2020 WSOP Main Event – Natural8: International final 9 lineup led by Brazil’s Brunno Botteon de Albuquerque; China’s Peiyuan Sun in contention; next stage in Rozvadov

The 2020 World Series of Poker Main Event – international – ran its last online day with 179 players returning to Natural8 – GG Network to hunt down a coveted final 9 seat. After ten hours of non stop action, an all international final table emerged led by Brazilian online pro Brunno Botteon de Albuquerque. The lineup consisted of two players from South America, six from Europe, and one from Asia. The next stage of the race takes place on Tuesday, December 15 at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. They play LIVE for the international title, the US$ 1,550,968 first prize, and a spot at the 51st WSOP Main Event heads up world championship.

The 51st WSOP US$ 10,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship Freezeout – international – attracted 674 players across three starting days for a prize pool of US$ 6,470,400. Only 179 advanced to Day 2 which played out on December 8. The money flowed starting at 80th place then closed at the fall of Thomas “ggmbn” MacDonald in 10th place.

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Final 9 players

Brunno Botteon de Albuquerque – Brazil – 10,317,743 – 51.6 BB
Manuel “robocup” Ruivo – Portugal – 6,213,759 – 31.1 BB
Damian Salas – Argentina – 5,653,528 – 28.3 BB
“fullbabyfull” – Liechtenstein – 4,232,560 – 21.2 BB
Hannes “Black Fortunal” Speiser – Austria – 3,515,744 – 17.6 BB
Dominykas “Mickey Mouse” Mikolaitis – Lithuania – 3,165,440 – 15.8 BB
Ramon “Ritza” Miguel Munoz – Spain – 3,035,940 – 15.2 BB
Peiyuan “fish3098” Sun – China – 2,185,676 – 10.9 BB
Stoyan “UncleToni”Obreshkov – Bulgaria – 2,119,610 – 10.6 BB

Of the nine, fullbabyfull’s identity has yet to be revealed, which will likely be soon with the final table taking place on a live stage. A bit of interesting info, “fullbabyfull” and Ramon “Ritza” Miguel Munoz both earned their Main Event seat via a US$ 525 Mega Satellite while Manuel “robocup” Ruivo earned his at a US$ 1K Ultra Satellite.

Main Event info

Buy in: US$ 10,000
Players: 674
Prize Pool: US$ 6,470,400
Day 2 qualifiers: 179
ITM: 80 places

Day 1A: 62 advanced out of 246 players
Day 1B: 42 advanced out of 171 players
Day 1C: 75 advanced out of 257 players
Day 2: Final 9 players

The final 9 players are set to pocket a healthy payout of US$ 73,359, however, what each one will be targeting is the hunky seven figure US$ 1,550,968 first prize. Additionally, every player is still seeking their first ever WSOP title, and nothing is better than winning the prestigious Main Event. Here’s a look at the remaining payouts:

Final 9 payouts

1st US$ 1,550,968
2nd US$ 1,062,722
3rd US$ 728,177
4th US$ 498,947
5th US$ 341,879
6th US$ 234,255
7th US$ 160,512
8th US$ 109,982
9th US$ 73,359

Main Event Day 2 recap

The last online stage of the Main Event – international – ran a lengthy ten hours with 179 players gunning for a piece of the pot. Up top was the massive stacked Day 1C leader Prodigal Sen while on the opposite end was ailing stacked gringo843. At the starting gun, it was a shove fest. US$ 100 Step Satellite qualifier “Imsuited86” was first to the rail, was joined by Simon “FiestaPagana” Mattsson and several others seconds after. Prodigal Sen resumed his Day 1C run, immediately railing Toshiyuki “dmind1106” Onda with over to become the first player into a million in chips.

By the end of the round, 22 had fallen which included Martin Pineiro, Idris Ambraisse, and bracelet holder Georgios Sotiropoulos “G Manousos”. Level 2 blew past with a storm of 20 players dropping out. Among them was 2019 WSOPE Main Event champion Alexandros Kolonias and bracelet winners Simon Klas Lofberg and Ivan Deyra “Cordialemente”. Prodigal Sen still held top rank with Artem “Ar0wana” Vezhenkov just below after claiming the stacks of Anatoly Filatov and rushaakkandqq.

The next two levels witnessed plenty of mobility in ranking however the top spot still belonged to Prodigal Sen. Two bracelet winners fell – Alexandru Papazian and Alexandre Reard “STAY_HUNGRY”. Papazian first took a beating against MoneyHeist with dominating to send his stack plunging to 2.5 BB. He lost the rest shortly after. As for “STAY_HUNGRY”, he was booted by Hans “BlackFortuna” Speiser with over that missed. Out as well was bracelet holder Yuri Dzivielevski who initiated a preflop raise war from the small blind with bluff but was called by big blind jackpot737 with .

By the second break of the day, 80 players were out empty handed, Ruben “Sjokomelk” Gravilen was the new chip leader, and Prodigal Sen was bumped down to fourth rank. Level 5 action saw Brunno Botteon de Albuquerque land two double ups to jump from 83rd to 12th rank which he then grinded up to 6th rank. Just before the round closed, Natural8 Team Hot ambassador Daniel Dvoress ended his run in 91st place.

Three hours into the event, BlackFortuna denied bracelet holder Sung Joo Hyun “ArtePokertv” by cracking with straight on a board . Jonathan Fhima “JA-S-N-G-T” railed Laurynas Levinskas in 82nd place to bring about the bubble round which lasted all of one hand. Hong Kong player Zhiao “KingChips” He had been sitting out for quite some time leaving a very short stack to be blinded out. It was forced all in on the big blind, won by Rodrigo Valente “sauvage” to allow the money to flow.

