Big Lead for Vijayaratnam on Day 1C of the WSOP Main Event; $1.5M+ For First
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The third and final starting day of the international portion of the 2020 World Series of Poker Main Event on GGPoker ended up being the biggest flight with 257 players putting up $10,000 each to take a shot. In total, 674 players signed up for the international portion of this year's official Main Event to create a $6,470,400 total prize pool, resulting in a first-place prize of $1,550,969.
On Monday, December 7, the 179 survivors from all three starting flights will return to resume the hunt for the bracelet and millions on top. They'll play down to a final table to nine that, despite the challenges the ongoing pandemic brings, is scheduled to play out live at King's Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic next week on Tuesday, December 15.
The winner of that final table is expected to fly to Las Vegas to play heads-up against the champ on the domestic part of the event on WSOP.com side on December 30. Both winners will compete for the bragging rights and an additional $1,000,000 added to the heads-up. The WSOP.com side, accessible to those residing in Nevada or New Jersey, kicks off on Sunday, December 13.
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2020 WSOP Main Event Day 1C Top 10 Chip Counts
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds Day 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Senthuran "Prodigal Sen" Vijayaratnam | Canada | 966,714 | 193 |
| 2 | Jesse "sabor_de_mar" Wigan | United Kingdom | 642,276 | 128 |
| 3 | Viacheslav Buldygin | Russia | 480,671 | 96 |
| 4 | Ruben "Sjokomelk" Gravlien | Norway | 459,031 | 92 |
| 5 | Gediminas "NeverGambol" Uselis | Lithuania | 433,859 | 87 |
| 6 | Daniel Smiljkovic | Austria | 405,085 | 81 |
| 7 | Fazel "waterproo" Dawood | South Africa | 404,092 | 81 |
| 8 | Robin "HWXR_1" Hegele | Germany | 398,192 | 80 |
| 9 | Christopher Puetz | Austria | 394,051 | 79 |
| 10 | Oleg "WhiteBaron" Ustinovich | Russia | 377,123 | 75 |
The overall Day 1C chip lead was claimed by Canada's Senthuran "Prodigal Sen" Vijayaratnam with a massive 966,714 in chips, more than enough for the overall lead after each of the starting flights. A big chunk of those earned when he eliminated Samuel Vousden late in the night with queens versus sevens. Vijayaratnam was one out of 75 that made it through from a field of 257.
UK's Jesse "sabor_de_mar" Wigan claimed second place with 642,276, while Viacheslav Buldygin ended with 480,671 for third place. Other familiar names to return included players like Gediminas "NeverGambol" Uselis (433,859), Daniel Smiljkovic (405,085), Christopher Puetz (394,051), Carter Swidler (324,651), Jonas Lauck (299,372), and Damian Salas (266,036).
All you need to know about this unique WSOP Main Event
No Repeat Performance for Madanzhiev
Among the notable bustouts of the day was Stoyan Madanzhiev who won the previous 2020 GGPoker WSOP Online Main Event for $3,904,686. He first lost a chunk to Markus "ober_tilter" Lechleitner and then gave the rest to Vitaliy "Durdy" Pankov. Wenling "HappyDX" Gao, runner-up in the event Madanzhiev won, was eliminated during the tenth level of the night.
Jack "Claashole" Sinclair won the WSOPE Main Event back in 2018 in King's Resort but wouldn't be able to add another WSOP Main Event win as he ran his ace-king into the aces of Ruben "Sjokomelk" Gravlien. Dario Sammartino, Kitty Kuo, Pete Chen, David Peters, Martin Jacobson and Timothy Adams were just a handful of big names that won't be adding their name in WSOP history in this tournament.
Canada's Collin "generic" Capone won his seat for the Main Event in the PokerNews Bluff Competition but ran his kings into the ace-king of Gravlien who flopped the higher pair to saw his dreams come to an end. The last bustout of the night was GGPoker ambassador Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, who lost his final crumbs to Hannes "BlackFortuna" Speiser.
Read more: What Does Another WSOP Main Event Mean for Poker?
Plan for Day 2
Action will resume with 179 out of 674 players returning to the virtual tables at 6 p.m. GMT with 80 of them making the money. A min-cash is worth $15,277 while making the final table will earn those nine players at least $75,360.
The eventual winner on December 15 will walk away with $1,550,969, plus playing the heads-up battle for an additional $1m. Blinds return at 2,500/5,000 and an ante of 500, while levels remain 30 minutes throughout. Expect a long day as we'll play down all the way to the final table in one fell swoop.
Five Main Event Problems The WSOP Has Had to Solve
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