Sometimes in poker, the stars align and everything you do seems to work out. Some call it destiny, others may put it down to variance. Whatever it is, and whatever you believe, the end result in the $215 buy-in $200,000 guaranteed The Festival Online Main Event at 888poker was “latvianhero1” walking away with $34,600 and the title of champion.

Some 992 players, including re-entries, bought into the tournament, leaving a very small overlay. Latvianhero1 was flying high at one stage but then found themselves down to a couple of big blinds, before surging up the leaderboard again at the business end of the tournament and ultimately becoming an 888poker champion. This is how the final table went down.

$200,000 The Festival Online Main Event Final Table Results

Mexico’s “DomCamaron” sat down at the final table as the shortest stack and was the first player heading for the exits. “Getoverhere” min-raised with queen-jack of hearts from middle position, “Artur1965” flat called in the next seat along, only for DomCamaron to squeeze all-in for 6.3 big blinds; only Artur1965 called, doing so with pocket eights. Those snowmen were up against ace-jack, and a queen-high board reduced the player count by one.

“LordPari” was the next player heading to the showers. LordPari lost half of their stack when they could not get away from having flopped trip aces only to discover their opponent had hit a straight on the river. They never recovered and busted after jamming 3.7 big blinds with pocket sixes, and losing to the ace-four of “themelon1.”

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Seventh place went to “Grosminette” despite getting their tiny stack in good. They raised to 2.5 big blinds with ace-four, leaving only 1.2 big blinds behind. Getoverhere raised enough to set Grosminette all-in, and was called. Grosminette was against the dominated ace-deuce, but a deuce on the turn completely changed the course of the hand. No miracle river, and Grosminette was gone.

Grosminette’s seat had not even gone cold when themelon1 crashed and burned in a battle of the blinds against latvianhero1. The action folded to themelon1 in the small blind, and they open-shoved for 10.7 big blinds with king-seven of spades, only to be snap-called by latvianhero1 who woke up with pocket aces in the big blind. themelon1 flopped a flush draw but couldn’t catch any of their outs. GG.

Fifth place and $9,900, the last four-figure payout, went to Malta’s “dmnln” as the final table action hit the hour mark. Again, it was a battle of the blinds with latvianhero1, who had been down to a couple of big blinds at one stage. latvianhero1 moved all-in for 9.5 bug blinds effective with ace-jack, and dmnln called all-in with king-queen. A queen on the flop gifted the lead to dmnln but the turn and river were both jacks, and dmnln bowed out in fifth.

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The final four battled for almost 30-mins before a set-up hand reduced the player count again. Getoverhere min-raised with pocket kings, “raw_dawg” three-bet to 8.4 big blinds with pocket sevens before calling when Getoverhere four-bet enough to put raw_dawg for their last 8.1 big blinds. A king on the flop left raw_dawg drawing thin, and they were drawing dead by the turn.

Heads-up was set with Lithuania’s “Artur1965” busted in third. You may recall Artur1965 finished as runner-up in the $100K Festival Online Sunday Big Shot 109 last weekend for $12,743 after a heads-up deal. Artur1965 claimed this week’s $13,460 third place prize after check-called all three streets with pocket queens only to discover latvianhero1 had them crushed all the way with a pair of aces in the hole.

latvianhero1 held a 58.3 big blind to 38.6 big blind lead over Getoverhere going into the one-on-one battle, and it took less than ten minutes to wrap up the $200,000 guaranteed Main Event. The final hand saw latvianhero1 min-raise with pocket jacks, Getoverhere three-bet to 6.2 big blinds with pocket tens before calling off their 19.4 big blinds they had behind. The five community cards double paired with queens and kings, which were no help to Getoverhere, and they busted in second place for $25,240, leaving latvianhero1 to bank $34,600 and the title of champion.