He started the final table below the chip average, the leader had 127 big blinds, and he was the one lifting the trophy. Kaio Camargo, a Florianópolis local, is the new BSOP Floripa 2026 Main Event champion. The R$4,000 tournament drew 892 entries and paid out R$2,769,300; Camargo took R$379,000 after a deal among the last five, plus the trophy. He says his first BSOP was in this same city eight years ago, with money for a single bullet. This time he won at home.
The facts: 159 hands, nine hours and a deal that left R$131,000 on the table
The final table opened with Argentina's Ulises Acosta as the heavy favorite: 12,705,000 chips, more than a third of all chips in play. Camargo had 3,505,000, about 35 big blinds against an average of 45. Uruguay's Federico Sturzenegger (8th, R$50,000), Michel Balazs (7th, R$66,000) and Anis Homaidan Neto (6th, R$88,000) went out, and Camargo took the lead in a straight-over-straight pot.
Five-handed play stalled for almost two hours and the stacks evened out, so the finalists struck a deal: each locked up between R$206,000 and R$251,000 and left R$131,000 for the winner. Gustavo Nicoletti then eliminated Charles Poltronieri (5th, R$224,000) and Acosta (4th, R$206,000), who called all-in with A-K against J-9 and watched A-K-Q-10 roll out: a turned straight for his opponent. Nicoletti reached three-handed play with five times the second stack, then lost two consecutive all-ins to Camargo (J-10 against A-A, and 5-5 against A-4). Camargo eliminated Tiago Dutra (3rd, R$251,000) with Q-J against A-7 and entered heads-up with 27 million to 7.
The heads-up lasted five hands. In the last one, Camargo min-raised the button with K-9 of hearts, Nicoletti called from the big blind with K-8 of diamonds, the flop came 9-4-2 with two diamonds, Camargo bet 800,000, Nicoletti raised to 1,900,000 and Camargo moved all-in. Top pair against a flush draw; the 7 on the turn and the 10 on the river missed.
Why it matters: the chip leader is not the champion until the table is over
First lesson, stacks. 127 big blinds at the start of a final table is a huge edge, but not a title: the table ran 159 hands over nine hours, plenty of time for variance to deal all-ins both ways. Acosta lost an A-K against J-9 (roughly 65% in his favor) and went from leader to fourth; Camargo, with 35 big blinds, waited for his hands and won his flips when it counted.
Second, the deal. With five nearly even stacks, ICM, the model that converts chips into money based on the payout structure, says every player is worth about the same, which is why the deal paid between R$206,000 and R$251,000 instead of R$119,000 for fifth and R$500,000 for first. Camargo locked up R$248,000 and then won the extra R$131,000; without a deal he would have cashed R$500,000, but he could just as easily have finished fifth. A deal is not weakness: it is trading variance for certainty when the money at stake outweighs your bankroll.
Third, the last hand. With 14 big blinds, Nicoletti's check-raise with a flush draw is a semi-bluff that commits his whole stack, and Camargo, holding top pair with about 65% equity, has nothing to think about. In heads-up, top pair is a value hand, not a scary one.
One more detail: Camargo and Nicoletti both reached the tournament through online satellites, the same way many players build up from club apps. If you want to prepare yours before the BSOP Millions, we break down final tables like this one every week in the community. Would you have taken the deal with five even stacks? Tell us.