Brazil's "djjazz222" Stages Impressive Comeback to Win $150K Gtd XL Winter Series Event
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The biggest event of the 888poker XL Winter Series, the $109 buy-in, $150,000 guaranteed Weekend Mystery Starter has crowned its champion. A field of 1,246 entries left a sizeable overlay on the guarantee, and Brazil's "djjazz222" took full advantage of the added value, eventually coming out on top and taking home $11,010.
Day 2 of the $150,000 guaranteed event saw the field whittled to a more manageable final table of eight. Brazilian "Nelepo10" went into the final table holding a colossal chip lead, his 108 big blinds dwarfing the 34 in "Hodor83"'s stack. The eventual champion sat down with 17 big blinds, enough for sixth place at the restart.
All the biggest bounties have already been claimed. "OchoChoocho" opened a golden envelope containing a $4,500 mystery bounty. After firing eight $109 bullets at this tournament, they fell in 21st place.
"nuncanemvi" also captured a $4,500 bounty payment before busting in 13th, but "qinghe2012" was the player who opened the jackpot mystery bounty of $15,000. They crashed in 58th but could still finish as the tournament's biggest winner courtesy of that five-figure bounty payment.
$150,000 Weekend Mystery Starter Final Table Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nelepo10 | Brazil | 5,391,893 | 108 |
| 2 | Hodor83 | United Kingdom | 1,689,290 | 34 |
| 3 | goldengaze1 | United Kingdom | 1,274,081 | 26 |
| 4 | kosmow1 | Germany | 1,036,209 | 21 |
| 5 | Sly_81 | Germany | 1,021,566 | 20 |
| 6 | djjazz222 | Brazil | 826,700 | 17 |
| 7 | perrivini | Brazil | 706,146 | 14 |
| 8 | MarcJohn | United Kingdom | 514,115 | 10 |
Only two minutes passed before the final table lost its first player. Down to eight big blinds, "MarcJohn" open-shoved from under the gun with ace-ten but ran into the pocket queens of "djjazz222" on the button. The queens flopped a set and improved to a boat on the river, and "MarcJohn" was done and dusted.
Less than ten minutes later, "kosmow1" min-raised in middle position with king-jack, and "perrivini" defended their big blind with jack-ten. A king-seven-jack flop saw "perrivini" check-call a small bet, leading to a ten on the turn. Having turned two pair and being short-staked, "perrivini" was destined to be all-in. "perrivini" checked the turn but then check-raised all-in after "kosmow1" fired a second barrel. "kosmow1" called the extra chips and swerved another ten on the river to reduce the player count to six.
Those six became five after "goldengaze1" of the United Kingdom ran out of steam. Thirty minutes into proceedings, the action folded to "goldengaze1" in the cutoff and they open-shoved for 9.5 big blinds with pocket sixes. Ordinarily, such a move would scoop the blinds and antes. However, "kosmow1" woke up on the button with ace-queen, called the shove, and spiked a hand-winning queen on the river.
888poker Ambassador Aaron Barone Finishes Second in XL Winter Series SHR
Fifth place went to "Sly_81" who moved all-in for 10 big blinds with queen-jack under the gun only for "kosmow1" to find pocket kings in the small blind. The queen-jack was drawing dead by the turn.
"Hodor83" busted in fourth ten minutes later after jamming all-in for 8.7 big blinds with pocket deuces on the button only for "Nelepo10" to call from the big blind with the superior pocket queens. The five community cards ran out with no drama, and the final table was down to only three players before the first break of the day.
Three-handed play lasted the best part of an hour, ending with "kosmow1" heading to the showers. "djjazz222" raised three times the big blind on the button with pocket kings before snap-calling the 11 big blind shove from "kosmow1" from the big blind, which was made with king-jack. The cowboys held, and the tournament progressed to heads-up.
"djjazz222" held a 7,799,692 to 4,660,308 chip lead at the start of heads-up play but "Nelepo10" levelled matters. With the stacks even, the heads-up duo struck a deal to lessen the pay jumps before resuming the tournament.
The final hand saw "djjazz222" back in the lead and opening with king-jack. A few emojis later, "Nelepo10" three-bet shoved with pocket fives and was called. A king on the flop gifted the title to "djjazz222."
$150,000 Weekend Mystery Starter Final Table Results
| Rank | Player | Country | Bounties | Prize | Total Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | djjazz222 | Brazil | $824 | $10,185 | $11,010* |
| 2 | Nelepo10 | Brazil | $524 | $9,891 | $10,416* |
| 3 | kowmow1 | Germany | $479 | $6,225 | $6,704 |
| 4 | Hodor83 | United Kingdom | $2,054 | $4,612 | $6,666 |
| 5 | Sly_81 | Germany | $134 | $3,412 | $3,547 |
| 6 | goldengaze1 | United Kingdom | $3,119 | $2,550 | $5,669 |
| 7 | perrivini | Brazil | $179 | $1,920 | $2,099 |
| 8 | MarcJohn | United Kingdom | $884 | $1,455 | $2,339 |
2025 888poker XL Winter Series Results So Far
Expand the table below and check out the results for the completed XL Winter Series events so far.
All prizes included bounty payments where applicable
Remaining 888poker XL Winter Schedule
Dozens of tournaments remain on the 888poker XL Winter Series schedule. Check them out below, buy into some of them, and see if you can become an XL Winter Series champion.
