The 888poker ChampionChips Series, our official new Micro Series, running from July 23-30, came to a close this past Sunday. The series proved to be an enormous success, not only easily covering every guarantee (there was $150,000 in guaranteed prize pools offered), but doubling many of them.
Among the ChampionChips winners were “palimbo,” who took down the $5 buy-in Event #1: $5,000 Opening Ceremony (6-Max) for $1,930. “5banki” earned $6,752 for beating out 736 players to win the $50 buy-in Event #6: $30,000 Weightlifting High Roller. And “meelisime” turned $1 into $328 for winning Event #7: $1,000 Wrestling (4-Max).
While the 15 prelim events proved popular among players, most had their eyes fixed on competing in the Main Event over the weekend.
Five Brazilians Make Main Event Final Table
On Sunday, the $30 buy-in Event #16: $50,000 ChampionChips Marathon Main Event wrapped up. The tournament blew past its $50,000 guarantee by attracting 2,534 players who accounted for 929 rebuys to create a $95,232.50 prize pool.
Interestingly, the final table was comprised of five players from Brazil, two of which squared off for the title. After 10 hours and 38 minutes, Luis “gkamei09” Gustavo Kamei bested Luiz “PheresAA” Feres to claim the $14,189 first-place prize.
Final Table Results
1st Luis “gkamei09” Gustavo Kamei (Brazil) $14,1892
2nd Luiz “PheresAA” Feres (Brazil) $10,380
3rd “Sacracoronaa” (Netherlands) $7,523
4th “Guialves27” (Brazil) $5,618
5 “Ilovetyumen” (Russia) $3,942
6th “Gabthetank” (Greece) $1,904
7th “DeoRibeiro” (Brazil) $1142
8th “JoeTFish” (Canada) $1142
9th “NevilleWeeee” (Brazil) $857
H2: Kamei and More ChampionChips News
According to PocketFives, Kamei has won more than $1.4 million playing online. The ChampionChips Main Event was his second notable win in eight months after he bested a field of 169 players in the December 9, 2016, $55 buy-in, $8,000 GTD Breeze for $1,816.
In the live realm, Kamei has more than $200,000 in cashes including a career-best $72,143 for finishing second in the 2016 BSOP Sao Paulo Main Event. In March 2015, he also won a BSOP High Roller for $51,790.
Kamei ended up finishing second on the ChampionChips leaderboard with 120.93 points. The only player to do better was “jiraiaKK,” who won $1,000 for amassing the most points (149.74 to be exact).
In the $12 buy-in Event #2: $25,000 Half Marathon, “jiraiaKK” topped a field of 2,744 – after a four-way chop that is -- to win the title and $3,915 in prize money.
All in all, the series was a massive success – promising our players low buy-in tourneys with big payouts.
See you next year!
