The weeklong 888poker XL Spring Series wrapped up on Sunday with the $250 buy-in Main Event showcasing both the highs and lows of the 25-event schedule.

Russia’s Denis ‘_DENGER_’ Kuznetsov earned a career-best $69,050 payday by beating out 1,653 other entries to take down the Main Event. The tournament needed 2,127 total entries for 888poker to avoid an overlay but fell 474 runners total short to create a $111,310 overlay and was one of 10 events to miss the posted guarantee. Runner-up ‘KiddPT’ had to settle for a $50,400 score while third-place finisher ‘FLRAP’ walked away with $37,050.

Prior to Sunday, Kuznetsov’s largest online score came in November 2020 when he earned $15,297 for finishing as the runner-up in a $22 buy-in Mini EPT Online event on PokerStars. The victory pushed the longtime PocketFiver’s earnings past the $1 million mark.

The only other champion to walk away with a five-figure score was ‘leblond1996’ who won Event #8 ($320 NL High Roller) for $11,718. That event had 168 entrants, just two more than the number needed to make the $50,000 guarantee. There were nine other events, along with the Main Event, that didn’t garner a big enough field to cover the guarantee.

888poker XL Spring Series Overlays

The total amount that 888poker had to cover was $131,600 – most of which came from the Main Event.

The biggest prize pool outside of the Main Event came from the opening event. Christopher ‘MAKKAPAKKK’ Johnson topped the 1,353-entry field in Event #1 ($55 NL Opening Event) to win $9,884 from the $67,650 prize pool.

Other winners included ‘Ckfather’, ‘kalkiyali’, ‘eurisco’, and ‘GoldHand2077’.

The only player to get close to becoming a two-time champion was ‘SmartestCat’. The Belarussian grinder finished runner-up in Event #9 ($55 NL Mini High Roller) and on the same day won Event #10 ($109 NL Late High Roller).

888poker XL Spring Series Results

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