Belea couldn’t improve and the 2021 champion of this event had to settle for fifth place this time. Razvan Belea, who became a poker hero in his native country when he became the first Romanian to capture an EPT title in Paris in February, moved all in for 605,000 with king-jack but ran into Qinami’s jacks. Gavrila then woke up with kings in the big blind after Gheorghe Velcea moved all in from the small blind with ace-queen, flopping top set to leave Velcea drawing dead by the turn and heading off to collect his sixth-place payout. Gavrila, who began the final table in second chip position behind Qinami, rivered the nut flush and got paid by Andrii Zaika, then spiked an ace on the turn to crack Konstantinos Vatseris’ queens to bust him in seventh place. Maksims Gorbacs, coming off a deep run in the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas last month, was eliminated in eighth place when he shoved with ten-nine and Marius Gicovanu called with a dominating queen-ten. After doubling up early, Alexandru Marcu got his chips in again with jack-nine but couldn’t beat Gavrila’s ace-ten, sending the Day 1b chip leader out in ninth place. The final table began shortly past 3 p.m. Though the ending may have been bittersweet, he still proved the axiom that anyone can win in this game on any given day. He earned his way to Bucharest through a freeroll on 888poker and turned that into €19,500. The Albania native had no live tournament cashes before this event.

Qinami was denied the victory in a cruel fashion, but he wrote quite a story for himself over the last five days nonetheless. The top prize from this event will push his career earnings past $250,000. He won an event here in the Poker Room Bucharest for €19,238 last month and also finished third in a high roller at the 2019 888poker LIVE Bucharest festival. Gavrila has a live tournament resume that dates back to 2015 and more than $200,000 in earnings but had never won a major tournament like this one. Gavrila prevailed over a field of 191 total entries to win the coveted trophy and collect €30,000, the largest tournament cash of his poker career, after beating Qinami with poker’s ultimate cooler, aces over kings. That magical scenario made Gavrila a champion and kept the 888poker LIVE trophy at home in his native Romania.

Viorel Gavrila was heads-up for a title at the final table of the €888 888poker LIVE Bucharest Main Event and looked down at two black aces as his opponent, Admir Qinami, moved all in. It was a moment that usually only happens in dreams.

888 poker 2024 live stream