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Strong start for Hellmuth, Dunst, Sumerville and Negreanu in the first two WSOP official events

While most of the world is anticipating the 2020 World Series of Poker Online series coming to Natural8-GGPoker Network this 19th, the initial part of the prestigious festival has already begun for players geo-located in the states of Nevada and New Jersey. A total of 31 gold bracelet events is scheduled to run on the official WSOP.com client, awarding one gold bracelet for each day of the month of July. So far, it has only been a few days since the WSOP series started and esteemed names within the industry have already made deep runs in the first three events. Below is a short recap of Events 1-3 of WSOP’s online summer festival awarding coveted gold bracelets to its lucky winners.

Event 1: Hellmuth returns to WSOP scoring a deep run in Event #1 – Dunst finishes 3rd

Phil “Lumestackin” Hellmuth
Phil “Lumestackin” Hellmuth – Photo WPT

Cards are in the air as the primary event concluded earlier this week, crowning Jonathan “Art.Vandelay” Dokler as the first player to be awarded a gold bracelet in the online games. The $500 No-Limit Hold’em Kickoff drew in 1,195 runners, 520 of which rebought to boost the total entries to 1,715 and eventually pushing the prize pool to a sweet $771,750. The Ohio native scored his first WSOP bracelet along with $130,425.75 in winnings after beating Justin “MadTitan” Turner in a quick heads up battle for the overall title.

The recorded win is Dokler’s largest ever payout followed by his WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open score earlier this year for $100,829.

The online victory however, is not Dokler’s first big breakthrough in the online poker scene as he bagged a WSOP Circuit Online gold ring last March in addition to the $77,910 prize he received.

A strong contender in the final table, Dokler eliminated four other opponents to amass an almost 3:1 chip advantage by the heads up battle against Turner. Just a few hands prior, Dokler managed to win a big flip with ace-king sending Dunst to settle for third place after losing with pocket nines. In the final hand of the tournament, Turner who was sitting with a short stack for most of the final table play, open shoved his twelve big blind stack with ten-six of spades only to be called with Dokler’s holding, pocket fours. The former flopped top pair but the latter instantly turned a straight, right away becoming the first bracelet winner for the 2020 series.

Notable names

With WSOP’s leading reputation, the first event expectedly saw plenty of big names making deep runs including four-time bracelet winner Mike “mouth123” Matusow, two-time Card Player Poker Tour main event winner Jon “havuuuuuc” Turner and WPT commentator and bracelet winner Tony “Panoramic” Dunst who cashed in third.

Even so, all eyes undoubtedly were on record-leading 15-time WSOP bracelet winner, Phil “Lumestackin” Hellmuth for the duration of the tournament who fell two spots short of making the final table. Being the center of attention, Hellmuth even held the chip lead at one point with two tables left in the running up until a series of losing hands and an eventual coin flip for the chip lead or the rails.

In a twitter post, he noted “Tough last 45 minutes, I ran QQ into KK, Ad-Qd into A-K (for 8 big blinds) and Q-Q into A-K. Went from chip leader to out in 13th. I won some pots to get there though #POSITIVITY”

For his final hand, Hellmuth three-bet jammed his last 21 big blinds preflop holding pocket queens against Shawn “SayGoodNight” Daniels’ under the gun open with ace-king.

Well-aware of Hellmuth’s tight reputation, Danielstook forever to call it off” but immediately flopped a king with no help on the turn and river for Hellmuth’s premium hand.

The tournament pro busting out in 11th place for $7,872, afterwards tweeted, “Lost a 4 Million chip flip, for chip lead in @WSOP #1, the guy that called it off musta felt sick (he took forever to call it off w A-K) to call off 1.8 Million knowing that best case is tie. Knowing it was me that moved in! He opened 200k, I moved in 2M w QQ w 13 players left.

With many more events to come, Hellmuth’s strong start would definitely serve as a great motivation to add more gold bracelets to his already outstanding tournament record. Players can surely expect more big names to show up in the online games these coming weeks as more than 80 more bracelets are left to be awarded.

2020 WSOP Event #1: $500 No-Limit Hold’em Kickoff Final Table Results

Place Player Prize
1st Jonathan “Art.Vandelay” Dokler $130,425.75
2nd Justin “MadTitan” Turner $80,416.35
3rd Tony “Panoramic” Dunst $57,881.25
4th Shawn “SayGoodNight” Daniels $42,060.37
5th Michael “DDSpade” Balan $30,947.17
6th Kyle “ChefShap” Shappelle $22,998.16
7th Daniel ““djp1006” Park $17,287.20
8th Mark “NostraDonkus” Liedtke $13,119.75
9th Taylor “ZeroTo100” Von Kriegenbergh $10,109.92

Event 2: Jason “haderade” Somerville makes final table – Negreanu finishes 18th

Jason “haderade” Somerville
Jason “haderade” Somerville – Photo Run It Up

With bracelet events rolling on the daily for this whole month of July, US-based players are getting ready for their chance of winning a coveted WSOP bracelet in the online games. It is only the second event of the series and both recreational and professional players are already on the virtual felt battling it out for a well-deserved title. Event #2: $1,000 NLH Deepstack 8-Max crowned its bracelet winner last Thursday, awarding Louis “PokeThese” Lynch $168,585.95 in top prize after eleven hours of play. The event saw a total of 919 entries, 647 players of which 272 rebought, creating a prize pool of $873,050.

Winning his first bracelet award, Lynch defeated Ryan “KOVID19” Ko in a quick heads up battle with his final hand of pocket sixes holding up against Ko’s queen-six offsuit. Lynch, who held a big stack all throughout the final table, held an even bigger chip lead short handed. By the time it was three-handed, Lynch was already sitting at almost 70% of the total chips making the end game easier to fall to his advantage.

Similar to the first event, the field for Event #2 saw big names in the industry making deep runs as well. Bracelet winner Jason “haderade” Somerville managed to make a final table appearance ending his run with a sixth place finish and a $27,762.99 payout. The popular poker pro busted out after failing to win a race with ace-king against Lynch’s pocket tens.

Another well-known poker icon and six-time bracelet winner, Daniel “DNegs” Negreanu made a deep run in the event, finishing in 18th. Unavoidably, the Canadian pro also known as “Kid Poker” ran pocket nines into Matthew “Mendey” Mendez’ pocket tens with no luck to catch a much needed nine.

So far, it has only been a few days of what is scheduled to be a 10-week long series and already, multiple players have triumphantly picked up six-digit scores. With the WSOP festival opening its doors internationally through the GGPoker – Natural8 network on the 19th, poker enthusiasts around the world can expect larger fields along with heftier prize pools to be won everyday for the next sixty days.

2020 WSOP Event #2: $1,000 NLH Deepstack 8-Max Final Table Results

Place Player Prize
1st Louis “PokeThese” Lynch $168,585.95
2nd Ryan “KOVID19” Ko $104,242.17
3rd Kevin “GoneBananas” Garosshen $73,423.50
4th Daniel “IntoTheRiver” Fischer $52,383
5th Sean “bahbababa” Prendiville $37,890.37
6th Jason “haderade” Somerville $27,762.99
7th Jon “jonnyg93” Gisler $20,691.28
8th Matthew “Michmeister” Mich $15,627.59
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Janette Dee

Graduated from De La Salle University, Janette works as a full time teacher in Manila, Philippines. She has long joined the local poker community as a recreational player for the last decade. Having a natural love for the game, she decided to branch out into a different avenue of poker. Currently, Janette works for Somuchpoker as a content writer reporting local and international news for the site.

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