Raman Afanesenka beat Chance Kornuth heads up to win his first career World Series of Poker bracelet on Saturday. (Seminole Hard Rock photo)

Raman ‘Acrogum’ Afanasenka eliminated four of the final five players in his way in Event #11 ($500 NLHE Turbo Deepstack) of the 2020 World Series of Poker Online on Saturday night to capture the first gold bracelet of his career and $128,601.

The tournament almost had a storybook ending. At one point, Chance Kornuth was down to 1/9 of an ante before spinning it up to get to the final table sitting second in chips and in position to capture his third career bracelet.

Afanasenka had other ideas and went to work soon after the final table started.

From the hijack, Afanasenka raised to 1,200,000 with 6h6s and Erica Lindgren, who started the final table as the shortest stack, moved all in for 6,160,947 from the button with AcJh. Afanasenka called and then watched the Kd8s3cTs4c runout miss Lindgren to eliminate her in sixth place.

Five minutes passed before Afanasenka found another victim. Afanasenka raised to 1,600,000 from the cutoff with Ah2s and Neeraj ‘nee0903’ Nayak called all in for 1,492,135 from the big blind with 7h5c. The AdTc2h flop gave Afanasenka top and bottom pair and left Nayak drawing to runner-runner. The 6s turn was not a good card for Nayak and the 2d river made his fifth place finish official.

Afanasenka continued to apply pressure and amass chips when he sent another player to the rail just a few minutes later. David ‘Twizzlers’ Prociak moved all in for 10,344,965 from the button with AcTs and Afanasenka called from the small blind with AdAs. Brett ‘Metanemesis’ Apter folded the big blind. Prociak got no help from the JcJd5s flop but did pick up a Broadway draw with the Kh turn. The river was the 4c to eliminate Prociak in fourth place.

The string of consecutive eliminations coming at the hands of Afanasenka stopped on the next elimination. Afanasenka folded the button, Apter shoved his last 8,547,819 into the middle from the small blind with Kh9s and Chance ‘BingShui’ Kornuth called from the big blind with QcQh. Kornuth flopped top set on the Qs7h6s flop and Apter couldn’t complete a miraculous comeback of his own on the Ts turn and 9d river to bust in third.

Afanasenka had a 3-2 lead over Kornuth when heads-up play began. Over the next 15 minutes the pair traded the chip lead back and forth before Afanasenka put an end to Kornuth’s run. Kornuth limped with Kc6c and Afanasenka moved all in from the button with 3h3s for 47,029,016 and Kornuth called all in. The AhKd6d was a great one for Kornuth. The As turn changed nothing but the 3c river gave Afanasenka a full house to eliminate Kornuth in second place and award Afanasenka the victory.

The event drew 1,691 total entries from 1,081 unique players to create a $760,950 prize pool. Despite being a six-max tournament, the tournament used a nine-handed payout structure.

Final Table Payouts

  1. Raman ‘Acrogum’ Afanasenka – $128,601
  2. Chance ‘BingShui’ Kornuth – $79,291
  3. Brett ‘Metanemesis’ Apter – $57,071
  4. David ‘Twizzlers’ Prociak – $41,472
  5. Neeraj ‘nee0903’ Nayak – $30,514
  6. Erica ‘Huckcheevers’ Lindgren – $22,676

Faces in the Crowd

A pair of former November Niners enjoyed deep runs on Saturday night. Tom ‘.beast.’ Cannuli narrowly missed out on the final table, finishing 11th for $7,761.69 while Jesse ‘MrJesseJames’ Sylvia came in 40th place for a $2,587.23 score. Eight-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Michael ‘whynot38’ Lech finished 17th for $4,793.98. Other notables that finished in the money included Ryan Laplante (69th – $1,597.99) David ‘dehhhhh’ Coleman (71st – $1,597.99), Jed ‘jchak’ Hoffman (79th – $1,445.80), Robert ‘bustinballs’ Kuhn (99th – $1,141.42), Mike Matusow (131st – $989.23), Frank ‘spaghettiii’ Marasco (150th – $989.23), and former #1-ranked PocketFiver Bryan ‘Pellepelle’ Piccioli (241st – $760.95).