PokerStars WCOOP 2020

It took fewer than six and a half hours in WCOOP-48-M: $530 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO, Sunday Slam] to whittle down the 351 Day 1 survivors to the final 16 contenders. Players from six different countries remain in contention to claim the title in the latest medium stake event of the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) 2020.

The lion's share of the $1,928,000 prize pool is still up for grabs, be it via the cash prize pool or the progressive knockout bounty prizes, and a familiar face of the international poker circuit sits atop the leaderboard. German poker pro and Malta resident Philipp "philbort" Gruissem dominated the late stages to claim a stack of 71,339,002 to his name, which is well ahead of "MrNorberto" (42,270,866) and "Stiffler8818" (39,387,672).

Two players from Russia follow in Andrey "Lucky_Jew_17" Parugaev (31,603,119) and Maksym "MAMOHT_T" Mamonov (29,613,436). The 2019 WCOOP PLO event winner "xnrobix" is also in the mix with 21,898,439 and two pros from Lithuania made it through in Tomas "dartazzzz" Jozonis (13,002,673) and Matas "NoTilit" Cikinas (9,407,358).

Seven of the eight remaining contenders are hailing from Brazil and the squad is headlined by Vitor "Vitorbrasil" Moreira
(21,882,216), Vinicius "viniperri" Perri (13,809,366) and Pedro "gusmaa" Gusma (7,601,954).

The Final 16 Players in WCOOP-48-M: $530 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO, Sunday Slam]

The last player to leave without any bounty prize was Uruguay's Martin "Sochobi" Piven in 84th place as all further contestants had knocked out at least one opponent. Gruissem's bounty prize thus far with $14,441,23 is the biggest as "jokkee_apart" fell to the German on the final three tables after he had accumulated $13,165.77 in bounties by then.

The Action of the Day

Right from the start, the eliminations came at an incredibly fast pace as the hopes of an even deeper run for all those that made it through the previous day fell apart in a matter of minutes. It wouldn't take long for the field to be halved and among those to bust early on were several big stacks at kickoff.

That included Fabian "fabstinho" Quoss who failed to crack aces when he flopped a flushdraw and turned kings up with king-seven suited. Plenty of times it was also the standard cooler with kings versus aces, among others Ivan "ILS007" Stokes and "Kakalala" suffered that fate mid-way through the day. Denis "NEWFlat" Timofeev saw his stack evaporate when he ran with a set of sevens into a set of jacks, and he hit the rail a few hands later.

Tomas "dartazzzz" Jozonis prevailed in a three-way all-in to become one of the big stacks and Maksym "MAMOHT_T" Mamonov joined him there when Rens "Rens02" Feenstra ran with ace-queen into the Queens of the Russian. By then, Gruissem had consistently built his stack after a slow start and took over the lead when his kings sent Luan "Pseudo Fruto" Felipe with queens to the rail.

Gruissem never really surrendered the top spot anymore after that while several other contenders experienced a roller coaster of emotions and stack sizes. Diego "El Pulgoso" Ostrovich put his hopes on a flushdraw with queen-ten suited but failed to crack pocket queens for an overpair. Job "DeadNylan" Greben was also among the notable late casualties after his aces were cracked by jacks.

On the final three tables, Gruissem then won several big pots and the biggest bounty of the tournament so far to cement his status as the chip leader. Whether or not the German will be able to close it out remains to be seen and the PokerNews team will be there to provide all the action until a winner has been crowned.

As just 16 players remain, the action has concluded for the night and the chip counts are to follow along with a recap of today's action.

The action got underway with a button raise to 880,000 by "Stiffler8818" and they picked up a call by "yAAwn" in the small blind. On a flop, "yAAwn" check-called a first bet of 1,590,600 and did so again for 3,690,192 on the turn.

After the river, "yAAwn" checked for the third time and "Stiffler8818" got it in for 16,972,524, which had the 9,443,564 of their opponent covered. A brief period in the think tank followed as "yAAwn" called it off with and "Stiffler8818" held the winning for a pair of jacks.

"yAAwn" has been eliminated in 17th place for $10,702 in bounty prizes and $3,327 in cash prizes.

Facing a raise to 880,000 by "yAAwn", it was Maksim "MAMOHT_T" Viktorovich in the big blind that three-bet to 3.2 million and picked up a call by the initial raiser.

The Russian led the flop for 1,886,400 and the turn for 4,040,740 to then jam the 510c] river. "yAAwn" called the first two bets and folded to the third barrel.

Down to a mere 12 blinds, Fabio "LFFF22" Freitas four-bet jammed in the small blind as Maksim "MAMOHT_T" Viktorovich had min-raised and "yAAwn" had three-bet the button to 2,400,000. Only "yAAwn" called and the cards were flipped over.

Fabio "LFFF22" Freitas:
"yAAwn":

The board ran out and that spelled the end for Freitas in 18th place for $4,891 in bounty prizes and $3,327 in cash prizes.

The two big stacks Philipp "philbort" Gruissem and "MrNorberto" chipped up without showdown and Luis "Lui$starPRO$" Rocha arrived at a new table once more to win a pot off Tomas "dartazzzz" Jozonis when his rivered trips jacks on a board.

Matas "NoTilit" Cikinas raised to 700,000 and was called by Vitor "Vitorbrasil" Moreira in the cutoff. Ryan "Ristokat" Riske got their last 2,217,728 in from the big blind and Cikinas called. Moreira then reraised to 17.5 million and that forced a fold.

Ryan "Ristokat" Riske:
Vitor "Vitorbrasil" Moreira:

The superior kicker played on the board as Moreira finished the job he had started a few minutes ago. Riske takes home $1,312.50 in bounty prizes and $3,327 in cash prizes.