PokerStars WCOOP 2020

A big field emerged in WCOOP-48-M: $530 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO, Sunday Slam] as the event drew a total of 3,856 entries, which created a prize pool of $1,928,000 and easily surpassed the $1.5 million guarantee in the latest PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker 2020 mid-stakes tournament.

The money bubble burst in the last hour of play and more than 200 players took home a portion of the cash prize pool along with any bounties they collected so far. Once the post-bubble madness concluded after some 50 minutes, the remaining field was whittled down to just 351 hopefuls who have all secured two pay jumps already.

Among the top eight who all turned their starting stack of 100,000 to more than trey million, it was Poland's "eStfu" who claimed a narrow lead with 3,921,999 followed by the Dutch duo "Netstorm" (3,899,249) and Joep "Pappe_Ruk" van den Bijgaart (3,597,692). There are other curious nicknames with big stacks including "Instagram model" (3,454,152), Hannes "SuchADegen" Speiser (3,168,091), and Denis "NEWFlat" Timofeev (2,774,324) to name just a few.

Other familiar names with stacks well above the average include Rui "Silden4filho" Bouquet (3,089,139), Job "DeadNylan" Greben (2,329,429), online poker streamer Hristivoje "All In PAV" Pavlovic (2,1,07,332), Fabian "fabstinho" Quoss (1,905,805) and Ramiro "ramastar88" Petrone (1,816,113).

The action of the day

The event allowed for a maximum of four entries and it was not uncommon that big names of the online and live poker circuit fired more than one bullet in order to claim bounties or run up a big stack. During the registration period, the field grew almost every second, and the guarantee was surpassed a few hours in.

Two PokerStars ambassadors were aiming to add another WCOOP title to their resume as Ben "Spraggy" Spragg and Fintan "easywithaces" Hand had claimed their maiden victories earlier in the festival. Spragg's first bullet came to an early end, he then re-entered and busted with a flopped queen-high flush as Lorenzo "charlie580" Bazei hit the nut flush right away. Hand scored an early double with aces versus ace-king but then became short and lost a flip with king-eight suited versus deuces.

Some of those that racked up several bounty prizes and a lot of chips early on but bowed out before the money included Joao "IneedMassari" Simao, Steve "Mr. Tim Caum" O'Dwyer, David "MonkeyBausss" Laka, Fedor "CrownUpGuy" Holz, Daniil "Dancer King" Kiselev, and Niklas "Lena900" Astedt in a field filled with the biggest names of online poker.

As the money bubble drew close right after the final break of the night, it was former EPT Main Event champion Robin "robinho" Ylitalo that became the last casualty without any portion of the cash prize pool. Gianluca "Tankanza" Speranza hit the rail right after for a min-cash and many dozen hopes of an even deeper run vanished in the minutes after.

When all was done and dusted, some eight minutes remained of level 21 at blinds of 10,000/20,000 with a running ante of 2,500 and that's where all remaining Day 1 survivors will continue. The action recommences the following day at 1.05 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) and the penultimate day is slated to play down to the final 16.

Stay tuned to find out who makes it one step further then as the PokerNews live reporting team will provide the action until a champion has been crowned.

More than 200 players have been eliminated since the money bubble burst right after the final break of the night and Day 1 has now concluded with 351 hopefuls remaining. Assorted late casualties, chip counts and a recap of today's action are to follow.

Following the open shove by "MariusB1405" for more than 16 blinds, Troy "teckidtq" Quenneville called for fewer than that on the button.

Troy "teckidtq" Quenneville:
"MariusB1405":

The French-Canadian was ahead preflop but the board provided running spades for a flush.

Yet another late flip saw "diffsam" at risk on the button with the and Hannes "SuchADegen" Speiser in the hijack tabled .

On a board of , the overcard struck on the turn and Speiser added the pot of more than half a million, bumping his own up to more than 3.1 million.

Simon "C. Darwin2" Mattsson got his short stack in with a flip as he tabled the . On the button, Austria's "huiiiiiiiiii" isolated with the and the board favoured the pocket pair.

Hungary's "Zsiffin" scored a big double through "Matsull" who then won a three-way pot to bust "Man.unt85" and double through big stack "fczpiter". It was four ways to the flop as Mihai "Mihai Nutt" Niste folded against the betting action of the other three players.

"Man.unt85,":
"Matsull":
"fczpiter":

The fell on the turn and the river ensured the near triple up for "Matsull".