The main event has ALWAYS been a $10,000 freezeout in a live setting. The $5k online event this summer was not $10k, was not live, and one could fire up to 3 bullets. Clearly, that was just a main event of the online portion of the 2020 WSOP. Now that covid has removed the possibility of a full live event, there is a hybrid $10k freezeout main event with the final table being live. The winner will be the one to grace the 2020 main event banner. I don't see why this should be so hard to see. It is also not a cash grab, as it will take 2,500 entries to cover the $1 million heads up added. (assuming it does not come out of the pool) I doubt they get 2,500 players, so it will be an overlay.

so are you saying that anyone who entered the 5k was a lemming because they couldnt connect the dots? isnt that a bit of a stretch there given there were expectations given the marketing of a (hopefully) once in a life time pandemic?

Such a ridiculous take. Even the announcers of the official broadcast didn't know it was a fake main event. Let me ask you this: if vegas casinos shut down in november-dec and they couldn't have another main, do you think this year there would be no main event champion, or would they use the main event winner as the main event champion?

That's exactly it. Nobody knew if there would be a "live" main event this year. If there was not, would he not have been listed as the 2020 WSOP Main Event Champ? I strongly believe he would have and for them not to acknowledge that is ridiculous.

Well, after doing live commentary on the final table that year, Hellmuth did state that at least on that day, Varkonyi was the best player at the table. He deserves more credit than he gets, IMO.

Cheers, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

Didn't he get AA like 3 times at the final table? And won them all playing them weird the way I remember it.

Greg,

I am interested in your take on what was done in this matter, seeing as how your self-description below your name reads ..... Main Event Champion.

In your view, would Stoyan be justified in adopting a description of himself as

"2020 WSOP Main Event Champ" ?

Had the WSOP decided in December the year you won to offer another WSOP Main Event", how would you have felt ?

Think they'd have had a second main event if a big name personality or woman had won the first one?

Didn't Robert Varkonyi invent GTO? He was using computers and solvers before anyone else. I remember they did a whole segment on it during the episode.

John von Neumann is considered the grandfather in the foundation of GTO. He did it back in 1950s.

Certainly but they might have put in a little more effort to not make that winner feel like he got shafted.

If GG Poker keeps paying them, they'll keep letting them use their name/brand. Unless they determine the short term financial gain isn't worth tarnishing their brand long term.

If Jeff Bezos is offering them 10 billion dollars to have the Amazon employee free roll branded as "2021 WSOP Main Event championship" they'd obviously go for it.

If customers don't want that, they have the option to vote with their wallet and not play.

I suspect both Stoyan and whomever wins this other one at the end of the year will both call themselves the 2020 Main Event Champion, regardless of who has a banner displayed at the next live WSOP. I really don't have a strong opinion as to who should have priority. I can see both sides, and neither is side is "clearly" more correct than the other.

I also have no idea how I would have felt if they did another Main Event in Dec. 2004. Unless I won it, in which case I would feel awesome!

Cheers, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

Madanzhiev can justifiably call himself "The First 2020 Main Event Winner." That will always sound better than "The Second 2020 Main Event Winner," or anything else WSOP can come up with, lol.

Come on; just because the format of the upcoming 'main event' is subjectively better than the previous one this year, it doesn't make the previous one unofficial. By all intents and purposes, it was promoted and awarded as the 51st Annual Main Event.

I know it's a crap shoot and yada yada, but the Main Event has been consistently popularised as the pinnacle of poker and if I won it, I'd be pretty damn proud of myself. Sure the fat cheque would cushion the blow of being robbed of the title, but it would still sting and I'd feel pretty hard done by.

I do not think you are disagreeing with my post, I think you are addressing different topic.

Am I right in thinking that the only thing that mentioned it being the main event of the 51st annual WSOP was that rather odd certificate?
I wonder if the WSOP were even aware that was being sent out. If they were, why would it be ‘signed’ by Daniel and not someone from the WSOP?
It strikes me that this was all down to GG, they effed up and the WSOP aren’t happy about it either and words have been had with GG about it, behind the scenes.

The $10,000 event in December is the 'Main Event World Championship'.

The $5,000 event in September was called the 'Main Event'.

Stoyan is not the World Champion in the eyes of the WSOP. The player that wins in December will be considered by the WSOP the World Champion.

It made me laugh, but I don't know who Jeff Bezos is, but save your time, I'll google it.

+1, I think this is exactly what happened. GG effed up on that silly certificate, and yes WSOP isn’t having DNegs sign off on official winners lol.

so the only thing he doesnt get is a banner at the rio? lol first world problems

Well, looking at this another way, if they hadn't claimed it was a main event when it wasn't, it's very unlikely the champ actually even final tables. So he did benefit from their fraud, in a sense.

GG WSOP handled this poorly and should stop pretending they're being consistent. Even if they are technically correct, there was no mention of it not being a main event when it looked like a real main event might not happen.

We know why they did that. So they had someone to put on the poster next year.

In addition, he's not listed as a World Champion of Main Event in wikipedia

But to help offset this, he may have won an extra million or so, due to extra players in there for mistaken "banner equity"

Sure, he receives no glory whatsoever. Outside a few internet nerds, nobody recognizes him as champion and nobody's knows his name.

Hell, I don't even remember dude's name and I've been following this thread. I remember even the most forgettable main event champions such as Johnson.

Grudge match?

If he was a realist he’d realize that he probably won an extra million or so because so many people thought their picture would be on a banner if they won.