After much planning, blood, sweat, and tears behind the scenes at PokerNews HQ, the inaugural PokerNews Online Championship got off to a flying start at 888poker on February 25. Four PokerNews readers became champions, while a Brazilian star looks set to walk away with top honors in the $120,000 guaranteed Mystery Bounty Opening Event.
February 25 saw the first five of 43 events shuffle up and deal, including the $525 buy-in, $40,000 guaranteed Opening Event High Roller. A field of 92 entrants created a $46,000 prize pool that the top 18 finishers shared.
Each of the eight finalists at least doubled their buy-in, with “Illraise8” of Canada being the first to fall, their eighth-place finish coming with $1,099 in prize money.
Lithuania’s “Raise1lin.” Was the next to bust ($1,504) before “beebsterizer” ($2,106), “phho86” ($2,948), and “sw2909” ($4,130) fell by the wayside.
The High Roller progressed to the heads-up stage following the untimely demise of “Svarozhits” in third. The Montenegro-based grinder will be bitterly disappointed to have not got the job done, but the $5,777 they took home should go some way to numbing the pain of defeat.
Heads-up pitted Malta’s “dariotoma” against Swedish sensation Jerry “Perrymejsen” Odeen. The difference between first and second place was more than $3,000 but neither player entertained the idea of striking a deal. In the end, Odeen had to make do with a runner-up finish and the $8,091 that came with second place, leaving “dariotoma” to bank an $11,334 score and the title of champion.
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$40,000 PokerNews #5 – Opening Event High Roller Final Table Results
| Rank | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | dariotoma | Malta | $11,334 |
| 2 | Perrymejsen | Sweden | $8,091 |
| 3 | Svarozhits | Montenegro | $5,777 |
| 4 | sw2909 | United Kingdom | $4,130 |
| 5 | phho86 | $2,948 | |
| 6 | beebsterizer | Canada | $2,106 |
| 7 | Raise1ln. | Lithuania | $1,504 |
| 8 | Illraise8 | Canada | $1,099 |
Croatia’s “brainiac1” Tuuns $55 into $4,334
$40,000 was guaranteed in the $55 buy-in Opening Event Mystery Bounty, but the tournament awarded $42,500 after 850 players bought in before late registration slammed shut.
Some of the finalists were lucky in the mystery bounties they collected, with six of them taking home at least three figures worth of bounties and two scooping over $2,000.
Fourth-place finisher “Nowitzki_41” collected $1,383 for their deep run, but bounty payments worth $2,451, almost the size of the runner-up’s payout, boosted their take-home pay to $3,834.
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Although Croatia’s “brainiac1” came out on top and claimed a total haul worth $4,334, it was the second-place finisher who was this tournament’s biggest winner. Romanian “bucurestean” fired two $55 bullets, and the second shot resulted in them claiming the $2,540 second-place prize. However, the Romanian eliminated a foe who had the $4,000 jackpot bounty on their head, so “bucurestean” took home a total prize worth $6,871.
$55 Opening Event Mystery Bounty Final Table Results
| Rank | Player | Country | Bounties | Prize | Total Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | brainiac1 | Croatia | $851 | $3,483 | $4,334 |
| 2 | bucurestean | Romania | $4,331 | $2,540 | $6,871 |
| 3 | Tttrrx | Romania | $532 | $1,867 | $2,399 |
| 4 | Nowitzki_41 | Brazil | $2,451 | $1,383 | $3,834 |
| 5 | DiosTeAma | Costa Rica | $904 | $1,023 | $1,928 |
| 6 | Dixie-Normas | United Kingdom | $33 | $765 | $798 |
| 7 | wally2fun | Romania | $66 | $576 | $642 |
| 8 | JoshManlet | United Kingdom | $532 | $436 | $968 |
PokerNews Online Championship Results So Far
In addition to “dariotoma” and “brainiac1” becoming PokerNews Online Championship champions, “mAteus.dAne” and “KovalevEvgen” also helped themselves to titles.
“mAteus.dAne” triumphed in the $11 Opening Event Mystery Bounty for $1,931, with “KovalevEvgen” banking $1,827 for their victory in the $22 Opening Event Mystery Bounty.
| Event | Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool | Champion | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 – Opening Event Mystery Bounty | $11 | 1,733 | $17,330 | mAteus.dAne | $1,931* |
| #2 – Opening Event Mystery Bounty | $55 | 850 | $42,500 | brainiac1 | $4,334* |
| #3 – Opening Event Mystery Bounty | $109 | 1,118 | $120,000 | TBD | TBD |
| #4 – Opening Event Mystery Bounty | $22 | 795 | $15,900 | KovalevEvgen | $1,827* |
| #5 – Opening Event High Roller | $525 | 92 | $46,000 | dariotoma | $11,334 |
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Remaining PokerNews Online Championship Schedule
Another four events take place on February 26, each played with a progressive knockout (PKO) format. The four events come with buy-ins of $11, $55, $109, and $215, and have guaranteed prize pools weighing in at $10,000, $12,000, $12,000, and $10,000, respectively.
February 26 also sees the conclusion of the $120,000 guaranteed Opening Event Mystery Bounty. The 1,118 starters in this $109 buy-in tournament have been cut down to only six. Usually, the final table of this event has eight players seated, but a dramatic end to Day 1 proceedings saw the field cut to only six, with Brazilian “andrey59” bagging up a colossal 6,606,011 stack, or 165 big blinds.
You can watch the final table action unfold, with cards-up coverage, via the 888poker Twitch channel from 8:00 p.m. GMT.
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | andrey59 | Brazil | 6,606,011 | 165 |
| 2 | TitovSerj | Ukraine | 2,794,119 | 70 |
| 3 | RazvyB | Romania | 2,468,465 | 62 |
| 4 | Babychill377 | Ukraine | 2,335,250 | 58 |
| 5 | yriy3 | Ukraine | 1,854,300 | 46 |
| 6 | Lahdo15 | Sweden | 708,855 | 18 |