The Main Event of the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) 2020 is under way. But registration isn’t yet closed. Read all the latest as familiar players win big and the leader board hunt grows ever tighter…

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TODAY’S HEADLINES

• Main Events are under way! Registration still open!
• Alt secures maiden WCOOP to add to TCOOP win
• MITS 304 wins second, four years after first
• Martins vs. Lyapin goes to the wire in PoY race

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BEHIND THE HEADLINES

Players flock to Main Event tables: The first day of the WCOOP 2020 Main Event played through its first 16 levels yesterday, with the guarantees obliterated in the “Low” and “Medium” buy-in versions, and registration still open in tournaments of all levels. Currently there have been 1,708 entries, including 416 re-entries, in the $5K “High” Main Event, where the $10 million guarantee ensures a first prize already set at more than $1.5 million. With more entries certain today, it could yet reach the 2,000 player mark. Registration closes five minutes before the Day 2 start time of 1.10pm ET.

$3.2m in “Medium”; “$1.7m in low: Registration also remains open on both the $55 and $530 buy-in Main Events, with the prize pools already a long way past their guarantees. There have already been 34,807 entries in the $55 buy-in version, building a prize pool of $1.74 million, while the $2 million guarantee put on the $530 buy-in version has been smashed. The pool there is already up to $3.264 million, thanks to 6,528 entries and counting.

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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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Alt secures maiden WCOOP: For the biggest wins of his career, Dinesh “NastyMinder” Alt tends not to hang around. In 2016, he won close to $400K for taking down the Turbo Championship of Online Poker (TCOOP) Main Event, and he was also similarly ruthless in slaying the field at the Eureka Hamburg Main Event later that year. As of last night, Alt is also now a WCOOP champion, though he needed a full two days to do it. Eventually, Alt chopped the $530 Afternoon Freezeout heads up with Germany’s “DeM!st3r”, but went on to win, earning $48,197.37. It’s a surprise that this is Alt’s first WCOOP — his tournament resume is truly scintillating — but he did it the hard way, beating a final table that also featured Ole “wizowizo” Schemion. Alt is also already a Platinum Pass holder for the PSPC, whenever that is given the go ahead, so he isn’t quite finished yet either.

“MITS 304” at it again: In 2016, “MITS 304” was based in Cyprus when he or she won the $1,050 Razz Championship during WCOOP, earning a first major COOP title. Cyprus also appeared next to MITS 304’s name in May this year, when he or she was top in the $1,050 NLHE, 6-Max, Turbo, Shootout during SCOOP. Last night, MITS 304 won another ‘COOP — this time the $1,050 NLHE 8-Max, Turbo, PKO, Sunday Cooldown SE, playing from the Netherlands. Whether this player is Cypriot, Dutch or neither, MITS 304 is now a two-time WCOOP (and three-time ‘COOP) champion — and this one was worth more than the other two combined. There were 803 entries, a prize pool of $803,000 and the first prize came in at $108,816.44, including bounties.

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TODAY’S RESULTS

†inc. bounties
*denotes deal

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STAT TRACKER

Events completed: 204
Entries so far: 803,686
Prize pools so far: $72,166,955
Players ITM: 121,630
First prizes so far: $10,794,001.56
Tournaments ongoing: 15
Tournaments starting today: 6

(Note: completed events only)

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TWITCH WATCH

Can you just will cards into being? It was all getting spiritual on Spraggy’s channel last night — but maybe he’s on to something.

Maybe think twice before unleashing a barrel of insults on the person who just slow-rolled you in the $5K WCOOP Main Event. It could be that Fintan’s dog (cat?) just needed petting.

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TOP TWEETS

OP Poker’s Nick Walsh has a stack heading into Day 2 of the $530 WCOOP Main Event:

Day 2 // $530 Main Event // Here we come @POKERSTARS #WCOOP2020 pic.twitter.com/fvLoTCSwZY

— Nicholas Walsh (@OP_Poker_Nick) September 21, 2020

We all wish Lex Veldhuis and family the very best in this tough time for them all. And players across the world will thank him back for thinking of them at this time.

Feels so strange not being there tonight but that doesn’t mean you guys have to miss the action in the WCOOP Main Event.

Check out my good friends streaming it:@spraggy: https://t.co/4UjCTqQiWm@EasyWithAces: https://t.co/3nflmfRFQZ

— Lex Veldhuis (@LexVeldhuis) September 20, 2020

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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:

• Career high for Vitor ‘Vitorbrasil’ Moreira with gritty Event #48-M win
• 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

  

  Lyapin, right, still leads the overall leader board

  Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins closed the gap a little on Rinat “Zapahzamazki” Lyapin overnight, but it wasn’t enough to overhaul the Russian’s lead in the overall leader board. The race still goes down to the wire with both players alive in the $5K Main Event and the Medium buy-in PLO Main, but only Martins still with interest in the Medium and Low hold’em versions. Lyapin has fired all his bullets there. There’s also the Phase event and the Series Saver for both of them to continue accumulating — and they’re playing near enough everything.Overall

  1 – Rinat “Zapahzamazki” Lyapin, Russia, 1,175 points
  2 – Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins, Brazil, 1,120
  3 – aleksandrs10, Latvia, 1,025
  4 – Konstantin “krakukra” Maslak, Russia, 965
  5 – chininhaltig, Germany, 945

