Welcome to 888poker’s Weekly Deal, with all the best news, results and insights from the past week.
THIS WEEK: August 06, 2017
Kenny “SpaceyFCB” Hallaert Completes Online Triple Crown
Kenny “SpaceyFCB” Hallaert, arguably one of the hottest players in all of poker right now, took down Sunday’s biggest buy-in tournament on 888poker, the $120,000 Whale. The $1,050 buy-in event attracted 117 players who accounted for 60 rebuys, which created a $177,000 prize pool.
Among those to earn a portion of it were Andreas “KURDEdersim” Samuelsson (3rd for $23,010), Rocco “sephir0t” Palumbo (5th for $11,505), Thomas “WushuTM” Muhlocker (7th for $7,522), Johannes “TrollKonst8” Korsar (8th for $6,195), Rafael “keybr” Wantanabe (9th for $4,867), and Troy “S.Janowski” Queneville (10th for $4,248).
After 9 hours and 18 minutes, Hallaert defeated fellow countryman Sebastian “iknowmybody” Saffari to claim the title and $44,250 first-place prize. Saffari earned $30,090 for second place.
By winning two other online tournaments elsewhere during the week, Hallaert’s Whale win gave him a coveted online poker Triple Crown.
“Completed my Triple Crown today in style,” he tweeted. “It was a good 10 day grind. Couple of days off now.”
The win was another impressive result on his poker résumé. Back in April, he won our $15,000 Crocodile for $4,588, and over the summer he nine cashes at the World Series of Poker including a third-place finish in Event #36: $5,000 NLH 6-Handed for $238,855 and finishing 64th in the Main Event for $101,444. The latter result came a year after he made the WSOP November Nine, placing sixth for more than $1.4 million.
Sweden’s “1LevelAbove” Claims Third Major Title in Less Than Four Months
What many consider our premiere Sunday event – the $215 buy-in, $100K GTD Mega Deep – once again surpassed the guarantee by attracted 516 participants, which created a $103,200 prize pool distributed to the top 72 players.
“DoffDavi” (45th for $433.44), “prebzzz” (39th for $546.96), “imabarista” (15th for $1,032), “heyfreddy” (9th for $1,382), and “AAorKK403” (4th for $7,740) were all among those to make deep runs. Meanwhile, three players notched five-figure cashes. “aRigold780” and “Leqenden” earned $10,526 and $14,293 for finishing third and second respectively, while Sweden’s “1LevelAbove” came out on top after nearly 12 hours to take the grand prize off $19,504.
It was another impressive win for “1LevelAbove,” who back in June won the Sunday Lightning 6Max for $6,084 and a month before that won the XL Inferno Event #182 $45,000 Sunday Breeze for $9,000.
Germany’s “Konrad115” Wins Turbo Mega Deep
Meanwhile, in the $215 buy-in, $35K GTD Turbo Mega Deep, 150 players rebought 71 times to create a $44,200 prize pool. Among the two dozen players to get paid were Whale finalist Johannes “TrollKonst8” Korsar (20th for $552.50), Joao Mathias “joao_mathias” Baumgarten (10th for $994.50), “StuntSoHard” (6th for $1,989), and Zachary “DuduPa1986” Korik (3rd for $5,304), who you’ll read more about below.
In the end, after just 4 hours and 42 minutes, Germany’s “Konrad115” toppled “windiswild” to claim the title and $9,613 prize. Last September, “Konrad115” finished fifth in the Super XL Series Main Event for $86,130. That was the same tournament that 888poker Ambassador Dominik Nitsche finished third in for $206,400 after a three-way deal.
XL Inferno Champ Claims Lighting 6-Max Title
The $109 buy-in Sunday Lightning 6-Max surpassed its $20K GTD by attracting 186 players who rebought 101 times. That created a $28,700 prize pool that was distributed to the top 24 places including “E_Dub” (17th for $358.75), XL Inferno champ “Magnf1cious” (11th for $502.25), and Zachary “DuduPa1986” Korik (4th for $2,439).
After “Gwonkel” fell in third place for $3,587, Sweden’s “Thanilo” and Romania’s “V.BlomFan60” squared off for the title and a $6,888 first-place prize. After 9 hours and 5 minutes, the latter came out on top to capture the Lightning title.
Back in May, “V.BlomFan60” won the XL Inferno Event #20 $160 Crocodile, a tournament that attracted 309 players, for $8,968.
Germany’s “DrKoRn718” Breezes His Way to a Win
The $55 buy-in, $20K GTD Sunday Breeze saw 447 players take to the virtual felt, which resulted in a $22,350 prize pool offered up to the top 63 finishers. Among those to cash were “ImBillieJean” (20th for $134.10) “msksevart” (15th for $223.50), and “_Kapec75_” (11th for $268.20), just to name a few.
After 8 hours and 21 minutes, Germany’s “DrKoRn718” bested Malta’s “scellone94” to win $4,246. Also making the final table were “LaToronja” (3rd for $2,290), “sajtgul” (5th for $1,229), and “LiraIgor” (7th for $726).
Back in November last year, “DrKoRn718” finished fifth for $29,113 in the fifth anniversary Mega Deep.
What to watch out for:
We’re guaranteeing $8,000,000 (!) in prizes for the upcoming XL Eclipse online tournament series, which will kick off in September. That’s $500,000 more in GTD prize money than was offered in the spring’s XL Inferno.
The full XL Eclipse schedule will be released shortly, but in the meantime, we’re running a special promotion for 1st depositors only, where you can grab three tickets to the daily XL Eclipse qualifiers.
Simply deposit $10 or more using the promotional code “ECLIPSE10” and three tickets are all yours!