Helppi and Romanello Capture WSOP Gold on GGPoker
The WSOP 2020 Online turned to the GGPoker network of poker sites to host its international slate of tournaments. The fractured state of online poker today means that offering games in the United States must be on an entirely different platform from those available to other countries. The World Series of Poker executives chose GGPoker for the non-US portion of the games.
The first 31 events of the 85-event 2020 WSOP is nearly over in the US market, with the latest week of tournament results posted here. Starting with Event 32 and running through the end of the series, GGPoker offers 54 gold-bracelet-awarding tournaments, which kicked off in mid-July.
Despite a fairly solid following of players on GGPoker, the network had a bit of a breakdown during its first weekend of WSOP 2020 Online tournaments. The site had to cancel the first two tournaments on its schedule and put them into the mix the following weekend (this past Sunday).
There have been some other glitches, but most of the GGPoker events are now running smoothly.
Back story: So the first weekend of the GG WSOP Online 2020 events was beset with issues.
Five separate issues hit them over a period of four days, including bugs, server misconfigs, and a DDoS, resulting in first 2 bracelet events being paused. https://t.co/vY0u71YiSt
— Nick Jones (@pokerprojones) July 27, 2020
Let’s get to the bare bones of the GGPoker events and their results.
(Note that live updates for GGPoker events do not list the number of original players and number of reentries. This was available for WSOP.com tournaments but not GGPoker, which means we only know the number of total entries.)
GG Event 32: $100 NLHE Opener (final day)
This event finally played out on July 26 instead of the original date of July 19. Nearly 3,700 players took to the tables for the restart, though the tournament had yet to hit the money bubble. Play went off smoothly and ran through until there was one player standing.
Buy-in: $100
Total entries: 29,306
Prize pool: $2,696,152 (exceeding $2M guarantee)
Paid players: 3,039
Minimum payout: $281.74
Winner: Marcelo “Marolo” Jakovljevic Pudla (Brazil) $265,880
2nd place: Ronit Chamani (Israel) $198,067
3rd place: Dejan Kaladjurdjevic (Montenegro) $141,189
4th place: Ramiro Petrone (Argentina) $100,644
5th place: Pablo Silva (Brazil) $71,742
6th place: Roberto Turrisi (Germany) $51,140
7th place: Boban Zhivkovikj (Macedonia) $25,986
8th place: Jonas Mackoff (Canada) $25,986
9th place: Bret Carson (Canada) $18,524
GG Event 33: $1,111 NLHE Every 1 for Covid Relief (Charity)
This tournament barely got underway on its original starting day of July 19, but the restart ran successfully on July 26. Registration was still open when it restarted and drew a solid field. The total amount of money donated to the coronavirus charity through Caesars Cares was not listed, but it appears to have been $257,853.
Buy-in: $1,111
Total entries: 2,323
Prize pool: $2,580.853
Paid players: 332
Minimum payout: $2,249.38
Winner: Alek “astazz” Stasiak (Canada) $343,203.53
2nd place: Martin Ilobera (Argentina) $246,765.50
3rd place: Harry Lodge (UK) $177,426.43
4th place: Abhinav Iyer (India) $127,571.28
5th place: David Montoya (Mexico) $91,724.90
6th place: Evan Parkes (Canada) $65,951.16
7th place: Andreas Phouli (UK) $47,419.46
8th place: Stewart Kilpatrick (UK) $34,095.28
9th place: Norihiro Otani (Japan) $24,514.89
DID YOU HEAR ABOUT Alek Stasiak 🇨🇦 ?
Played a $10 satellite – QUALIFIED ✔️
Took his seat at the $100 satellite – QUALIFIED ✔️
Next step, took his seat at @WSOP Event #33: $1,111 Every 1 for Covid Relief ✔️
Won the BRACELET and $343,203 ✔️YOU COULD BE NEXT…#GGPoker pic.twitter.com/AizG5gsy8H
— GGPoker (@GGPoker) July 28, 2020
GG Event 34: $525 NLHE Super Turbo Bounty Six-Handed
This tournament played out on its original day without the technical issues that plagued the others.
Buy-in: $525
Total entries: 2,214
Prize pool: $1,107,000
Paid players: 314
Minimum payout: $567
Winner: Shoma “pp_syon” Ishikawa (Japan) $117,650
2nd place: Diego Ostrovich (Argentina) $86,972
3rd place: Gary Johnson (Canada) $51,801
4th place: Daniel Strelitz (Canada) $50,431
5th place: Yulian Bogdanov (Bulgaria) $34,677
6th place: Tom Delaine (Malta) $20,225
GG Event 35: $5K PLO Championship
The first PLO event of the GGPoker part of the WSOP series was its championship event. And a longtime pro took it down for his second career gold bracelet.
Buy-in: $5K
Total entries: 328
Prize pool: $1,558,000
Paid players: 47
Minimum payout: $10,745
Winner: Juha Helppi (Finland) $290,286
2nd place: Jesus Cortes (Spain) $213,270
3rd place: Belarmino De Souza (Brazil) $156,688
4th place: Mike Watson (Canada) $115,117
5th place: Jens Kyllonen (Finland) $84,576
6th place: Yuri Dzivielevski (Brazil) $62,137
7th place: Sergi Reixach (Spain) $45,651
8th place: Marija Andrijasevic (Serbia) $33,540
9th place: Alex Difelice (Canada) $24,641
The 2020 @GGPokerOfficial @WSOP Online Bracelet series saw Finnish high-stakes poker legend @juhahelppi top 328 entries to win Event 35 $5,000 PLO Championship for $290,286 and his second gold bracelet.https://t.co/RvZZM6Zx09 pic.twitter.com/Wh4focZArc
— Chad Holloway (@ChadAHolloway) July 23, 2020
GG Event 36: $1,500 NLHE Fifty Stack
The Fifty Stack event is a relatively new one to the annual WSOP lineup, as it was introduced during the 50th Annual WSOP. But its popularity prompted the WSOP to continue it as a deepstacked event.
