There have been captivating stories flying in every direction so far throughout the World Championship of Online Poker 2020, but this one, in particular, stands out.
The last time we spoke with Kevin “Care_Teddy” van Veen of the Netherlands, he had won a MicroMillions event, turning $4.40 into $30K during his debut Twitch stream.
Well, he was back on our radar late last week when he won a WCOOP side event for $2,273.12 in an $11 Showtime Hold’em 6-Max event. In terms of being an official WCOOP champion, van Veen was close but no cigar.
When it comes to Progressive Knockout tournaments (aka PKOs or Bounty Builders), there aren’t many players as accomplished as Norway’s Preben “prebz” Stokkan.
His love affair with PKOs started back in 2017 during the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) when he won his first title in a Thursday Thrill special edition for $160K plus $93K in bounties. He’s been hunting bounties ever since.
“I really enjoy the KOs!” Stokkan says as he gears up for a WCOOP Sunday session. “I probably like them more than freezeouts. They are less solved so I think the edge in them can be bigger. PKOs require more intuitive thinking regarding bet sizing and preflop strategy.”
It’s safe to say that in 2020 Stokkan has a pretty big edge.
So said Vitor “Vitorbrasil” Moreira when we asked him about Event #48-M of the 2020 World Championship of Online Poker.
It was a $530 buy-in no-limit hold’em event played eight-handed in the progressive knockout format. It attracted 3,856 entries, building a huge prize pool of $1.928 million. And some of online poker’s toughest and most consistent performers were there at the end.
“When playing a buy-in of this value, it’s always very challenging,” says Moreira.
The first day went well for the Brazilian. “I was able to maintain a good stack from the beginning,” says Moreira. “I eliminated several players and was able to move forward safely.”
Andrey "drupa-lucker" Chernokoz opened to 172,000 from early position. Luis "figalex25" Figallo three-bet jammed for 1,431,687 from the small blind and Chernokoz called.
Luis "figalex25" Figallo:
Andrey "drupa-lucker" Chernokoz:
The ran out on the board and Figallo was eliminated after being outkicked in the hand.
“Why do you think the same five guys make it to the final table of the World Series of Poker EVERY YEAR?” argues Mike McDermott (played by Matt Damon) in Rounders. “What, are they the luckiest guys in Las Vegas? It’s a skill game.”
Here we are, some 22 years later, and If you still don’t believe Mike McD that poker is a game of skill then let us introduce you to Yuri "theNERDguy" Dzivielevski.
Forget about making headlines once a year, this 28-year-old Brazilian is a mainstay in our daily World Championship of Online Poker updates. And I mean every single day, in every single game.
Dzivielevski has won an incredible three WCOOP titles in the first two weeks of online poker’s most prestigious series, taking his career tally to four. At the time of writing, he’s in second place on both the overall and High WCOOP leaderboards and sits third in the Medium contest.
After nearly eight hours of play, Hungary's "benton24" bagged a chip leading stack of 21,233,809 in chips to end Day 2 of the WCOOP-72-L: $55 NLHE Main Event at PokerStars.
"benton24" wasn't the only player waving the Hungarian flag that will head to Day 3 with a big stack as both "anth0nypappa" and Day 1 chip leader "uzzy993" bagged top ten stacks.
Other players near the top of the leaderboard to end Day 2 included Romania's Alexandru "JustPray" Marcu, Brazil's "JuLiOcTas", and Indonesia's Akira "Clutch Hero" Ohyama.
2020 WCOOP Low $55 NLHE Main Event Day 2 Leaderboard
Place
Player
Country
Chips
Big Blinds
1
benton24
Hungary
21,233,809
133
2
Alexandru "JustPray" Marcu
Romania
19,076,666
119
3
JuliOcTas
Brazil
17,430,633
109
4
anth0nypappa
Hungary
17,366,619
109
5
Akira "Clutch Hero" Ohyama
Indonesia
15,849,423
99
6
ID IMPOSS
United Kingdom
15,592,653
97
7
kevi1121
Sweden
13,991,937
87
8
stealthfool
Canada
13,936,209
87
9
uzzy993
Hungary
13,144,744
82
10
pocketj0k3rs
United Kingdom
13,045,394
82
Day 2 Recap
More than 4,000 new entrants joined the action between the time Day 1 ended and Day 2 began to bring the final count up to 38,660 entrants with 12,570 players in action.
This increased the prize pool up to $1,933,000 to demolish the $1,250,000 guarantee on the event. A total of 5,463 players were guaranteed at least a min-cash with the $186,841 set aside for the eventual winner on Wednesday, Sept. 22.
It took less than two hours for the bubble to break with Ukraine's "vanja-berkyt" being the last player to exit the tournament empty-handed.
Five of the six PokerStars Ambassadors that started Day 2 were also unable to cash including Arlie "Prince Pablo" Shaban, Felix "xflixx" Schneiders, Tom “MajinBoob” Hayward, Georgina "GJReggie" James, and James "OP-Poker James" Mackenzie.
Mason "Pye_Face21" Pye had a better fate than his fellow Ambassadors and not only managed a min-cash but laddered up before exiting in 2,477th place for $166.
Mason Pye and Tom Hayward
The day was scheduled to end with 160 players but three players were eliminated during the final hand to make it 158 players returning for tomorrow's Day 3 starting at 1:05 p.m. EDT / 7:05 p.m. CEST.
The action will resume with blinds still at 80,000/160,000 with an ante of 20,000 and will play down to a nine-max final table.
Stay tuned to see who makes the final table of the WCOOP Low NLHE $55 Main Event at PokerStars.
ran out on the board and Figallo was eliminated after being outkicked in the hand.
