Fintan Hand Leads 351 Survivors After Day 1 of the 2020 EPT Online $5,200 Main Event
Day 1 of the 2020 PokerStars EPT Online $5,200 Main Event has wrapped up after 15 levels of 30 minutes each and a field of 1,182 entries so far has been cut down to 351 survivors. The guarantee has already been surpassed and a prize pool of $5,910,000 is currently up for grabs while the late registration remains open until five minutes prior to the start of Day 2.
Out of the 870 unique entries, it was PokerStars ambassador Fintan "easywithaces" Hand that topped the leaderboard with a stack of 2,899,772. After a slow start, the Irishman chipped up with aces and then won a big pot off Toby "sadface11" Joyce. From there on, Hand was always in the top five and ended the day with the top spot. Another PokerStars ambassador made the top 10 overnight as Ramon "RamonColillas" Colillas ran his second bullet all the way up to 2,175,079, good enough for 9th place.
Estonia's "DingeBrinker" finished the day second in chips with 2,835,654 followed by "P0KERPR02.0" (2,784,244) and Jakob "Succeeed" Miegel (2,498,678. Further big stacks belong to the likes of Benjamin "bencb789" Rolle (2,362,038), Claas "ssicK_OnE" Segebrecht (2,165,596), Andras "probirs" Nemeth (2,102,861), Rafael "GM_VALTER" Moraes (2,033,732), and Scott "Aggro Santos" Margereson (1,954,789).
The top 10 after Day 1 of the 2020 PokerStars EPT Online $5,200 Main Event
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds Day 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fintan "easywithaces" Hand | Ireland | 2,899,772 | 242 |
| 2 | DingeBrinker | Estonia | 2,835,654 | 236 |
| 3 | P0KERPR02.0 | Germany | 2,784,244 | 232 |
| 4 | Jakob "Succeeed" Miegel | Germany | 2,498,678 | 208 |
| 5 | Fernando "fapk2212" Karam | Brazil | 2,402,866 | 200 |
| 6 | Benjamin "bencb789" Rolle | Germany | 2,362,038 | 197 |
| 7 | Will "hellzito" Arruda | Brazil | 2,360,143 | 197 |
| 8 | Ebaaa11 | Russia | 2,224,908 | 185 |
| 9 | Ramon "RamonColillas" Colillas | Spain | 2,175,079 | 181 |
| 10 | Claas "ssicK_OnE" Segebrecht | Germany | 2,165,596 | 180 |
The red spade also saw another four ambassadors advance to Day 2 including Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis (941,880), Kalidou "KalidouSow" Sow (596,860), Felix "xflixx" Schneiders (235,224), and Ben "Spraggy" Spragg (186,500). Sow needed a third bullet to make it through while Schneiders qualified through a $215 satellite, only Mikhail "innerpsy" Shalamov was not among those to reach Day 2.
The PokerNews EPT4Charity competition winner Jay "Blackoid" Kennedy joined the field towards the end of the second hour and was seated with former EPT Main Event champion Aliaksei "ale6ka" Boika and PokerStars Championship Macau winner Elliot "4rebmun" Smith. Later on, Daniel "Oxota" Dvoress brought his big stack to the table and Kennedy was unfazed, running his stack up to more than 600,000 and even busting Triton High Roller regular Peter "Apathy123" Jetten in the process. However, the late stages were not as kind to the Brit, who will donate 10% of his winnings to CLIC Sargent UK, and he finished the day with 267,334.
Kennedy made it further than big names such as Artur "mararthur1" Martirosian, Talal "raidalot" Shakerchi, Juan "Malaka$tyle" Pardo, Sam "Str8$$$Homey" Greenwood, Pablo "elmelogno4" Melogno, Brunno "botteonpoker" Botteon, Teun "tinnoemulder" Mulder, Alexandros "mexican222" Kolonias, Mark "AceSpades11" Radoja and David "dpeters17" Peters who all fired three shells without anything to show for.
All those that haven't entered three times yet can still join the tournament until 1.05 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Monday, November 16th, 2020, and the registration then closes right before Day 2 commences. The blinds will be 6,000-12,000 with a running ante of 1,500 and all levels will continue to last 30 minutes each.
Day 2 will play down to the final 72 players and the money bubble will burst. Alongside the PokerNews live updates from start to finish, the PokerStars live stream will also pick up the action from now and broadcast cards-up coverage and commentary on their YouTube and Twitch channel for the remaining three days until the first EPT Online Main Event champion is crowned.
flop but picked up a flushdraw on the 
turn. A blank 
river ended the tournament for the Canadian as this was his third and final bullet.
flop and the 
turn locked up the pot for Buldygin, which made the 
river a formality.
flop. The 
turn opened some chop opportunity but a blank 
followed on the river.
, on which the Italian check-called a bet worth 19,380 by Joyce. The 
followed on the turn and D'Alterio check-called for another 87,000.
fell on the river, D'Alterio checked and Joyce emptied the clip with a shove for 311,414. That was called by D'Alterio with 
for a missed straight flush draw.
river gave him two pair.
turn on which both players checked and Joyce bet the 
, Kennedy check-raised from 15,505 to 45,500 and Jetten stuck around to see the 
flop, "Cali1112" check-called for 8,975 and did so again for 46,500 on the 
river paired the board and "Cali1112" check-called a third time for costly 117,806 to get shown the