  Prize: Overall – $25,000 plus trophy

  High buy-in:

  1 – Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Canada, 590 points
  =2 – Niklas “Lena900” Astedt, Sweden, 585
  =2 – Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins, Brazil, 585
  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 points
  2 – Yuri “theNERDguy” Martins, Brazil, 440
  3 – Murilo “Muka82” Figueiredo, Brazil, 425
  4 – Konstantin “krakukra” Maslak, Russia, 400
  5 – Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna, Finland, 395

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

  Low buy-in:

  1 – B–rabbit444, Norway, 515 points
  2 – aleksandrs10, Latvia, 510
  3 – icandodge22, Finland, 455
  4 – Voziyanov15, Russia, 450
  5 – rastafari898, Germany, 440

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

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  COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD

  The incredible consistency of the Brazilians has put the South Americans back on top of the countries leader board, on their own, with only a couple of days left. Brazilians won two events yesterday, which was enough to pull them ahead of Russia, whose players only won one. The UK added another two titles, so remains just a pip behind Brazil.

  Latest standings

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

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  ONGOING TOURNAMENTS

  Tons of tournaments are still ongoing, even as WCOOP reaches its final stages. Remember registration remains open in both the Hold’em and PLO Main Events (with the exception of the “low” PLO) and there’s still two days left on the PLO and three in the hold’em. All the other events currently ongoing play to a conclusion this evening.

  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)

  WCOOP-70-L: $5.50 NLHE Mini Sunday Kickoff SE
  Entries: 8,659 | Prize pool: $42,429.10
  Players left: 39 | Chip leader: GHMRocha (Brazil)

  WCOOP-70-M: $55 NLHE Sunday Kickoff SE
  Entries: 4,417 | Prize pool: $220,850
  Players left: 94 | Chip leader: FouEnculePL (Poland)

  WCOOP-70-H: $530 NLHE
  Entries: 972 | Prize pool: $486,000
  Players left: 43 | Chip leader: twirlpro (Hungary)

  WCOOP-71-L: $11 NLHE 8-Max, PKO
  Entries: 16,542 | Prize pool: $162,111.60
  Players left: 132 | Chip leader: waitweight66 (United Kingdom)

  WCOOP-71-M: $109 NLHE 8-Max, PKO, Sunday Warm-Up SE
  Entries: 6,828 | Prize pool: $682,800
  Players left: 186 | Chip leader: hateraises (Canada)

  WCOOP-71-H: $1,050 NLHE 8-Max, PKO, Sunday Warm-Up SE
  Entries: 1,185 | Prize pool: $1,185,000
  Players left: 55 | Chip leader: jorginho88 (Netherlands)

  WCOOP-72-L: $55 NLHE 8-Max, NLHE Main Event
  Entries: 34,809* (inc. 12,470 re-entries) | Prize pool: $1,740,450*
  Players left: 8,719 | Chip leader: uzzy993 (Hungary)
  *So far. Registration open until Day 2 start

  WCOOP-72-M: $530 NLHE 8-Max, NLHE Main Event
  Entries: 6,529* (inc. 1,980 re-entries) | Prize pool: $3,264,500*
  Players left: 2,035 | Chip leader: Guizãoo_ (Brazil)
  *So far. Registration open until Day 2 start

  WCOOP-72-H: $5,200 NLHE 8-Max, NLHE Main Event
  Entries: 1,292* (inc. 416 re-entries) | Prize pool: $10 million*
  Players left: 590 | Chip leader: LeoMattosAK (Brazil)
  *So far.Registration open until Day 2 start

  WCOOP-73-L: $109 PLO 6-Max, PLO Main Event
  Entries: 3,066 (inc. 1,146 re-entries) | Prize pool: $306,600
  Players left: 416 | Chip leader: LetsSplitPot (United Kingdom)

  WCOOP-73-M: $1,050 PLO 6-Max, PLO Main Event
  Entries: 737* (inc. 311 re-entries) | Prize pool: $750,000*
  Players left: 216 | Chip leader: guilherme12 (Brazil)
  *So far.Registration open until Day 2 start

  WCOOP-73-H: $10,300 PLO 6-Max, PLO Main Event
  Entries: 123* (inc. 43 re-entries) | Prize pool: $1.25 million*
  Players left: 38 | Chip leader: hotmark777 (Lebanon)
  *So far.Registration open until Day 2 start

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  STARTING TODAY

  The “Series Saver”, which gets under way today, is precisely that: one last chance for players to rescue their WCOOP series with a big score at the death. It’s a no limit hold’em PKO tournament, over two days, with buy-ins at $11, $109 and $1,050. More significantly than that, however, is Day 2 of the Phase event, which was actually the first tournament to start in WCOOP. Thousands of players have been playing Day 1s for more than two weeks, but the race to the finish line begins today. With a $1 million guarantee on the medium buy-in, and a $2 million on the high, there’s plenty on the line.

  1.05pm: WCOOP-75: NLHE Series Saver
  Buy-ins: $11, $109, $1,050
  Guarantees: $175,000, $600,000, $1 million

  2.05pm: WCOOP-01 NLHE Phased
  Buy-ins: $2.20, $22, $215
  Guarantees: $250,000, $1 million, $2 million

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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 | DAY 20 | DAY 21

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