2020 WCOOP Recap: “PTFisherman23” scoops up Main Event title for $1,147,270; “Amadi_017” bags four titles for the series; “Zapahzamazki” wins overall leaderboard with 59 cashes

The annual World Championship of Online Poker held in one of the industry’s most formidable platforms, PokerStars went successfully underway these last four weeks, having awarded over $80 million in guarantees. With 75 featured events spread out across three buy-in levels each, a total of 225 tournaments completed the full schedule. The generous lineup ran 23 events which covered seven-figure prize pools, with the $5,200 Main Event alone holding a $10 million guarantee.

After 25 days of brimming action, Portuguese poker pro Andre Marques scooped up the biggest event of the festival, taking home $1,147,270 for his win. Romain Nussmann and Poland player ‘klimono’ on the other hand, booked the two lower tier levels of the Main Event respectively earning a World Champion title as well for their victory. Another notable winner is Spanish poker pro Adrian Mateos who bagged four WCOOP titles for the series while beating one of the best online MTT players Fedor Holz in heads up for the $25,000 Super High Roller title. Overall leaderboard winner Rinat Lyapin likewise claimed an additional $25,000 cash prize and a trophy to go along with his impressive 59 cashes for the series.

2020 PokerStars WCOOP Main Event

WCOOP-72-H: $5,200 NLHE

Crowned as the newest champion, Andre “PTFisherman23” Marques captured the biggest share of the $10 million guaranteed prize pool, amounting to $1,147,271 in top prize. The Portuguese poker pro outlasted the large field of 1,977 entries and cut a deal three-handed with second and third place finishers Tonio “prrrak4783” Röder and Teun “tinnoemulder” Mulder, awarding an additional $100,000 to the eventual winner. While Marques secured the victory, players Röder and Mulder also ended the tournament with both adding over a million dollars to their bankroll.

Final table play began with Mulder, Marques and former EPT London champion Robin “robinho” Ylitalo holding the top three chip counts among the last nine players. Short stack Cecilia “princes chu” Cafaro was the first casualty followed right after by Russian player “77atlant77”. It did not take long for American poker pro Michael “munchenHB” Telker to succumb in seventh place with opponent Denys “SantaZzz” Chufarin likewise ending his run shortly after. With pay jumps increasing in value, ICM considerations were in place as the two shortest stacks at this point were hanging on for a bigger payout. Unfortunately for Andriy “Andre_Hansen” Lyubovetskiy, his King-Jack soon fell into the hands of Röder’s Ace-Jack. With four players left in the running, discussions of a deal were brought to light but failed to reach a conclusion. After almost three hours of four-handed play, Ylitalo was eliminated and a deal was finally made with the last three players guaranteed seven-figure scores. A quick double up for Marques as he flopped top two pair with Ace-ten against Mulder’s Ace-Queen put him in a solid lead for the title. Soon enough, Marques locked in the win bringing his big stack through to a stellar victory.

2020 WCOOP-72-H: $5,200 NLHE

*Denotes deal was made, an additional $100,000 was awarded to the winner

WCOOP-72-M: $530 NLHE

The final day for the mid-tier Main Event lasted just over three hours before Romain “1mSoWeeeaK” Nussmann successfully claimed the championship title for $504,584. With a buy-in of a more affordable $530, the tournament drew in a total of 7,105 entries, surpassing the $2M guarantee to a $3,552,500 prize pool. A French national based in Cambodia, Nussmann is known to be the founder of Nutsrpoker, a training center for online tournament players. In addition to his superb win, Nussmann streamed his final table gameplay on Twitch in front of 4,000 viewers, breaking the world record for stream winnings so far held by Doug Polk.

Coming into the final table with the chip lead, Nussmann carried his big stack all the way to heads up play against opponent Yuri “Y.Zakharov” Zakharov, who was responsible for the elimination of five other players. Scooping up stack after stack, Zakharov managed to narrow the gap once the heads up battle began. Nussmann, who still held a slight chip lead, continued to put pressure on Zakharov, taking the more aggressive route. With blinds increasing, Zakharov had 11 big blinds left when the final hand came up. Calling off Nussmann’s shove with Ace-nine, Zakharov was ahead against his opponent’s nine-eight. An eight on the flop with no help on the turn and the river however, left Zakharov to settle for a runner up finish and a $359,680 payout.

2020 WCOOP-72-M: $530 NLHE

WCOOP-72-L: $55 NLHE

Attracting an even larger pool of players, the low tier Main Event was met with huge success as 38,660 entrants joined in to compete for the lion’s share of the $1,933,000 prize pool. After three days of play, the final day ended in just under two hours with player “klimono” claiming the first place prize of $186,841. While the identity of the online player remains unknown at the moment, “klimono’s” performance in the final table stunned everyone as he played almost every hand while eliminating every single opponent except for one, leading him to an inevitable victory.

Chip lead from start to finish, “klimono” was on a whole different level as he held roughly half the chips in play after his first casualty Day 2 chip leader “benton24” left the final table. By heads up battle against Belgian player “Tangawi26”, “klimono” was sitting with an 8:1 chip advantage after eliminating almost all the other players. It only took one hand for “klimono” to bust his last opponent and eventually secure the fated win.

2020 WCOOP-72-L: $55 NLHE

Other highlights

Aside from the series’ flagship tournament, other key events awarded winners with noteworthy scores including Spanish poker pro Adrian “Amadi_017” Mateos who bagged four WCOOP titles in this year’s online festival alone. His fourth victory proved to be the biggest out of all, having successfully taken down the $25,000 Super High Roller event. After cutting a deal heads up, Mateos defeated Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz for the title while taking $543,686 in winnings. Boasting over $21.8 million in live tournament earnings, Mateos is an accomplished pro with three WSOP bracelets and an EPT title under his belt.

WCOOP-25-H: $25,000 NLHE

Buy-in: $25,000
Entries: 106
Prize pool: $2,599,650

2020 WCOOP-25-H: $25,000 NLHE Final Table Results

*Denotes deal was made

Another key event of the series was the opening B10,300 progressive knockout event which awarded Dimitar “KuuL” Danchev his first WCOOP title and a $400,495 payout. While Danchev claimed the top prize of $152,682, the Bulgarian pro racked up a whopping $247,813 in bounties.

WCOOP-02-H: $10,300

Buy-in: $10,300
Entries: 136
Prize pool: $1,500,000

2020 WCOOP-02-H: $10,300

WCOOP-02-M: $1,050

Winner: Zapahzamazki – $175,586.21
Buy-in: $1,050
Entries: 1,971
Prize pool: $2,000,000
ITM: 239 players

WCOOP-02-L: $109

Winner: SoEzForMe – $121,618.85
Buy-in: $109
Entries: 19,397
Prize pool: $1,939,700
ITM: 2,783 players

A WCOOP Player of the Series Leaderboardalso awarded winners with outstanding results across the 225 tournaments a share of the $100,000 additional cash prize. Rinat “Zapahzamazki” Lyapin claimed a trophy and $25,000 for topping the overall leaderboard after 59 cashes for the series while Joao “Naza114” Vieira cashed an extra $12,500 for winning the high tier leaderboard. Players Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna and “aleksandrs10” likewise received bonuses of $8,500 and $5,000 for the medium and low tier leaderboards respectively.

WCOOP 2020 Overall Leaderboard