World Poker Tour Satellite Events
The final table is set in the ‘International Tournament’ segment of the 2020 World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. The tournament attracted a total of 674 entries over the course of three starting flights, but now just nine players remain with a chance to win this event. The final nine are all guaranteed at least $75,360 paydays, but surely all have their eyes on the top prize of $1,550,969.
The march of major live poker tournaments going online continues, this time, with the World Poker Tour. This one is a bit different, though, as the WPT has created both a new online-only event. It would be difficult to identify a major competition as poorly suited to pandemic conditions as the World Series of Poker Main Event. In a typical year, you’re talking about 7,000 people packed.
This year’s WSOP $10,000 main event features an unprecedented live-and-online hybrid model that will see two separate events play out, each beginning online and continuing until both final tables are set. The two eventual champions determined at those final tables, which will be played live and in person, will then square off in a live heads-up showdown to determine which will win the championship WSOP gold bracelet and an added bonus prize of $1,000,000 to go along with whatever they won at their initial final table.
Day 2 of the ‘International Tournament’ began with 179 players remaining. Over the course of around 10 hours of play, the field was whittled down to just nine players. When the dust settled, Brazil’s Brunno Botteon held the chip lead with 10,317,743. Botteon had a breakout summer at the WSOP Onoline, making three final tables in as many weeks to cash for over $1 million. He finished runner up in a $500 buyt-in limit hold’em event for $41,855, and then four days later placed sixth in the $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller for $388,827. Just a week later he made it down to the final in the $25,000 buy-in heads-up no-limit hold’em event, but lost to Fedor Holz. He added another $622,300 for that runner-up showing.
Portugal’s Manuel Ruivo is second in chips with 6,213,759, while Argentina’s Damian Salas sits in third with 5,653,528. Salas finished seventh in the 2017 WSOP main event in Las Vegas for $1,425,000. He has also had plenty of success playing online this year, with his biggest score being a third-place showing in the $10,300 buy-in World Poker Tour World Online Championships main event for $814,663.
Plenty of big names made deep runs in this event only to fall short of the final table, including 2019 WPT L.A. Poker Classic runner-up Matas Cimbolas (57th – $18,421), two-time WSOP main event final tablist Antoine Saout (53rd – $18,421), bracelet winner Toby Joyce (32nd – $26,507), Balz Zerjav (25th – $30,404), Preben Stokkan (23rd – $30,404), and 2020 WPT Germany main event winner Christopher Puetz (13th – $44,914). Thomas Macdonald was eliminated on the final-table bubble, taking home $50,131 after his A4 couldn’t hold up against the K3 of Ruivo after all of the chips went in preflop. With Macdonald’s exit, the final table of the ‘Internationa; Tournament’ was officially set.
Here is a look at the complete list of players and their chip counts:
| Place | Name | Chips |
| 1 | Brunno Botteon | 10,317,743 |
| 2 | Manuel Ruivo | 6,213,759 |
| 3 | Damian Salas | 5,653,528 |
| 4 | ‘fullbabyfull’ | 4,232,560 |
| 5 | Hannes Speiser | 3,515,744 |
| 6 | Dominykas Mikolaitis | 3,165,440 |
| 7 | Ramon Miquel Munoz | 3,035,940 |
| 8 | Peiyuan Sun | 2,185,676 |
| 9 | Stoyan Obreshkov | 2,119,610 |
Here are the payouts up for grabs at the final table:
| Place | Payouts |
| 1 | $1,550,969 |
| 2 | $1,062,723 |
| 3 | $728,177 |
| 4 | $498,947 |
| 5 | $341,879 |
| 6 | $234,255 |
| 7 | $160,512 |
| 8 | $109,982 |
| 9 | $75,360 |
The counterpart to the ‘International Tournament’ segment of this hybrid event is the ‘Domestic Tournament’. That will begin on Dec. 13 with a single starting flight. The final table will be set the following day, with the in-person finale taking place on Dec. 28. The winners of the two tournaments will then meet on Dec. 30 for a final battle for the bracelet and the added $1,000,000 in prize money.
Final table photo credit: Kevin Mathers (@kevmath).
The first starting flight of the 2020 World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in main event was held just over two weeks after the hybrid online and live event was announced. The tournament will essentially play out as two separate events, each beginning online, with the two eventual champions squaring off to determine which will win the championship WSOP gold bracelet and a bonus prize of $1,000,000 to go along with whatever they won at their initial final table.
The International-facing tournament began with the first of three starting flights on Sunday, November 29. A total of 246 entries were made before registration closed for the day, adding $2.4 million to the prize pool. Play continued for 16 levels, with the field being narrowed to just 62 players remaining by the time the day wrapped up. Julian “VWgunther” Menhardt currently sits in the chip lead with 534,490.
A number of big names made it through to day 2 from this flight, including 2019 WSOP main event 21st-place finisher Preben Stokkan (446,677), Sosia Jiang (390,312), Laurynas Levinskas (389,628), Brunno Botteon (247,359), World Poker Tour Russia winner Anatoly Filatov (232,102), WSOP bracelet winner and high-stakes regular Daniel Dvoress (200,905), Arture Martirosian (135,162), and bracelet winner Georgios Sotiropoulos (43,903).
Plenty of big names were eliminated during the flight, including two-time bracelet winner Fedor Holz, Super High Roller Bowl champion Rainer Kempe, Dinesh Alt, and WSOP Online high roller champion Christian Rudolph.
The second and third starting flights of the international-facing tournament will take place on December 5 and 6, with a final table being set on Dec. 7. The final table is scheduled to play to a winner live and in person at the King’s Casino on Dec. 15.
World Poker Tour Satellite Events List
The US-facing tournament will begin on Dec. 13 with a single starting flight. The final table will be set the following day, with the in-person finale taking place on Dec. 28. The winners of the two tournaments will then meet on Dec. 30 for a final battle for the bracelet and the added $1,000,000 in prize money.
This event has been met with some criticism from top professionals, including 2020 WSOP Online $5,000 buy-in main event winner Stoyan Madanzhiev, who disagreed with this event being marketed as the main event after he had already won a tournament that was described as such earlier this year.