Philipp Gruissem Leads Final 16 in WCOOP-48-M: $530 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO, Sunday Slam]
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]
| Position | Player | Country | Bounty Prize | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Philipp "philbort" Gruissem | Germany | $14,441 | 71,339,002 | 178 |
| 2 | MrNorberto | Hungary | $4,226 | 42,270,866 | 106 |
| 3 | Stiffler8818 | Germany | $9,853 | 39,387,672 | 98 |
| 4 | Andrey "Lucky_Jew_17" Parugaev | Russia | $9,541 | 31,603,119 | 79 |
| 5 | Maksym "MAMOHT_T" Mamonov | Russia | $5,563 | 29,613,436 | 74 |
| 6 | xnrobix | Hungary | $4,234 | 21,898,439 | 55 |
| 7 | Vitor "Vitorbrasil" Moreira | Brazil | $7,457 | 21,882,216 | 55 |
| 8 | Marlon "sphinmx" Wilhelms | Brazil | $4,520 | 21,163,507 | 53 |
| 9 | Luis "Lui$starPRO$" Rocha | Brazil | $1,344 | 19,653,972 | 49 |
| 10 | bruna_bsb | Brazil | $4,961 | 14,533,634 | 36 |
| 11 | Tauan "kylix42" Naves | Brazil | $1,563 | 14,227,016 | 36 |
| 12 | X-Factor777 | Canada | $5,316 | 14,205,770 | 36 |
| 13 | Vinicius "viniperri" Perri | Brazil | $6,684 | 13,809,366 | 35 |
| 14 | Tomas "dartazzzz" Jozonis | Lithuania | $5,306 | 13,002,673 | 33 |
| 15 | Matas "NoTilit" Cikinas | Lithuania | $3,711 | 9,407,358 | 24 |
| 16 | Pedro "gusmaa" Gusma | Brazil | $4,898 | 7,601,954 | 19 |
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.
The final day of WCOOP-48-M: $530 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO, Sunday Slam] will continue with the remainder of level 38 at blinds of 200,000/400,000 and a running ante of 50,000. All levels for the final day will last 22 minutes each and the tournament will play down to a champion as of 1.05 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Tuesday, September 15th, 2020. You can also check out all the other PokerStars WCOOP 2020 highlights, results and live updates right here!
flop, "yAAwn" check-called a first bet of 1,590,600 and did so again for 3,690,192 on the 
turn.
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.
and that spelled the end for Freitas in 18th place for $4,891 in bounty prizes and $3,327 in cash prizes.
flop brought a bet of 1,050,000 by Gruissem as "jokkee_apart" was the only caller.
turn to pick up a call and jammed the 
river for an effective 12,622,184, as that's what "jokkee_apart" had behind.
for top pair but Gruissem had turned a straight with 
.
for a set as "naformadalei" departed in 22nd place for $4,817 in bounty prizes and $3,327 in cash prizes.
flop didn't change anything yet but the 
