888poker XL Blizzard: Germany's "resilience32" Wins $50,000 Opening Event

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Feb 07, 2020 6 min read

On Thursday, tournament players could enjoy the start of the new edition of the 2020 XL Blizzard Series on one of the biggest online poker rooms, 888poker. On the first day of the series, they kicked off with the $50,000 Opening Event and during the day, two more events started.

888poker XL Blizzard #1 - $50,000 Opening Event

The first event of the XL Blizzard series attracted 625 total entries and has come to an end after almost ten hours of play. It was Germany's 'resilience32' taking down XL Blizzard #1 - $50,000 Opening Event for a cool $11,994.

'resilience32' has over $181,000 in cashes on 888poker and added another five-figure score in this event. The German was the most consistent player throughout the final few tables of the event and seemed to always be trending upward with very few hiccups en route to victory.

'resilience32' stuck by their name when it came to the heads up portion of this tournament, staying resilient as they overcame a large chip lead that was held by 'ahjaa' to be crowned the victor of the opening event.

888poker XL Blizzard #1 - $50,000 Opening Event Final Table Results

Final Table Action

dpjnr04 busted almost instantly after the official final table merged, getting their ace-jack of heart all-in versus the pocket queens of Psykee86. The flop came jack-high but the rest of the board came out clean, sending dpjnr04 out the door in ninth. Psykee86 quickly spiraled downward, taking an exit next with a pair of nines against the queens of omgjefmonier.

The next person to bust the final table was joaof6 when they flopped a set of queens, only to run into the flopped straight of omgjefmonier. joaof6 failed to fill up and was eliminated in seventh place. resilience32 was on the shorter side of things and elected to shove with king-queen in the cutoff, Drozd676 called on the button with their ace-ten of diamonds. The board came down queen-high, sending the pot to resilience32 as Drozd676 took an exit in sixth place.

Five-handed play saw Poland's ZDamian leading the way but a cooler brought an end to their day. ZDamien three-bet from the small blind and omgjefmonier then four-bet all of their chips from the big blind. ZDamien called with their pair of kings but found themselves on the bad end of a cooler when omgjefmonier tabled rockets, shipping ZDamien out in fourth. Lucky_Frutti was the next person to be eliminated after they shoved ace-three and ahjaa called with king-nine. Lucky_Frutti was ahead with a pair of treys until the river where ahjaa caught a straight, sending the Russian out the door.

Canada's omgjefmonier brought a lot of action to the final table right up until being eliminated in third by ahjaa. omgjefmonier opened from button, ahjaa shoved and omjefmonier instantly called, tabling a pair of nines. ahjaa turned over ace-jack and the two were racing. A jack on the flop was all that was needed for ahjaa, sending omgjefmonier out in third place for $6,563.

Heads up play saw ahjaa leading by almost three-to-one and resilience32 instantly drew first blood, doubling up. The German continued the aggressive pressure, pushing down on the short stack until ahjaa decided to shove all-in with a pair of fives. resilience32 called with their queen-nine and turned a lady, cementing a victory in the opening event as ahjaa was eliminated in second for a respectable $8,906.

888poker XL Blizzard #2 - $20,000 Mini Opening Event

The cheapest tournament on Day 1 was the XL Blizzard #2 - $20,000 Mini Opening Event. Players had to part with a mere $16.50 to compete in this tournament and 1,273 did exactly that. There were also 478 rebuys to get a total prize pool of $26,265, easily eclipsing the $20,000 that 888 had guaranteed.

Every finalist was guaranteed at least $284 and this prize went to "Deeagie" who busted in ninth place. After that, "coolon2709" (eighth, $512), "Koste123123" (seventh, $775) and "Flag888" (sixth, $1,037) followed in quick succession.

Read also: 888poker Ambassador Kara Scott Launches 'Heart of Poker' Podcast

United Kingdom's "RoboChips" then busted in fifth place for $1,300, "chicksi0" finished in fourth for $1,786 and "APCEBAT" missed the heads-up when he finished in third place for $2,493.

The final heads-up between "anelka79" and "gert_steel" ended with anelka79 as the winner for $4,116, while "gert_steel" settled for second place and $3,633 in prize money.

888poker XL Blizzard #2 - $20,000 Mini Opening Event Final Table Results

888poker XL Blizzard #3 - $20,000 Late Opening Event

"king.abduIIV" from United Kingdom won the XL Blizzard #3 - $20,000 Late Opening Event, a tournament with a buy-in of $55. He defeated a field of 523 players, beating "Kaiman.O_O." in the final heads-up. They took home the first-place prize of $5,018.

888poker XL Blizzard #3 - $20,000 Late Opening Event Final Table Results

Qualify to the XL Blizzard for Free

If you want to join in on the action but don't want to pay full price, rest assured that 888poker is running tons of qualifiers where you can play in XL Blizzard events for pennies on the dollar. In addition, 888poker is hosting two daily freerolls where you can get into two of the biggest XL Blizzard events absolutely for free.

The XL Blizzard Mini Tune Up Event - Qualifier is hosted at 888poker every day between now and Feb. 8 at 6:05 p.m. GMT where the top 30 players every day will win a seat valued at $16.50 to the XL Blizzard Mini Tune Up Event.

The XL Blizzard Main Event - Qualifier takes place every day between now and Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. where the top 15 players will win a free seat valued at $250 to the XL Blizzard Main Event.

In order to play in the freerolls, you need to have an 888poker account and have made at least one real money deposit.

If you don't already have an account, we have great news for you as not only can you play in these freerolls but also get a welcome package that is hard to beat.

Simply download 888poker through PokerNews and you will instantly get an $88 bonus (£20 in the UK). This bonus doesn't require a deposit, but you will need to deposit in order to play the freerolls.

This is where we have some better news as your first deposit will be generously matched in the form of a bonus up to $888! This is more than double what most players get by downloading directly from 888poker's website.

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