LAS VEGAS (June 8, 2020) – With the flagship World Series of Poker (WSOP) postponed in Las Vegas due to the public health emergency involving COVID-19, today organizers announced “World Series of Poker Online,” an online poker festival spanning two months. With just a month and a half to go, the 2020 World Series of Poker has yet to be cancelled, despite the country it would take place in being under stack in the worst week so far for American.

• Wsop Circuit Europe 2020
• Wsop Europe 2020

In 2017, Damian Salas navigated his way through a field of 7,221 entries to make the final table of the World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in main event. He went on to finish seventh for more than $1.4 million, falling just a few spots shy of becoming the first-ever poker world champion from his home country of Argentina. In fact, he was the first Argentinian to even make the final table. Incredibly, just three years later, Salas has another chance to write his name in the poker history books.

Next stop: King’s Casino. The final table of the “International Bracket” of the 2020 World Series of Poker Main Event on GGPoker has been determined, with nine of the original 674 players. WSOP Europe, hosted at King’s Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, remains on the calendar for the Fall 2020. All announced dates, times and events are subject to change. About the World Series of Poker.

Salas overcame a field of 674 total entries to win the ‘International Tournament’ of the 2020 WSOP $10,000 main event. Salas earned $1,550,969 as the champion of this event, and will now head to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas to play the winner of the concurrently-running ‘Domestic Tournament’ in order to determine this year’s world champion. The eventual winner of that heads-up showdown will be awarded the championship bracelet and $1 million in added prize money. The US-facing tournament set its final table on Monday, Dec. 14.

This event began online, with three starting flights running on Nov. 29 and Dec. 5-6, drawing a total of 674 entries. Day 2 began on Dec. 7 with 179 players remaining. Over the course of around 10 hours of play, the field was narrowed down to a final table of nine, with Brazil’s Brunno Botteon bagging up the largest stack of 10,317,743. Salas entered the day in third chip position.

The final table was held live and in person at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, the site of the WSOP Europe festival in recent years. Only eight of the final nine players made the trip to the Czech Republic, as Peiyuan Sun opted to not attend the final table in person. As result, they officially finished in ninth place and earned $75,360.

Hannes Speiser was the first to be eliminated at the final table. He got his last ten or so big blinds in preflop with Q10 and ran into the pocket tens of Salas. The board kept Salas’ pocket pair ahead through the river, and Speiser was sent home in eighth place ($109,982).

Stoyan Obreshkov was the next player to hit the rail. He also found himself with around 10 big blinds when the hand began, all of which went into the pot preflop. He held K10 and was up against the A10 of Salas. The Argentinian made aces and tens by the river to take down the pot and knock Obreshkov out in seventh place ($160,512).

Dominykas Mikolaitis’ run in this event came to an end when he lost a preflop race with A-J against the pocket threes of Manuel Ruivo. A three on the flop gave Ruivo a dominant lead, and a blank on the turn left Mikolaitis drawing dead. The Lithuanian earned $234,255 as the sixth-place finisher. Ruivo continued his climb up the leaderboard by finding himself on the preferrable side of a preflop cooler against Marco Streda. Ruivo opened and Streda three-bet all-in for around nine big blinds with AK. Ruivo quickly called with AA and held through all five community cards. Streda was awarded for $341,879 for his fifth-place showing.

Salas built an early lead with his early knockouts at the final table, and he was able to extend that advantage during four-handed play. He held more than three times as many chips as the next largest stack when the final four took a dinner break. Botteon was able to close the gap somewhat by eliminating Ramon Miquel Munoz in fourth place. The short stack got his last few blinds in with A-6 and was unable to outrun the pocket threes of Botteon, who flopped a set and turned a full house. Miquel Munoz earned $498,947 for his deep run in this event.

Manuel Ruivo took his stand against the chip leader after the pair saw a flop of 942. Salas checked from out of position and Ruivo bet 750,000. Salas check-raised to 5,000,000. Ruivo only had around 6 million in total, and he announced that he was all-in. Salas called and revealed the 107 for a flush draw. Ruivo held 94 for two pair. The 8 on the turn gave Salas more outs with an open-ended straight draw. The 5 on the river completed Salas’ flush, and Ruivo was eliminated in third place ($728,177).

With that, Salas took roughly a 5:3 chip lead into heads-up play against Botteon. The Brazilian was able to overtake the lead in the early going, but Salas regained the advantage and never looked back. By the time the final hand was dealt, he held a nearly a 3:1 lead. Salas limped in from the button for 600,000 with K8 and Botteon checked holding 73. The flop came down K42 and Botteon checked. Salas checked behind with his top pair and the turn brought the 6 to give Botteon a flush draw and outs to a straight. He checked and Salas bet 1,000,000. Botteon check-raised to 2,800,000. Salas called and the river brought the 8. Botteon had missed, but he elected to move all-in as a bluff for around 6.6 million. Salas thought it over before making the call with his kings and eights to secure the pot and the title. Botteon earned $1,062,723 as the runner-up finisher.

