WSOP Online 2020: Bulgaria’s Stoyan Madanzhiev Enters History Books, Wins $5K Main Event For Record $3.90 Million!

It’s over! The most awaited tournament of the 2020 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Online series, Event #77: $5,000 NLHE Main Event, has crowned a champion. The final day`s play proved to be an eight-hour-long battle, and riding past several accomplished pros to capture the World Championship title was Bulgaria’s Stoyan Madanzhiev (cover image)!

This was undoubtedly a life-changing victory for Madanzhiev, who had some $5,500 in WSOP online earnings, all on GGPoker, to his name coming into this event. The 29-year-old player held the third-largest stack at the start of the final day’s play and featured among the top stacks all through.

WSOP shared a short video of Madanzhiev’s reaction after winning the Main Event.

Congrats to Stoyan Madanzhiev for winning the WSOP Online Main Event and $3,904,685, the largest 1st place prize in online poker history ! @GGPokerOfficial pic.twitter.com/0vH6MpXNpo

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) September 6, 2020

The tournament set a new world record by generating a never-before-seen prize pool of $27,559,500 after a late surge in the last four of the 23 starting flights resulted in a 5,802-entry field.

Day 2 played out on August 30, leaving only 38 players still standing. These 38 qualifiers returned after a six-day hiatus last night to take a shot at the most prized title in the game and the life-changing $3.90 Million on the table.

Another piece of history scripted at this event as China’s Wenling Gao finished runner-up to Madanzhiev. Gao had got in through a $500 satellite and converted that relatively modest investment into a $2.74 Million windfall after her second-place finish. She also enters the history books as the second woman ever to have final tabled the WSOP Main Event and the only one ever to make it heads-up for the Main Event bracelet. Back in 1995, Barbara Enright had finished fifth in the 1995 WSOP Main Event.

It took five hours of play on Saturday before the final table was formed. The start-of-day chip leader Bryan Piccioli kept ahead for the first two hours of the day’s play but slipped down after losing a massive pot to Maicon Gasperin in Level 18. Piccioli could never recover, and around 90 minutes later, he hit the rail in 23rd place, to pocket $79,625.

Seven Natural8 players were among the 38 runners on Day 3, and three of them made it to the final table, with Satoshi Isomae running the deepest by finishing fifth. Stefan Schillhabel and Samuel Taylor placed seventh and ninth, respectively.

Among the others, Raise Your Edge founder, and popular poker streamer Benjamin “bencb789” Rolle (11th for $161,686) fell a few places short of the final table.

Martin Arce (25th for $79,625), Phachara Wongwichit (27th for $79,625), and Joshua McCully (29th for $55,880) hit the rail early in the day.

The other notable finishers were Samuel Vousden (12th for $161,686), Craig Timmis (13th for $161,686), Michael Kane (17th for $113,465), Kelly Wong (18th for $79,625), former APPT champion Tzai Wei Phua (19th for $79,625) and Indian-origin Dinesh Alt (21st for $79,625).

At least 19 Indian players had cashed the Main Event last week with “raavan” (90th for $27,675 – ₹20.34 Lakhs), posting the team’s deepest run.

The final table was formed after the elimination of Mariano Martiradonna (10th for $161,686), with each finalist assured at least $230,395 in prize money.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Tyler Rueger – 69,761,090
2. Stoyan Madanzhiev – 65,883,013
3. Satoshi Isomae – 36,032,095
4. Wenling Gao – 34,553,681
5. Joao Santos – 26,485,618
6. Samuel Taylor – 23,408,268
7. Tyler Cornell – 12,266,374
8. Stefan Schillhabel – 11,022,052
9. Thomas Ward – 9,449,480

You can watch the cards-up replay of the Final Table below.

Final Table Recap

Within minutes of the final table starting, Samuel Taylor was eliminated in ninth place at the hands of Wenling Gao.

Around 20 minutes later, Tyler Cornell ran ace-jack into Tyler Rueger’s queen-jack and got relegated to the rail in eighth place after the latter hit two-pair.

Gao eliminated Stefan Schillhabel next in seventh place.

The six players were sent on an extended, 26-minute break, and when they resumed, Joas Santos became the next one to fall with Rueger’s ace-king dominating Santos’ ace-deuce.

These five players became three in the next 10 minutes as Satoshi Isomae and Thomas Ward were dispatched in fifth and fourth place in quick succession.

Gao was responsible for getting the heads-up started after busting Tyler Rueger in third place. Rueger ripped it in from the big blind with Gao making the call on the button.

Tyler Rueger

Wenling Gao

The board ran getting Gao heads-up with Madanzhiev for the Main Event title!

Wenling Gao had already created history for making it to heads-up with Madanzhiev for the World Championship title and started the heads-up encounter with 141,725,463 against the 147,136,208 of Madanzhiev.

Both players were almost 200 BB’s deep, but surprisingly the event wrapped up in no time. The final hand brought a climactic end to the historic event. The chips went in after the turn on the board with Gao showing vs. Madanzhiev’s . Madanzhiev’s flopped nut straight brought him the Main Event title and $3,904,686 while Gao pocketed a well-deserved $2,748,605.

Watch the final hand below.

Final Table Results (USD)

1. Stoyan Madanzhiev – $3,904,686
2. Wenling Gao – $2,748,605
3. Tyler Rueger – $1,928,887
4. Thomas Ward – $1,353,634
5. Satoshi Isomae – $949,937
6. Joao Santos – $666,637
7. Stefan Schillhabel – $467,825
8. Tyler Cornell – $328,305
9. Samuel Taylor – $230,395

Content & Images Courtesy: WSOP.com and PokerNews.com

Cover Image Courtesy: SuperPoker

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