Bryan Piccioli has plenty of reasons to smile after bagging up the chip lead at the end of Day 2 of the 2020 WSOP Online Main Event. (WPT photo)

From 5,802 entries over 23 total flights in the 2020 World Series of Poker Online Main Event, former #1-ranked PocketFiver Bryan Piccioli holds the chip lead heading into Day 3 action.

Just 38 of the 1,145 players who started Day 2 managed to work their way through Sunday’s play. Piccioli, who held down the #1 spot on PocketFives for two weeks in May 2011, finished Day 2 with 18,417,494 and more than 2.5 million more than any other player.

The 38 players will return to the felt on Saturday to play down to a winner. Thanks to the record-setting turnout, the prize pool swelled to $27,559,500 with the eventual champion walking away with $3,904,686 and the top four players all grabbing a seven-figure score.

The Rest of Top 10

Just two other players crested the 15 million chip mark. Scotland’s Michael Kane earned the prestige of sitting second in chips after bagging up 15,907,969 chips. Right behind him is Bulgarian Stoyan Madanzhiev with 15,299,783.

One of just a handful of players whose real name is still not known, ‘kellyyy’ has the fourth biggest stack with 13,108,575. England’s Craig Timmis is in fifth place with 12,809,181. He’s already cashed 13 times in WSOP events this summer on GGPoker including a third place finish in Event #37 ($1,050 Pot Limit Omaha Bounty) and then a runner-up result in Event #53 ($800 Double Stack Pot Limit Omaha).

Not surprisingly, Piccioli isn’t the only big stack who has had previous online poker success. Dinesh Alt, who won the PokerStars Turbo Championship of Online Poker Main Event in 2016, sits sixth with 11,681,173.

One of the most talked-about online poker players in the world also worked his way into the top 10. Benjamin Rolle, known as ‘bencb789’, finished with 10,789,181 and will start Day 3 on Saturday with the eighth largest stack. Rolle, the founder of the Raise Your Edge coaching site, booked a trademark win in 2016 when he defeated Fedor Holz heads-up to win the $102,000 buy-in WCOOP Super High Roller.

Lauck, Schillhabel & Vousden Highlight Chase Group

In 2016, Jonas Lauck had a deep run in the WSOP Main Event, eventually finishing in 37th place. He followed that up just a few months later by beating 2,090 other players to win the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker for a little more than $1.5 million. Now, the German sits with the 22nd biggest stack in the Main Event at 6,118,751.

Samuel ‘€uropean’ Vousden was the Day 1A chip leader. The WCOOP and SCOOP winner finished Day 1A of the Main Event with 717,497 and turned that into 4,241,694 through the end of Day 2.

Both of those stacks pale in comparison though to the one owned by Stefan Schillhabel. The German poker pro, a regular in the biggest buy-in tournaments around the world with $9.35 million in live earnings, ended Day 2 with 8,412,841 and sits in 15th position heading into Day 3.

Michael Lech Goes for History

Way back in July, Michael Lech took down Event #13 ($1,500 NLHE High Roller) on WSOP.com to win his first career bracelet. The eight-time WSOP Circuit ring winner now has a shot at becoming the first player to win WSOP bracelets on WSOP.com and GGPoker.com after he finished with the 30th biggest stack at 4,192,636.

2020 WSOP Main Event Day 3 Chip Counts

  1. Bryan Piccioli – 18,417,494
  2. Michael Kane – 15,907,969
  3. Stoyan Madanzhiev – 15,299,783
  4. kellyyy – 13,108,575
  5. Craig Timmis – 12,809,181
  6. Dinesh Alt – 11,681,173
  7. TiroGiro – 11,116,489
  8. Benjamin Rolle – 10,789,181
  9. HappyDX – 10,553,281
  10. Joao Santos – 10,433,786
  11. Tyler Cornell – 10,152,249
  12. Dingxiang Ong – 9,320,927
  13. Xuming Qi – 8,842,916
  14. WhyEsEl – 8,635,342
  15. Stefan Schillhabel – 8,412,841
  16. Satoshi Isomae – 8,359,674
  17. Maicon Gasperin – 8,171,017
  18. Joshua Mccully – 7,906,110
  19. Tyler Rueger – 7,692,938
  20. Tzai Wei Phua – 7,338,038
  21. Martin Arce – 6,131,772
  22. Jonas Lauck – 6,118,751
  23. Avidan Cohen – 5,880,731
  24. Manuel Saavedra – 5,847,283
  25. Lucas Tabarin – 5,695,282
  26. Phachara Wongwichit – 5,153,525
  27. Chris Brewer – 4,908,096
  28. Julien Perouse – 4,866,548
  29. Samuel Vousden – 4,241,694
  30. Michael Lech – 4,192,636
  31. Thomas Ward – 4,083,422
  32. Mateusz Rypulak – 4,079,246
  33. Ricky Tang – 3,397,845
  34. Arkadiy Tsinis – 2,394,388
  35. Freek Scholten – 2,248,788
  36. Julian Stuer – 2,111,979
  37. Aleksandr Trofimov – 1,602,207
  38. Evgeny Galakhov – 958,516