WSOP.com Global Casino Championship 2020

On Sunday, the 2019/20 World Series of Poker Circuit Season – one that had been interrupted by the pandemic – came to an end with the annual Global Casino Championship, which for the first time was held online at WSOP.com.

Players qualified for the $1 million guaranteed tournament by either winning a WSOPC stop Main Event or finishing as Casino Champ. In addition, any player that won a ring during the season or finished in the top 100 of last year's WSOP Player of the Year race had the option to buy-in directly for $10,000. Seven players opted to do just that meaning the total field stood at 130 players with a $1,070,000 prize pool up for grabs.

After 11 hours of play, three-time ring winner AJ "RandyLerch" Kelsall emerged victorious to capture a $275,632 first-place prize and his first gold bracelet. Kelsall won his first ring back in 2015 and added two more this past season. He qualified for the Global Casino Championship as an at-large points qualifier after finishing fourth on the leaderboard with 332.5 points from 30 cashes totaling $214,326 in winnings.

Prior to the win, Kelsall had just over $1 million in lifetime WSOP-related earnings. His best live score was $124,731 for winning the 2014 Winter Poker Open at Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Bay.

As for the bracelet win, Kelsall called it a "dream come true."

2020 Global Casino Championship Final Table Results

With only 20 players getting paid, most players left empty-handed including Roland "prngls12" Israelashvili, Melisa "MellieScoops" Singh, and all-time WSOPC ring winner Maurice "BUPPIE" Hawkins, just to name a few.

Among those to cash but fall short of the final table were David "TheClubber" Larson (20th - $16,264), Scott "stpauli111" Hall (19th - $16,264), Richard "unclebets" Bai (18th - $16,264), Matt "RubberFist" Stout (17th - $16,264), Brian "JackBogle" Altman (16th - $17,869), Chris "SSNinjaCA318" Audrain (15th - $17,869), Charlie "Badrabbit" Dawson (14th - $17,869), Faisal "desigolfer" Siddiqui (13th - $20,330), Jason "VooDooDuDu" Tang (12th - $20,330), Ken "kdonarski" Donarski (11th - $22,898), Mike "mouth123" Matusow (10th - $22,898), and final table bubble boy Daniel "DNegs" Negreanu (9th - $26,643).

Kelsall began the final table in the middle of the pack and held strong before dispatching Shawn "Saygoodnight" Daniels in fifth place, the result of ace-king holding against ace-five all in preflop.

With three players remaining, Kelsall was the short stack but before long claimed the lead. He then won a race with pocket fours against ace-jack to send Brad "bd3303" Albrinck to the rail in third place, good for $120,161, and that allowed Kelsall to take a more than 2:1 chip lead into heads-up play against WSOPC Planet Hollywood Main Event champ Michael "annie_r_u_ok" Trivett.

Trivett would soon double into the lead, but just when it looked as if Kelsall was destined for second place, he doubled himself to reclaim the lead. In the final hand of the tournament, Trivett would flop bottom two pair and Kelsall a double gutshot straight draw. The chips got in and Kelsall turned a wheel before fading the river to close it out. Trivett had to settle for a runner-up finish for $170,344 in prize money.

While the new WSOP Circuit season would normally be underway by now, the pandemic has prevented things from starting as usual. As such, details surrounding upcoming WSOPC stops are to be determined.

Blinds: 25,000/50,000/5,000

Michael "mix210x" Wang, who qualified after finishing as the Horseshoe Baltimore Casino Champ, moved all in from the button and was called by Michael "annie_r_u_ok" Trivett from his small blind.

Michael "mix210x" Wang":   
Michael "annie_r_u_ok" Trivett:   

The board ran out      , which kept Trivett's Ace-nine-high in the lead to eliminate Wang in fourth place for $87,098.

Michael "annie_r_u_ok" Trivett	3,582,073	1,141,464
Michael "miw210x" Wang	0	-1,111,464

Blinds: 20,000/40,000/4,000

After a preflop raise from Shawn "Saygoodnight" Daniels three players saw a flop of    .

Daniels continued for 100,000, Eric "powwow" Ethans moved all in, and Michael "Annie_r_u_ok" Trivett moved all in behind, which got a fold from Daniels.

Eric "powwow" Ethans:   
Michael "Annie_r_u_ok" Trivett:   

The   turn and   river completed the runout and eliminated Ethans from the tournament.

Michael "annie_r_u_ok" Trivett	2,264,609	1,280,419
Eric "powwow" Ethans	0	-1,068,019

Blinds: 14,000/28,000/2,800

It was yet another blind-versus-blind showdown, and this time Mike "mike123" Matusow was all in and on the wrong side of things.

After Shawn "Saygoodnight" Daniels shoved his dominating stack from the small blind, Matusow called off and was the one all in and at risk.

Mike "mike123" Matusow:   
Shawn "Saygoodnight" Daniels:   

Matusow got it in good, but Daniels had two live cards and hit both on the       runout, which sent Matusow out in 10th place and left the remaining players on the final table bubble.

Shawn "Saygoodnight" Daniels	1,764,152	328,248
Mike "mouth123" Matusow	0	-253,124

Blinds: 12,000/24,000/1200

In blind-versus-blind action, Andrew "RandyLerch" Kelsall and Jaso0n "VooDooDuDu" Tang got it all in preflop and were off to the races.

Andrew "RandyLerch" Kelsall:   
Jason "VooDooDuDu" Tang:   

The board ran out      , which gave Kelsall a boat and eiminated Tang from the tournament.

Andrew "RandyLerch" Kelsall	263,777	-142,531
Jason "VooDooDuDu" Tang	0	0

In 2018, the Global Casino Championship attracted 127 players to Harrah's Cherokee and saw Warren Sheaves take it down for $282,113 and his first bracelet. Sheaves had qualified after finishing in 10th place on that year's points leaderboard.

After his victory, Sheaves told assembled media: "I feel pretty good, but they only invited 120 people or so to this tournament. So, I just kind of feel like this is a medium bracelet, you know? It doesn't really fit my ego."

At the time, WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart said of the event: "Ten years ago, we only had 12 Circuit stops and they were all in the U.S. We're proud to have grown it to 39 stops in 11 different countries and the Global Casino Championship at Harrah's Cherokee exists to put the best of the best in the same room to see who comes out on top. We'll continue to work hard to make the World Series of Poker the biggest and best poker tournaments to play all around the world."