2020 WSOP Online – Natural8: First ever victory for Jim Lefteruk “grousegrind” at the $1K No Limit Hold’em 6 Handed; Andras Nemeth and BTC2zERO among side event winners

Canada’s Jim Lefteruk “grousegrind” emerged from obscurity after locking up the coveted gold at the WSOP #73: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em 6 Handed event. With no prior stats, this was Lefteruk’s first live career title and cash. He became the 41st champion of the 2020 World Series of Poker Online [ international ] and he didn’t even have to head to Las Vegas to capture it. At the side events, Andras Nemeth and BTC2zERO shipped the largest scores.

Next chance for a gold is at the WSOP #74: $ 1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event which takes place tonight at 18:00 UTC / August 28 @ 02:00 HKT. Not to be missed of course is the WSOP #77: $ 5,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event [ $ 25M GTD ]. Entry flights are ongoing with 16 of 23 completed. 474 players have advanced out of 2,645 entries. Australian pro Kahle Burns leads the final day qualifiers with a 277.5 BB stack.

The 2020 WSOP Online [ international ] has been running since July 19th on Natural8 – GG Network. 41 bracelets have been claimed and a cumulative $ 82.1 million paid out. Only 13 bracelets are left! The series runs until September 6th. For first timers, make sure to sign up on Natural8 to avail of their fantastic promos and incentives. Read about it at the bottom of the page.

Join Natural8 – $100 in Free tickets with your 1st Deposit

WSOP #73: $1K No Limit Hold’em 6 Handed – Jim Lefteruk “grousegrind” – $ 299,510.85

The WSOP #73: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em 6 Handed event charged up with 2,202 entries for a handsome prize pool of $ 2,091,900. Only 314 earned a cut with Canada’s Jim Lefteruk “grousegrind” shipping the lion’s share of $ 299,510.85 and the added $ 15,000 WSOP Europe Package. Of all the finalists, Lefteruk was the only player with no prior stats to be found marking this his first tournament win and first tournament score.

Buy in: $ 1,000

Entries: 2,202

Prize pool: $ 2,091,900

ITM: 314

Running time: 13 hours and 13 minutes

The final table lineup was armed with two bracelet holders – UK’s Patrick Kennedy “Muddington” and Argentinian pro Ivan Luca. Kennedy was well positioned as chip leader, trailed closely by India’s Anant Purohit “MisterPro” who was seeking a first career win and a second gold for India. Another live tournament pro on the round was Estonia’s Markku Koplimaa “ExVang” who was on his 9th cash this series.

The race to glory was brutal for entering chip leaders Kennedy and Purohit as both fell within the first hour and a half of play. After numerous double ups, with Purohit paying a costly one to Jim Lefteruk “grousegrind”, the latter jumped to a huge lead as Purohit plummeted. Several hands later, Lefteruk took the rest, ending India’s hope. Purohit was later followed by Kennedy (8th) whose pocket Jacks ran into Koplimaa’s pocket Kings.

Next to fall was Korea’s Seungmook Jung “7high” busting on a three-way that tripled up Jorge Abreu “bemjogadogg” and Andrii Derzhypilskiy “D0ntB1uffMe” taking the side pot. Six handed, Lefteruk expanded his lead further, amassing 40% of the chips in play that even after Koplimaa (6th) fell to Luca and Derzhypilskiy to Endrit Geci “YOUWILLLOSE”, he was still chip leader.

Lefteruk continued his ascent, eliminating Luca to deny the Argentian a second gold bracelet. With blinds at 200K-400K Luca limped from the button, sb Geci called, bb Lefteruk raised to 1.4M, called by both players. All checked the flop , the turn came , Lefteruk bet 1.4M, Luca called, Geci check-folded. On the river , Lefteruk pushed Luca who called for his tournament life with top two pair. Lefteruk scooped it with quads.

