Aleksey "ImLuckPads" Savenkov Wins First WSOP Circuit Ring in Event #1 BIG $50 ($168,810)
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The 2020 GGPoker World Series of Poker (WSOP) Winter Online Circuit has crowned the third champion and Aleksey "ImLuckPads" Savenkov emerged victorious in Event #1 BIG $50 after defeating "QY707" in a short-lived heads-up duel. A huge field of 31,291 emerged in the first multi-flight event, which created a prize pool of $1,439,386 and Savenkov earned the lion's share worth $168,810.
Savenkov entered the nine-handed final table as the chip leader and it was no surprise that he faced "QY707" in heads-up, who was second in chips when the action resumed. The first recorded live cashes of the Russian date back to 2017 and with this victory, he has nearly doubled his known earnings on the live poker circuit and the WSOP Online tournaments on GGPoker.
It was the ninth WSOP cash of Savenkov, who has three scores during the 2019/20 International Circuit at Casino Sochi to his name. His biggest career result came back in 2018 at the EPT Sochi for $18,507 but that has now been topped nearly ten-fold.
The only other known finalist Otto "D00MSWITCHER" Lemke finished in third place and his exit paved the way for Savenkov's victory, who had accumulated all the chips after some two hours and five minutes on the final table.
Final Result 2020 GGPoker WSOP Winter Online Circuit Event #1 BIG $50
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aleksey "ImLuckPads" Savenkov | Russia | $168,810 |
| 2 | QY707 | China | $120,745 |
| 3 | Otto "D00MSWITCHER" Lemke | Germany | $86,369 |
| 4 | party_maker1 | Russia | $61,780 |
| 5 | Adam Bonk | Poland | $44,191 |
| 6 | FreddieKadur | Israel | $31,610 |
| 7 | incloudzly | China | $22,611 |
| 8 | btn_clicking! | Cyprus | $16,173 |
| 9 | PhD_Don | China | $11,569 |
The Action of the Final Day
With several short stacks among the nine contenders, it didn't take long to reduce the field. With 25 hands played during each level on the final table, there was no casualty in the first level but the floodgates opened soon after when the action resumed. ""PhD_Don"" came up short with ace-queen against the queen-jack suited of "QY707" and just over half an hour later, there were just three contenders still in the mix.
Aleksey "ImLuckPads" Savenkov cracked the kings of "btn_clicking!" with ace-nine suited and the dominated ace of "incloudzly" found no help a few minutes later against Otto "D00MSWITCHER" Lemke. "FreddieKadur" and "Adam Bonk" then sent their chips over to "QY707" and Savenkov dispatched fellow Russian player "party_maker1".
Lemke had doubled twice through Savenkov to take over the lead temporarily but then called a limp-jam by Savenkov at the wrong time to see his nines drawing dead on the turn when facing pocket jacks. Heads-up play lasted a mere nine minutes and Savenkov headed into the decisive showdown with a dominating pair of tens, which held against the pocket eights of "QY707" to secure his victory.
Three WSOP Circuit ring winners have been determined so far and a fourth will follow later tonight in WSOPC #4: $800 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold'em, which is already close to the final table.
2020 WSOP Winter Online Circuit Winners so Far
| Event # | Event Name | Buy-In | Prize Pool | Entries | Winner | Top Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BIG $50 | $50 | $1,439,386 | 31,291 | Aleksey "ImLuckPads" Savenkov | $168,810 |
| 2 | Super MILLION$ | $10,300 | $5,110,000 | 511 | Joaquin Melogno | $636,072 |
| 3 | Deepstack NLHE Championship | $3,000 | $1,436,400 | 504 | Christian Jeppsson | $244,202 |
| 4 | Monster Stack NLHE | $800 | $1,060,200 | 1,395 | Live Updates |