2020 World Series of Poker Online: Michael Clacher Wins $1,500 'Fifty Stack' Event

Michael Clacher emerged victorious from a field of 1,342 entries to win the 2020 World Series of Poker Online $1,500 no-limit hold’em ‘Fifty Stack’ event. In doing so, Clacher secured the third WSOP bracelet ever for his home country of South Africa. In addition to the hardware, Clacher also earned $297,496 as the champion of this event.

The strong turnout for this event saw the prize pool grow to $1,912,350. The top 188 finishers made the money, and there were plenty of big names that made deep runs in this event, including two-time bracelet winner Kahle Burns (177th – $3,328), Manig Loeser (140th – $3,819), bracelet winner Danny Tang (114th – $3,819), WPT champion and WSOP bracelet winner Mike Leah (109th – $3,819), Steve O’Dwyer (99th – $4,382), bracelet winner and European Poker Tour champion Liv Boeree (82nd – $4,382), Jeff Gross (32nd – $6,347), and EPT main event champion Mike McDonald (35th – $6,347).

Olivier Rebello held the chip lead when the nine-handed final table was set, with Clacher and WSOP bracelet winner Joao Vieira sitting on the next-largest stacks. Rebello increased his lead even further by knocking out Jose Davilla in ninth place, winning a preflop race with A-8 against pocket fours. Davilla earned $22,884 as the ninth-place finisher.

Viktor Zsemlye was the next to fall. He ran A-Q offsuit into the pocket queens of Vieira and failed to improve. Zsemlye was awarded $31,534 for his eight-place showing. Rich Dixon’s run in this event came to an end when his KQ failed to outrun the JJ of 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 high roller champion Martin Zamani. The pocket jacks held up to see Zamani climb into third chip position, while Dixon settled for $43,453 as the seventh-place finisher.

Neel Joshi also had his tournament life taken by an opponent with pocket jacks. Joshi got all-in with J10 and was called by Rebello, who held the JJ. Joshi paired his ten on the turn to have a couple outs going into the river, but none materialized and he was eliminated in sixth place ($59,878).

Portuguese poker pro Joao Vieira got his last chips in with A7 from the small blind, three-bet shoving over an open from Martin Zamani from the cutoff. Rodrigo Caprioli picked up AJ and shoved over the top from the big blind. Zamani got out off the way and the flop came down K87 to give Vieira a pair of sevens for the lead. The 4 turn kept him ahead, but in the end, the J appeared on the river to give Caprioli the winning pair of jacks. Vieira fell a few spots short of winning his second gold bracelet, but did earn the fifth-place payday of $82,510 for his strong showing in this event.

Zamani got his last 15 or so big blinds in with A9, only to run into the AJ of Caprioli. Neither player connected with the board and Caprioli’s ace-jack high was enough to earn him the pot. Zamani was sent to the rail with $113,698 for his fourth-place finish.

Clacher earner his first knockout at the final table when his 55 beat out the AJ of Olivier Rebello. Clacher made a set on the set, but had to avoid a king on the river. He managed to do so, and Rebello was knocked out in third place ($156,673).

With that Clacher entered heads-up play just a few big blinds behind Caprioli. He was able to quickly battle his way into the lead, and then extended it to more than a 2:1 advantage by the time the final hand was dealt. Caprioli raised to 2,000,000 from the button with the 87 and Clacher called from the big blind with Q4. The flop brought the 954 and both players checked. The 10 turn saw Clacher check-call a bet of 2,883,200 from Caprioli, who had picked up an open-ended straight draw heading into the river. The Q was of no help to him, though. Clacher bet 1,250,000 with his rivered two pair and Caprioli moved all-in for 12,087,996 with his busted straight draw. Clacher called to lock up the pot and the title. Caprioli earned $215,892 as the runner-up.

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

Clacher photo via @WPTSA Twitter account.

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