WSOP Main Event Update: Senthuran Vijayaratnam Leads International Bracket

December 7th, 2020 | by Kaycee James

The 2020 WSOP Main Event moved another step closer to its final table over the weekend as the last two starting flights wrapped up.

Senthuran Vijayaratnam leads the way in the 2020 WSOP Main Event on GGPoker. (Image: WPT)

Day 1A of the Main Event played out on November 29. Julian Menhardt led 62 players into Day 2, which takes place later today.

Days 1B and 1C took place over the weekend. The former attracted 171 entrants, while the latter saw 257 players pay the $10,000 entry fee. That took the final number of entries to 674 and the prizepool to a respectable $6,470,400.

Pros Out in Force but Senthuran Vijayaratnam Dominates

As expected, many of poker’s finest were among those vying for the 2020 WSOP Main Event title. Host site GGPoker was well represented with Bertrand Grospellier making use of the 300BB starting stack.

However, despite being a WSOP veteran, the man known as ElkY couldn’t make it through the session. He joined other bracelet winners, including Mike Leah and Davidi Kitai, on the rail before the end of play.

As the likes of Grospellier fell, Senthuran Vijayaratnam climbed to the top of the chip counts. The Canadian pro dominated for much of the day and cemented his position just before the end of the session.

After a pre-flop raising war with Samuel Vousden, all the chips went in. Vijayaratnam had the bigger stack so was safe. His confidence was given an additional boast when he saw that his pocket queens were up against a pair of sevens.

Despite the chance of an upset, the board ran out 6♣ 5♠ K♣ 4♣ 10♥. That gave the pot to Vijayaratnam and sent Vousden to the rail.

With that, the former ended the day with more than 900,000 chips, which was over 300,000 more than Jesse Wigan in second place. When the final chips had fall, 181 players had made it through to Day 2.

Players Eyeing Up WSOP Main Event Title

The penultimate session takes place on December 7 and will play down to a final table of nine. Of those that return, 101 will leave with nothing and 80 will bank at least $15,277.

As nice at that would be, everyone still in contention will be sizing up the $1.5 million top prize and WSOP glory. However, before that happens, they’ll need to get through Day 2 and then a final table inside King’s Casino Rozvadov.

The winner of the live final table will scoop the top prize, the WSOP Main Event International title, and a place in the heads-up showdown in Las Vegas.

The Vegas finale will be a straight winner-takes-all match between the international champion and the US WSOP.com champion. That winner will bank an additional $1 million and go down as the official 2020 WSOP Main Event champ.