2020 PokerStars Stadium Series

The highly anticipated conclusion of the 2020 PokerStars Stadium Series featured Day 1 of the Freezeout Grand Final - High $5,200 NLHE Event and the ambitious guarantee of $5,000,000 was all but reached thanks to 971 unique entries.

No re-entry was allowed to give all qualifiers and direct buy-ins just one shot at glory. The first of three tournament days wrapped up with 119 players remaining right after the money bubble had burst as eight and a half hours had passed.

It was a close race for the overnight chip lead as Russia's "Goallinfishara" topped the leaderboard with 6,235,474 in chips, closely followed by "icgeo84" from the UK with 6,101,206 and Sadan "the_snail03" Turker with 5,630,858. Austria's "SmilleThHero" bagged up a top five stack with 5,206,149 after they busted Luke "lb6121" Schwartz only three spots away from the money with a rivered straight.

Two players in the top 10 counts in particular stand out from the rest of the crowd: 2020 SCOOP Player of the Series Rui "RuiNF" Ferreira carried over the momentum of the previous big tournament series on PokerStars and bagged up 5,059,827, good enough for seventh in chips. And long-time grinder Pascal "Päffchen" Hartmann finished the night two big blinds ahead with a stack of 5,169,779. Hartmann spent most of the day near the top of the counts after sending several opponents to the rail in the mid stages.

Another two well-known names of the international poker scene narrowly missed out on the overall top 10 as Daniel "Oxota" Dvoress (4,552,697) and Mike "gorodski" Gorodinsky (4,221,218) earned themselves an excellent chance at a big slice of the prize pool. Further notables well above the average include Vlada "Vlada2108" Stojanovic (4,599,556), Tatiana "Mysters_Y" Barausova (4,266,272), Henrik "hhecklen" Hecklen (3,252,562), Talal "raidalot" Shakerchi (2,952,954), and two-time WSOP bracelet winner Michael "imluckbox" Addamo (2,702,996).

The remaining field of Day 1 survivors contains plenty of other well-known poker pros such as Dimitar "KuuL" Danchev, Joao "IneedMassari" Simao, Ognyan "cocojamb0" Dimov, Marty "TheLipoFund" Mathis, Mike "SirWatts" Watson, Pedro "PaDiLhA SP" Padilha, Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet and Rafael "GM_VALTER" Moraes.

One of the weekly Sunday Final High tier winners also made the cut in Alisson "heyalisson" Piekazewicz, who advanced with 549,100. Michael "munchenHB" Telker and Parker "tonkaaaa" Talbot were less fortunate and the same also applied for all three of the three PokerStars ambassadors who entered the fray.

Ben "Spraggy" Spragg lost more than half of his stack early on and never recovered from that, eventually jamming ace-queen into pocket aces. Fintan "easywithaces" Hand suffered a very similar fate and came up short with king-ten versus ace-queen. For Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis the day started very promising as he scored an early double up and then earned a knockout with aces versus kings to flirt with the chip lead. However, the Dutchman also succumbed with a short stack eventually when ace-queen didn't get there to crack pocket queens.

Many other big names of the international poker circuit were sent to the rail without anything to show for and the list of casualties reads like the who-is-who of live and online poker. Big names such as Andrey Pateychuk, Julian Thomas, Anton Wigg, Kelvin Kerber and aforementioned Schwartz came up short and the bubble burst when "Lavrik_mastr" ran with kings into the aces of Pablo "PabloPool12" Roman.

After a good night's sleep, the remaining 119 players will return to blinds of 30,000/60,000 with a running ante of 7,500 as the penultimate day continues on Monday August 3rd, 2020, as of 1.05 p.m. local time. They have locked up a min cash of $11,778 and surviving another day and reaching the final table would guarantee at least $67,991.50.

The first all-in and call on the money bubble was anti-climatic as "Lavrik-mastr" shipped it in for fewer than nine blinds from late position and was called by Pablo "PabloPool12" Roman in the small blind.

"Lavrik-mastr":
Pablo "PabloPool12" Roman:

The classic kings versus aces setup brought no upset on a board and that let the bubble burst, sending all 119 remaining players into the money and on break for the night.

Guntis "[email protected]" Aleskins made it 133,800 to go and was called by "isscreamo" from one seat over. They headed to the flop on which Aleskins continued for 127,131 and picked up a call by his table neighbor.

The turn saw Aleskins jam for 922,918 and "isscreamo" beat him into the pot.

Guntis "[email protected]" Aleskins:
"isscreamo":

No card in the deck could save Aleskins and the river sent the field on the direct money bubble.

The action folded all the way to big stack "SmilleThHero" on the button and he moved all-in with shorter stacks behind him in Alisson "heyalisson" Piekazewicz and Luke "lb6121" Schwartz. The former folded but Schwartz called to end up at risk in a pot shy of two million chips.

Luke "lb6121" Schwartz:
"SmilleThHero":

Both paired up on the flop and the turn and river runout meant the exit of Schwartz as "SmilleThHero" rivered a ten-high straight.

David "deivid29" Tovar raised the button and what followed was the shove of bis stack "Lifesucksyeah" in the small blind. "betoeco13" called all-in from the big blind and so did Tovar.

"betoeco13":
David "deivid29" Tovar:
"Lifesucksyeah":

The board sent the Brazilian out while Tovar more than doubled.

"joaommr" opened the action with a button raise to 110,000 and Eder "edercampana" called out of the big blind. Campana check-raised the flop from 100,000 to 475,000 and left himself 9,058 behind to the turn on which he was all-in and called.

Eder "edercampana" Campana:
"joaommr":

Campana was head with two pair but the river sent him out short of the money.

Among others, Hannes "SuchADegen" Speiser and Adrian "Amadi_017" Mateos suffered the same fate.

"S.FILTH" was in prime shape to score a vital double not far way from the money bubble when they got it in from the small blind with the , as "[email protected]" on the button only had the .

The board delivered the suckout on the river.

Another player to bow out shy of the money was "Aalexxs" and it started with a limp by them in early position, as Daniel "Oxota" Dvoress in the small blind filled up and Mike "gorodski" Gorodinsky" in the big blind checked his option.

The flop was checked and Dvoress bet the turn for 198,000, only "Aalexxs" called. Dvoress ripped it in after the river with the for two pair and received the call from "Aalexs" with for top pair.