With his towering stack, Lefteruk went on to crush his final two challengers – Abreu (3rd) and Geci (2nd) – to capture his maiden career title and a gold bracelet to show for it. As for Abreu and Geci, they may have missed the gold but they did pick up their largest career score.

Final table payouts

1st Jim Lefteruk “grousegrind” – Canada – $ 299,510.85 + WSOP Europe Package

2nd Endrit Geci “YOUWILLLOSE” – UK – $ 223,977.85

3rd Jorge Abreu “bemjogadogg” – Portugal – $ 161,041.99

4th Ivan Luca – Argentina – $ 115,790.63

5th Andrii Derzhypilskiy “D0ntB1uffMe” – Ukraine – $ 83,254.27

6th Markku Koplimaa “ExVang” – Estonia – $ 59,860.55

7th Seungmook Jung “7high” – Korea – $ 43,040.21

8th Patrick Kennedy “Muddington” – UK – $ 30,946.10

9th Anant Purohit “MisterPro” – India – $ 22,250.49

Top 100 notable players in the money: Leon Sturm “FeelsGTOman” (10th), Ioannis Angelou-Konstas “BluffMeNot” (11th), Giovani Torre “Madjocka” (17th), Nicholas Chouity (23rd), Arnaud Enselme (26th), Belarmino De Souza (31st), Chi Chung Ho “chipuker” (36th), Joao Vieira (48th), Brian Green (49th), Anson Yan Shing Tsang “Tara@0z”, Ajay Chabra “Ross_Geller” (66th), Rui Ferreira (92nd), and Hun Wei Lee (101st).

Tonight: WSOP #74: $ 1,500 Pot Limit Omaha

Buy in: $ 1,000

Date: August 27 18:00 UTC / August 28 @ 02:00 HKT

Late registration: 210 minutes

Re-entries: 2 times

Notes: 6 Handed / 9 Handed (final table)

*$15,000 WSOP Europe Package added to 1st place

Up next: WSOP #75: $300 Double Stack No Limit Hold’em [ Asia ]

This is the last ASIA TIME ZONE event to accrue points towards the WSOP Asia Player of the Series race.

Buy in: $ 300

Date: Saturday, August 29 @ 20:00 HKT

Late registration: 210 minutes

Re-entries: 2 times

Open: WSOP #77: $ 5,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event [ $25M GTD ]

Year after year, players flock to Las Vegas with dreams of winning a bracelet, however no gold is more desired than that of the WSOP Main Event. This year’s edition guarantees a staggering $ 25 Million, the largest ever in online poker.

The hunt for the 51st WSOP Main Event champion is well underway with over half its starting flights in the books. 474 advanced out of 2,645 entries. Australian pro Kahle Burns continues to set the bar high with a massive 277.5 BB stacked. Jonathan Dokler “Serenity” is ranked second with 204.4 BB. Among the newest final day qualifiers were: Erik Seidel, Ioannis Angelou-Konstas “BluffMeNot“, Rainer Kempe, Chris Moorman, and Alessandro Valli “EdgarDavids”.

Buy in: $ 5,000

Guarantee: $ 25,000,000

Entry Dates: August 16 to August 30

Cumulative Entries: 2,645

Final Day qualifiers: 474

Entry flights: 7 remaining

Day 2: August 30 @ 18:30 UTC [ play down to final 40 players ]
Final Day: September 7 @ 18:30 UTC

Top15 in chips

Also through via the previous flights were: Natural8 Team Hot Ambassadors Danny Tang, Pete Chen, and Niklas Ehrenholz “NikkyMouse”, Natural8 Team NLG pros Fedor Holz, Manig Loeser, and Stefan Schillhabel “Schilli33”, Asian bracelet winners Ji Young Kim, Wei Guo Liang “SPARK1207”, and Sung Joo Hyun “ArtePokerTV”, other notable players Christopher Puetz “RambaZamba”, Matthias Eibinger, Adrian Mateos, Sammy Farha, Samad Razavi “JejuKingCrab”, Shyngis Satubayev “somebodyelse”, Sam Greenwood, Calvin Lee, and David Tai.

