Relatively unknown Croatian player Ivan Zufic ships WSOP Mini Main Event
The $5,000,000 GTD WSOP Mini Main Event was the big highlight at the WSOP Online this week and it didn’t disapoint.
An incredible 15,205 entries smashed the 5 Million Dollar Guarantee and created a massive $7,222,375 prize pool with $843,460 up top and all of that for a small buy-in of only $500!
Several big names such as Connor Drinan, Marc-Andre Ladouceur, Joe Serock and Run It Once coach Nicolau Villa-Lobos all made it to the Top 30. However, all of them busted before the final table was reached.
Daniel Neilson from Australia tops his biggest live score
Biggest name on the FT was German Natural8 player Fedor Kruse, who busted in 9th place for $41,566 as well as Aussie tournament crusher Daniel Neilson.
The latter has an impressive 117 cashes and $2,608,506 in live winnings with his biggest success being a 3rd place finish at EPT San Remo 2011 for $392,935. He managed to top his biggest live score by finishing 3rd for a whopping $401,635.
Chipcounts before the start of Heads-Up:
As you can see from above, Heads-up play started with pretty even stacks. Ivan Zufic did however manage to pull away quickly by making a good call with top pair with four cards to a straight on board.
From this point on he never looked back and continuously increased his stack until he had a huge 14 to 1 lead!
In the last hand Suraj Mishra shoved his last nine big blinds in with Pocket Deuces. Ivan Zufic called with A-9 and hit the ace on the flop to celebrate the by far biggest victory of his career worth a staggering $843,460 plus the prestigious WSOP Bracelet.
Payouts WSOP 2020 Mini Main Event:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ivan “zufo16” Zufic | Croatia | $843,460 |
| 2 | Suraj “M26GreenWood” Mishra | India | $586,157 |
| 3 | Daniel “BaccaratKing” Neilson | Australia | $401,635 |
| 4 | Daniel “GiveUp1905” Saugspier | Germany | $275,200 |
| 5 | Oleksii “Cold_play” Kravchuk | Ukraine | $188,567 |
| 6 | Derek “XrayEyes” Miller | United Kingdom | $129,206 |
| 7 | Troy “iLOVEfantaxo” Mclean | Australia | $88,532 |
| 8 | ROYAL “BLACKPAPAYAA” PEK | Singapore | $60,662 |
| 9 | Fedor Kruse | Austria | $41,566 |
Dmytro Bystrovzorov secures first Bracelet for the Ukraine in Event #65: $600 NLHE Deepstack
But Ivan Zufic was not the only surprise winner. Ukrainian player Dmytro Bystrovzorov pulled off the same trick in WSOP 2020 Event #65: $600 NLHE Deepstack.
He topped a 2,911-strong field which had created a huge prize pool of $1,659,270 to take home the whopping $227,906 first place prize.
Online crushers Ivan Banic and Pavel Plesuv with deep runs
The by far two biggest names, who managed to run very deep, were online crushers Ivan “BanicIvan” Banic and Pavel Plesuv, who just won the Stadium Series Afterparty at Stars for $200,000 a few days ago. This time his run ended just shy of the final table in 11th place for $12,321.
In contrary to that Ivan Banic did make the final table, but the bracelet wasn’t meant to be as he hit the rails in 6th place for $46,101.
The Heads-Up was a Ukrainian-Austrian affaire, while Dmytro Bystrovzorov started the heads-up battle with 60% of chips in play.
He never gave away his lead and in the final hand, he had lady luck on his site, when limp-shoving with A-7 and running into the Pocket Queens of Florian Gaugusch.
Barry Greenstein on the flop put him into the lead though and it held, to take down the first bracelet for the Ukraine at this year’s WSOP.
Final Result WSOP 2020 Event #65:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dmytro “Too Bad” Bystrovzorov | Ukraine | $227,906 |
| 2 | Florian “Gaug1nho” Gaugusch | Austria | $172,493 |
| 3 | Matthew “Yellowbuddah” Train | South Africa | $124,024 |
| 4 | Christopher “RambaZamba” Putz | Austria | $89,174 |
| 5 | Stanley “Donkey_Fish” Topol | South Africa | $64,117 |
| 6 | Ivan “00COEL” Banic | Croatia | $46,101 |
| 7 | Wojciech “ItOldUbefOre” Barzantny | Germany | $33,147 |
| 8 | Ivan “ivenson13” Constantin | Romania | $23,833 |
| 9 | Giovani “Mandjocka” Torre | Portugal | $17,136 |
