American players have been competing in the 2020 World Series of Poker for three weeks, and the international leg has just gotten underway with its first bracelet having been awarded. The winner of the event (a six-max Super Turbo Bounty) was Shoma Ishikawa, who is just the third Japanese player to earn a WSOP bracelet.
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The Field
As the first international event in the 2020 WSOP, the event drew a fairly large crowd. 2,214 players entered, generating a prize pool of $1,107,000. Ishikawa’s win was worth an impressive $117,650.
314 players made the money, and Ishikawa managed to beat out quite a few WSOP veterans to snag his world World Series win. These include:
- Adrian Mateos: three bracelets
- Mark Radoja: two bracelets
- Fedor Holz: one bracelet
- Chance Kornuth: two bracelets
Ishikawa’s Win
When it came down to the final table, Diego Ostrovich was the chip leader and Ishikawa was in fourth place. Tom Delaine and Yulian Bogdanov were quickly eliminated, followed by Gary Johnson and previous WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Strelitz.
By the time it came down to heads-up play, Ostrovich maintained his chip lead at a ratio of about 3.5:1 but the tables were turned when Ishikawa got A9h all-in pre-flop against his opponent’s Ks10c, which resulted in him having 8-times as many chips as Ostrovich.
In the final hand, Ostrovich shoved the last of chips with 5s3d, against 9h6s on a board of Ah8h3h9p5h. Landing a flush, Ishikawa walked away with the grand prize. Second place went to Ostrovich, who won $86,972.
Japan’s Third Bracelet Winner
This is an important win in the world of professional poker, as Ishikawa is the only the third player from Japan to win a WSOP bracelet. The first was Naoya Kihara, who won the $5,000 PLO six-max event in 2012, and the second was won by Takahiro Nakai in 2015.
Ishikawa’s Hendon Mob page only dates back to January 2019, so he’s made quite a lot of progress in just over a year. He has plenty of cashes from the Asian Poker Tour and the All Japan Poker Championship under his belt, with his largest win worth $12,812.
With players from such a wide range of countries taking part in the 2020 WSOP, this is certainly a benefit to hosting the World Series of Poker online. We’re definitely going to be seeing many more players from all over the world joining in, so this is a great opportunity for those who wouldn’t normally be able to travel to Las Vegas to make themselves known in the greater poker community.
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Bethany has been working in online gambling for over 13 years. She got her start in the industry as her first job after graduating from the Professional Writing Program at York University. Having written for many online gaming publications and worked with top casino operators, she has unique insight into the gambling market. Bethany maintains a personal interest in iGaming as she continues to play poker online as a hobby.