Had this been any other summer under a normal set of circumstances, the poker world would be in the midst of the World Series of Poker at the Rio in Las Vegas. That madness would surely have included some of poker’s brightest stars owning the stage for their victories, but it also would have featured a number of lesser-known players finding a way to claim their first gold bracelet and thrusting themselves into poker’s biggest and brightest spotlight.

As everybody is well aware, there isn’t really anything normal about this summer. Wednesday marks the beginning of the 31 2020 World Series of Poker online bracelet events on WSOP.com. The big names will all be battling for bracelets and their share of the glory that comes with yet another title. This year, maybe more than any other in the 51-year history of the WSOP, players who have been flying below the radar will have plenty of opportunities to join the exclusive club of bracelet winners.

Here are five American players who could put on a show worthy of a little slice of the poker world’s attention over the next 31 days.

David Coleman

David Coleman gets the advantage of starting off the 2020 WSOP with a marquee win fresh in his rearview. On Sunday, Coleman topped the 868-entry field in the World Poker Tour Online Poker Open on the partypoker US Network for a $56,585.70 score. He’s not some kid on a heater though.

In January, the 27-year-old Livingston, New Jersey resident took over the #1 spot in the USA Rankings for the first time in his career. In April, he earned a New Jersey Spring Championship of Online Poker title by beating 242 other entries in the $350 Sunday Special SE. Coleman has won the PokerStars NJ Sunday Special a staggering eight times since November 2016.

All told, Coleman has earned over $3 million playing online in New Jersey and has picked up 257 wins and a 180 second-place finishes. Coleman has had only a small sampling of WSOP success thanks to nine total cashes with just five of them coming on the live felt. In 2017, he picked up a 726th place finish in the Main Event for $18,693. His next best live result came last summer when he finished 27th out of 1,083 players in the $2,620 Marathon event for $13,780

WSOP.com Screenname: ‘dehhhhh‘

Tenzin Chakdor

The #19-ranked player in the United States, Tenzin Chakdor was a relatively well-kept secret on the New Jersey online scene until October when he topped the 373-runner field in the PokerStars NJ New Jersey Championship of Online Poker Main Event to win $19,111.88.

He’s also managed to pick up three cashes in June that rank in his top five all-time scores. He won the WSOP.com $40,000 Weekly Tuesday and the WSOP.com $50,000 Tuesday Showdown for nearly $30,000. Sandwich in between those was a third-place finish in the WSOP.com Online Finale Circuit High Roller for $25,011. He has one previous WSOP.com online bracelet event result, finishing 141st in Event #46 ($500 Turbo No-Limit Hold’em Deep Stack) in 2019.

By choice, Chakdor remains a real mystery on the live scene. The New Jersey grinder has had some live success, most notably at Parx Casino in Pennsylvania, but has chosen to keep his live results private.

WSOP.com Screenname: ‘tc_ownz‘

Jed Hoffman

Jed Hoffman may be one of the most accomplished online grinders in the state of Nevada and very few casual poker fans have ever heard of him. Hoffman has spent a good chunk of the last four years as the #1-ranked online poker player in Nevada and has over $1.1 million in earnings on WSOP.com alone.

On June 1, Hoffman beat 483 of the best online players in Nevada and New Jersey when he won the WSOP.com $100,000 Guaranteed Sunday event for $55,198.50. In 2019, Hoffman won a WSOP Circuit ring online – his fourth ring overall – for $22,170. The Reno native is limited to a single online poker site but has 99 wins from 1,346 cashes on WSOP.com.

His three previous WSOP Circuit wins all came in the live arena. His first two came in 2013 (Choctaw and Lake Tahoe) and his third 2019 (Thunder Valley). He has 22 WSOP cashes to his credit and in 2013 made the final table of a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event where he finished in seventh place.

WSOP.com Screename: ‘jchak‘

Ryan Dodd

Sitting just outside of the top five ranked players in the country, Ryan Dodd has been piling up online results throughout 2020. Seven of his top eight lifetime online scores have come in the last six months, all of them coming on WSOP.com.

In January, he won the WSOP.com $100,000 Guaranteed Sunday event for $29,574. He followed that up with a third-place finish the New Years Kick-off Series Main Event on WSOP.com for $16,368. He won a $20,000 Weekly Monday in March before crushing in April. Dodd picked up three big wins; $20,000 Weekly Monday, WSOP.com Spring Online Championships event #28, and the $40,000 Weekly Tuesday for $45,000 total. He also won the $30,000 Weekly Saturday in early June for $10,765.

The Runnemede, New Jersey native has never cashed in a live WSOP event but does have $141,552 live cashes on his Hendon Mob profile. Almost all of his live results are from events in Atlantic City including a pair of wins at the Borgata in the summer of 2019. His biggest live cashes also come from the Borgata. He finished second in a $1,090 Borgata Summer Poker Open event for $24,500 in 2019 and in a WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open in 2020 for $17,431.

WSOP.com Screename: ‘Whosyourdodd‘

Tyler Sumrall

The #2-ranked player in Nevada, Tyler Sumrall has put in an incredible amount of volume on WSOP.com over the past three months. In June alone, Sumrall has cashed 35 times with four of them being victories. In May he cashed 52 times with two wins.

On April 9, the Texas native won a WSOP.com Spring Online Championship and earned $10,870.81 for the largest single cash on the regulated site. His total winnings on WSOP.com of $262,086 might pale in comparison to some of his New Jersey-based colleagues, but most of that has come over the past 12 months alone.

He’s also eight live cashes at the WSOP including two in the Main Event. In 2011, he finished 304th for $35,492 and last summer he bested that, coming in 280th place for $43,935. His other live WSOP cashes all been in lower buy-in, bigger field No Limit Hold’em events. His only live result that paid more than the Main Event cashes came in 2009 when
he finished 11th in the WinStar $2,100 Main Event for $48,000.

WSOP.com Screename: ‘TIPnTimeBOMB‘