Buy-in: $1,500
Total entries: 1,342
Prize pool: $297,496
Paid players: 188
Minimum payout: $3,328
Winner: Michael “YesPlease” Clacher (South Africa) $297,496
2nd place: Rodrigo Caprioli (Brazil) $215,892
3rd place: Olivier Rebello (Canada) $156,673
4th place: Martin Zamani (US) $113,698
5th place: Joao Viera (Portugal) $82,510
6th place: Neel Joshi (India) $59,878
7th place: Rich Dixon (US) $43,453
8th place: Viktor Zsemlye (Hungary) $31,534
9th place: Jose Davilla (Mexico) $22,884
GG Event 37: $1,050 PLO Bounty
A non-championship-level Omaha event offered more players the opportunity to participate.
Buy-in: $1,050
Total entries: 971
Prize pool: $971,000
Paid players: 134
Minimum payout: $1,196
Winner: Hun Wei Lee (Australia) $161,886
2nd place: Janne Peltoniemi (Finland) $64,246
3rd place: Craig Timmis (UK) $66,836
4th place: Bradley Ruben (Canada) $39,472
5th place: Paul Teoh (Malaysia) $37,083
6th place: Attila Kuna (Hungary) $25,287
7th place: Nikolaus Eigners (Austria) $13,537
8th place: Shaul Meir (Israel) $12,031
9th place: Alex Defelice (Canada) $10,442
GG Event 38: $600 NLHE 6-Max Monster Stack
Another deepstack event, one that has become a staple at the WSOP each year, served as a tournament conveniently timed for players in the Asia-Pacific time zone.
Buy-in: $600
Total entries: 2,007
Prize pool: $1,143,990
Paid players: 278
Minimum payout: $1,329
Winner: Aaron “fishnchip” Wijaya (China) $171,389
2nd place: Toni Bosch Jordada (Andorra) $124,376
3rd place: Kasper Mellanen (Finland) $90,260
4th place: Jingxiang Ong (Singapore) $65,501
5th place: Joao Simao (Brazil) $47,534
6th place: Blake Bohn (US) $34,496
GG Event 39: $1,500 NLHE
Players in the Asia-Pacific time zone had another tournament aimed at them, this time a standard No Limit Hold’em event. And the winner of the tournament claimed a Triple Crown, as it’s known in poker, by adding a WSOP bracelet to his WPT and EPT victories.
Buy-in: $1,500
Total entries: 922
Prize pool: $1,313,850
Paid players: 134
Minimum payout: $3,237
Winner: Roberto Romanello (UK) $216,213
2nd place: Niklas Astedt (Sweden) $156,905
3rd place: Paul Barnes (UK) $113,866
4th place: Aleksandr Trofimov (Russia) $82,633
5th place: Thomas Cazayous (UK) $59,966
6th place: Hannes Speiser (Austria) $43,518
7th place: Ravali Krishna (India) $31,581
8th place: Orkhan Allahverdyiev (Azerbaijan) $22,918
9th place: Jeffrey Cormier (Canada) $16,632
Thank You 😁😁😁 https://t.co/OnygBK1ziE
— Roberto Romanello (@RobRomanello) July 27, 2020
GG Event 40: $2,500 PLO
Another Pot Limit Omaha event, this time with a bit of a higher buy-in than the previous one.
Buy-in: $2,500
Total entries: 532
Prize pool: $1,263,500
Paid players: 71
Minimum payout: $5,877
Winner: Simon Lofberg (Sweden) $224,493
2nd place: Andreas Torbergsen (Norway) $164,553
3rd place: Shyngis Satubayev (Kazakhstan) $120,617
4th place: Leon Tsoukernik (Czech Republic) $88,412
5th place: Sai Wah Shek (Hong Kong) $64,806
6th place: Arvi Vainionkulma (Finland) $47,502
7th place: Paul Teoh (Malaysia) $34,819
8th place: Benjamin Juhasz (Hungary) $25,522
9th place: “Brahman33” (Ukraine) $18,708
Another Busy Week Underway
Two big tournaments – Colossus and PLOssus – must conclude, and a number of other WSOP 2020 events are on tap.
Event 41 on July 26: $400 NLHE Colossus ($3M GTD)
Event 42 on July 26: $400 PLOSSUS ($1M GTD)
Event 43 on July 28: $10K NLHE Short Deck Championship
Event 44 on July 29: $2,500 NLHE 6-Handed
Event 45 on July 30: $840 NLHE Bounty
Event 46 on August 1: $500 NLHE Deepstack (Asia)
Event 47 on August 2: $1K NLHE Short Deck (Asia)
Event 48 on August 2: $1,500 NLHE Millionaire Maker (2nd of 3 days, $5M GTD, $1M GTD to winner)
Event 49 on August 2 / 16:00 ET: $500 NLHE Turbo Deepstack
Information comes from PokerNews live updates pages and GGPoker.
