Boivin Claims Day 1 Chip Lead of the 2020 PokerStars Stadium Series Freezeout Weekly Final
It would take just over eight hours on the first day of the 2020 PokerStars Stadium Series Freezeout Weekly Final - High: $2,100 NLHE to come to an end with 87 players making it through to Day 2. The $1,500,000 guaranteed prize pool attracted 768 players to its field to create a prize purse of $1,536,000. The eventual winner will walk away on Tuesday with $261,489.
Belgium's Thomas "MarToMchat" Boivin who resides in the United Kingdom claims the Day 1 chip lead with 4,052,527 in chips. A chunk of those chips were earned when he won a four-way all-in against Bradley "mrbradleyy" Harwood, "xnrobix", and "!!f1ghtback!". He made even more waves during the bubble where he put players like "$w4g4l1c10u$" under pressure.
Boivin is followed in the counts by Helio "hneves182" Neves (2,787,815), "alexxt7" (2,776,585), Fabio "LFFF22" Freitas (2,380,464), and November Niner Michiel "utreg" Brummelhuis (2,269,974).
But with 87 players left in the field, there are many more notable players to pay attention to. Anton "Bomber&Granater" Wigg, Jasper "AppelKruimel" Wetemans, Alex "dynoalot" Difelice, Andrey "kot_spartac" Kotelnikov, Luis "luisdono" Dono, Jochum "groengras" Weenink, Konstantin "krakukra" Maslak, Igor "OMGitshunt" Soyka, Simon "Igorkarkarof" Ronnow Pedersen, Parker "tonkaaaa" Talbot, Andreas "mrAndreeew" Berggren, and Max "goodeh99" Silver are just some of the many familiar names still in it.
Joshua "slayerv1fan" Hoesel and Craig "onscreen1234" Shannon are two players who might also be known from the Twitch streets who have made Day 2 while PokerStars Team Online members Lex "L. Veldhuis" Veldhuis, Ben "Spraggy" Spraggg, and Fintan "EasyWithAces" Hand didn't fare as well.
Francisco "chicalltreta" Correia busted to Saymon "$aymon9" Nascimento before the bubble and so did "paxantho" before hand-for-hand play could start. The players went into the eighth and final break knowing one more player needed to bust. It would take almost 15 minutes before the bubble actually burst when "thebigdog09" raised and was called by "thx4urm0n3y". But "alexxt7" three-bet shoved for "thebigdog09" to make the call with kings. Unfortunately for them, they were up against aces and couldn't find any help on the board.
When the players return on Monday, July 27 at 7:05 p.m. CEST, they will finish the remainder of Level 22 which has a small blind of 12,500, a big blind of 25,000, and a running ante of 3,250. Level duration will remain at 20 minutes until there are 40 players left, the duration will then increase to 25 minutes for each level. Play will continue until the final table has been determined which will be played out on Tuesday.
PokerNews will be back from the start until there are nine players left so make sure to return right here.
for "alexxt7" to hit the higher pair of aces.
for "alexxt7" to improve to the higher two pair.
for "thebigdog09" to bust as the bubble boy.
flop who bet 43,395 which was called by all but Maslak.
, "kZhh" bet 103,727 for everyone but "LoosControl" to make the call.
and "kZhh" checked. Wigg shoved with the biggest stack for everyone to fold to.
, Parugaev continued with a bet of 58,766 which Soyka called.
and this time Parugaev bet 91,675 and was called again.
. Parugaev shoved for 357,101 and was called by Soyka who held the slightly bigger stack. Parugaev tabled 
for Ignat to turn the straight to bust the Twitch streamer.
, it was checked to Neves who continued with a bet of 10,500 which only "ilir3" called.
for Neves to double up with a full house. "ilir3" lost the remainder shortly after.
as a formality.
, Ventura checked, Veldhuis continued with a bet of 4,039 and "riojalover" was the only one to make the call.
and Veldhuis bet 9,600 and was called again.
. Veldhuis bet 32,000 for "riojalover" to shove for more. The PokerStars Team Online member put his tournament life at risk and called for the 141,316 he had behind with 
for the rivered full house to see them lost most of their stack to the Twitch streamer.
