The WSOP 2020 started with a bang as Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu made deep runs in the first two events.
Both high stakes legends are looking to improve their gold bracelet tallies with Hellmuth holding the current record.
WSOP 2020 Event #1: $500 No-Limit Hold’em
The first event of the WSOP Online was a low-key $500 NL tournament to get things going. Hopefully it was a sign of things to come as an amazing 1,715 entries built a $771,750 prize pool.
A great start to the series we thought would never happen.
Phil Hellmuth led the field with only two tables left. Seeking a record sixteenth gold bracelet, he must have fancied his chances.
Sadly for the PokerBrat it was game over with 11 runners left as he lost a coin flip with pocket queens against the ace-king of Shawn “SayGoodNight” Daniels.
Jonathan “Art.Vandelay” Dokler was the last man standing, defeating a final table that included Tony “Panoramic” Dunst busting in third place.
Dokler’s $130,426 prize for winning should motivate plenty of American players to play later events.
WSOP Event #2: $1,000 NLH Deepstack 8-Max
Event two turned up the heat. The $1,000 Deepstack tournament attracted plenty of big names, fighting for the $168,586 top prize.
There were 647 runners with a total of 272 rebuys,making a 919-entry field and a $873,050 prize pool.
This tournament also saw a WSOP record broken with Roland “prngls12” Israelashvili cashing for $1,571.49 after busting in 101st place. His record now stands at an impressive 226 WSOP lifetime cashes.
Daniel Negreanu was also looking to score his seventh WSOP gold bracelet. Kid Poker unfortunately fell short of his target after finishing in 18th place, his pocket nines falling foul of the tens held by Matthew “Mendey” Mendez.
Jason “haderade” Somerville was the last star name at the final table. The popular Twitch poker streamer exited in sixth place after losing a race with ace-king versus pocket tens.
Unknown “PokeThese” was the guy who turned on the style at the end, tearing through his remaining four rivals.
Another unknown, “KOVID19”, was the last hurdle, but the 3-1 chip lead of “PokeThese” was more than enough to win the heads up battle to take home $168,586.
And Now the Complaints
No WSOP would be complete without at least a little moaning. Phil Helluth kicked off the series with a Twitter photoshoot from his Aria Resort suite and immediately attracted moaning about the online format.
I’m IN @WSOP online tourney #1 as “Lumestackin” (anagram for “Luckiest Man”), playing from my beautiful suite at @AriaLV. LIVE updates here: https://t.co/3t4YHrroQr pic.twitter.com/WILPk1YXmw
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) July 2, 2020
“This WSOP is a joke. Playing against a bunch of people with their little side computers and programs telling them what to do. All these bracelets should have * on them.”
No doubt a disgruntled player who can’t play due to the lack of US poker rooms online.
Daniel Negreanu’s complaint was more reasonable. The age old problem of needless tanking.
With the WSOP being as serious as tournament poker gets, there is plenty of timebank for the players. Unfortunately this means that people will abuse it, making the games painfully slow.
The amount of stalling in this $1k WSOP Deepstack on the bubble is next level.
Everyone at my table exhausting their time bank every hand.
You gotta do what you gotta do I guess…
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) July 3, 2020
Cliff JohnnyBax Josephy, another tournament legend, chipped in to agree that changes need to be made pre flop.
“Good start, but I like shortening the time to act pre before using timebank. The stalling really kills the structure, and this would help a lot”
Regardless of the complaints, the WSOP 2020 got off to a flying start and we can look forward to seeing a ton of interesting poker over the next couple of months.
