WSOP No-Limit Hold'em Championship goes to "2Rivers"

On Wednesday night, the 2020 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Online Series Event #31: $1,000 NLH Championship attracted 1,455 players who rebought 671 times. The 2,126-entry field resulted in a $2,019,700 prize pool (the largest out of all 31 events) and after nearly 12 hours of play, "2Rivers" emerged victorious to capture the bracelet and $310,831.83 first-place prize.

After Max "Mawkswell" Young bubbled the tournament in 331st place, the elimination came at a steady pace. Among those to make the money but fall short of the final table was Allen "chainsaw" Kessler (262nd - $1,817.73), Joe "fanofdapoker" McKeehen (215th - $1,817.73), Phil "Lumestackin" Hellmuth (133rd - $2,423.64), Tony "Panoramic" Dunst (106th - $2,625.61), Kathy "Luckygal" Liebert (100th - $2,625.61), Matt "berkey11_s4y" Berkey (56th - $4,645.31), Chelsea "wubalubadubb" Bowden (55th - $4,645.31), Jamie "DanBilzerian" Kerstetter (37th - $6,463.04), Ryan "protential" Laplante (30th - $7,876.83), and final table bubble boy David "bewater" Goodman (10th - $19,995.03).

The final table kicked off with a flurry of eliminations all in a 15-minute span. First, it was Kevin "SpecialK333" Calenzo exiting in ninth after getting it in on the flop with an open-ended straight draw and missing against the ace-high of "2Rivers", and then Michael "merlot" Bailey followed him out the door losing with ace-nine all in preflop against the ace-ten of Andrew "WATCHGUY42" Lichtenberger.

Soon after, Lichtenberger notched another knockout when Arian "4632647" Stolt jammed with ten-nine suited and "Lucky Chewy" held with ace-nine. From there, "Bubblealot" lost a race with pocket fives against Norman "abnormality" Michalek's king-eight after the latter flopped two pair.

"goatplaya" then lost jack-ten to the ace-eight of "2Rivers" to exit in fifth place, while Brian "foxxx" Kirchhoff failed to get lucky with ace-six against Michalek's ace-queen all in preflop. Lichtenberger the three-bet jammed with ace-five only to get called by Michalek, who held with pocket eights.

That allowed Michalek to take 30.5 million into heads-up play against "2Rivers," who began with 12 million. However, "2Rivers" was able to pick off two bluffs to take the chip lead and then closed things out shortly thereafter when Michalek attempted a failed river bluff.

(Article courtesy of World Series of Poker)