Upeshka "gomezhamburg" De Silva Leads as 71 Players Survive Day 1 of WSOP Main Event
The 2020 World Series of Poker (WSOP) $10,000 Main Event on WSOP.com proved to be a big affair as 705 players spread out between Nevada and New Jersey competed for the prestigious title. Along with the international portion’s 674 runners on GGPoker (over three starting flights), the 2020 WSOP Main Event reached 1,379 combined players.
For the domestic portion on WSOP.com, the top 107 finishers were slated to make the money, with the eventual winner slated to take home $1,553,256. The runner-up will also become a poker millionaire as $1,002,340 is set aside for second place.
The total prize pool of $6,768,000 is a new record for regulated U.S. online poker. It's also the first time a player will be able to win a seven-figure prize on a U.S. licensed site. Not only that, but the winner will also face the winner over at the international side in a heads-up showdown scheduled for December 30 in Las Vegas to play for an additional $1,000,000.
After 12 hours, the field was whittled down to 71 players with three-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Upeshka "gomezhamburg" De Silva and his stack of 1,930,067 leading the way.
Ten other players bagged seven-figure stacks including Taylor “zeroto100” Von Kriegenbergh (1,518,393), Michael “vagab0nd” Youngman (1,421,443), Galen “turkmalloy” Hall (1,271,362), and Keith “T1mB3y_B33f” Donovan (1,255,452).
2020 WSOP Main Event on WSOP.com Day 1 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upeshka "gomezhamburg" De Silva | United States | 1,930,067 |
| 2 | vforvictoria | United States | 1,792,716 |
| 3 | Samthedog76 | United States | 1,529,044 |
| 4 | Taylor "zeroto100" Von Kriegenbergh | United States | 1,518,393 |
| 5 | Michael "vagab0nd" Youngman | United States | 1,421,443 |
| 6 | Gershon "jets613" Distenfeld | United States | 1,409,061 |
| 7 | Galen "turkmalloy" Hall | United States | 1,271,362 |
| 8 | Keith "T1mB3y_B33F" Donovan | United States | 1,255,452 |
| 9 | DameTime12 | United States | 1,122,086 |
| 10 | ErikBachman | United States | 1,062,738 |
Find out everything you need about the 2020 WSOP Main Event
Others to punch their ticket to Day 2 were Mohsin “bubbletea3” Charania (777,260), Jason “haderade” Somerville (692,314), Darren “darrenelias” Elias (632,176), Nick “CashUsKlay” Schulman (585,012), Dan “pepperprince” Zack (420,146), Ryan “Protential” Laplante (391,535), Maria “femmeonfelt” Ho (342,441), Freddy “nevera” Deeb (272,539), and 2013 WSOP Main Event champ Ryan “BiTC0iN” Riess (288,474),
Some players to make the money but fail to survive the day were Michael “miguelfiesta” Lech (74th - $15,566), Dan “FeeltheFlow” Sindelar (81st - $15,566), Lauren “sycamore22” Roberts (88th - $15,566), Daniel “DNegs” Negreanu (92nd - $14,890), Matt “Nitr0” Affleck (97th - $14,890), and Ian “APokerJoker2” Steinman (105th - $14,890). For Negreanu, it was his 35th WSOP cash of the year after a summer chock-full of cashes.
Hellmuth, Galfond Among Eliminations
Among those to compete in the tournament but fall short of the money were Phil “Lumestackin” Hellmuth, Phil “heyguys” Galfond, Chris “robotbob47” Moorman, Faraz “22nevaloose” Jaka, Connor “666666” Drinan, Ryan “Joeyisamush” Depaulo, Mike “Mouth123" Matusow and Nahrain “2Rivers” Tamero, who you might recall won the WSOP.com Championship event over the summer.
Another player to leave empty-handed by just one spot was bubble boy Adrian “ParTee” Buckley, who busted in a gut-wrenching manner. In Level 21 (6,000/12,000/1,200), "Samthedog76" raised to 32,000 under the gun and called with ace-king when Buckley, a WSOP bracelet winner, moved all in for 154,716 from the hijack holding pocket queens.
It was a flip with Buckley looking to hold to avoid becoming the bubble boy. While he was able to dodge all the kings and aces, the board ran out 
to put quads on the board. That meant Buckley's flopped full house was no good and that the ace kicked of "Samthedog76" made the difference.
2020 WSOP Main Event WSOP.com Final Table Payouts
| Place | Payout (USD |
|---|---|
| 1 | $1,553,256 |
| 2 | $1,002,340 |
| 3 | $529,258 |
| 4 | $387,130 |
| 5 | $286,963 |
| 6 | $215,222 |
| 7 | $163,786 |
| 8 | $125,885 |
| 9 | $98,813 |
Action will resume at Noon PST on Tuesday, and PokerNews will once again bring you live updates until the final table is set. There will also a be a live stream of the action at twitch.tv/pokernews. Be sure to join us then to see who plays their way to the final nine!