It’s the calm before the storm in the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). Six champions were crowned on Saturday, but today is the most eagerly anticipated day on the online poker calendar…

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TODAY’S HEADLINES

• Andrei “Premove” Skvortsov earns career third
• Newbies dominate Thursday Thrill
• Leah makes two 8-Game final tables
• It’s Main Event day! $19 million guaranteed in Sunday’s tourneys

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BEHIND THE HEADLINES

Three time Premove: Russia’s Andrei “Premove” Skvortsov edged into the three-time champions category on Saturday night with victory in WCOOP-67-H: $1,050 NLO8 8-Max. Skvortsov is a regular at the ‘COOP tables on PokerStars and previously won a $109 buy-in 2-7 Single Draw title in 2018, before adding a $5.50 NLO8 crown the same year. Skvortsov also has SCOOP titles in NLO8 and PLO8, and is clearly very comfortable at the discipline. This latest title came over a field of 178 entries and was worth $35,886.02. The final table also featured Joao “Naza114” Vieira, Artur “mararthur1” Martirosian and “XD89lol<3”, the player who last night finished first in one event and runner up in another. But there was no moving Premove last night.

Another O8 expert: What qualifies you to be described as an “expert” in a specific game? The question could have a million different answers, but winning back-to-back WCOOP tournaments in the same discipline must give you some reason to think you’re doing something right. This time last year, “texasilainen” won his or her first WCOOP title in a $215 buy-in NL Omaha Hi/Lo tournament. This year, texasilainen has done it again, beating a field of 2,765 entries in WCOOP-67-L: $11 NLO8 8-Max, and banking $3,936.91. We all have our favourite games, but do you have two WCOOP titles in yours?

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MORE ABOUT WCOOP 2020:
OFFICIAL SITE | SERIES HIGHLIGHTS | SCHEDULE (pdf) |
SATELLITE GUIDE | LEADER BOARDS | RESULTS | ALL BLOG REPORTS

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Newbies dominate the Thrill: The three buy-in levels of the Thursday Thrill, which finished on Saturday night, all crowned first-time WCOOP champions. They were also all names unfamiliar to poker watchers, meaning these players had their breakout success in the highest-profile fashion. Canada’s “luelue399” won the $2,100 “high” buy-in, which was worth $171,300.02. The final bounty payout of $94,960.93 comfortably dwarfed the $76,339.09 he or she got from the main prize pool. “daltonhb” of Brazil won the medium, turning a $215 buy-in into $69,902.98, including bounties, while “nvp.frv“, of Bulgaria, is the new “low” champion, winning $20,964.55, including bounties.

Two 8-Game finals for Leah: The standout tournament on Saturday’s WCOOP line-up was the $10,000 8-Game High Roller event, which played down to its last eight. There’s an amazing final lined up for today, which features Andrew “ClockWyze” Pantling as the leader, with Stephen “stevie444” Chidwick, Joao “Naza114″ Vieira” and Mike “goleafsgoeh” Leah also in the last seven. Remarkably, Leah is also in the last 11 of the $1,050 “medium” buy-in version of the same event, sitting in eighth overnight. The familiar figure of Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser leads the way in that one, with three-time winner Michael “merla888” Gathy, previous champions “nilsef” and “flong78”, and former WCOOP Player of the Year Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna also still with chips.

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TODAY’S RESULTS

†inc. bounties
*denotes deal

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STAT TRACKER

Events completed: 195
Entries so far: 756,724
Prize pools so far: $68,362,800
Players ITM: 111,245
First prizes so far: $10,347,098.45
Tournaments ongoing: 9
Tournaments starting today: 15

(Note: completed events only)

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TWITCH WATCH

It’s been a comparatively quiet WCOOP for Fintan “easywithaces” Hand, but he has a stack overnight in the $55 Afternoon Deepstack, resuming today, much to his surprise. A lot of it came quietly, in hands like this one:

Here’s how the Thursday Thrill ended last night. It was spectacular: a double bustout!

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INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS! INTERVIEWS!

