This week’s poker news hones in on the World Series of Poker. While the final table at one of the events was played out, one player decided to opt out due to COVID-19 concerns. Let’s start there as we recap this week’s headlines:
Chinese Poker Player Declines WSOP Final Table Appearance
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the poker community and this World Series Of Poker was no different. Due to the recent COVID-19 surge around the world, Peiyuan Sun opted out of the final table in the $10,000 no-limit hold’em online/live hybrid main event. The event was planned to take place in the Czech Republic at King’s casino but he didn’t feel comfortable playing.
Sun was the only finalist who didn’t show up for the final table, which ended up placing him in ninth place automatically. It wasn’t a total loss for him because he still collected $75,360 for the result.
Prior to this big win, Sun had picked up a total of $17,227 in career tournament earnings, all coming from last year’s online WSOP to go along with a few wins in live events down in Macau. If he would have shown up, this event would have listed as his first ever cash outside of his home country. However, he was still able to bring home a significant amount of money for him to help continue his burgeoning career.
2020 WSOP Main Event International Tournament Comes To A Close
The 2020 World Series of Poker has come to a close. The result was great for Damian Salas as he outlasted a total of 674 entries in order to take home the top prize in the ‘International Tournament’ of the 2020 WSOP $10,000 main event. Because of his first-place finish, he brought home $1,550,969 from the event and will now move on to face off against the winner of the ‘Domestic Tournament’ to see who will be crowned poker‘s world champion.
Salas was most recognized in 2017 after he was able to push through 7,221 other entries in order to make the final table in the WSOP $10,000 buy-in main event. He only finished seventh in the event but was able to take home around $1.4 million. He then became the first player from Argentina to make a final table.
Salas wasn’t the only player that was able to cash out in this event though, as Brunno Botteon finished in second place and won $1,062,723. Then Manuel Ruivo finished in third place, taking home $728,177.
Another Atlantic City Poker Room Scheduled To Reopen
Good news for poker players in the Garden State. If things go according to plan, Atlantic City will reopen a second poker room in the coming days. Harrah’s Atlantic City is expected to reopen on December 26th, which is the day after Christmas, and could serve as a late gift to the poker lovers out there. Harrah follows in the Borgata’s footsteps as they were able to reopen their poker room back in October.
Governor Phil Murphy has been inconsistent with his claims ever since he had made the announcement that all casinos would be reopening on July 2nd. Obviously, with a second wave coming into play, changes had to be made.