Kahle Burns Holds Massive WSOP Online Main Event Chip Lead
The 2020 World Series of Poker Online is hitting the home stretch over on GGPoker and Natural8. Australians have largely been quiet during this series outside of Hun Wei Lee’s bracelet win and Michael Addamo’s runner-up finish in the Heads-Up Championship.
That could change in a big way soon as two-time WSOP champion Kahle Burns has taken a monster chip on Day 1L of the $5,000 Main Event. He has almost double the chips of any player heading into Day 2. Meanwhile, Jason Koon of the US has the chip lead going into the final table of the $25k NL Hold’em Poker Player’s Championship.
Kahle Burns Has Monster Chip Lead in Main Event
The $5,000 Main Event continues to roll on with Day 1L completing early Tuesday morning. The chip leader at the end of the day was one of the most well-known Aussie players in the world. Kahle Burns came out as the chip leader out of a field of 88 players to advance to Day 2.
This isn’t normally that big of a deal considering the number of Day 1s in this event. However, the way Burns emerged as the chip leader was simply amazing. Where the average chip leader from a Day 1 in this even is between 550k to 700k, Burns shattered that by amassing a stack of 1.37 million.
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie: Kahle Burns Now Has the Chip Lead in the WSOP Online Main Event https://t.co/N3EZ4etC6f
— Dynafive (@dynafive) August 26, 2020
That stack was more than double that of the next closest player on the day. Other notable players that advanced from Day 1L included Mike Leah and Igor Kurganov. Both are WSOP bracelet winners.
Through Tuesday, there have been 12 Day 1s played, creating a field of 2,186 entries. Players can fire up to three bullets in this event but must do so on different Day 1s. The event has a guaranteed prize pool of $25 million and at this point, the event is heading toward a massive layover.
The event needs to eclipse 5,000 players to beat the guarantee. Presently, the event is playing through Flights 1M and 1N and the series will continue through Flight 1V. The last eight flights will have to be massive to get to the guarantee.
Day 2 of this event will kick off on Sunday night and Kahle Burns will be in good shape for a deep run. With almost twice as many chips as the chip leaders of other flights, he could be in great shape to make a run at his third WSOP bracelet.
Jason Koon Leads NLH Poker Players Championship
Typically, the Poker Players Championship at the World Series of Poker is an 8-Game Mix. However, this year, the PPC is an NL Hold’em format. The buy-in was also reduced from $50k to $25K for the online WSOP.
The $25K NL Hold’em Poker Player’s Championship played down to a final table this weekend. The event drew a strong field of 407 players to narrowly eclipse the guarantee of $10 million. When the final table was reached, Jason Koon found himself as the chip leader with 7.86 million.
💰 @JasonKoon Leads @WSOP $25K PPC Final Table, Potential Overlay in Main Event @writing4poker #poker #online https://t.co/CSQegqbTBd pic.twitter.com/gvVy1OzssY
— CardsChat (@CardsChat) August 25, 2020
Koon is not the only American at the final table as Shankar Pillai, Aram Zobian, and Chris Hunichen all made the final table. Michael Addamo was Australia’s best hope in this event but he was the bubble boy.
The final table of this event will play out on Saturday with the winner taking home a WSOP bracelet and $1.8 million in prize money. Both first and second will walk away with seven figures. Koon is looking for his first WSOP bracelet, but Shankar Pillai will prove a tough challenge. Pillai is a two-time bracelet winner and second in chips. Of course, you don’t make your way to a final table in a $25k event without having game, so anyone at this final could make a run at the bracelet.