On Sunday, November 27, we at 888poker celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Mega Deep. What started as an exclusive tourney for poker players in-the-know on January 1, 2012 has become one of online poker’s most successful weekly online poker tournaments.

The $215 buy-in tournament, which lowered the traditional blind 30-minute level to 20 while adding a second chance re-entry, saw the usual $150,000 guarantee upped to $500,000. This number was quickly surpassed when 2,151 players accounted for 920 rebuys creating a $614,200 prize pool.

After 13 hours and 31 minutes of play, “josef_shvejk” emerged victorious to capture a $97,043.60 first-place prize.

The Top Three Spots

The tournament came down to three Russians, but “josef_shvejk” was the heavy favourite holding more than 34 million in chips to Egor “Omfg72oAgian” Boriskin’s 8.5 million and “comant76’s” 3.5 million. It proved too big a lead for either of the short stacks to overcome and within 10 minutes “josef_shvejk” was named champion.

In regards to the runner-up, prior to the tournament, Boriskin had amassed $2,276,947 in lifetime online winnings, including $119,460 on 888poker.

Interestingly, his $72,844.12 consolation prize ended up being the largest score of his career, passing his previous best of $38,609.

Final Table Results

1st josef_shvejk (Russia) $97,043.60
2nd Egor "Omfg72oAgian" Boriskin (Russia) $72,844.12
3rd comant76 (Russia) $52,759.78
4th Graftekkel (Netherlands) $39,615.90
5th DrKoRn718 (Germany) $29,113.08
6th Ender112 (Ukraine) $23,216.76
7th jefffryyy (Slovakia) $17,320.44
8th veeea (Russia) $11,608.38
9th _husgansen_ (Germany) $7,186.14

Among the 252 players paid were Doug “PulledPorker” Lang (199th - $614.20), Oliver “threebunpass” Price (153rd - $737.04), Anton “b.mitchell” Wig (132nd - $859.88), Zak “milkman_14” Lawson (96th - $1,105.56), and Sergio “zcedrick” Aido (82nd - $1,166.98).

If you recall, Aido was 888poker’s biggest weekend winner one year ago, when he topped a 345-player field to win the $150,000 WHALE for $37,718.

The Swedes Have It

Another player to make a deep run was Sweden’s “Gr33nApples,” who you may recognise as May’s Super XL Series Main Event champion. The fifth edition of that popular tournament, which was a $1,050 buy-in featuring a $1 million guarantee, drew 1,268 players and ended in a three-way chop with “Gr33nApples” locking up $183,869.46. In the 5th Anniversary Mega Deep, “Gr33nApples” finished in 52nd place for $1,412.66.

Another Swede to do well was “nastymake,” who was no stranger to the accelerated Mega Deep format. That’s because, on January 10 of this year, he bested a field of 295 to win the $50,000 TURBO Mega Deep for $11,726.10.

According to PocketFives, that gave him $1,115,095.81 in online cashes spread across 1,057 in-the-money finished. He added one more to his résumé on Sunday when he finished 39th in the 5th Anniversary Mega Deep for $1,658.34.

Deep Run for 888’s Dominik

As things got down to the nitty-gritty, all eyes were on 888poker Ambassador Dominik “888Dominik” Nitsche, who was looking for another big score after winning June’s Event #37: $150,000 Super XL Mini Main Event for $36,542. He also finished third in September’s Super XL Series VI Main Event for $206,400.

Unfortunately, Nitsche, who was streaming his play on Twitch, wasn’t able to make the 5th Anniversary Mega Deep final table and had to settle for 19th place and a $2,272.54 prize.

“It always feels pretty annoying to go deep in a tournament with that many players and then bust out short of the final table,” Nitsche said after the win. “I felt like I had a good chance to actually win the whole thing as I had quite a good stack throughout. Unfortunately, I lost a few big pots towards the end and couldn't recover.”

As for the 5th Anniversary Mega Deep, Nitsche was impressed by the turnout.

“The tournament was great, and I'm very happy we had such a big one 888poker,” he said. “The buy-in was only $200+$15 and first price was close to $100,000. That's amazing, and I hope there will be more of those events in the future as people really like them.”

Bigger. Better. Different. That’s what players can expect at 888poker, and the 5th Anniversary Mega Deep was no exception.

Don’t forget, the 7th edition of the Super XL Series, which for the first time will feature $5 million in guarantees over 63 events, will take place January 19-31. Be sure to mark your calendars!

Chad Holloway is a 2013 WSOP Bracelet winner who has previously worked for PokerNews as a managing editor and live reporter