WSOP Online The Opener tournament earns record field

The 2020 World Series of Poker Online has set a new record for the largest field to play in a WSOP tournament.

The Opener, a $100 No Limit Hold’em tournament, was the second tournament on the WSOP Online schedule played at GGPoker. The tournament was supposed to wrap up last week, but the final day was delayed a week after a critical bug was found in GGPoker’s platform.

Why was the WSOP Online The Opener delayed?

When the final $100 buy-in was made, the field for The Opener was set at 29,306 players. That topped the previous record for a WSOP tournament set in the 2015 $565 Colossus tournament, which had 22,374 entrants. The record-setting field in The Opener led to a $2,571,216 prize pool with the top 3,684 finishers getting paid. The minimum payout in the tournament was $282.

When the final day of The Opener finally began, there were 3,684 players left standing. When only nine remained and they convened the final table, the chip leader was Marcelo ‘Marolo’ Jakovljevic Pudla. The Brazilian native would eventually hold all the chips.

Jakovljevic Pudla got his chip stack growing early at the final table by delivering the first knockout, as he sent Bret ‘ShowerTime’ Carson to the virtual rail in ninth place. He would end up personally eliminating five of his eight opponents at the final table.

It came down to Jakovljevic Pudla and Ronit ‘Songjoy’ Chamani heads-up for the tournament title and the WSOP bracelet. When heads-up play began Chamani held the chip lead after she knocked out Dejan ‘bobkovic’ Kaladjurdjevic in third place.

The big swing in the chip count during heads-up occurred when Jakovljevic Pudla’s A-2 topped Chamani’s K-Q.

On the final hand of the tournament Chamani shoved all in from the button with 5-6 suited spades and Jakovljevic Pudla called with A-5 suited clubs.  Jakovljevic Pudla’s Ace-high held up after the board showed 10c-9h-3d-2d-7c.

For the win Jakovljevic Pudla collected his first WSOP bracelet and cashed $265,880.