Marcelo Jakovljevic Pudla Tops The Largest Tournament Field In World Series of Poker History

The 2020 World Series of Poker Online $100 buy-in no-limit hold’em event known as ‘The Opener’ attracted an unprecedented 29,306 total entries to become the largest field ever in a WSOP bracelet event. That record previously belonged to the 2019 ‘Big 50’ event which drew 28,371 entries. The massive turnout for this tournament resulted in a prize pool of $2,571,216. In the end, the lion’s share of that money was awarded to eventual champion Marcelo ‘Marolo’ Jakovljevic Pudla. The Brazilian earned $265,880 and their first WSOP gold bracelet for the win.

This event was delayed for a week due to a ‘critical bug’ that was causing malfunctions in the online poker software of host site GGPoker. When play resumed on Sunday, July 26 there were 3,684 players remaining. The top 3,039 finishers made the money in this event, with a minimum payday of $282. It took around ten hours to narrow that sea of players that cashed down to a final table of nine.

Jakovljevic Pudla held the lead when the final table began. He furthered that advantage by knocking out Bret ‘ShowerTime’ Carson in ninth place ($18,524). Jonas ‘LobyPewis’ Mackoff followed moments later, running K-10 into the A-Q of Ramiro ‘OnTheFlow’ Petrone to finishe eighth for $25,986.

Jakovljevic Pudla scored his second knockout at the final table by eliminating Boban ‘bobkovic’ Zhivkovikj. Jakovljevic Pudla shoved from the small blind with K-5 offsuit and Zhivkovikj called with 10-6 suited. The board gave Jakovljevic Pudla a winning two pair to send Zhivkovikj to the virtual rail with $36,455 as the seventh-place finisher.

Roberto ‘Mulooo90’ Turrisi’s run in this event came to an end when his A10 came up against the KK of Ramiro ‘OnTheFlow’ Petrone. Petrone flopped top set and held from there to knock Turrisi out in sixth place ($51,140).

2020 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS South America main event champion Pablo Silva lost a coin flip with JJ against the AQ of Jakovljevic Pudla. The overcards ended up with two pair by the river and Silva was eliminated in fifth place, earning $71,742 for his latest deep run. The Brazilian has been one of the hottest players in the tournament world this year, winning ther previously mentioned major event in South America and also taking down the online version of the Irish Poker Open for €462,100.

Jakovljevic Pudla continued his elimination spree by busting Petrone in fourth place ($100,644) to take a sizable lead into three-handed action. Ronit ‘Songjoy’ Chamani earned her first knockout of the final table when her JJ held against the 1010 of Dejan ‘bobkovic’ Kaladjurdjevic (3rd – $141,189).

With that Chamani took a sizable lead into heads-up play with Jakovljevic Pudla. The two battled it out for a while, but Jakovljevic Pudla took a decisive lead by winning a preflop showdown with A-2 against Chamani’s K-Q. In the end Chamani got her last chips in shoving from the button with 65. Jakovljevic Pudla called from the big blind with A5 and the board ran out 109327. Jakovljevic Pudla’s ace high was enough to secure the pot and the title, while Chamani earned $198,067 as the runner-up finisher.

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

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