We’ve been talking with a few WCOOP winners to hear about their tourney triumphs (and perhaps to pick up a few tips for ourselves). Check out our latest interviews from this year’s winners so far:

• That winning feeling carries Tiago ‘Tayguera’ Guimarães to #13-M title
• Tyler ‘Juicy_J_93’ Jardine sends warning to Pot limit Omaha players
• A bountiful $10K Sunday Slam for Dimitar Danchev
• Heads up! Ankush Mandavia wins third title in $530 TKO HU Zoom
• ‘Marksman_M’ casually streams huge WCOOP win to three Twitch viewers
• ‘Bryn12’ drifts through life and WCOOP towards top of leaderboard
• ‘va1umart’ finds value, pockets nearly $80K for Event #21-M win
• Mario ‘brandon0903’ Mastropietro’s WCOOP win relieves pressures of $400k court case
• $2K Sunday Slam champ Matas ‘NoTilit’ Cikinas confirms power of the cat avatar
• Mike ‘SirWatts’ Watson again collecting cashes, final tables
• High stakes crusher Preben ‘prebz’ Stokkan continues to progress and KO
• Brazilian Brunno ‘botteonpoker’ Botteon in the winner’s circle again
• Winner Gavin ‘gavz101’ Cochrane offers advice on dealing with downswings after ‘turbulent but fun’ 10 years
• Three WCOOP 2020 titles for the unstoppable Yuri ‘theNERDguy’ Martins: ‘Every day I learn something new’
• Ruan ‘jokkers_br’ Bispo punches way to big PKO win, turns $55 into $54K
• Persistence pays off for Kevin ‘Care_Teddy’ van Veen
• Matheus ‘MathCamillo1’ Camillo rides out the storm, wins #15-M

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LEADER BOARDS

There was minimal movement at the top of the leader boards over the weekend, although the race is far from over. While Rinat “Zapahzamazki” Lyapin tops the overall leader board, both Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins and “aleksandrs10” are chip-leading events that conclude on Sunday. Meanwhile, Mike Watson is now in front in the high buy-in race despite not having won a title this year.

Overall

1 – Rinat “Zapahzamazki” Lyapin, Russia, 1,150 points
2 – Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins, Brazil, 1,035
3 – aleksandrs10, Latvia, 1,005
4 – Konstantin “krakukra” Maslak, Russia, 960
5 – chininhaltig, Germany, 930

Prize: Overall – $25,000 plus trophy

High buy-in:

1 – Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Canada, 575 points
2 – Niklas “Lena900” Astedt, Sweden, 555
3 – Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins, Brazil, 525
4 – Joao “Naza114” Vieira, Netherlands, 515
5 – Talal “Raidalot” Shakerchi, 445

Prizes: Winner $12,500; 2nd $10,000; 3rd $7,500

Medium buy-in:

1 – Rinat “Zapahzamazki” Lyapin, Russia, 465
2 – Murilo “Muka82” Figueiredo, Brazil, 425
3 – Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins, Brazil, 415
4 – Konstantin “krakukra” Maslak, Russia, 400
5 – Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna, Finland, 385

Prizes: Winner $8,500; 2nd $6,000; 3rd $3,000 (top 15 are rewarded)

Low buy-in:

=1 – aleksandrs10, Latvia, 500 points
=1 – B–rabbit444, Norway, 500
3 – icandodge22, Finland, 455
=4 – Voziyanov15, Russia, 440
=4 – rastafari898, Germany, 440

Winner $5,000; 2nd $3,000; 3rd $2,000 (top 25 are rewarded)

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COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD

For the first time since the very earliest stages of this WCOOP, the UK no longer top the countries leader board. A win each for Brazil and Russia on Saturday night, but a blank for the UK, breaks the three-way tie at the top and leaves the UK trailing both the other heavyweights. There are still 29 titles up for grabs, so this is not over yet.

Latest standings

30 – Brazil, Russia
29 – UK
14 – Germany
9 – Canada
8 – Netherlands, Norway
6 – Finland, Bulgaria
5 – Ukraine
4 – Austria, Poland, Latvia, Hungary
3 – Argentina, Estonia
2 – Belarus, Malta, Romania, Lithuania, Sweden, Ireland
1 – Slovenia, Taiwan, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Jersey, Serbia, Peru, Luxembourg, Greece, Monaco, Croatia, Japan, Georgia, Chile and Denmark.

