First Two Weeks Results of Wsop 2020 Online on Natural8

Rose Varrelli | August 3, 2020 | Updated on: September 24th, 2020

Each year, many Australians feels worlds away during the summer poker tournament season when the World Series of Poker relegates the action to Las Vegas.

This year is a bit different, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. The World Series of Poker went online for poker in a unique mix of US-accessible tournaments and then a set for the rest of the world. Of course, the latter doesn’t include many Australians because of its laws…but some did travel to neighboring countries to play in the series.

The first 31 tournaments of the WSOP 2020 Online played out in the limited American market, wherein players had to be located in either Nevada or New Jersey to participate. The other 54 events of the 85-tournament series are playing out on the GGPoker Network. The poker site on that network that caters to the Asia-Pacific region is Natural8.

Action got underway on Natural8 on July 19. There were some technical difficulties – namely system overloads and a DDoS attack – that postponed two of the first events until the following weekend, but they are all caught up at this point.

Let’s run down the list of 2020 WSOP tournaments completed on Natural8 thus far.

Event 32: $100 NLHE Opener ($2M GTD)

Total entries: 29,306
Prize pool: $2,696,152
Paid players: 3,039 (minimum payout = $281.74)
Winner: Marcelo “Marolo” Jakovljevic Pudla (Brazil) $265,880

Other players at the final table hailed from Israel, Montenegro, Argentina, Germany, Macedonia, and Canada.

Event 33: $1,111 NLHE Charity Event

Total entries: 2,343
Prize pool: $2,580,853
Paid players: 332 (minimum payout = $2,249.38)
Winner: Alek “astazz” Stasiak (Canada) $343,203.53

The final table also included players from Argentina, India, Mexico, Canada, Japan, and the UK.

The $111 from each buy-in went to a charity called Caesars Cares. As Caesars Entertainment is the parent company of the World Series of Poker, the Every 1 for Covid Relief tournament benefited the Caesars Cares charity to aid Caesars employees who were laid off or otherwise struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Event 34: $525 NLHE Super Turbo Bounty Six-Handed

Total entries: 2,214
Prize pool: $1,107,000
Paid players: 314 (minimum payout = $567)
Winner: Shoma “pp_syon” Ishikawa (Japan) $117,650

The other five final tablists claimed Argentina, Canada, Bulgaria, and Malta as their countries.

Event 35: $5K PLO Championship

Total entries: 328
Prize pool: $1,558,000
Paid players: 47 (minimum payout = $10,745)
Winner: Juha Helppi (Finland) $290,286

Spain, Brazil, Canada, and Serbia players also made the final table.

Event 36: $1,500 NLHE Fifty Stack

Total entries: 1,342
Prize pool: $297,496
Paid players: 188 (minimum payout = $3,328)
Winner: Michael “YesPlease” Clacher (South Africa) $297,496

Brazilian and Canadian players again made the final table, but this time players from the US, Portugal, India, Hungary, and Mexico joined.

Event 37: $1,050 PLO Bounty

Total entries: 971
Prize pool: $971,000
Paid players: 134 (minimum payout = $1,196)
Winner: Hun Wei Lee (Australia) $161,886

An Australian took the WSOP gold bracelet in this one, beating out players from Finland, the UK, Canada, Malaysia, Hungary, Austria, and Israel.

Event 38: $600 NLHE Monster Stack Six-Max

Total entries: 2,007
Prize pool: $1,143,990
Paid players: 278 (minimum payout = $1,329)
Winner: Aaron “fishnchip” Wijaya (China) $171,389

This tournament was timed for the players in the Asian time zone, and a player from China did, in fact, win. Others at the final table represented Andorra, Finland, Singapore, Brazil, and the US.

Event 39: $1,500 NLHE

Total entries: 922
Prize pool: $1,313,850
Paid players: 134 (minimum payout = $3,237)
Winner: Roberto Romanello (UK) $216,213

This was also set up for those in the Asian time zone, but Europe dominated much of this one. The final table included players from Sweden, the UK, Russia, Austria, India, Canada, and Azerbaijan.

Event 40: $2,500 PLO

Total entries: 532
Prize pool: $1,263,500
Paid players: 71 (minimum payout = $5,877)
Winner: Simon Lofberg (Sweden) $224,493

The final table awarded prizes to players from Norway, Kazakhstan, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Finland, Malaysia, Hungary, and Ukraine.

Event 41: $400 NLHE Colossus

Total entries: 12,747
Prize pool: $4,796,632
Paid players: 1,575 (minimum payout = $840)
Winner: Ranno Sootla (Estonia) $595,930

Others at the final table represented Greece, Finland, Brazil, Lithuania, Austria, Malta, Singapore, and Canada.

Event 42: $400 PLOssus

Total entries: 4,356
Prize pool: $1,637,856
Paid players: 548 (minimum payout = $938)
Winner: Yuri Dzivielevski (Brazil) $221,557

That bracelet was his second, as he won his first in Las Vegas in 2019. He was the only Brazilian at this 2020 final table, though, as others hailed from the US, Argentina, Israel, Spain, Mexico, and Canada

Event 43: $10K NLHE Short Deck Championship

Total entries: 130
Prize pool: $1,261,000
Paid players: 17 (minimum payout = $23,915)
Winner: Lev “LevMeAlone” Gottlieb (Mexico) $276,393

The player from Belarus finished in second, and there were also UK, Japan, US, Hong Kong, Germany, and Canada representatives at the final table.

