Wednesday was a glorious day for two poker players. GGPoker awarded winners of a pot-limit Omaha and a no-limit hold'em tournament a shiny gold bracelet. And the Main Event is kicking into high gear.
Those individuals are Dmytro Bystrovzorov (champion of Event #65, $600 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack Championship) and Toby Joyce (winner of Event #66, $800 Pot-Limit Omaha). Both players finished on top of massive fields to win their first WSOP bracelets.
Bystrovzorov, from Ukraine, bested a field of 2,911 players, creating a prize pool of $1,659,270. He earned the biggest share of that pot - $227,906, and also receives a WSOP Europe package which includes travel expenses and a Main Event seat should a series in Rozvadov, Czech Republic take place this fall.
The champion faced a tough competitor when heads-up play. His opponent, Florian Gaugusch, is being trained by the great Fedor Holz, a GGPoker ambassador. But Holz' tutelage wasn't enough to help his student win the bracelet, although he still went home with $172,493. Matthew Train, who resides in South Africa, came in 3rd place and won $124,024. Christopher Putz, from Austria, is no putz as he finished in 4th place, good for $89,174. Stanley Topol, also of South Africa, rounded out the top five with a $64,117 score.
Joyce, an Irishman, then earned his first WSOP bracelet in the $800 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament. Playing from his home country of Ireland, he won $139,453 of the $973,560 prize pool. When registration concluded, there were a total of 1,281 players signed up. But none of them could bust Joyce.
Mark Herm came close, however. The only American at the final table made it to heads-up play but lost a tough battle to Joyce. He still earned $109,909 as a consolation prize, which certainly isn't too bad. Maksim Fomin, a Russian, finished in 3rd place and won $79,761. Jonas Kronwitter, from Austria, went out in 4th place, an impressive $57,883 score. Ruslan Nazarenko, who lives in Ukraine, was eliminated in 5th place and received $42,005.
Day 1 of the Main Event rolls on
The makeshift 2020 WSOP Main Event, a $5,000 buy-in tournament on GGPoker, has now completed four Day 1 starting flights. On Day 1c, Ali Imsirovic, one of the top young superstars in poker, bagged one of the biggest stacks at 444,538. Karim Khayat, however, left the session with that day's largest stack at 656,260. Day 1c had 110 entries and only 19 of them advanced to Day 2, which is scheduled for August 30.
On Day 1d, just 68 players registered with seven bagging chips. Stuart Wallensteen finished with the biggest chip stack — 625,267. Samuel Vousden still has the overall top chip stack, which he earned on Day 1a (717,497). In total, 756 players have entered the Main Event and 150 of those are guaranteed a seat at the table on Day 2.
The online Main Event has a $25 million guaranteed prize pool, the largest in online poker history. So far, the players have contributed $3,780,000 to that prize pool (minus rake). But with 18 Day 1 starting flights still remaining, GGPoker likely won't have a difficult time meeting the guarantee.
