2020 World Series of Poker Online: Pat Lyons Wins His First Gold Bracelet

Pat ‘IchiiKawawa’ Lyons has won the latest gold bracelet awarded during the 2020 World Series of Poker Online tournament series. The 2016 World Poker Tour Legends of Poker main event champion overcame a field of 1,382 total entries in the WSOP Online $777 no-limit hold’em event to win his first WSOP bracelet and the top prize of $173,551. Lyons now has more than $1.5 million in recorded tournament scores, with victories on two major tours.

This event attracted 917 unique players and 465 re-entries. As a result, the final prize pool grew to $967,400, with the top 207 finishers making the money. Plenty of big names made it deep in this event, including Freddy ‘nevera’ Deeb (207th – $1,064), Brian ‘JackBogle’ Altman (202nd – $1,064), Daniel ‘PepperPrince’ Zack (147th – $1,258), six-time bracelet winner Daniel ‘DNegs’ Negreanu (123rd – $1,354), Ryan ‘Protential’ Laplante (69th – $2,128), two-time bracelet winner Upeshka ‘gomezhamburg’ De Silva (50th – $2,902), Chris ‘Robotbob47’ Moorman (33rd – $4,160), Ryan ‘Adopt_aDogg0’ Leng (26th – $5,127), and Roland ‘prngls12’ Israelashvili (12th – $10,061).

Barry ‘MLB’ Wenger held the chip lead by the time the final table of nine was set, with Scott ‘BudLightLime’ Hempel and Lyons also among the largest stacks. Dave ‘DunningKrugr’ Alfa came into the final nine in fourth chip position, but was ultimately the first player eliminated from the final table. He lost a big all-in with A-K to the A-9 of Julian ‘Julian’ Parmann to fall toward the bottom of the chip counts. He then ran AClub SuitKDiamond Suit into the ASpade SuitAHeart Suit of Lyons to hit the rail in ninth place. The 2019 WSOP Circuit Choctaw main event champion earned $12,963 for his deep run in this event.

Despite his recent double up, Parmann fell back to the bottom of the leaderboard during eight-handed play. He ultimately got his last chips in with K-Q up against the A-K suited of Wenger. Neither player improved and Parmann was knocked out in eighth place ($16,832). This was his second final-table finish in as many days, having finished as the runner-up in the $500 buy-in turbo event for $71,648 roughly 24 hours earlier.

Wenger scored also secured the next two eliminations, busting Scott ‘BudLightLime’ Hempel (7th – $22,250) and Vincent ‘veepoh’ Pontrello (6th – $29,602) to enter five-handed play as the chip leader. He extended that advantage even further by busting WSOP bracelet winner Jim ‘Bocaratone’ Collopy, who open-shoved from under the gun with KHeart SuitJHeart Suit. Wenger called holding ADiamond SuitKSpade Suit and flopped a pair of aces. His hand held from there to eliminate Collopy in fifth place ($40,147).

Wenger just kept on rolling, securing his fifth consecutive knockout at the final table with pocket kings out of the small blind. He moved all-in when it folded to him and big blind Jonathan ‘Art.Vandelay’ Dokler called for his tournament life with KSpade SuitJSpade Suit. The pocket kings held on and Dokler was sent to the virtual rail in fourth place ($54,948). Dokler has now cashed in four of the WSOP Online bracelet events, including winning the kickoff tournament of the festival for $130,426 and his first bracelet.

Wenger held a big chip lead to start three-handed play, but lost a big pot with top pair against an overpaid of tens for Lyons to relinquish the advantage. Wenger’s last 12 or so big blinds went in as a shove from the button with KClub Suit10Diamond Suit. Lyons called from the small blind with ASpade SuitKDiamond Suit and the board ran out 9Club Suit6Club Suit4Spade Suit7Club SuitQHeart Suit. Wnger took home $76,327 as the third-place finisher.

With that Lyons took more than a 9:1 chip lead into heads-up play against Chris ‘NJ_GLive’ Ginley, who sat with fewer than 9 big blinds when the showdown for the title began. He was able to find two early double ups to decrease Lyons’ lead to a 3:2 advantage by the time the final hand was dealt. Ginley min-raised to 560,000 from the button with ASpade SuitKClub Suit and Lyons three-bet shoved from the big blind holding QDiamond Suit9Diamond Suit. Ginley called with his big slick and both players made a pair on the ADiamond SuitQSpade Suit2Heart Suit flop. The JClub Suit on the turn kept Ginley in the lead with one card to come. The QHeart Suit on the river gave Lyons trip queens to lock up the pot and the title. Ginley earned $107,478 as the runner-up.

2020 WSOP Event #17 Final Table Results