World Series of Poker Online: Alek Stasiak Wins His Second Bracelet of 2020

The streak continues.

At least one player has won two or more bracelets during the annual World Series of Poker each and every year since 2000, when Chris Ferguson kicked off this run by taking down both a $2,500 seven-card stud event and the main event. Alek Stasiak has extended this streak into its 21st consecutive year by winning the 2020 WSOP Online $1,000 no-limit hold’em event less than two weeks after emerging victorious in the $1,111 ‘Every 1 For COVID Relief’ no-limit hold’em event.

Stasiak defeated a field of 2,323 to win his first bracelet and $343,204 in late July. He added the second piece of hardware and another $273,505 by coming out on top of a field of 2,006 total entrants late on August 6.

Stasiak came into the final table as the short stack with just over six big blinds, while Dejan Kaladjurdjevic sat atop the leaderboard with more than 65 big blinds. Kunal Bhatia sat in second chip position, but got off to a quick start at the final table to move into the outright lead. Bhatia picked up AK against the AQ of Federico Molina and the two got all of the chips in preflop. Molina was unable to come from behind and hit the rail in ninth place ($21,962). Bhatia’s stack soared to roughly 95 big blinds after the hand.

France’s Jimmy Guerrero was the next to fall. The recent $500 no-limit hold’em deepstack turbo ninth-place finisher got the last of his stack in preflop with K7 and was called by Vincas Tamasauskas, whose AQ made top pair and held from there to eliminate Guerrero in eighth place ($30,263).

A classic preflop coin flip determined the next player to bust from this event. Jesse Mercado got his last chips in with AJ and found himself up against the 88 of Denis Peganov. Mercado flopped top pair, but was drawing dead by the turn because Peganov hit a set of eights. Mercado ultimately had to settle for $41,701 as the seventh-place finisher.

Peganov also earned the next knockout by flopping a set. This time around it was his pocket tens against the Q-J offsuit of Thomas Hueber. Peganov flopped a ten, but Hueber picked up outs with an open-ended straight draw. The turn and river were of no help to Hueber, though, and he was eliminated in sicth place ($57,464).

Vincas Tamasauskas’ run in this event came to an end when his 109 failed to beat out the A4 of Dejan Kaladjurdjevic in a battle of the blinds. Tamasauskas shoved from the small blind and Kaladjurdjevic called out of the big blind. Kaladjurdjevic made aces and fours to lock up the pot and knock out Tamasauskas, who earned $79,184 for his fifth-place showing.

Stasiak had managed to work his way up the leaderboard during the early action at the final table, but entered four-handed play more or less tied for the shortest stack. He moved into second place on he leaderboard as the result of a big all-in he won with AJ against the AQ of Peganov. He flopped a jack to overtake the lead in the hand and held from there to chip up to around 40 big blinds.

Stasiak earned his first knockout of the final table when he called the under-the-gun shove of Peganov for around 14 big blinds with A5. Peganov held QQ for the best hand, but Stasiak flopped an ace and was able to maintain the lead through the river. Peganov took home $109,114 as the fourth-place finisher, while Stasiak took around half of the chips in play into three-handed action.

Dejan Kaladjurdjevic doubled through Stasiak once, but the second time the two tangled in a preflop all-in at this final table would be the last. Kaladjurdjevic three-bet shoved from the big blind for around 37 big blinds with 22 after Stasiak min-raised the button and Kunal Bhatia called from the small blind. Stasiak four-bet all-in with this AQ and Bhatia got out of the way. The Q104A5 runout gave Stasiak top two pair to win the pot. Kaladjurdjevic was knocked out in third place, earning $150,358 for his deep run in this event.

With that Stasiak took more than a 2:1 chip lead into heads-up play with Bhatia. The two battled back and forth with a few lead changes before Stasiak was able to extend the chip advantage to more than 4:1 in his favor. In the final hand of the tournament Bhatia picked up the A4 and shoved from the button for 7.9 million. Stasiak called the shove of just less than 10 big blinds with his KQ. The board ran out 8733K and Stasiak paired his king on the river to secure the pot and the title. Bhatia was awarded $207,190 as the runner-up finisher.

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

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