All three Day flights complete as 2020 Main Event advances to Day 2
The last of a trio of Day 1 flights for the 2020 World Series of Poker Main Event finished up Sunday at GGPoker. The Day 1a, Day 1b, and Day 1c flights that played out on GGPoker over the past week represent the international side of the 2020 Main Event, which plays out throughout the month in an unprecedented format.
The three opening day flights produced 179 players that made it through to Day 2. Day 2 plays out today on GGPoker, with that field of 179 trimming down to a final table by day’s end.
Here’s a look at what went down on Day 1b and 1c of the 2020 WSOP Main Event (real player names courtesy of PokerNews):
Blaj Zerjav bags biggest in Day 1b
Day 1b played out Saturday, Dec. 5 at GGPoker, with Slovenian Blaz Zerjav ending the second starting flight with the biggest Day 1b chip stack. Zerjav ended Day 1b with 639,394 chips, giving him 128 big blinds to play with going into Day 2.
Other top stacks coming out of Day 1b include Rodrigo ‘sauvage’ Valente of Brazil (592,043, 118 big blinds), Israel’s Amir ‘8ty4calling8’ Dvir (538,003, 108 big blinds), Russia’s Artem ‘Ar0wana’ Vezhenkov (511,114, 102 big blinds), and Canadian ‘crackers614’ (488,965, 98 big blinds).
Day 1b drew 171 players, each unique entries with only one shot at advancing in the freezeout 2020 Main Event. From those 171 players, 42 survived the night to advance on to Day 2.
The 639,394 chip stack of Zerjav puts him at No. 2 on the overall chip leaderboard heading into Day 2.
Senthuran ‘Prodigal Sen’ Vijayaratnam ends Day 1c with overall chip lead in the Main Event
Sunday, Dec. 6 marked the final chance to advance to WSOP Main Event Day 2. Not surprisingly, Sunday’s Day 1c flight drew the biggest attendance of the three starting flights.
Day 1c prompted 257 players to register, with 75 of those entries emerging to advance to Day 2. Senthuran ‘Prodigal Sen’ Vijayaratnam came away with the biggest chip stack from Day 1c.
Vijayaratnam (966,714 chips, 193 big blinds) bagged the biggest stack from any of the Day 1 flights, and goes into Day 2 as the tournament chip leader. Playing from Canada, Vijayaratnam’s Day 1c run puts him in a commanding lead going into Day 2.
Other top Day 1c finishers included Jesse ‘sabor_de_mar’ Wigan (642,276, 128 big blinds), Russia’s Viacheslav Buldygin (480,671, 96 big blinds), Ruben ‘Sjokmelk’ Gravlien out of Norway (459,031, 92 big blinds), and Gediminas ‘NeverGambol’ Uselis from Lithuania (433,859, 87 big blinds).
Day 2 plays to a final table today
The field whittles from 179 players to the final nine today. That final table lineup will reconvene at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, Dec. 15.
The tournament converts to a live format from there, with the final table playing to a winner. After that, the last player standing from the GGPoker side of the 2020 WSOP Main Event will take on the winner of the U.S. side of the tournament.
That heads-up match for the most coveted prize in poker takes place in Las Vegas, at the Rio Dec. 30.
Featured image source: Twitter