First to cash was satellite winner Ronit “Songjoy” Chamani. Shortly after, bracelet winner Gediminas Uselis “NeverGambol” followed, then Manuel “robocup” Ruivo delivered a double bust that sent his stack to second rank and both Cam Godin and Jordan Knackstedt “saskprinter” out of the running. robocup’s held against Knackstedt’s and Godin’s . robocup also later railed Sergio Aido. 

Two hours after the bubble burst, bracelet winner Toby Joyce “shinerrr” was stopped in 32nd place by Stas “EndersGame20” Tishkevich with over that missed the board. When the field trimmed to 26 players, starting day chip leaders Prodigal Sen and Blaz Zerjav faced off. The board ran low for a double up to Prodigal Sen. Zerjav fell on the next hand to Patrick “Pepsi_Zero” Semrau when turned a set to dust pocket Queens. At a separate table, Day 1A chip leader Julian Menhardt “VWgunthar” plunged to 2.5 BB after his was denied by BorisLeBlade’s straight on a board .

Down to 11 players with average stack at 23 BB, chips were moving fast around both felts. Botteon doubled up twice with Prodigal Sen and Peiyuan Sun “fish3098” paying up. At the same table, fish3098 doubled up off Dominykas Mikolaitis “MickeyMouse” to cripple the latter to less than 1 BB. MickeyMouse then went on a shove fest, resulting in two double ups against Botteon. At level increase, the average was 18.4 BB, Botteon sent the axe down on Prodigal Sen with two red ladies doing the job. See hand below.

At the other table, Ramon Miguel Munoz “Ritza” landed two pair with to overcome robocup’s and avoid the rail, board was .  Another big hand came down, this one didn’t result in a showdown. Instead Damian Salas shove on robocup on a board showing . No call was made to scoop up the hefty pile. Five minutes after, Thomas MacDonald “ggmbn” shoved from the small blind with and was snap called by robocup with , the board ran for two pair to robocup. MacDonald busted in 10th place to end Day 2 as the final table bubble.

Notable players in the money

Day 2 was brutal for many with only 80 of the 179 returnees guaranteed to cash. Returning to action were 15 WSOP bracelet / ring winners which included 2019 WSOPE Main Event champion Alexandros Kolonias. Kolonias. Kolonias missed the mark however on the flip side, three others profited namely, Toby Joyce “shinerrr” (31st place for YS$ 26,506), Christopher Frank “Mangudai” (50th place for US$ 18,421), and Gediminas Uselis “NeverGambol” (74th place for US$ 15,277). Starting day chip leaders fared well with all three players running deep: Senthuran “Prodigal Sen” Vijayaratnam (11th), Julian “VWgunther” Menhardt (24th), and Blaz Zerjav (25th). Also dipping in the money jar were notable pros Chris Puetz (13th), Preben Stokkan (23rd), Simon Burns (35th), Sergio Aido (41st), Matas Cimbolas (57th), Dan Smiljkovic (64th), and Javier Gomez (79th).

Flying high for Asia

A decent number of Asians made the cut into Day 2 with several getting paid for their efforts. The most well known was Hong Kong’s Sang Yeon “alltimehigh” Hwang who finished 49th. Running the deepest was Taiwan’s “BorisLeBlade”. Four players from China also cashed, sunnyzyang1982 (17th), Xiaqing “qingxiaji” Ji (43rd), Zhenyu “rainsong” Yu (61st), and “Atuana” (70th). Coming final table, Peiyuan “fish3098” Sun will attempt to bring home the first Main Event gold bracelet for China.

Satellite players in the money

Out of the 84 satellite qualifiers into Day 2, 32 cashed in starting with Ronit Chamani “Songjoy” (80th) who secured his seat via a US$ 525 Ultra Satellite. Day 1A chip leader Julian “VWgunther” Menhardt also turned his US$ 525 ticket into a large pile finishing in 24th place for US$ 30,404. There were 20 other direct satellite winners that included WSOP bracelet winners Christopher Frank “Mangudai” and Gediminas Uselis “NeverGambol”, and Bela “Teemo18” Toth who won a seat for just US$ 54. As mentioned above, three of the final 9 players were satellite qualifiers: Manuel “robocup” Ruivo (ranked 2nd), “fullbabyfull” (ranked 4th), and Ramon “Ritza” Miguel Munoz (ranked 7th).

Several Step Satellite winners also turned their lowly buy in into a monster profit: US$ 100 Step Satellite qualifiers were Luigi Shehadeh “shadinho94”, “Atuana”, and “MoneyHeist”. Paul “AsiaStylez” Esau qualified for US$ 50, “majestre” for US$ 20, and spending the least was “ml223322” who turned a US$ 10 Step Satellite to US$ 20,328.

Domestic segment and Live action

With the international online segment completed, the domestic online segment follows taking place on WSOP.com. Only players geolocated in US states Nevada and New Jersey will be allowed to enter. Domestic schedule on WSOP.com:

Day 1: Sunday, December 13
Day 2: Monday, December 14
Final Table: Monday, December 28 @ Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino (Live)

Once it concludes, the final 9 players head to the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on December 28 where they battle LIVE for that segment’s title. To wrap it all up, champions of each segment will then face off LIVE for the 51st WSOP Main Event Championship title on December 30 in Las Vegas. The ultimate champion will claim the highly coveted WSOP Main Event championship gold bracelet and $1,000,000 courtesy of Caesars Entertainment, Inc. and GGPoker.

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Stick with us at Somuchpoker as we bring you a Final 9 presentation and a recap of the 2020 WSOP Main Event Final Table as it unfolds.