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ONGOING TOURNAMENTS

In addition to the stacke 8-Game field, noted above, there’s also a very familiar leader at the halfway stage of the $530 Afternoon Deep Stack. Can Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins convert his lead into a fourth title this series? We will find out later today.

WCOOP-66-L: $5.50 NLHE Afternoon Deep Stack
Entries: 11,375 | Prize pool: 55,737.50
Players left: 192 | Chip leader: fuàallin (Brazil)

WCOOP-66-M: $55 NLHE Afternoon Deep Stack
Entries: 4,295 | Prize pool: 214,750
Players left: 124 | Chip leader: sa6o03 (Bulgaria)

WCOOP-66-H: $530 NLHE Afternoon Deep Stack
Entries: 609 | Prize pool: 304,500
Players left: 44 | Chip leader: Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins (Brazil)

WCOOP-68-L: $11 NLHE 8-Max, PKO
Entries: 24,450 (inc. 8,447 re-entries) | Prize pool: 239,610
Players left: 332 | Chip leader: Deividas K (Lithuania)

WCOOP-68-M: $109 NLHE 8-Max, PKO
Entries: 7,285 (inc. 2,233 re-entries) | Prize pool: $728,500
Players left: 201 | Chip leader: bateriata931 (Bulgaria)

WCOOP-68-H: $1,050 NLHE 8-Max, PKO, $600K Gtd
Entries: 860 (inc. 252 re-entries) | Prize pool: 860,000
Players left: 53 | Chip leader: zerodeda (Finland)

WCOOP-69-L: $109 8-Game
Entries: 841 (inc. 260 re-entries) | Prize pool: 84,100
Players left: 45 | Chip leader: aleksandrs10 (Latvia)

WCOOP-69-M: $1,050 8-Game
Entries: 135 (inc. 38 re-entries) | Prize pool: $150,000
Players left: 11 | Chip leader: Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser (United Kingdom)

WCOOP-69-H: $10,300 8-Game High Roller
Entries: 67 (inc. 30 re-entries) | Prize pool: $670,000
Players left: 7 | Chip leader: Andrew “ClockWyze” Pantling (Canada)

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STARTING TODAY

The day has come.

It’s Main Event Sunday in WCOOP, the most anticipated day of the year in online poker. It means enormous fields, ridiculous guarantees and the fiercest competition in the online game.

We obviously have the usual Sunday Kick Off and Warm-Up, and also the turbo Cooldown, but sandwiched between them are the biggest Sunday Slams of the series, with guarantees in the Main Events this time coming in at $1.25 million, $2 million and $10 million, for tournaments with buy-ins of $55, $530 and $5,200. But it’s not only hold’em. PLO aficionados also relish today, where the PLO Main Events have buy-ins of $109, $1,050 and $10,300. It’ll be yet another cracker.

8.05am ET: WCOOP-70: NLHE Sunday Kickoff Freezeout SE
Buy-ins: $5.50, $55, $530
Guarantees: $35,000, $175,000, $400,000

10.30am ET: WCOOP-71: $109 NLHE 8-Max, PKO, Sunday Warm-Up Freezeout SE
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $125,000, $500,000, $1 million

1.05pm ET: WCOOP-72: NLHE Main Event
Buy-ins: $55, $530, $5,200
Guarantees: $1.25 million, $2 million, $10 million

3.05pm ET: WCOOP-73: PLO Main Event
Buy-ins: $109, $1,050, $10,300
Guarantees: $300,000, $750,000, $1.25 million

5.05pm ET: WCOOP-74: NLHE 8-Max, Turbo, PKO, Sunday Cooldown SE
Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
Guarantees: $100,000, $400,000, $750,000

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PREVIOUS ROUND-UPS

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 | DAY 8 | DAY 9 | DAY 10 | DAY 11 | DAY 12 | DAY 13 | DAY 14 | DAY 15 | DAY 16 | DAY 17 | DAY 18 | DAY 19

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