Paused: WSOP #70: $25,000 NLH POKER PLAYER CHAMPIONSHIP

Last Sunday, the WSOP #70: $ 25,000 NLH POKER PLAYER CHAMPIONSHIP high roller bracelet event went from 407 entries down to the final 9. The race resumes on August 29 @ 18:00 UTC / August 30 @ 02:00 HKT where a six digit payout awaits the top two places and an additional $ 15,000 WSOP Europe Package to the champion.

Leading in the pack is American pro Jason Koon whose extensive list of career achievements still lacks a WSOP victory. Throughout his career, Koon has cashed 43 times at the series, reaching the final table 10 times. The high roller crusher brings in a portfolio of $ 31.1 million in live tournament earnings with a largest score of $ 3,579,836 for his victory at the 2018 Triton Super High Roller Montenegro HK$ 1M No Limit Hold’em Short Deck.

Koon will have his hands full coming final day with fellow countryman Aram Zobian “Pusha T” looking to add a bracelet to match the ring he won at the 2019/2020 WSOP Circuit $ 215 No Limit Hold’em Turbo Deepstack on WSOP.com. Another famed American player is online superstar Chris Hunichen with well over $ 12.5 million in online earnings and over $ 8.1 million in the live scene. Then there is the short stacked Paulius Plausinaitis “ChickenBBQ” who has everything to gain. Plausinaitis is the only player who secured a seat via the discounted $1K Ultra Satellite Qualifier. Cards in the air in two days. Live broadcast on GGPoker.TV.

Buy in: $ 25,000

Guarantee: $ 10,000,000

Entries: 407

Prize pool: $ 10,000,000

ITM: 55 places

Final table: August 29 @ 18:00 UTC / August 30 @ 02:00 HKT

Notes: $15,000 WSOP Europe Package added to 1st place

Final table players by chip count

Jason Koon – USA – 7,863,055 – 49.1 BB

Shankar Pillai “Saquon” – USA – 6,875,234 – 43 BB

Christian Rudolph – Germany – 5,544,188 – 34.7 BB

Aram Zobian “Pusha T” – USA – 4,405,440 – 27.5 BB

Chris Hunichen – USA- 4,175,274 – 26.1 BB

Aleksejs Ponakovs – Latvia – 3,883,951 – 24.3 BB

Aliaksei Boika “BladeRunner1” – Montenegro – 3,297,276 – 20.6 BB

Paulius Plausinaitis “ChickenBBQ” – Lithuania – 2,905,555 – 18.2 BB

Brunno Botteon – Brazil – 1,750,027 – 10.9 BB

Remaining payouts

1st $ 1,800,290 + $ 15,000 WSOP Europe Package

2nd $ 1,332,097

3rd $ 979,138

4th $ 719,700

5th $ 529,005

6th $ 388,837

7th $ 285,808

8th $ 210,079

9th $ 154,416

Among the players in the money were: Jack Salter (10th), Scott Seiver (15th), Stephen Chidwick (19th), Jacob Schindler (20th), Hun Wei Lee (30th), David Peters (32nd), Elio Fox (41st), Kartik Ved “Mandovi” (44th), Christopher Brewer (46th), Andras Nemeth (49th), Thai Ha (51st), and James Chen (52nd).

OTHER RESULTS

WSOP Side Event: $1,500 Deepstack – Andras Nemeth – $ 89,209.82

Buy in: $ 1,500

Date: August 26

Guarantee: $ 300,000

Entries: 336

Prize pool: $ 478,800

ITM: 47 places

Winner: Andras Nemeth – Hungary – $ 89,209.82

WSOP Side Event: $600 Six Handed Encore – BTC2zERO – 61,298.48

After railing Mark Herm “Beanboozled” in 3rd place, BTC2zERO gained the advantage entering heads up against UnKnownK1d. However, closing it out was a grind with UnKnownK1d proving to be a very difficult challenge. The half hour battle saw the lead switch hands once. When BTC2zERO regained with two pair to pair, BTC2zERO went on to win it.

