Final Events And Numbers Close Out Wsop 2020 Online
The first online version of the World Series of Poker is over. It ended earlier this week with the final tournaments finding their gold bracelet winners.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, World Series of Poker officials determined that it was not possible to hold its annual summer series in Las Vegas this year. In fact, any sort of live tournament series this summer was not advisable.
So, the WSOP held its first-ever WSOP 2020 Online. The first 31 events took place on a US-based WSOP site, and the other 54 events aimed for a global audience with the GGNetwork of sites, including GGPoker and Natural8.
For the first time, players in the Asia-Pacific region of the world didn’t have to arrange days of travel halfway around the world to play for WSOP gold bracelets. Granted, some couldn’t play from their home countries, either. (Thanks, Australian lawmakers!) But relatively short flights to New Zealand or Asian countries allowed players to compete for WSOP prestige.
To review the reports that kicked off the series and took poker fans through the Main Event, check these links:
- Events 32-47
- Events 48-53
- Events 54-61
- Events 62-68
- Events 69-74
- WSOP Main Event
The final results from the WSOP 2020 Online were as follows:
Event 75: $300 NLHE Double Stack
- Total entries: 3,552
- Prize pool: $991,008
- Paid players: 440 (minimum payout = $709)
- Winner: Trygve “FullSendWig” Leite (Norway) $130,100
A low buy-in tournament was a big hit, as usual, with players looking to mete out their bankrolls through the rest of the series. And at the final table, players represented Italy, India, Israel, South Africa, Spain, China, and the United States.
Event 76: $400 NLHE Forty Stack
- Total entries: 4,461
- Prize pool: $1,677,336
- Paid players: 548 (minimum payout = $960)
- Winner: Gediminas “NeverGambol” Uselis (Lithuania) $211,282
Another fairly low buy-in WSOP event offered players another shot at a bracelet, this time with a bigger starting stack. Those who cashed in at the final table included players from the UK, Israel, Serbia, Norway, China, Mexico, and Brazil.
Event 78: $1K NLHE 8-Handed Turbo
- Total entries: 1,910
- Prize pool: $1,814,500
- Paid players: 278 (minimum payout = $2,108)
- Winner: Adnan “Bolazar” Hacialioglu (Finland) $259,842
Players looking for some speedy poker play found it in this event, with the Finn emerging in first place. Others at the final table represented Argentina, Russia, Estonia, Ukraine, South Korea, Canada, and the US.
Event 79: $25K NLHE Heads-Up
- Total entries: 127
- Prize pool: $3,111,500
- Paid players: 8 (minimum payout = $194,469)
- Winner: Fedor Holz (Germany) $1,077,025
This was a unique event, one chosen by poker fans, who wanted to see another heads-up challenge with a big buy-in to guarantee big names. That is what they received. GGPoker Ambassador Fedor Holz took down the event, but others who made the final rounds hailed from Brazil, Turkey, and Spain.
Event 80: $600 NLHE 6-Max
- Total entries: 2,408
- Prize pool: $1,372,560
- Paid players: 350 (minimum payout = $1,259)
- Winner: Jeffrey Dobrin (US) $189,666
Professional poker players chose this event and its format, and they wanted some short-handed action with a reasonable buy-in. The final six players represented France, Armenia, Brazil, Ireland, and Croatia, in addition to the American winner.
Event 81: $1K NLHE 6-Handed Bounty
- Total entries: 1,925
- Prize pool: $1,925,000
- Paid players: 278 (minimum payout = $1,184)
- Winner: Nicolo “Paquitooo” Molinelli (Italy) $243,415
A homemade wheel helped some WSOP hosts choose the details of this tournament, and it was a popular one. An Italian player took down his first bracelet in it, along with a first-place prize of $144,199 plus the $99,216 in bounties he collected throughout the tournament. The final table also featured players from Canada, Austria, China, Finland, and Russia.
Event 82: $1K NLHE Bounty (Beat the Pros)
- Total entries: 2,024
- Prize pool: $2,024,000
- Paid players: 296 (minimum payout = unlisted)
- Winner: Melika “Melirazavii” Razavi (Iran) $239,180
The WSOP didn’t make a lot of details readily available to the public about this one but it involved quite a few pros. But in the end, an Iranian woman beat them all after sharing the final table with players from the US, Canada, Israel, and Russia.
Event 83: $10K NLHE Super Millions
- Total entries: 899
- Prize pool: $8,720,300
- Paid players: 134 (minimum payout = $21,483)
- Winner: Connor Drinan (US) $1423,049
This was a WSOP edition of a typical GGPoker weekly event, though this one had a $5M guarantee on the prize pool. But the true tally far surpassed that to the benefit of final table players from Kazakhstan, Russia, France, India, Canada, and the US.
Event 84: $100 NLHE Millions
- Total entries: 34,787
- Prize pool: $3,200,404
- Paid players: 3,600 (minimum payout = $286)
- Winner: Alexander “Kobbajun” Kobbelvedt (Norway) $296,403
A much smaller buy-in for this weekly GGPoker tournament – as a special WSOP version – drew tens of thousands of players in search of a bracelet. The Norwegian emerged on top but beat players from Ukraine, Germany, Canada, Turkey, Austria, Brazil, and China to do it.
Event 85: $500 NLHE Closer
- Total entries: 4,012
- Prize pool: $1,905,700
- Paid players: 476 (minimum payout = $1,259)
- Winner: Michael “Hneves” Gathy (Belgium) $272,504
The very last event of the summer series drew a large crowd, but the last player standing was one who claimed his fourth career WSOP gold bracelet. Others at the final table represented China, Germany, Brazil, New Zealand (Paul Hockin), Finland, and the US.
How Did the Aussies Do?
Throughout the WSOP events on Natural8 tournaments, players competed from various lands but claimed Australia as their home. Many others played from the Asia-Pacific region, such as the winners of Events 34 from Japan, 38 from China, 46 from South Korea, 47 from Malaysia, 64 from India, 68 from Hong Kong, and 71 from China.
The only winner claiming Aussie as home was Hun Wei Lee, who won Event 37.
On the overall leaderboard, none of the players in the top 10 hailed from Australia. Hun Wei Lee finished in 15th place on that leaderboard, and he was the only one in the top 100.
The leaderboard that solely tracked the Asia-Pacific-timed events didn’t have any Aussies in the top 10 either. A player competing as “HappyWhale” of Australia finished in 55th place on that list, but he or she was the only one in that list’s top 100.
Some WSOP 2020 Stats
The WSOP and GGPoker put together some grand totals and interesting numbers from the 54-event series.
- $147,789,550 = total prize money
- 239,754 = total number of entries
- 166 = total number of nations
- New record for largest online poker tournament ever = Event 77 (Main Event) with its $27,559,500 prize pool
- New record for largest online poker tournament prize ever awarded = Event 77 (Main Event) winner Stoyan Madanzhiev for $3,904,685
- New record for most entries in any WSOP tournament ever = 44,576 in Event 71 (Big 50)
The series awarded four bracelets to women, and a female player finished second in the Main Event. There was only one winner (Alek Stasiak of Canada) who won two bracelets.
In very interesting numbers, there were 203 players who won at least $100K over the course of the series. And there were 281 players who cashed more than 10 times each.
All in all, the WSOP considered the series a success.
WSOP Executive Director Ty Steward said the unprecedented year led to a “wonderful experience” of taking the series online with GGNetwork, “with tens of thousands of new players all over the world able to experience some of the WSOP magic that they might have been otherwise unable to.”
