Ukrainian "alwaySsmilee" Takes Big Lead into Day 3
More than 2,050 entries (including rebuys) were recorded for the 2023 888poker XL Winter Series Main Event during Day 1 play, and 402 players managed to bag a stack for Day 2. The second day of play in the $500,000 Main Event was when the mystery bounties kicked in, which means there were players eligible for bounties on Day 2 who didn't make the 240 paid spots.
In fact, a dozen players managed to take down bounties before busting short of the prize money, and one of them won't be too unhappy about missing the cash. While German "Lenny03041" would likely have preferred to cash as well, they took a $15k bounty before busting in 306th place short of the money spots.
One player emerged from Day 2 with a monster stack. Ukrainian "alwaySsmilee" went on a tear in the final few hands of Day 2, knocking out the last two players of the day and stacking up almost 7 million chips. That is nearly a third of the chips in play, so the Ukrainian has a distinct advantage coming into Day 3.
The chip leader is joined by another Ukrainian player, "AMG_people" with just over a million chips, but Ukraine isn't the only eastern European country with two players at the final table. Lithuania also has two players looking for the big score, and across the continent, the UK is also putting two players onto this final table, including [B]Dan "badrobot27" Charlton[/B]. Team888 streamer Ian "Simpioni" Simpson, who nearly cracked the top 100 in this event, described Charlton on his stream as a "F***ing maniac" so his 3.3 million second-place stack could be dangerous today.
2023 888poker XL Winter Series Main Event Final Table Chip Counts
| Seat | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | kellerassel0 | Germany | 1,507,954 |
| 2 | Mgrazziotin | Brazil | 2,409,626 |
| 3 | AMG_people | Ukraine | 1,044,892 |
| 4 | RUNRANRUNIT8 | Lithuania | 867,148 |
| 5 | alwaySsmilee | Ukraine | 6,935,271 |
| 6 | TuckaIF | United Kingdom | 1,709,011 |
| 7 | Dan "badrobot27" Charlton | United Kingdom | 3,329,071 |
| 8 | Sim0nK | Lithuania | 705,383 |
| 9 | _zarkou_ | Finland | 2,082,004 |
The big bounty on Day 2 went to German player "SickSlick". They pocketed $900 for 29th place, but their total haul for the day was more than $57k after drawing the $50k bounty and a few others on their way to the top-30 score.
The biggest bounty haul at the final table belongs to Lithuanian "Sim0nK" who collected almost $20k in bounties so far, putting them in second place. Along with "Lenny030401" there are just three players with five-figure bounty totals, but a further five players have bounty scores in excess of $5k, including Day 3 chip leader "alwaySsmilee".
The final table action on Day 3 will be streamed on 888pokerTV with cards up on delay. PokerNews coverage will follow the delay to avoid spoilers, so look for coverage in line with the stream.