Alek "astazz" Stasiak Wins Second WSOP Bracelet in Event #52 for $273,505 and a WSOPE Package
Alek "astazz" Stasiak has done it again! After winning Event #33: $1,111 Every 1 for Covid Relief [Caesars Cares] almost two weeks ago, he has now taken down Event #52: $1,000 NLHE for a whopping $273,505, his second WSOP bracelet, and a WSOP Europe Package. He defeated Kunal "Alex_52" Bhatia heads-up in a field which attracted 2,006 entries to create a prize pool of $1,095,700.
Stasiak scored his first six-figure tournament cash when he won Event #33 for $343,203 and gets to add this one to it to get him to over the $600,000-mark in earnings for just the 2020 WSOP here on GGPoker. The Canadian who lives in Quebec is the first player in WSOP history to win two online bracelets which is a feat that is hard to achieve in these big fields.
Dejan "627265" Kaladjurdjevic, Denis "FXOpen" Peganov, Vincas "seimininkas" Tamasauskas, Thomas "IplayYpay" Hueber, Jesse "AAGenius88" Mercado, Jimmy "KOBE_BRYANT8" Guerrero, and Federico "elputoamo!" Molina also earned a seat at the final table.
GGPoker WSOP Online Event #52: $1,000 NLHE Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alek "astazz" Stasiak | Canada | $273,505* |
| 2 | Kunal "Alex_52" Bhatia | India | $207,190 |
| 3 | Dejan "627265" Kaladjurdjevic | Montenegro | $150,358 |
| 4 | Denis "FXOpen" Peganov | Latvia | $109,114 |
| 5 | Vincas "seimininkas" Tamasauskas | Lithuania | $79,184 |
| 6 | Thomas "IplayYpay" Hueber | Austria | $57,464 |
| 7 | Jesse "AAGenius88" Mercado | Canada | $41,701 |
| 8 | Jimmy "KOBE_BRYANT8" Guerrero | France | $30,263 |
| 9 | Federico "elputoamo!" Molina | Argentina | $21,962 |
*The winner also received a WSOP Europe Package
Today's Action
Many familiar names and faces took their seats during the first three hours of late registration but when the dust settled, around 500 players were left in the field knowing that only 278 of them would get paid today. Two hours later, Carlos "cyphellus" Chang burst the bubble when "GT4G" three-bet shoved their king-nine after Chang had raised with queen-jack. Chang called and saw "GT4G" flop top pair but then turned a straight to get the tournament into the money.
Players like Mohsin Charania, Julien Martini, Yuri Dzivielevski, Ryan Riess, David Peters, Galen Hall, Brandon Adams, and Chris Moorman all failed to win their final all-ins. Four hours after the bubble burst, it was already time for the final table bubble. "RiverKillMe" was the player who would leave the tournament without their name getting revealed at the final table when they lost all their chips to Tamasauskas.
Bhatia started the final table second in the counts but quickly gained the chip lead before Molina, Guerrero, and Mercado were eliminated. He kept a commanding chip lead but lost a bit of ground as the others closed in on him. Hueber and Tamasauskas both busted in quick succession before Stasiak doubled up and then won another hand against Bhatia to take the chip lead away from him.
Peganov fell to Stasiak and even though Kaladjurdjevic managed to find a double-up, shortly after the last break of the day, he lost them all back to Stasiak for the latter to start the heads-up with almost 70% of all the chips in play. In numerous hands with the chips going back and fort, the chip lead also kept switching around.
At one point, Stasiak was down to 22 big blinds but doubled up and then kept the pressure on Bhatia. Bhatia was left with 13 big blinds and deemed ace-four good enough to shove with and saw he was up against the king-queen of Stasiak. He was ahead until the king on the river handed Stasiak a spot in the history books.
The PokerNews team will be back on Saturday, August 8 to bring you coverage of the MILLIONAIRE MAKER Final Table and Event #54: $10,000 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em Championship [No Late Reg, 128 Cap] until the semi-finals so make sure to come back then.