Both final tables for the WSOP Main Event have now been decided. The $10,000 buy-in freezeout tournament played down to its final nine Monday night. Joseph "kolebear" Hebert leads the way in the quest for the $1.5 million prize.
Hebert highlights a final table that doesn't have any big name star power. But with the stakes so high, these players will soon become familiar faces in the poker community.
Over on GGPoker, the eight players kicked off the international Main Event final table at King's Casino in the Czech Republic Tuesday afternoon. Peiyuan Sun also reached the final table but was unable to travel from China to compete due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. He was paid 9th place money ($75,360).
The King's Casino final table winner will earn $1,550,969 and then will be sent to Las Vegas December 30 to compete against the WSOP.com Main Event final table champion. The winner of that heads-up match will receive an extra $1 million and be crowned the 2020 poker world champion.
Huge advantage for Hebert
Only nine players remain in the U.S. leg of the 2020 WSOP Main Event. More than 700 players began the tournament Sunday afternoon. The final table will kick off December 28 at the Rio in Las Vegas, the annual home to the World Series of Poker.
Hebert will take his seat at the Rio with a commanding chip lead. The online poker player ended Day 2 with 13,052,534 chips. Shawn "shades927" Stroke is his closest competitor with 5,252,000 chips. Stroke is then followed by Ryan "hagzzz021" Hagerty (5,071,0572), Ye "YUAN365" Yuan (4,829,459), Michael "geNet1x" Cannon (4,408,847), Gershon "jets613" Distenfeld (3,475,481), Ron "Samthedog76" Jenkins (2,476,746), Upeshka "gomezhamburg" De Silva (2,151,969), and Harrison "Harrisond33" Dobin (1,581,392).
De Silva entered Day 2 with the chip lead and 71 players remaining. But he couldn't run up a stack on Monday. Still, he's a couple of double ups away from the chip lead. He's the most accomplished and well-known player at the final table.
De Silva has three WSOP bracelets, and is the only past bracelet winner among the final table.
The remaining players will all take a break for nearly two weeks as the WSOP has to give them an opportunity to travel to Las Vegas. The online tournament was open to players in Nevada and New Jersey. And not everyone in the field resides in either of those states. So, time was needed for the competitors to make travel arrangements.
The final table will air on ESPN, the first televised poker on the sports network this year due to COVID-19. All final table competitors will be required to pass a COVID-19 test prior to competing. Should any of the players test positive, they will not be allowed to play and will automatically receive 9th place money.
Featured image source: Twitter
