Mattos Leads; Rezaei and Kovalski in the Top 10 After Day 1 of WCOOP-72-H: $5,200 Main Event
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The first day of the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) 2020 pinnacle event is in the books as 579 players out of 1,697 entries bagged up their virtual chips at the end of Day 1 of the WCOOP-72-H: $5,200 NLHE [8-Max, Main Event].
At least ten further players opted to enter or re-enter after the end of level 15 and all others may do so until five minutes prior to the start of Day 2 in order to take a shot at the guaranteed prize pool of $10,000,000.
All those that wish to enter at the last minute will receive 250,000 in chips at returning blinds of 6,000/12,000 with a running ante of 1,500 when the action resumes the following day at 1.10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST).
At the top of the overnight leaderboard, a quartet of players is within seven blinds including Brazil's Leonardo “LeoMattosAK” Mattos (2,479,726), "VladTheSlaye" (2,456,490), "atlantaca661" (2,456,490) and Daniel "Razer2311" Rezaei (2,405,203). Mattos is no stranger to success at the online tables and recently won his first WSOP Online bracelet.
Also featured in the top 10 are "Sintoras" (2,248,070 ), Fabiano "Kovalski1" Kovalski (2,199,653) and Andrey "drupa-lucker" Chernokoz (2,125,515) whereas Vyacheslav "VbV1990" Buldygin (2,073,193) and Laszlo "omaha4rollz" Bujtas (1,962,351) follow right behind. Kovalski comes fresh off his third WCOOP title in as many years in WCOOP-59-H: $5,200 NLHE [8-Max, Midweek Freeze].
The Top 10 After Day 1 of WCOOP-72-H: $5,200 Main Event
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leonardo “LeoMattosAK” Mattos | Brazil | 2,479,726 | 207 |
| 2 | VladTheSlaye | Ukraine | 2,459,777 | 205 |
| 3 | atlantaca661 | Argentina | 2,456,490 | 205 |
| 4 | Daniel "Razer2311" Rezaei | Austria | 2,405,203 | 200 |
| 5 | Shipmopff | Netherlands | 2,329,693 | 194 |
| 6 | Sintoras | Germany | 2,248,070 | 187 |
| 7 | nic81411 | Germany | 2,227,306 | 186 |
| 8 | Fabiano "Kovalski1" Kovalski | Brazil | 2,199,653 | 183 |
| 9 | luk9r | Austria | 2,128,905 | 177 |
| 10 | Andrey "drupa-lucker" Chernokoz | Russia | 2,125,515 | 177 |
Former WCOOP-H champions still in contention include Ezequiel "eze88888" Waigel (1,258,302), Steven "SvZff" van Zadelhoff (875,897), Fedor "CrownUpGuy" Holz (443,063), and defending champion Fraser "BigBlindBets" Russell (163,985).
Big Names Out of Shells
There was a steady stream of new entries and re-entries throughout the entire day which featured a total of 15 levels of 30 minutes each. The first casualties emerged at the end of the first level and many hundreds followed in the hours after. Among those to hit the rail very early on was 2020 WCOOP three-time champion Yuri "theNERDguy" Dzivielevski who ran queens into kings and needed to fire a third bullet to make Day 2 with a below-average stack.
The list of casualties throughout the day reads like the who-is-who of poker as Samuel "€urop€an" Vousden, Talal "raidalot" Shakerchi, Peter "Belabacsi" Traply, Gleb "Ti0373" Tremzin, Stefan "mindgamer" Jedlicka, Artem "veeea" Vezhenkov, Pavel "MountanRo$e" Veksler, Chris "ImDaNuts" Oliver, Preben "prebz" Stokkan, Bert "girafganger7" Stevens, and Kahle "ROFLshove" Burns were just a few of those that fired the maximum of three entries without success.
No Fortune for the PokerStars Ambassadors
For the four PokerStars ambassadors that entered the fray, the outcome was the same as none made it through to Day 2. Ramon "RamonColillas" Colillas was the first to depart when he ran with kings into kings only for Philippe "takechip" D'Auteuil to turn a flush. Colillas re-entered and even busted Fedor "CrownUpGuy" Holz once but didn't make it through on the second attempt either.
Ben "Spraggy" Spragg lost a big portion of his stack early on and ultimately ran out of chips when king-eight flopped top pair, as "Andre_Hansen" held the superior kicker with king-jack. Team Online's Felix "xflixx" Schneiders suffered a setback when kings failed to hold against ace-jack and he lost the last few chips with nine-eight suited versus ace-eight suited.
Fintan "easywithaces" Hand more than tripled his stack but couldn't keep up the momentum until the end of the day either. In the penultimate level of the night, he three-bet jammed the last 21 blinds with pocket nines from the big blind and was dominated by Alexander "joiso" Kostritsyn with pocket jacks.
Many other big names ran out of chips and bought back in during the late stages of the day which saw the field nearly cut into a third. All those that made it through will return the following day at 1.10 p.m. EST when the race to the money and beyond gets underway. Five minutes prior to the restart, the late registration ends and that's when the prize pool information becomes available.
Day 2 is slated to play down to the final 72 players and the PokerNews live reporting team will be back then to provide as many key hands as possible.
board and Colillas was eliminated for a second time on Day 1.
, Hand found no help and was sent to the rail.
board to keep Martirosian in contention.
, "nic81411" check-raised from 36,000 to 108,000 as Hallaert stuck around. A bet of 171,000 by "nic81411" followed on the 
turn and Hallaert's jam for 381,222 was quickly called.
board to send Schneiders to the rail. Fellow PokerStars ambassadors Ramon "RamonColillas" Colillas and Fintan "easywithaces" Hand have also seen their stacks cut down significantly as they dropped well below the average.
as his opponent from Brazil was bluffing with the