" got their hands on each and every chip that was in play. Some 2,326 players bought into the tournament across numerous Day 1s, creating a guarantee-busting $546,610 as they did so. D.Bogachev secured the lion's share of the pot, namely $71,278.
888poker welcomed the news, with D.Bogachev the latest in a long line of Cinderella-story winners on the site over its 20 year history.
"888poker is one of the biggest sites for Cinderella stories thanks to the small buy-ins and big prizes available in our festivals"
"In the past 20 years, we've had so many of these kinds of stories," 888poker told PokerNews. "888poker is one of the biggest sites for Cinderella stories thanks to the small buy-ins and big prizes available in our festivals. The latest winner is a classic 888poker story, having played on our site since 2013.
"Having played in hundreds of microstakes tournaments — with an average buy-in of just $1 — he successfully satellited into the XL Winter Series Main Event and is now walking away $71,000 richer! It's just a great story."
888poker XL Winter Series Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | D.Bogachev | Russia | $71,278 |
| 2 | bloodny | Russia | $51,709 |
| 3 | chrissop14 | United Kingdom | $37,443 |
| 4 | sergebezb | Estonia | $27,331 |
| 5 | alexos888 | Canada | $20,115 |
| 6 | Stephen "Steve00085" Burt | United Kingdom | $14,758 |
| 7 | Dara "Doked" O'Kearney | Ireland | $10,932 |
| 8 | Eg1D1 | Lithuania | $8,144 |
| 9 | Marcmks16 | Sweden | $6,122 |
The nine-handed final table got underway with the eventual champion in third-place courtesy of a 10,844,078 stack. Only Lithuania's "Eg1D1" (11,691,296) and Russia's "bloodny" (17,490,705) had larger stacks.
It did not take too long for the first finalist to bust. "Marcmks16" open-shoved for a shade over eight big blinds with ace-nine of spades, and "sergebezb" called with pocket sevens from the big blind. The five community cards ran out void of aces or nines, and Marcmks16 had to make do with the $6,122 ninth-place prize money.
Eg1D1, who sat down second in chips, was the eighth-place finisher. The Lithuanian saw the action fold to him in the small blind, and he opted to move all-in for 14.1 big blind with king-nine of hearts. Unfortunately for Eg1D1, chip leader bloodny woke up in the big blind with the dominating ace-king, and called. An ace on the turn was more than enough to reduce the player count by one.
O'Kearney Crashes Out
Seventh-place and the first five-figure prize, $10,932, went to popular Irishman Dara "Doked" O'Kearney. Everyone folded to O'Kearney in the cutoff, and he moved all-in for 11 big blinds with king-queen. This move would ordinarily win the blind and antes, however, sergebezb was dealt pocket jacks, and they called. An ace-high board sent O'Kearney to the showers earlier than he would have liked.
Stephen "Steve00085" Burt was the next player to dust off their stack. bloodny started the preflop betting round with a 2.1 big blind raise from the button with ten-nine of hearts. Burt responded by three-betting all-in for nine big blind with the superior ace-nine of clubs; bloodny called. Burt's hand only remained because before the flop because the door card was a ten, which resigned Burt to a $14,758 payout.
The frantic pace of the eliminations continued with "alexos888" crashing and burning the very next hand after Burt's demise. Again, it was bloodny who dealt the final blow. Bloodny raised to two big blinds on the button with ace-eight before calling the 10.9 big blind shove from alexos888, which they made with the dominated ace-deuce. alexos888 was drawing dead by the turn courtesy of an eight on the flop.
Champion Elect Put Their Foot on the Gas
It took another three levels of play before the final table lost another grinder. sergebezb lost half their stack when their ace-king was outdrawn by the queen-nine of "chrissop14." The rest of their chips went into the middle with king-queen but that ran straight into the ace-king of D.Bogachev in a blind-versus-blind scenario.
Heads-up was set when chrissop14's impressive comeback ended prematurely. Chrissop14 sat down at the final table eighth in chips, and only came unstuck once three players remained. Their final hand saw D.Bogachev raise to 2.5 big blinds on the button before calling chrisopp14's 17.8 big blind shove from the small blind. It was ace-four for D.Bogachev and king-ten for chrissop14. The five community cards provided no help to the all-in player, so it was game over for them.
D.Bogachev held a 22,085,000 to 12,810,000 chip lead over bloodny, and with a 700,000 big blind, there was not a lot of room to manoeuvrer. A coinflip settled the tournament when bloodny opened to 2.2 big blinds with pocket tens, D.Bogachev three-bet to 8.8 big blinds with king-jack before calling the 30.2 big blind shove from his opponent. A jack on the flop handed the advantage to D.Bogachev with a king on the turn improving him to two-pair. The river had to be an eight, ten, or queen for bloodny to stay alive in the tournament, but it was a four.
bloodny crashed out in second for $51,709 leaving D.Bogachev to walk away with the $71,278 top prize and the title of XL Winter Series Main Event champion.
