The biggest-guarantee event of the Grosvenor Goliath online series wrapped up early Monday morning in the UK, with 'WRDortmund7' taking down the grand prize.
'WRDortmund7' came out on top from a field of 2,013 total entries, coming away with the first-place cashout of £42,248. The £125 buy-in tournament yielded £231,495 in prize money, more than doubling the £100,000 guarantee.
The Main Event played as the centerpiece of the National Online Goliath 2020, a 15-tournament series that ran from August 1-9. The online series functioned as the first online-only version of The Goliath by Grosvenor Poker, which annually sets attendance records as one of the most popular live poker festivals in the world.
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted Grosvenor Casinos to move the Goliath to its online poker client for 2020, however. 'WRDortmund7' played through the two-day structure of the Main Event to come away with the championship.
Other top finishers included 'FrazzleFraggle', who took the runner-up spot and a £42,248 payday. 'AhJh' finished third and took home £23,149.
Goliath goes online
Since its inception in 2011, The Goliath by Grosvenor Poker annually draws some of the biggest attendance for any live poker festival in the world. The series Main Event consistently draws enough entries to make it the largest non-US live poker tournament in the world. The only events that draw more players happen at the annual World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
Hosted in recent years at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry, the Goliath series has realized attendance gains for the Main Event in nearly every year since its inception in 2011. The 2019 Goliath Main Event broke the all-time record with 9,300 entires.
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing casinos to shut down around the world, however, Grosvenor Casinos came up with a way to still offer players the chance to play in the Goliath this summer.
The ensuing series, named the National Online Goliath 2020, offered 15 different tournaments at affordable buy-ins, ranging from £5 to £560.
The online-only version of the Main Event didn't draw the nearly 10k entries that its live counterpart did in 2019, but the lineage of the UK's most popular poker festival stayed intact.
2020 Main Event recap
The two-day Main Event played with 30-minute levels, kicking off on Saturday afternoon in the UK. Eventual runner-up 'FrazzleFraggle' ended Day 1 in the top ten overall chip counts, foreshadowing the eventual deep run on Day 2.
The 2,013 entries yielded 144 cash finishers, with the money bubble bursting on Level 19, the fourth level of Day 2. All money finishers earned at least a min-cash of £370.
The tournament played on with the eight-handed final table reached at Level 30. 'WRDortmund7' came into the final table as the shortest-stacked of the eight remaining players, with just over 11 big blinds left to play with.
Within the first hour of final table action, however, 'WRDortmund7' was back in business after a double-up through 'dealersober411'. That hand pushed 'WRDortmund7' to around 35 big blinds, paving the way for the eventual championship finish.
'FrazzleFraggle' came into the final table with the chip lead, and held a nearly 2-to-1 advantage over 'WRDortmund7' going into heads-up play. That lead was increased to a 3-to-1 advantage at one point, but 'WRDortmund7' managed the comeback, and the championship.
The final hand saw the pocket aces of 'WRDortmund7' hold up against the king-ten offsuit of 'FrazzleFraggle' in an all-in preflop situation.
