“ZaCafu” Goes Wire-to-Wire in the 888poker Mystery Bounty Main Event

Montenegro’s “ZaCafu” sat down at the $80,000 Mystery Bounty Main Event final table at 888poker with more than twice as many chips as any of their seven opponents. Less than 90 minutes later, they were the last player standing, having gone wire-to-wire.

888poker recently reduced the $100,000 guarantee to $80,000 after several weeks of overlays and, perhaps, the ongoing FIFA World Cup drawing players away from the tables. The new guarantee debuted last weekend, and the tournament overlaid again. A field of 744 entrants this week also resulted in an overlay, but one less substantial than previous editions.

Day 1 ended with only eight hopefuls remaining. Most of the biggest mystery bounties had been claimed and opened, including an $8,000 jackpot bounty. Brazilian superstar Joao “joao_mathias” Mathias banked the $8,000 bounty before advancing to the final table. However, a $3,200 bounty remained in play, which drastically altered the shoving and calling ranges of the finalists.

$80,000 Mystery Bounty Main Event Final Table Chip Counts

Sweden’s “BananUlla” was the shortest stack at the final table, and their chips had dwindled to less than five big blinds when they busted. They open-shoved from early position with ace-king, and “Oldnall” called with queen-three in the big blind. “BananUlla” flopped two pair, but a ten on the turn and a jack on the river gifted “Oldnall” an unlikely straight and sent “BananUlla” to the rail in eighth.

“Georgian23” was the next casualty. They ultimately found themselves all-in for 22 big blinds with pocket eights against a short-stacked “SERGI0BR” and the deep-stacked “ZaCafu,” who held ace-king of spades and pocket sixes, respectively. “SERGI0BR” improved to a flush, “ZaCafu” turned a set, and “Georgian23” was gone.

Sixth place went to “joao_mathis” when their ace-ten couldn’t get there against the dominating ace-queen of “yriy3.” “joao_mathis” had won an $8,000 bounty prior to the final table action, and also had the last $3,200 in their bounty envelope, which was handed over to “yriy3.”

“Oldnall” lost a flip with ace-king against “ZaCafu”‘s pocket tens to leave only four players at the final table, then “SERGI0BR” of Brazil bowed out in fourth when their pocket tens were crushed by the pocket kings in the hand of “yriy3.”

Heads-up was reached when another Brazilian, “Paulada85,” jammed on the river with king-six of clubs on an ace-deuce-six-ace-queen board showing two clubs. The move may have worked had “ZaCafu” not been sat there with ace-seven for trip aces. “ZaCafu” called and the $80,000 Mystery Bounty Main Event progressed to heads-up.

“ZaCafu” held a 128.9 big blind to 30.6 big blind chip lead over “yriy3” at the start of heads-up play. It wasn’t long before “yriy3” was in push-or-fold territory, and they chose nine-seven to do the former. “ZaCafu” called with jack-ten. Both players flopped a pair, but “yriy3” couldn’t find a second pair, and had to make do with a runner-up finish worth $8,745. “ZaCafu” will, for at least this week, be known as the Mystery Main Event champion, an accolade that came with $8,301.

$80,000 Mystery Bounty Main Event Final Table Results

The $80,000 Mystery Bounty Main Event takes a back seat this weekend due to the FIFA World Cup final taking place on July 19. Instead, a $109 buy-in, $25,000 guaranteed Mystery Bounty Football Edition shuffles up and deals at 6:00 p.m. BST on July 19. It is a one-day tournament in which the mystery bounties come into play at Level 18.

Freeroll satellites are your cheapest way into this tournament, with other satellites starting at only $0.10.

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.