IOwnU888 Defeats Barone Heads-Up to Win the PNOC Main Event

The 2026 PokerNews Online Championship came to a thrilling conclusion at 888 on October 27 with the crowning of the $250,000 guaranteed Mystery Main Event champion.

Some 1,091 entrants bought in across several flights, creating a $254,203 prize pool. After three days of intense mystery bounty action, 888 regular “IOwnU888” came out on top, defeating 888 Ambassador Aaron “abarone68” Barone heads-up, to claim a $25,522 prize.

$250,000 Mystery Main Event Final Table Results

The eight-handed final table got underway with card-up coverage on the popular 888 Twitch channel. Nick “eastyyy22” Eastwood was the sole commentator because Barone, his usual co-commentator, was seated at the final table.

“UrExNewBF” was the shortest stack at the start of the final table and was part of an early double elimination. “IOwnU888” min-raised with pocket jacks, “Iperenoei13” called with pocket tens in the cutoff, only for “UrExNewBF” to squeeze all-in with ace-king for six big blinds on the button. “IOWnU888” moved all-in, and “Iperenoei13” called off their 22 big blinds. A king on the flop looked to have saved “UrExNewBF” but a jack on the river sent them and “Iperenoei13” to the showers.

Romania’s “01tdr” fell around 10 minutes later, doing so in cruel circumstances. They open-shoved for 6.4 big blinds in the cutoff with ace-king, and “for_science” called in the small blind with pocket eights. “01tdr” flopped an ace and turned trips only for an eight to peel off on the river to gift “for_science” a full house.

With bounties included, the surviving five players locked in five-figure scores. Lithuania’s “sankovski” collected the first such prize, one worth $13,685.

The Lithuanian’s last action was to open-shove for 11 big blinds under the gun with pocket tens. Barone three-bet all-in from the button with ace-jack and flopped a jack. The first four community cards were spades so there was the possibility of a chopped pot, but an offsuit non-ten river sent the pot to Barone.

After losing half of the finalists within the first 35 minutes, four-handed play spanned another half an hour. During four-handed play, Barone was left on the ropes with seven big blinds when his ace-king lost to the pocket tens of “LookAround.”

The deadlock was broken when “for_science” moved all-in on the button with pocket fives fir just under 17.5 big blinds, and “IOwnU888” called in the big blind with ace-king. This time ace-king came out on top, flopping two pair to reduce the player count by one.

Barone was the shortest stack at the start of three-handed play, but Lady Luck shone on him. First, the board counterfeited “IOwnU888″‘s ace-jack when Barone was all-in with ace-nine. Then, his ace-jack beat “LookAround”‘s ace-king after hitting trip jacks on the river.

“IOwnU888” won a large pot from “LookAround” and then got their hands on the rest of their stack to send the PokerNews Online Championship Mystery Main Event into the heads-up stage.

It was a tall order for Barone to stage a comeback heads-up because he trailed “IOwnU888” by 19.2 biig blinds to 71.7 big blinds. Barone got his stack in good after limp-calling all-in for 15.3 big blinds with ace-queen of hearts after “IOwnU888” jammed with jack-ten. That jack-ten improved to a straight after hitting running cards on the turn and river. Barone fell in second and added $17,211 to his bankroll, leaving “IOwnU888” to become the champion and receive $25,522.

PokerNews Online Championship Results

All 40 PokerNews Online Championship events have crowned their champions. Check out the table below to see which players won which events and for how much.

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.