Buy in: $ 600

Date: August 26

Guarantee: $ 150,000

Entries: 615

Prize pool: $ 350,550

ITM: 89 places

Winner: BTC2zERO – Canada – $ 61,298.48

2nd UnKnownK1d – Canada – $ 44,931.25

3rd Mark Herm “Beanboozled” – Brazil – $ 32,934.44

WSOP Side Event: $840 Bounty Hunter HR – Alessandro Valli “EdgarDavids” – $ 27,746.11

Buy in: $ 840

Date: August 26

Guarantee: $ 100,000

Entries: 148

Prize pool: $ 118,400

ITM: 20 places

Winner: Alessandro Valli “EdgarDavids” – Germany – $ 27,746.11

2nd Dejan Divkovic “Masterwin” – Canada – $ 13,533.26

WSOP Side Event: $84 Bounty Hunter – St1ll0nTop – $ 7,206.68

Back to back $84 Bounty Hunter wins for St1ll0nTop who took down the event two nights ago then again last night. Running hot, St1ll0nTop also shipped the network’s Daily Special $ 55 to collect a combined $ 23.5K in winnings.

Buy in: $ 84

Date: August36

Guarantee: $ 35,000

Entries: 513

Prize pool: 41,040

ITM: 71 places

Winner: St1ll0nTop – Malta – $ 7,206.68

WSOP Side Event: $200 Second Chance – Bagus Saputra “gingermoon” – $ 26,281.98

Buy in: $ 200

Date: August 26

Guarantee: $ 100,000

Entries: 849

Prize pool: $ 156,216

ITM: 116 places

Winner: Bagus Saputra “gingermoon” – Malta – $ 26,281.98

2nd AllinBluff79 – China – $ 19,264.19

WSOP Side Event: $400 Six Handed

Buy in: $ 400

Date: August 26

Guarantee: $ 100,000

Entries: 365

Prize pool: $ 137,240

ITM: 53 places

Winner: Richard Sladek “ZZZGoat” – Slovakia – $ 23,034.61 (heads up deal)

2nd Voiden11 – Germany – $ 20,520.34 (heads up deal)

WSOP Side Event: $250 Super Turbo 6 Handed

Buy in: $ 250

Date: August 26

Guarantee: $ 75,000

Entries: 511

Prize pool: $ 117,530

ITM: 71 places

Winner: PapiPapo – Mexico – $ 20,882.50

Update: WSOP Leaderboard

The race for the WSOP Player of the Series title and the Asia Player of the Series title are well underway. In store for the ultimate Player of the Series winners, overall leaderboard champion wins the WSOP Pure Gold Mouse, the Asia Player of the Series claims the WSOP Pure Gold Dragon, and the exclusive Pure Gold Card will be awarded to overall leaderboard finishers 2nd to 5th. Current standings after 40 completed bracelet events.

WSOP 2020 Online Leaderboard – Top 10

Canadian pro Daniel Dvoress continues to lead the overall race. Dvoress cashed in four events which included a victory at the WSOP #71: $ 1,500 MILLIONAIRE MAKER. Second ranked Alek Stasiak is not too far behind. Stasiak cashed in three events of which two were victories. He is the only player with two WSOP titles this series.

WSOP 2020 Online Leaderboard [ Asia Time Zone Events ] – Top 10

At the Asia POS, WSOP #55: HK$ 8,000 NLH Asia Championship winner Luis Eduardo Assuncao Garla “Xapilskinha” maintains pole position. Only one Asia Time Zone event remains to accrue points towards this race – WSOP #75: $300 Double Stack No Limit Hold’em [ Asia ] runs on August 29 at 8pm HKT.

