Blaz Zerjav Tops 42 Survivors on Day 1b of the WSOP World Championship Main Event
The second of three starting days of the 2020 World Series of Poker World Championship $10,000 Main Event at GGPoker is in the books with 42 players out of 171 entries advancing to Day 2.
This increases the total field size to 417 entries with 104 contenders through thus far when taking into account the 246 entrants and 62 survivors on Day 1a.
The prize pool has already grown to more than $4.1 million with the likely busiest starting day of the international portion still to come on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2020, on GGPoker.
Slovenia's Blaz Zerjav claimed the overall lead after accumulating a stack of 639,394 on Day 1b. Fellow Day 1b big stacks Rodrigo "sauvage" Valente (592,043) and Amir "8ty4calling8" Dvir (538,003) also surpassed the Day 1a chip leader Julian "VWgunther" Menhardt as well.
Others ending Day 1b with healthy chip stacks included Artem "Ar0wana" Vezhenkov (511,114), Javier Gomez (427,190), Qibing "degenkaliu" Wang (392,108), and Brazil's Diego "TeaLover" Falcone (341,782).
The Day 1b Top 10 at a Glance
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Counts | Big Blinds for Day 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blaz Zerjav | Slovenia | 639,394 | 128 |
| 2 | Rodrigo "sauvage" Valente | Brazil | 592,043 | 118 |
| 3 | Amir "8ty4calling8" Dvir | Israel | 538,003 | 108 |
| 4 | Artem "Ar0wana" Vezhenkov | Russia | 511,114 | 102 |
| 5 | crackers614 | Canada | 488,965 | 98 |
| 6 | pleasehurtme | Ukraine | 427,584 | 86 |
| 7 | Javier Gomez | Spain | 427,190 | 85 |
| 8 | Qibing "degenkaliu" Wang | China | 392,108 | 78 |
| 9 | Diego "TeaLover" Falcone | Brazil | 341,782 | 68 |
| 10 | David "Edeskie" Cowling | Canada | 337,990 | 68 |
Just outside of the top 10 for Day 1b is Sweden's Simon Lofberg, who is one of three WSOP bracelet winners that advanced through tonight. Lofberg won his maiden gold bracelet in the 2020 GGPoker WSOP Online Bracelet Events Event #40: $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha and bagged a very healthy 323,563 in chips.
Ireland's Toby "shinerrr" Joyce follows not far behind with 243,195 and also won the coveted gold bracelet during the online festival on GGPoker earlier this year. Last but not least, 2019 Event #57 $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold'em winner Barak "LuckySecret" Wisbrod bagged up 177,386 in the virtual arena.
Other notables who will return for Day 2 include Thomas "MickeyM" Boivin (295,681), Sergio Aido (270,355), Luigi "shadinho94" Shehadeh (256,730), Diego "Ushuaia1" Zeiter (245,830), Alexandre "STAY_HUNGRY" Reard (216,609), Anton "RUN_CMD" Wigg (210,608), Ivan "Cordialement" Deyra (148,142), Simon "FiestaPagana" Mattsson (131,241), and Alex Difelice (114,802).
The list of well-known casualties throughout the 16 levels of 30 minutes each contains such familiar names as Robin "porty27" Ylitalo, Gleb "IamMVP" Tremzin, Anton "storytellerA" Morgenstern, Niall Farrell, Niklas Astedt, Adrian Mateos, Daria "Scarlett_D" Feshchenko, Nicolas Chouity, Dzmitry Urbanovich, and Jean-Noel "OscarBrown" Thorel.
Two known WSOP bracelet winners were also among those to take part and leave empty-handed including Ravid "jerbi9999" Garbi and Jens Kyllonen. Meanwhile, GGPoker ambassador Felipe Ramos and GGSquad streamer Kevin Martin also failed to punch their tickets for Day 2 as well.
The Action of the Day
It was a slow start at the tables and yet, the first elimination would take place at the end of the first blind levels. Pocket kings were directly involved in the first four bustouts, accounting for three losing and one winning hand. Jesse "AAGenius88" Mercado was the first to bow out when he ran with kings into aces and failed to catch any help.
Kevin Martin was among the first high-profile casualties when his jack-nine suited flopped top pair and rivered a ten-high straight only for Amir "8ty4calling8" Dvir to show the nut straight. In the next level former WSOP Main Event finalist Sylvain Loosli ran with queens into aces and found no help.
The rockets belonged to Daan "DaanOss" Mulders in his final hand when Niall Farrell turned a ten-high straight and the Dutchman could not get away from it anymore on the river. Another premium pocket belonged to Jean-Noel "OscarBrown" Thorel when kings ended up second-best to the ace-queen of Dante Goya, and Adrian Mateos ended up second-best with aces against eights-full.
However, Goya and Farrell would also join the rail throughout the day. The Brazilian lost a big chunk with a set of aces and could not mount a comeback anymore. As far as Farrell is concerned, he was left short after a clash with Thomas "MickeyM" Boivin and lost a flip to Sergio Aido, who made quads nines.
Read more: What Does Another WSOP Main Event Mean for Poker?
By then, GGPoker ambassador Felipe Ramos was already on the rail after losing a flip with ace-ten suited versus pocket eights. Blaz Zerjav soared to the top of the leaderboard when he knocked out Anton "storytellerA" Morgenstern with the superior kicker and Robin "porty27" Ylitalo then succumbed in the final level of the night when sixes could not crack aces.
All Day 1b survivors now have one day off to potentially focus on a busy Super Sunday schedule and will return on Monday, Dec. 7, 2020, at 1 p.m EST for the start of Day 2. One starting day remains for players on the GGPoker Network to join the event and the PokerNews live reporting team will be back then to provide all the action from start to finish.
