Mattos leads WCOOP Main Event after dramatic opening day

With a massive 1,697 entries all putting up the $5,200 buy-in, the PokerStars WCOOP Main Event had a fantastic turn-out on Sunday night. A ‘Sunday Major’ it may have been in all but name to the many players taking it on, but the WCOOP Main Event is a historic event.

PokerStars have done a great job this series of bringing the action to fans too, with some commentary from legendary duo James Hartigan and Joe ‘Stapes’ Stapleton and some fun clips of the highlights throughout the World Championship of Online Poker.

With just 579 of the 1,697 entries making Day 2 – still short of the money – the event was taking place in an 8-Max format, and saw ten re-entries too. There could still be a lot more people playing on Day 2, with re-entry or registration taken up until five minutes before the cards go into the air.

The cause of that extended entry period and the reason why it may be a busy one is probably the $10 million guarantee for the event. With over 20 big blinds for anyone yet to enter, the temptation to battle for what will be an incredible top prize is clearly there.

Plenty of big names made the cut to Day 2, but none stacked a bigger pile of fun-discs than Brazilian player Leo Mattos, who had 2,479,726 chips at the close of play. Others such as ‘VladTheSlaye’ (2,456,490), ‘atlantaca661’ (2,456,490) and Daniel Rezaei (2,405,203) will all have high hopes of ending the final day of the tournament with all the chips. Mattos himself will be full of confidence, having already won his first WSOP bracelet.

With other Top 10 stacks such as ‘Sintoras’ (2,248,070 ), Fabiano Kovalski (2,199,653) Andrey Chernokoz (2,125,515) and Laszlo Bujtas (1,962,351) all very much in contention, there will be quite a battle to the money on Day 2 of this event. Big names such as Fedor Holz (443,063) and the reigning WCOOP Main Event winner Fraser Russell (163,985) will be hoping to add more online silverware to their illustrious names.

A lot of players didn’t make the cut on Day 1, and those who will be pondering putting themselves in for $10,000 rather than half that amount by re-entering include Talal Shakerchi, Pavel Veksler, Preben Stokkan, Bert ‘girafganger7’ Stevens, Fintan Hand, Ben Spragg and Kahle Burns, and we’ll await to see if they make another pass at what would be a spectacular tournament to win.

With Day 2 scheduled to reduce the field to just 72 players, the next session of poker in this historic online event will be of huge importance and crucial to those hoping to make profit by entering the 2020 WCOOP Main Event. Who the winner will be remains to be seen, but we can expect a lot of online fireworks as we find out.

PokerStars WCOOP Main Event Top 10 Chipcounts: