Event #11 of the 2020 online WSOP is in the books and it took no time at all – turbos are like that! In the end, Raman ‘Acrogum’ Afanasenka took down the championship in a little over seven hours. Also in the event was 2020 online WSOP bracelet winner Robert ‘bustinballs’ Kuhn, who extended his lead in Player of the Series race on WSOP.com.
Nice Pay for a Day’s Work
Event #11, the $500 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em Turbo Deepstack tournament, seemed to be a popular one with the folks in Nevada and New Jersey. 1081 players would step up with individual entries and another 610 buy-ins came in from the reentry route. That totaled up to a $760,950 prize pool that, for a seven-hour workday, would provide 248 players with a nice payday for their efforts.
Six-handed poker is rapid fire enough but, when you add in the turbo nature of the tournament, the blitzkrieg was on for the players. Mike ‘mouth123’ Matusow seemed to have gotten over his earlier week meltdown and earned a cash for his 131st place finish, while 2020 online WSOP bracelet winner Kuhn finished in 99th place for a little over $1100 in virtual cash. Other top pros hitting the cashier’s cage, albeit a little earlier than they might have wanted, included Ryan ‘protential’ Laplante and Jesse ‘MrJesseJames’ Sylvia.
The final table itself was arguably one of the toughest of the series. Afanasenka came to the final table with the chip lead, but he faced the onslaught of pros Erica Lindgren and former WSOP bracelet winners David ‘Twizzlers’ Prociak and Chance ‘BingShui’ Kornuth. Lindgren would go down at the hands of Afanasenka, her pocket sixes losing the race to Afanasenka’s A-J, while Prociak dropped after his A-10 was dominated by Afanasenka’s pocket Aces.
Kornuth would be able to meet up with Afanasenka in heads up action and the duo would provide a show. Kornuth, looking for his third piece of WSOP jewelry, worked his way into the lead, but then would bluff off those chips to move Afanasenka back into the lead. The final hand provided the drama that only a WSOP final table could provide.
The chips went in pre-flop, with Afanasenka holding a mighty pair of treys against Kornuth’s measly K-6, but the “meek inherited the earth” as Kornuth flopped two pair. A blank on the turn left Afanasenka looking for one of the two remaining treys in the deck, which miraculously came home on the river. Just like that, the thunderbolt struck to give Afanasenka the hand and the championship of Event #11.
1. Raman ‘Acrogum’ Afanasenka, $128,601
2. Chance ‘BingShui’ Kornuth, $79,291
3. Brett ‘Metanemesis’ Apter, $57,071
4. David ‘Twizzlers’ Prociak, $41,472
5. Neeraj ‘nee0903’ Nayak, $30,514
6. Erica ‘Huckcheevers’ Lindgren, $22,676
Kuhn Leads Race for Player of the Series on WSOP.com
The WSOP.com leg of the 2020 online event is running a “Player of the Series” race, with $100,000 that will be divvied up by the top 50 players who play during the run of the Nevada/New Jersey leg. The WSOP.com part of the series will end on July 31, at which time the champion will be declared. Perhaps not surprisingly, Robert ‘bustinballs’ Kuhn is sitting atop the standings, but it is a tenuous lead.
1. Robert ‘bustinballs’ Kuhn, 1613.70 points
2. Allen ‘Acnyc718’ Chang, 1475.02
3. Alan Goehring, 1138.48
4. Phillip ‘tome’ Yeh, 1068.25
5. Jonathan ‘Art.Vandelay’ Dokler, 1042.75
Of the remaining 20 tournaments on the WSOP.com schedule, 19 of them will be counted towards the “Player of the Series.” The only excluded event will be the Seniors’ Tournament, scheduled during the WSOP.com leg of this year’s online festivities.