2022 888poker XL RETRO Series

In a final table that was somewhat marred by technical issues, "raw_dawg" emerged as the winner of the XL Retro Main Event after coming into the day as the chip leader. They defeated "kryingkid" heads up after that player came back from the sixth place stack to start the day.

It was a short day on the final table with the action complete in just over two hours. There was a client crash early in the final table, and some connection issues when play was four-handed. Both "kryingkid" and "mylly8" experienced connection issues during three-handed play as well, and "mylly8" was forced out in 3rd after they blinded down while sitting out for a few hands.

When players were connected, the pace of play was very quick. They started the day relatively short stacked, and just got shorter from there. The first elimination happened within the first few hands of the day, and while it took some time before "Illraise8" went out in 8th, that opened the floodgates.

There were three quick eliminations to bring the field down to four before connection issues came back into play. All players had varying issues with connectivity while four-handed which really hampered the short-stacked players and that meant the game ended quickly.

XL Retro Main Event Final Table Standings

That brings coverage for the 2022 XL RETRO Series from 888poker to an end. The Main Event ended up attracting more than 2,100 total entries which broke the guarantee with $508,070 in total prizes. While a deal was discussed heads-up, ultimately they decided to play it out

Level 44, Blinds: 200,000/400,000 (50,000)

It didn't take long for the final race to take place after "raw_dawg" took the lead. They open-shoved and "kryingkid" called.

"kryingkid":
"raw_dawg":

The board ran low for the pocket threes, and they held to send "kryingkid" to the rail in 2nd place.

Player	Chips	Progress
raw_dawg	21,620,000	5,411,178
kryingkid	Busted

Level 43, Blinds: 150,000/300,000 (37,500)

"mylly8" was eliminated in 3rd place in a hand where they got a very short stack in from the button, but couldn't find any help.

Player	Chips	Progress
kryingkid	15,900,000	9,422,749
raw_dawg	5,730,000	-9,026,425
mylly8	Busted

Level 43, Blinds: 150,000/300,000 (37,500)

"crizelda" ended their day in 4th place after their ace-king couldn't pull ahead of the pocket sixes of "raw_dawg".

Player	Chips	Progress
raw_dawg	14,756,425	7,207,547
kryingkid	6,477,251	-3,631,749
mylly8	1,136,456
crizelda	Busted

Level 42, Blinds: 125,000/250,000 (31,250)

Just before the first break of Day 3 "DragoDanzig" got it in with the best hand, but "raw_dawg" bagged a flush to take it down.

Player	Chips	Progress
kryingkid	10,109,000	-328,125
raw_dawg	7,548,878	1,757,866
crizelda	2,700,666
mylly8	1,136,456	46,875
DragoDanzig	Busted

Level 45, Blinds: 250,000/500,000 (62,500)

The action has been quick on the final table so far with the field now down to five remaining. "brubsb" shoved the cutoff and "kryingkid" called the button for a huge flip worth almost 6 million. "kryingkid" was on pocket jacks against but the overs couldn't find any help and "brubsb" was off to the rail.

Player	Chips	Progress
kryingkid	10,437,125	5,097,125
raw_dawg	5,791,012	679,012
crizelda	2,700,666	1,836,666
DragoDanzig	1,601,616	-918,384
mylly8	1,089,581	-2,510,419
brubsb	Busted

Level 42, Blinds: 125,000/250,000 (31,250)

"Rochinh2011" ended their run in 7th place after getting less than 10 big blinds in against "kryingkid" but was dominated and couldn't find any outs.

Player	Chips	Progress
kryingkid	5,340,000	3,876,000
Rochinh2011	Busted

Level 44, Blinds: 200,000/400,000 (50,000)

"Illraise8" was next off the final table when they couldn't win a race with king-eight over the fours of "brubsb".

Player	Chips	Progress
brubsb	3,554,000	1,238,000
Illraise8	Busted

Level 38, Blinds: 60,000/120,000 (15,000)

It didn't take long for the first elimination to happen on the final table after "iNFOsHOVE" got the second-shortest stack in with a suited king-ten but couldn't win the race against the pocket eights of "Rochinh2011".

Player	Chips	Progress
raw_dawg	5,112,000	588,488
Rochinh2011	4,176,000	1,018,836
mylly8	3,600,000	-345,831
DragoDanzig	2,520,000	-39,366
brubsb	2,316,000	-220,148
kryingkid	1,464,000	-163,140
Illraise8	1,284,000	-47,429
crizelda	864,000	-41,736
iNFOsHOVE	Busted

There were more than 2,100 entries (including rebuys) over the Day 1 flights for the 888poker XL Retro Main Event, and 415 players returned yesterday for Day 2 action. That put $508,070 into the prize pool to be divided 240 ways and it didn't take long to make it into the money with the bubble bursting less than an hour after play began.

The pace of the day continued, and shortly after the four-hour mark, Brazilian player "pereira132" bubbled the final table to end Day 2. That left nine players standing, but they bagged up their chips to return to action today to finish it out.

"raw_dawg" leads the way into Day 3 with just over 4.5 million, but second-place "mylly8" of Finland is just shy of four million going into the final day of play. The action on Day 2 ended in Level 38, so that's where things will pick up for Day 3 with blinds at 60,000/120,000/17,500.

XL Retro Final Main Event Table Chip Counts

The live action kicks off at 3 pm ET, but the final table will be streamed with cards up on 888pokerTV with a one-hour delay. PokerNews coverage will stay with the live stream delay with action scheduled to begin at about 4 pm ET.