Most online poker players have a tournament that they love playing. They ensure it is part of their daily or weekly schedule and do everything in their power to take it down. High buy-in mystery bounty tournaments at 888poker fit this bill for New Zealand’s “Flopzilla_XD,” who can seemingly do nothing wrong in them.
In November 2023, “Flopzilla_XD” finished fourth in the $109 Mystery Bounty Main Event, narrowly missing out on top spot. More recently, in March 2024, “Flopzilla_XD” bowed out of the $215 buy-in, $300,000 guaranteed Mystery Bounty Festival Main Event in 46th place, but not before capturing a mystery bounty that tipped the scales at a cool $30,000. Last week, “Flopzilla_XD” was the $100,000 Mystery Bounty’s runner-up.
Fast-forward to this weekend, and “Flopzilla_XD” can call themselves a $100,000 Mystery Bounty Main Event champion after outlasting 1,064 opponents and raking in an $11,065 score.
$100,000 Mystery Bounty Main Event Final Table Chip Counts
Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | zMukeha | Ukraine | 5,385,537 | 154 |
2 | BadBeatMaker | Brazil | 3,578,256 | 102 |
3 | Flopzilla_XD | New Zealand | 2,178,214 | 62 |
4 | 23×59 | Cyprus | 1,763,769 | 50 |
5 | Bibs1888 | United Kingdom | 978,812 | 28 |
6 | Meverik1988 | Belarus | 941,927 | 27 |
7 | Babyjanne | Sweden | 657,183 | 19 |
8 | blachu3232 | Argentina | 491,302 | 14 |
It took a little over 15 minutes of final table action for the first finalist to bust. With blinds of 20,000/40,000/5,000a, “BadBeatMaker” min-raised under the gun with pocket tens, “Meverik1988” three-bet all-in for 729,427 with ace-king from late position, and the initial raiser called. A few moments later, a nine-high board sent “Meverick1988” to the sidelines.
Argentina’s “balchu3232” was the next player heading to the cashier’s desk, busting a few hands after “Meverick1988” crashed and burned. “Flopzilla_XD” min-raised to 80,000 from the cutoff, “blachu3232” made it 220,000 from the small blind before calling off the 116,302 they had behind when “Flopzilla_XD” set them all-in. “blachu3232” had woken up with pocket kings, but “Flopzilla_XD” held pocket rockets! An ace on the flop left the all-in player drawing thin; they were drawing dead on the turn.
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Flopzilla_XD Finds Aces Again!
Sixth place went to Sweden’s “Babyjanne.” The blinds had increased to 25,000/50,000/6,250a when “BadBeatMaker” min-raised from early position. “Flopzilla_XD” three-bet to 250,000 from the next seat along, only for “Babyjanne” to four-bet all-in for 1,255,984 from the button. “BadBeatMaker” quickly folded, but “Flopzilla_XD” snap-called, as would you if you had a pair of aces on the hole. Those aces were up against ace-king of diamonds, which flopped a king but found no more help on the turn or river.
“Bibs1888” was the next casualty, busting in fifth place. “zMukeha” min-raised to 120,000 from under the gun, “Bibs1888” re-raised all-in for 596,354 from the next seat along, and the initial raiser clicked the call button. It was king-nine of diamonds for “zMukeha” against the ace-queen of hearts. Those diamonds proved essential because three more appeared on the community cards, improving “zMukeha” to a flush, and leaving “Bibs1888” void of chips.
“BadBeatMaker” was the chip leader at the start of four-handed play, yet was the next player heading out of the door. They lost half of their stack to “23×59” in, ironically for their user name, a bad beat! A raising war broke out on the seven-six-eight flop with two diamonds that resulted in “23×59” being all-in for more than 2 million chips. “23×59” held eight-seven for two pair, but “BadBeatMaker” held ten-nine for the nut straight. However, running diamonds improved “23×59” to an unlikely flush, relieving the chip leader of half their chips.
It was all over for “BadBeatMaker” a couple of hands later. “23×59” min-raised to 120,000, “BadBeatMaker” three-bet to 480,000 from the small blind was met with a 5,430,672 four-bet from the initial raiser. “BadBeatMaker” called off the 2,065,747 chips they had behind with ace-queen, only to discover “23×59” was holding the dominating ace-king! The king-kicker of “23×59” played, and the final table was down to only three players.
Aces Yet Again for Flopzilla_XD!
“Flopzilla_XD” soared into the lead with a stack of almost 10 million when their aces held against the jacks of “23×59,” again flopping a set. Despite dropping to third in chips, “23×59” was not the next player to fall.
That dubious honor fell at the door of “zMukeha” who first lost a flop against “23×59” and then handed over the rest of their stack to the same player. “23×59” min-raised to 140,000 on the button with ace-five of spades, “zMukeha” three-bet to 518,000 with pocket nines, only for “23×59” to jam for 3,863,701. “zMukega” called off the 1,960,892 chips they had behind and saw those chips slide to their opponent courtesy of an ace on the river.
“Flopzilla_XD” held a 9,536,107 to 6,438,893 chip lead over “23×59” and the ball was in their court. They extended their lead to the point they had a 13-to-1 lead at the start of the final hand. The chips went into the middle on an all-diamond king-ten-six flop, “Flopzilla_XD” holding ace-queen with the ace of diamonds, and “23×59” holding queen-five with the queen of diamonds. A jack of diamonds on the river improved both players to a flush but busted “23×59” in second place.
$100,000 Mystery Bounty Main Event Final Table Results
Rank | Player | Country | Bounties | Prize | Total Prize |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Flopzilla_XD | New Zealand | $2,810 | $8,254 | $11,065 |
2 | 23×59 | Cyprus | $1,768 | $6,034 | $7,803 |
3 | zMukeha | Ukraine | $941 | $4,435 | $5,376 |
4 | BadBeatMaker | Brazil | $1,670 | $3,260 | $4,930 |
5 | Bibs1888 | United Kingdom | $601 | $2,412 | $3,014 |
6 | Babyjanne | Sweden | $567 | $1,796 | $2,363 |
7 | blachu3232 | Argentina | $498 | $1,350 | $1,848 |
8 | Meverik1988 | Belarus | $270 | $1,022 | $1,293 |
The next $109 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed Mystery Bounty event shuffles up and deals at 7:00 p.m. BST on May 5. Although “Flopzilla_XD” has not yet bought in, one imagines they will do. If their current run of form is anything to go by, the New Zealander could be a good bet to reach the final table yet again!