Jason Koon will begin the final table of the $25,000 Poker Players Championship No-Limit Hold'em WSOP event on Saturday with the chip lead. And the Main Event is a bit off pace for GGPoker to hit its $25 million guaranteed prize pool.
The PPC and Main Event are the two most prestigious World Series of Poker events each year. Only this year, they're being played online instead of at the Rio in Las Vegas. And both tournaments have some significant changes in 2020 beyond the obvious of them taking place on the internet.
Every other summer, the PPC is a $50,000 eight-game mixed tournament. In 2020, the event costs $25,000 to enter and no-limit hold'em is the only game played. As for the Main Event, which has been a $10,000 buy-in tournament the previous 50 years with no reentry allowed, this year's version is $5,000 to enter and participants can register up to three times. GGPoker needs to hit that massive guarantee, which is set to become the largest prize pool in online poker history.
American poker legend chases first bracelet
It's almost crazy to think that Jason Koon has never won a World Series of Poker bracelet. The West Virginia native has accomplished just about everything else in poker. He's cashed for over $31 million in live tournaments, made millions playing poker online, and has 43 WSOP cashes. And he just turned 35, still five years away from being eligible for the Poker Hall of Fame, of which he's already a lock.
But the American poker pro has a good look at ending that bracelet-less drought on Saturday. Koon is the chip leader after Sunday's Day 1 of the $25,000 Poker Players Championship. But despite having an edge over the remaining eight players, he's still going to need some luck to win this one. The blinds are going up fast, and even though he holds the chip lead, he only has 39 big blinds.
Skankar Pillai is in 2nd place with 34 big blinds. Brunno Botteon has the smallest stack with just nine big blinds. Christian Rudolph, the only German at the final table, is in 3rd place with 28 big blinds. Koon is one of four Americans to reach the final table, which is scheduled for Saturday on GGPoker. Pillai, Aram Zobian (22 big blinds), and Chris Hunichen (21 big blinds) also reside in the United States.
The winner of the Poker Players Championship will take home $1,800,290, the largest payout of the summer. Well - until the Main Event champion is crowned on September 6. Each of the nine remaining players are guaranteed at least $154,416, and the runner-up will take home $1,332,097.
Main Event guarantee will come down to the wire
Without taking away rake, the $5,000 buy-in Main Event needs at least 5,000 entries for GGPoker to break even. The poker site has 22 Day 1 starting flights to reach that goal. Through Day 1j - the sixth Day 1 session - a total of 1,857 players. That's an average of 185.7 entries per session, a bit off the 227.2 per session needed to reach the $25 million guarantee.
Through the first 10 Day 1 starting flights, Jonathan Dokler from the United States is the only player to bag a seven-figure stack. Dokler finished Day 1h with 1,021,967. Vlad Martynenko has the second largest stack thus far after having bagged 819,099 on Day 1e.
Day 2 of the Main Event won't begin until August 30. The final table is scheduled for September 6, the last day of the 2020 WSOP Online Bracelet Series on GGPoker.