UPCOMING KEY EVENTS

WSOP #79: $25,000 Heads Up NLHE [ 128 cap, no late reg ]

Buy in: $ 25,000

Entries: 128 cap
Late registration: N/A
Date: September 1 @ 18:00 UTC / September 2 @ 02:00 HKT

Semi Finals: September 5 @ 18:00 UTC / September 6 @ 02:00 HKT

WSOP #84: $100 WSOP MILLIONS [ $2M GTD ]

Buy in: $ 100

Guarantee: $ 2,000,000

Entry Dates: August 31 to September 6

Entry Flights: 26 offered

Final Day: September 5 @ 18:00 UTC / September 6 @ 02:00 HKT

WSOP #83: $10K WSOP Super MILLION$ [ $5M GTD ]

Buy in: $ 10,000

Date: September 6 @ 18:00 UTC / September 7 @ 02:00 HKT

Guarantee: $ 5,000,000

Notes: 2 day event

Other Games

For those looking to enter bracelet events for cheap, the WSOP Silk Road is your route. Daily tickets can be won until August 31. Alek Stasiak “astazz” earned his seat to WSOP #33: $1,111 Every 1 for Covid Relief via a $10 qualifier which bought him a seat in the $100 satellite to the above-mentioned bracelet event which he shipped for $ 343.2K. If you are interested in non- bracelet events, several WSOP side events are scheduled with buy ins from $125 to $800.

Natural8 Promos

For players signed up on Natural8, expect fantastic player incentives. WSOP Online champions Luis Assuncao Garla “Xapilskinha”, Daniel Dvoress, Hun Wei Lee, Teoh Ming Juen “Paul Teoh”, Shoma Ishikawa “pp_syon”, Marcelo Jakovjlevic Pudla “Marolo”, and Anson Yan Shing Tsang “Tara@0z” have already won a Team Bling Sponsorship package for their incredible achievement. Other promos are the First Deposit Bonus and WSOP Silk Road leaderboard race. 12 days left to avail of the promos!

WSOP Winner’s Circle Sponsorship Packages

Main Event = $100,000 Natural8 Sponsorship*

Win the WSOP Main Event and you’ll not only become a part of Team Bling, you’ll be the CAPTAIN of the team. This exclusive package includes:

12 month Team Bling Sponsorship

$15,000 Las Vegas Package ($10,000 to cover your buy-ins and $5,000 for expenses)

$25,000 for live event sponsorships

T$60,000 in online sponsorships, paid out over 12 months

Buy-ins of $1,000 and above = $15,000 Natural8 Sponsorship*

Win a WSOP Bracelet from any event with a buy-in of $1,000 and above, and you’ll get a Team Bling package that includes:

6 month Team Bling Sponsorship

$15,000 Las Vegas Package ($10,000 to cover your buy-ins and $5,000 for expenses)

Buy-ins from $50 to $999 = $7,500 Natural8 Sponsorship*

Win a WSOP Bracelet from any event with a buy-in of $999 and below, and you’ll get a Team Bling package that includes:

6 month Team Bling Sponsorship

$7,500 Las Vegas Package ($5,000 to cover your buy-ins and $2,500 for expenses)

WSOP First Deposit Bonus

First time depositors on Natural8 can expect a special bump in the load. For a minimum deposit of $20 are gifts worth up to $ 100 over six consecutive days. The initial $ 60 in WSOP tickets – WSOP Satellite and WSOP Spin & Gold, another $ 40 in WSOP tickets for those that complete all 6 AoF challenges of 100 AoF hands per day.

WSOP Silk Road

The WSOP Silk Road Micro Series has been ongoing since July 1st and will run until August 31st. This is for players looking to enter bracelet events for cheap. And seriously, who wouldn’t want to win a multi million event for as low as $ 1.08? Via this route, buy ins only go as high as $ 21.60. Top the Natural8 Silk Road Leaderboard to win an instant ticket to the WSOP #77: $5,000 Main Event [ $25M GTD ].

Plenty of action still to come so stick with us at Somuchpoker as we bring you daily updates on the ongoing 2020 WSOP Online on Natural8.

Join Natural8 – $100 in Free tickets with your 1st Deposit