Hakim Zoufri Leads WPT Online Championship After Day 1a

May 11, 2020

The WPT Online Series Championship has begun. Day 1A, the first of four starting flights, shuffled up and dealt on May 10, and saw a bumper crowd of 808-entries buy in for $3,200.

partypoker and the World Poker Tour has guaranteed $5 million will be won in this main event. The total prize pool could smash that figure because those 808-Day 1A players added $2,424,000 to the pot.

WPT Online Championship Day 1A Top 10 Chip Counts

Leading the way as this monster-sized tournament gets underway is Dutch star Hakim Zoufri who bagged up 791,877 chips at the close of play. Zoufri is an accomplished poker tournament specialist who has more than $1.3 million in live cashes.

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His name should ring a few bells if you follow reports of major events. Zoufri counts the 2016 Master Classics of Poker, the 2018 Master Classics of Poker High Roller, and a WSOP-C Rotterdam High Roller title in 2017 among his many achievements.

Canada’s Kevin Macdonald is the man who finished Day 1A n second place. Macdonald ended the night with 668,081 chips to give himself a superb chance of becoming this tournament’s champion. Should he go all the way, the prize money will be far more substantial than his largest live score. That ways in at $129,070, his reward for winning a $3,300 side event at the 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Benny Glaser bagged up enough chips to claim sixth-place at present. Glaser is better-known for his mixed game prowess but his No-Limit Hold’em skills are razor-sharp, obviously. Glaser returns to battle armed with 548,623 chips.

Guillaume Nolet won a WPT Online Series event last week and is going great guns in this $5 million guaranteed tournament. The Canadian has 443,152 chips in his stack, enough for 10th place at the current time.

Big Names Among 141 Survivors

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Only 141 of the 808 starters navigated their way through the shark-infested waters of Day 1A.

Such luminaries as Simon Higgins (436,550), Timothy Adams (374,556), Matas Cimbolas (364,894), Davidi Kitai (330,311), and Michael Addamo (288,534) progressed to the next stage of this huge event. As did the likes of Dylan Linde (253,798), Marvin Rettenmaier (246,866), Ole Schemion (172,253), Faraz Jaka (120,470), Steven Van Zadelhof (112,380). The remainder of the survivors read like a who’s who of the poker world.

Three More WPT Online Championship Flights Remain

The next chance to play for a share of a guaranteed $5 million comes on May 17 at 7:00 p.m. CET which is when Day 1B begins. Day 1C and the turbo-structured Day 1D kick off at 1:00 p.m. CET and 6:00 p.m. CET on May 18.

Day 2 of the WPT Online Championship commences at 9:00 p.m. CET on May 18, Day 3 starts an hour earlier on May 19 with the final table also starting at 8:00 p.m. CET but on May 20.

Senior Editor

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