Here is a look at the payouts awarded at this final table:

Table Of Contents

Wishing you could find all the key info about the 2020 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in one place? You'll love this WSOP 2020 schedule.

As announced here on PokerNews on Friday, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) are coming back soon with an unprecedented mix of online and live games.

The action will be split between WSOP.com and GGPoker, giving players from different countries the opportunity to participate and compete in a one-of-a-kind $10,000 WSOP Main Event.

This means we are going to have an official 2020 Main Event champion in 2020, although the situation caused by the COVID pandemic will make everything...a bit different.

Continue reading to learn:

• The Schedule of the PokerNews WSOP Main Event coverage. (coming soon)

WSOP 2020 Schedule: the Main Event

Forget the long queues at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and the comments about the close-to-polar temperatures in the tournament room.

The largest part of the 2020 WSOP Main Event action is going to happen online with only 18 survivors being invited to play a game of live poker.

To complicate things even further, not everyone will play at the same time this year. The two poker operators set up two different schedules that converge into one final event scheduled to take place in Las Vegas on Dec. 30.

To help you keep track of what-happens-where and know what are the key dates that are relevant to you, we put together a detailed 2020 WSOP schedule with everything there is to know about this year's $10,000 Main Event.

Schedule of the 2020 WSOP Domestic Main Event

The 'domestic' Main Event is a $10,000 buy-in freezeout no-limit Texas hold'em tournament that will take place on WSOP.com.

This poker tournament will be open to all players in New Jersey and Nevada.

• The action begins on Sunday, Dec. 13, with the event's only Day 1 flight.
• The tournament will then continue on Monday, December 14, and play down to a final table of nine players.
• The final table will see all the qualifiers play down to a winner at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, on Monday, Dec. 28.

Important Notice: You do not need to be a resident of New Jersey or Nevada to play — but you are required to be physically located in one of these two states to access the games on the WSOP.com client.

For more info about this, have a look at our guides to online poker in New Jersey and online poker in Nevada.

Schedule of the 2020 WSOP International Main Event

To allow more players to join the event and fight for the most coveted title in poker, the WSOP will run an 'international' leg of the Main Event as well.

This $10,000 freezeout tournament will take place on the GGPoker client, the same that already hosted a successful online edition of the WSOP in the summer.

_{If you are not sure whether you are allowed to play games on GGPoker, you can visit this page.}

Given that the GGPoker leg of the 2020 WSOP Main Event is expected to attract a larger crowd, the organizers split the action into three starting flights.

• The action on GGPoker will begin on Sunday, Nov. 29 with the Day 1a.
• The other Day 1's will take place on Saturday, Dec. 5, and Sunday, Dec. 6.
• All the survivors will then play down to nine players on Monday, Dec. 7.
• The last nine participants will play down to a winner in a game of live poker to be held at the King's Casino in Rozvadov, on Tuesday, Dec. 16.

Should travel restrictions or a casino shutdown prevent the WSOP Main Event final table to take place in Rozvadov, the organizer announced they will consider moving the event online or rescheduling it to a later date.

Keep in mind that each player can only play one Day 1, so you won't be able to re-enter the tournament after you are eliminated.

The 2020 WSOP Main Event Heads-Up Finale

The winner of both the 'domestic' and the 'international' legs of this unprecedented 2020 WSOP Main Event will then play in a special Heads-Up Finale that will take place at the Rio on Wednesday, Dec. 30.

The winner of this adrenaline-packed game will walk away with an added $1,000,000 cash prize, a bracelet, and the title of 2020 WSOP Main Event champion.

WSOP 2020 Schedule: FAQs

This year's competition is split between the WSOP.com poker client and the GGPoker client, with both operators sunning tournaments at different times.

The action at WSOP.com (New Jersey and Nevada players only) begins on Dec. 13, 2020. More info here.

The action at GGPoker begins on Nov. 29. More info here.

Wsop Circuit Europe 2020

The final table of the 'domestic' 2020 WSOP Main Event will take place at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, on Monday, Dec. 28, 2020.

The final table of the 'international' 2020 WSOP Main Event will take place at the Kings Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2020.

The US-only tournament to be hosted on the WSOP.com platform feature a single Day 1 on December 13, 2020.

The GGPoker leg of the 2020 WSOP Main Event features three starting flights:

• Day 1 A: Sunday, Nov. 29
• Day 1 B: Saturday, Dec. 5
• Day 1 C: Sunday, Dec.6

Despite the three starting flights, players will be allowed to enter only a single Day 1.

The 2020 WSOP Heads Up Finale will see the winner of the 'domestic' and the 'international' WSOP Main Event play down to a final winner.

Wsop Europe 2020

The event will take place at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Dec. 30. More info here.