Lithuania and Romania Strike Gold in First 888poker XL Winter Events

The XL Winter series exploded into life at 888poker this weekend, with the first four events crowning their champions and awarding a combined $254,350 to those players that navigated their way into the money positions or helped themselves to a bounty or two.

The $109 buy-in XL Winter #02 – Mystery Bounty was the biggest event of the weekend, attracting 1,174 entrants, each vying for their slice of the $120,000 prize pool. 888poker dished out mystery bounties worth between $77 and a cool $12,000 once the 18th level of play kicked in, and it was some of the players that busted way before the final table that reeled in the biggest mystery bounties.

Richard "ChipsFool" Hoadley of the United Kingdom busted in 167th place with 180 places paid. That finishing position awarded Hoadley $120, but the Brit had opened three mystery bounties before being eliminated, one of which weighed in at $12,000! Only the eventual champion took away more prize money from this event!

Sweden's "Ydavidy77" and Brazil's "joaozinho9" may not have navigated their way into the top 80 finishing place but both opened bounty envelopes containing $3,600 prizes, the second-largest payouts from the mystery bounty prize pool.

$120,000 XL Winter #02 – Mystery Bounty Opening Final Table Results

The final table lost its first player less than ten minutes into the action. "Lowperformer" open-shoved for a little over 7.5 big blinds from the cutoff with queen-ten, and "tehnats," the chip leader, flat-called on the button with king-jack. tehnats spiked a jack on the flop, but Lowperformer flopped an open-ended straight draw. The top pair held, and Lowperformer bowed out.

"8vincent8" saw their stack dwindle down to nine big blinds. They looked down at pocket sevens in middle position and decided those sevens were strong enough to move all-in with. Unfortunately, for the all-in player at least, "Avskedad" woke up in the big blind with the superior pocket tens, and called. The tens held on a draw-heavy board, leaving the final table with seven players.

Those seven became six with the untimely demise of Germany's "gipsyisland." The action folded to the runaway chip leader tehnats in the small blind, and they open-shoved for seven big blinds effective. Gipsyisland called with queen-jack in the big blind and was a substantial favorite over the lowly ten-five in tehnats' hand. That fact only remained true until tehnats paired his five on the flop and gipsyisland could catch any of their outs.

A rather sick hand took place shortly after gipsyisland busted which resulted in Avskedad heading for the rail. "Z1GGi" min-raised with ace-king, "ovidiu_maciu" set a trap by flat-calling with pocket aces on the button, which ultimately saw Avskedad rip in their 14.6 big blind stack from the big blind with pocket kings in the hole. Unsurprisingly, all three players ended up all-in, although Z1GGi had both of their opponents covered. An ace on the turn locked up the hand for ovidiu_maciu, who saw their stack swell to more than 45 big blinds, while Avskedad found themselves void of chips.

"Japa_Bill" of Brazil busted in fifth after a battle of the blinds against ovidiu_maciu did not go to plan. Japa_Bill committed their last 11.5 big blinds from the small blind with pocket fives, but was in a world of pain when ovidiu_maciu called from the big blind with pocket sevens.

The heads-up portion of the tournament grew closer when Z1GGi bowed out. Z1GGi never fully recovered from the aces versus kings versus ace-king hand, and saw their participation in this event end when they shoved 13 big blinds first in from the small blind with king-seven, and could not get there against the ace-trey of the hot-running ovidiu_maciu.

Heads-up was set shortly after the third-place finisher was confirmed when "ehbarone68" and tehnats clashed. ehbarone68 found themselves all-in with suited queen-jack against ace-seven, which they lost to despite flopping a queen.

tehnats held a 75.9 big blind to 49.9 big blind advantage over ovidiu_maciu going into the one-on-one battle, but the chip lead changed hands several times before ovidiu_maciu made a full house against tehnats' inferior full house. That hand put the ball firmly in the Romanian's court, and the contest was over soon after.

The final hand saw tehnats limp in with pocket kings from a 15 big blind stack, and ovidiu_maciu check with ten-four offsuit. A three-four-ten flop was greeted by a check-call from ovidiu_maciu. Another four on the turn gifted ovidiu_maciu a boat, and they checked its arrival. tehnats bet 3.3 big blinds into the 4.3 big blind pot, and was obviously called. The river was a jack. ovidiu_maciu checked again, tehnats took the bait and shoved in their last ten big blinds, ovidiu_maciu called, and it was game over.

XL Winter Results So Far

Players from Lithuania and Romania have each won two of the opening four events, a superb start for those countries. "Raise1In" won the largest prize so far, $18,875 after taking down the $525 buy-in Mystery Bounty High Roller event.

*includes bounty payments

Don't worry if you missed out on XL Winter glory in the opening events because there are 23 numbered tournaments in total plus a myriad of side events for you to get your teeth into. Don't forget that you can claim up to $88 free in addition to an $400 first deposit bonus just for creating your 888poker account via PokerNews' links.