2020 WSOP Online Main Event Sets New Record And Smashes $25M Guarantee

The Main Event of the 2020 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Online Bracelet Series is close to crowning a winner.

The $5,000 buy-in Main Event attracted a massive field of 5,802 entries across 23 starting flights, generating a whopping $27,559,500 in total prize pool, smashing its $25 million initial guarantee.

It now holds the record for the largest-ever prize pool in online poker tournament history.

The huge turnout will see 728 players walking away with at least $11,834, with the eventual winner ultimately taking home nearly $4 million as top prize, the biggest prize to be awarded in a single online poker event. Day 2 of the event kicked off on August 30 with Kahle Burns as the chip leader, but he was eventually eliminated in 52nd place for $39,214.

Among other big names who finished in the money were Sam Greenwood who ended up in 75th place for $30,776, Conor Beresford and Shankar Pillai who both earned $27,675 for finishing 85th and 99th respectively, Isaac Haxton finished in 121st place for $24,886, Mike Leah took the 128th spot for $24,886.

High stakes pro Fedor Holz and all-time WSOP all-time bracelet leader Phil Hellmuth both left the table empty-handed.

Final Action Set For September 5

Day 2 concluded after a grueling 12 hours with only 38 players remaining, each guaranteed to take home at least $39,214. American poker pro Bryan Piccioli is leading the pack with a chip stack of over 18 million. Piccioli is hoping to add a second bracelet to his WSOP record after winning his first one in the 2013 WSOP Asia-Pacific $1,100 “Accumulator” event.

Piccioli’s nearest competitor is Michael “All Love” Kane (15,907,969), with Stoyan “Nirvana76” Madanzhiev (15,299,783), kellyyy (13,108,575) and Craig Timmis (12,809,181) rounding out the Top 5.

Still in contention are top online poker pros Benjamin Rolle and Samuel Vousden, as well as high-stakes regular Stefan Schillhabel. Michael Lech and Arkadyl Tsinis, who are both bracelet winners are also among the final 38 players set to return on September 5 for the final battle.

The event is set to award some of the biggest final table payouts in online poker tournament history with the top four finishers receiving seven-figure scores. Here is a look at the payouts for the final five players. The player who takes the 5th spot gets $949,937; the 4th place finisher takes- $1,353,634 while the player who finishes 3rd gets $1,928,887.

The player who ends up missing out on the first prize will take home $2,748,605 while the champ will claim $3,904,686 and the WSOP gold bracelet.