2020 World Series of Poker Online: Raymond Avant Wins $500 No-Limit Hold'em Knockout Event

Raymond Avant is the latest player to capture a gold bracelet during the 2020 World Series of Poker Online festival. The Gloucester, New Jersey resident defeated a field of 1,452 total entries in the $500 buy-in no-limit hold’em knockout event to capture his first WSOP gold bracelet and a total of $97,176 in prize money, including the bounties he won along the way.

The top 207 finishers cashed in this event. There were plenty of big names among those to make the money, including Matt ‘Berkey11_S4Y’ Berkey (205th – $1,375), 2004 WSOP main event champion Greg ‘FossilMan’ Raymer (191st – $1,575), four-time bracelet winner Max ‘MaxSparrow’ Pescatori (159th – $627), recent bracelet winner Joon ‘jykpoker’ Kim (148th – $1,080), recent bracelet winner Terrell ‘Heezahustla’ Cheatham (130th – $1,580), two-time bracelet winner Calvin ‘projector52’ Anderson (129th – $1,880), recent bracelet winner Allen ‘Acnyc719’ Chang (84th – $1,341), Freddy ‘nevera’ Deeb (71st – $2,750), three-time bracelet winner and 2015 WSOP main event champion Joe ‘fanofdapoker’ McKeehen (49th – $3,368), bracelet winner Michael ‘miw210x’ Wang (41st – $2,682), and six-time bracelet winner Daniel ‘DNegs’ Negreanu (25th – $3,370). This was Negreanu’s 12th cash of the series. The winnings listed so far have all included both the bounties earned and the payout awarded for the player’s finishing spot.

Avant held the chip lead heading into the final table of nine, with bracelet winner Dan ‘pepperprince’ Zack sitting in second chip position. Scott ‘intheblack14’ Epstein overtook the lead early on at the final table, though, picking off a bluff from Zack to surge to the top of the leaderboard. The failed bluff left Zack as the shortest stack at the table. He got his last chips in with QJ and was called by three-time bracelet winner Upeshka ‘gomezhamburg’ De Silva with AK. Neither player improved and Zack was knockout out in ninth place ($7,404).

Michael ‘mikeob81’ Obrien was the next to fall. He ran A-K into the pocket tens of Epstein and was unable to win the coinflip, earning $9,495. Dilip Kumar ‘dogmai’ Natarajan’s run came to an end not long after when he ran pocket eights into the pocket tens of Avant. Natarajan flopped a set to take the lead, but Avant rivered a higher set to send his opponent to the rail with $14,923 in total earnings.

Avant scored his second consecutive knockout by calling the shove of short stack Zachary ‘kings702’ Grech with K6 from the big blind. Grech was ahead with 99, but Avant flopped a pair of kings to take the lead and held from there. Grech earned $16,895 for his sixth-place showing in this event.

The elimination spree continued for Avant when his J7 outran the KQ of Byung Jun ‘YESUM1987’ Kim in a preflop showdown. Kim shoved his last handful of big blinds from the button and Avant called from the big blind. Kim’s king-queen high was ahead until the J on the river gave Avant a winning pair. Kim settled for $22,593 as the fifth-place finisher.

Upeshka ‘gomezhamburg’ De Silva was left as the clear short stack following Kim’s bustout. He got the last of his chips in with AK in the small blind and was called by Epstein in the big blind, who held 92. Epstein took the lead with a pair of deuces on the turn and a blank on the river sealed De Silva’s fate. He earned $30,390 as the fourth-place finisher.

Ryan ‘im.sorry’ Torgersen had already managed both first and second-place showings in bracelet events so far this series. In this event he completed the hat trick by finishing third for $42,343. He got his last chips in with Q3 with a all-in shove from the small blind. He ran into the AA for Avant, which flopped top set. Torgersen was drawing dead by the turn. He has now cashed in five events this series for a total of $332,692.

With that Avant took a stack of 17.9 million chips into heads-up play with Epstein, who sat with 18.3 million. Avant was able to overtake the lead and then stretch it until he held roughly a 6:1 advantage. In the final hand Avant shoved from the button with A5 and Epstein called all-in for his last 5.2 million or so with 44. The board ran out Q5328 and Avant’s pair of fives was enough to take down the final pot. Epstein earned $58,574 as the runner-up finisher.

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

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