Helppi and Romanello Capture WSOP Gold on GGPoker

Last updated on August 3rd, 2020

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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

2^nd place: Ronit Chamani (Israel) $198,067

3^rd place: Dejan Kaladjurdjevic (Montenegro) $141,189

4^th place: Ramiro Petrone (Argentina) $100,644

5^th place: Pablo Silva (Brazil) $71,742

6^th place: Roberto Turrisi (Germany) $51,140

7^th place: Boban Zhivkovikj (Macedonia) $25,986

8^th place: Jonas Mackoff (Canada) $25,986

9^th 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

2^nd place: Martin Ilobera (Argentina) $246,765.50

3^rd place: Harry Lodge (UK) $177,426.43

4^th place: Abhinav Iyer (India) $127,571.28

5^th place: David Montoya (Mexico) $91,724.90

6^th place: Evan Parkes (Canada) $65,951.16

7^th place: Andreas Phouli (UK) $47,419.46

8^th place: Stewart Kilpatrick (UK) $34,095.28

9^th 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

2^nd place: Diego Ostrovich (Argentina) $86,972

3^rd place: Gary Johnson (Canada) $51,801

4^th place: Daniel Strelitz (Canada) $50,431

5^th place: Yulian Bogdanov (Bulgaria) $34,677

6^th 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

2^nd place: Jesus Cortes (Spain) $213,270

3^rd place: Belarmino De Souza (Brazil) $156,688

4^th place: Mike Watson (Canada) $115,117

5^th place: Jens Kyllonen (Finland) $84,576

6^th place: Yuri Dzivielevski (Brazil) $62,137

7^th place: Sergi Reixach (Spain) $45,651

8^th place: Marija Andrijasevic (Serbia) $33,540

9^th 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 50^th 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

2^nd place: Rodrigo Caprioli (Brazil) $215,892

3^rd place: Olivier Rebello (Canada) $156,673

4^th place: Martin Zamani (US) $113,698

5^th place: Joao Viera (Portugal) $82,510

6^th place: Neel Joshi (India) $59,878

7^th place: Rich Dixon (US) $43,453

8^th place: Viktor Zsemlye (Hungary) $31,534

9^th 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

2^nd place: Janne Peltoniemi (Finland) $64,246

3^rd place: Craig Timmis (UK) $66,836

4^th place: Bradley Ruben (Canada) $39,472

5^th place: Paul Teoh (Malaysia) $37,083

6^th place: Attila Kuna (Hungary) $25,287

7^th place: Nikolaus Eigners (Austria) $13,537

8^th place: Shaul Meir (Israel) $12,031

9^th 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

2^nd place: Toni Bosch Jordada (Andorra) $124,376

3^rd place: Kasper Mellanen (Finland) $90,260

4^th place: Jingxiang Ong (Singapore) $65,501

5^th place: Joao Simao (Brazil) $47,534

6^th 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

2^nd place: Niklas Astedt (Sweden) $156,905

3^rd place: Paul Barnes (UK) $113,866

4^th place: Aleksandr Trofimov (Russia) $82,633

5^th place: Thomas Cazayous (UK) $59,966

6^th place: Hannes Speiser (Austria) $43,518

7^th place: Ravali Krishna (India) $31,581

8^th place: Orkhan Allahverdyiev (Azerbaijan) $22,918

9^th 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

2^nd place: Andreas Torbergsen (Norway) $164,553

3^rd place: Shyngis Satubayev (Kazakhstan) $120,617

4^th place: Leon Tsoukernik (Czech Republic) $88,412

5^th place: Sai Wah Shek (Hong Kong) $64,806

6^th place: Arvi Vainionkulma (Finland) $47,502

7^th place: Paul Teoh (Malaysia) $34,819

8^th place: Benjamin Juhasz (Hungary) $25,522

9^th 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.