Jamie "Ship It 2010" O'Connor shoved from the middle position for 95,958 and Andras "probirs" Nemeth called from the hijack. "Kohlrabi7" three-bet shoved for 608,618 from the button. The action folded back to Nemeth who made the call.
Jamie "Ship It 2010" O'Connor:
"Kohlrabi7":
Andras "probirs" Nemeth:
The board ran out for Nemeth to hold with the eights to claim two bounties.
Ben "Spraggy" Spragg shoved from under the gun for 218,660 and was called by Francisco "Tomatee" Benitez in the middle position. The action folded to "FouEnculePL" in the small blind who three-bet shoved for Benitez to call for the 1,059,407 he had behind.
Ben "Spraggy" Spragg:
Francisco "Tomatee" Benitez:
"FouEnculePL":
The board ran out for "FouEnculePL" to flop the higher two pair than both opponents to bust them.
When it comes to Progressive Knockout tournaments (aka PKOs or Bounty Builders), there aren’t many players as accomplished as Norway’s Preben “prebz” Stokkan.
His love affair with PKOs started back in 2017 during the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) when he won his first title in a Thursday Thrill special edition for $160K plus $93K in bounties. He’s been hunting bounties ever since.
“I really enjoy the KOs!” Stokkan says as he gears up for a WCOOP Sunday session. “I probably like them more than freezeouts. They are less solved so I think the edge in them can be bigger. PKOs require more intuitive thinking regarding bet sizing and preflop strategy.”
It’s safe to say that in 2020 Stokkan has a pretty big edge.
Preben "prebz" Stokkan raised to 50,000 from under the gun and Fabian "!$eveeeeeeen!" Gumz three-bet to 125,000 from the button. The blinds folded and Stokkan made the call.
The flop came , Stokkan check-shoved for 264,448 when Gumz continued with a bet of 31,350 and was called.
Helping kick off the 2020 World Championship of Online Poker was one of many marquee events that will play out this series, the two-day $10,300 buy-in Sunday Slam.
As a progressive knockout tournament, finding ways to stack as many opponents as possible was crucial. In the end 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure champion Dimitar “KuuL” Danchev punched out the most of them to earn the title and just over $400,000 including bounties.
When speaking on the PokerStars WCOOP 2020 live stream about his win, Danchev acknowledged how important collecting those knockouts really was.
“My tournament went pretty good with winning a lot of bounties,” he says. “But it’s very important actually if you win a lot of bounties in such format to win the heads-up, so you keep all the bounties for yourself!”
"cardinals970" raised to 70,000 from the early position and "Aalexxs" three-bet to 140,000 from the middle position, keeping 8,535 behind which they pushed in when the action folded back to "cardinals970" who four-bet.
"Aalexxs":
"cardinals970":
The flop came for "cardinals970" to stay ahead but "Aalexxs" turned the higher two pair with the .
The river completed the board with the though for "cardinals970" to hit the full house to burst the bubble.
Day 1 of the PokerStars WCOOP-63-H: $2,100 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO, Freezeout, Thursday Thrill SE] has come to an end with 62 players making it through to Day 2 out of 494 entries. A prize pool of $988,000 has been created by the 365 unique players who reentered 129 times.
Germany's "Jo589" has claimed the chip lead with 5,223,012. They already held the chip lead but during the last hand of hand-for-hand play, they took out Andrey "drupa-lucker" Chernokoz after the bubble had already bust to add even more chips to their stack. Trailing them in the counts are two more familiar names and faces to join on the podium.
Andras "probirs" Nemeth has already won two WCOOP titles this year after having had none up to the start of the series and bagged 4,133,171 for Day 2. Will he make it three? Just behind him is another German player who resides in Austria, Fabian "!$eveeeeeeen!" Gumz was at the top of the counts for most of the later stages of the day but ended up with 3,996,380 when the tournament was paused.
Other notable names in the top 25 of the counts include Pavel "MountainRo$e" Veksler (3,543,591), Aleksejs "APonakov" Ponakovs (3,475,585), Kenny "SpaceyFCB" Hallaert (3,447,036), Christian "eisenhower1" Jeppsson (3,252,735), Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet (3,151,838), Roman "Radioromashka" Emelyanov (3,045,230), Michael "merla888" Gathy (2,472,365), Bert "girafganger7" Stevens (2,442,988), Jans "Graftekkel" Arends (2,341,166), and Bruno "great dant" Volkmann with 2,265,310.
WCOOP-63-H: $2,100 NLHE [8-Max, Progressive KO, Freezeout, Thursday Thrill SE] Top Ten Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Jo589
Germany
5,223,012
149
2
Andras "probirs" Nemeth
Hungary
4,133,171
118
3
Fabian "!$eveeeeeeen!" Gumz
Germany
3,996,380
114
4
FouEnculePL
Poland
3,904,634
112
5
Pavel "MountainRo$e" Veksler
Ukraine
3,543,591
101
6
Aleksejs "APonakov" Ponakovs
Latvia
3,475,585
99
7
Kenny "SpaceyFCB" Hallaert
Belgium
3,447,036
98
8
luelue399
Canada
3,267,803
93
9
Christian "eisenhower1" Jeppsson
Sweden
3,252,735
93
10
Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet
United States
3,151,838
90
Today's Action
When the late registration and reentry period had closed, there were 165 players left to battle it out for a share of the regular prize pool aside from any bounties which had already been earned. The eliminations started flying in rapidly with stars like Ole "wizowizo" Schemion, Samuel "€urop€an" Vousden, Ludovic "ludovi333" Geilich, and Marc "14alonso14" Macdonnell all busting soon after.
PokerStars Team Online's Ben "Spraggy" Spragg and Francisco "Tomatee" Benitez both busted to "FouEnculePL" in the same hand while Fintan "EasyWithAces" Hand had been eliminated earlier on the day.
Ben Spragg
2.5 hours after the registration had closed, it was time for the bubble. In the end, "Aalexxs" three-bet when "cardinals970" raised while keeping only a few chips behind and then called the four-bet of "cardinals970" for the rest with ace-king. "cardinals970" held pocket sevens. The board ran out eight-eight-trey-ace-seven for "Aalexxs" to turn the higher two pair but for "cardinals970" to river the full house to get the rest of the field through to Day 2.
Plan for Day 2
When the players return at 7:05 p.m. CEST on Saturday, September 19, they will finish the last ten minutes of Level 19 which has a small blind of 17,500, a big blind of 35,000, and a running ante of 4,500. The PokerStars Twitch Stream will be live from 7:30 p.m too with commentary by James Hartigan and joe Stapleton with cards-up coverage.
PokerNews will be back too to bring you all the updates on a similar delay until a new WCOOP champion has been found so make sure to come back then.
for Nemeth to hold with the eights to claim two bounties.
for "FouEnculePL" to flop the higher two pair than both opponents to bust them.
on the turn and the 
on the river for Gumz to improve to a full house to claim Stokkan's bounty.