Event 44: $2,500 NLHE Six-Handed

Total entries: 892
Prize pool: $2,118,500
Paid players: 116 (minimum payout = $6,022)
Winner: Kristen Bicknell (Canada) $356,412

Also at the final table, players represented Brazil, Belarus, China, France, Austria, Russia, and the UK. As for Bicknell, this was her third career WSOP gold bracelet.

Event 45: $840 NLHE Bounty

Total entries: 2,382
Prize pool: $1,906,500
Paid players: 332 (minimum payout = $923)
Winner: Patrick “Muddington” Kennedy (UK) $245,448

It should be noted that Kennedy’s first-place prize money was actually $140,768, but he also won $104,680 in bounties, far more than any other player. And his competitors at the final table represented the US, Brazil, Argentina, Taiwan, Israel, Hong Kong, Italy, and Panama.

Event 46: $500 NLHE Deepstack

Total entries: 2,307
Prize pool: $1,095,825
Paid players: 332 (minimum payout = $1,061)
Winner: Sung Joo “ArtePokerTV” Hyun (South Korea) $161,898

This was one of two weekend tournaments set for players in the Asia time zone, so it was fitting that a South Korean won it. Others at the final table represented China, Canada, Russia, Thailand, Taiwan, Germany, and Australia (Yesha Punjabi).

Event 47: $1K NLHE Short Deck

Total entries: 487
Prize pool: $462,560
Paid players: 71 (minimum payout = $2,152)
Winner: Paul Teoh (Malaysia) $82,202

The second of the weekend’s Asia-timed tournament went to a Malaysian player, but others at the final table spanned the world: US, Canada, Belarus, Argentina, Ukraine, Singapore, and Japan.

What’s Next?

Two tournaments – Events 48 and 49 – are playing out today, but there are many more on the schedule. (Those scheduled for the Asian time zone are in bold.)

Event 48 – August 2: $1,500 NLHE Millionaire Maker (2nd of 3 days, 1 reentry/flight, $5M GTD)
Event 49 – August 2: $500 NLHE Turbo Deepstack
Event 50 – August 4: $2,100 NLHE Bounty Championship
Event 51 – August 5: $400 PLO
Event 52 – August 6: $1K NLHE
Event 53 – August 8: $800 PLO Double Stack
Event 54 – August 8: $10K NLHE Heads-Up Championship (freezeout, no late reg, 128-player cap)
Event 55 – August 9: HK$8K NLHE Asia Championship (final day, 1 reentry/flight, HK$8M GTD)
Event 56 – August 9: $1,500 NLHE GGMasters High Roller WSOP Edition (freezeout, $2.5M GTD)
Event 57 – August 9: $150 NLHE GGMasters WSOP Edition (freezeout, $1M GTD)
Event 58 – August 11: $5K NLHE 6-Handed Championship
Event 59 – August 12: $2,500 NLHE Double Stack
Event 60 – August 13: $525 NLHE Bounty 6-Handed
Event 61 – August 15: $300 NLHE Monster Stack 6-Handed
Event 62 – August 16: $1,500 PLO
Event 63 – August 16: $500 NLHE Mini Main Event (final day, 1 reentry/flight, $5M GTD)
Event 64 – August 16: $840 NLHE Super Turbo Bounty
Event 65 – August 18: $600 NLHE Deepstack Championship
Event 66 – August 19: $800 PLO
Event 67 – August 20: $500 LHE
Event 68 – August 22: $500 NLHE Deepstack
Event 69 – August 23: $1,500 NLHE Marathon
Event 70 – August 23: $25K NLHE Poker Players Championship ($10M GTD)
Event 71 – August 23: $50 NLHE Big 50 (final day, 1 reentry/flight, $1M GTD)
Event 72 – August 25: $1,500 LHE Championship
Event 73 – August 26: $1K NLHE 6-Handed
Event 74 – August 27: $1,500 PLO
Event 75 – August 29: $300 NLHE Double Stack
Event 76 – August 30: $400 NLHE Forty Stack
Event 77 – August 30: $5K NLHE Main Event (2nd of 3 days, freezeout flights, $25M GTD)
Event 78 – August 30: $1K NLHE Turbo 6-Handed
Event 79 – September 1: People’s Choice – Most popular (details to be announced)
Event 80 – September 2: People’s Choice – Pros vote (details to be announced)
Event 81 – September 3: People’s Choice – Spin the wheel (details to be announced)
Event 82 – September 5: $1,050 NLHE Beat the Pros Bounty
Event 83 – September 6: $10K NLHE WSOP Super Millions ($5M GTD)
Event 84 – September 6: $100 NLHE WSOP Millions (final day, 1 reentry/flight, $2M GTD)
Event 85 – September 6: $500 NLHE Closer