WSOP 2015: Exhilarating Action at WSOP Continues, Raghav Bansal and Aditya Agarwal Make Day 2 in Event 47

WSOP completes its 29^th day today, with 48 events out of its portfolio and Events 49 and 50 slated to start tomorrow. The thundering action has caught our Indian challengers in its thrilling grip, as they charge into several events.

Today we cover all the latest developments from Events 38 to 48.

Speaking about our players, starting from Event 38, we have Akash Malik who cashed for $6,722 in 79^th place.

Team PokerStars pro Aditya Agarwal, Adda 52 Team Spades pros Kunal Patni and Amit Jain, alongside Amit Ajwani were again present for Event 45 – $1,500 No-Limit Hold`em, but all exited early. Raghav Bansal skipped the event in favor of the EDC musical festival.

Event 47 – $2,500 No-Limit Hold`em today, saw Aditya Agarwal, Amit Jain, Kunal Patni, Shashank Jain, Raghav Bansal, Amit Ajwani and Akash Malik jump in valiantly into the fray. However, only Raghav Bansal and Aditya Agarwal have survived for Day 2 tomorrow with 56,900 and 41,500 in chips respectively.

Besides the princely bracelet events at WSOP, our players are furiously giving their all to several of the peripheral events.

In side events, on Sunday we had Jasven Saigal making a 6^th place finish for $1,752 in the $185 No-Limit Hold`em Rio Daily DeepStack.

Amit Ajwani and Kunal Patni cashed in the $235 NLH Rio Daily DeepStack in 45^th and 53^rd place making $681 and $612 respectively.

Sahil Agarwal played the $300 tournament at Planet Hollywood today while Jasven Saigal participated in the $600 Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III. An early exit in the event saw him jump into the Rio Daily Deepstack $235 No-Limit Hold`em event.

WSOP does not disappoint, as each event unfolds with new drama, bringing forth unexpected winners and some amazing stages of play.

Read on to get all the new developments in recent events…

Event 38 – $3,000 No-Limit Hold`em

Brazil’s Thiago Nishijima Wins Event 38 for $546,843, Sam Razavi Makes Deep Run for 4^th Place Finish

Among the several Indians playing this event, only Akash Malik and Apoorva Goel made Day 2.

Akash cashed making a 79^th place finish for $6,722, while Apoorva busted short of the money.

The event was won by Brazil`s Thiago Nishijima for $546,843, his first bracelet and the third for his country.

36-year old Nishijima overcame one of the wildest final tables and an event that had 989 entries, increasing it from a 3-day affair to four days. Nishijima’s strong rail support rushed after the win and later he said, “This is the happiest day of my life no doubt. Having all of them here with me and thousands back in Brazil watching on online was like having the whole country behind me.”

On the final hand of the tournament, Nishijima called from the small blind and Sotirios Koutoupas moved all in from the big blind. Nishijima double-checked his cards and calls turning over the . Koutoupas reveals the , which was covering his other card. He quickly got it out of the way to show the and went “aaahhhhhh” when he realized he was behind.

The rail with Brazilian supporters went wild and Nishijima gave a positive fist wave in response.

The flop came which gave an inside straight draw to Koutoupas, as well as some chop outs. The turn was the and only one card separated Nishijima from his first bracelet. The river with the answered that and Nishijima was champion.

3-time APT ‘Player of the Year’ Sam Razavi ran deep and made his first WSOP final table with a 4^th place finish for $153,682.

Razavi was eliminated by Nishijima in Hand #63 on the final table.

Razavi

Nishijima

The flop of and the turn kept Razavi`s bracelet hopes alive but the river bearing put an end to Razavi’s run in the event and he exited at 4^th place.

In all, the event had a prize pool of $2,699,970, with 117 paid places.

Event 40 – $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold`em Championship

Travis Baker Beats 4,193 Players to Win Event 40 for $613,466

Travis Baker won Event 40 – $1,000 Seniors No Limit Hold’em Championship, collecting $613,466 and his first WSOP bracelet.

The event had attracted 4193 entries, with the top 423 places paid from a prize pool of $3,773,700.

The final hand saw baker facing Carl Torelli. The flop came down . The turn was and the river brought . Baker had against Torelli’s and just like that, Baker won the bracelet.

Event 41 – $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better

Lucky 4, As Max Pescatori Takes Down Event 41 For $292,158

4 seems to be a fortuitous number in Max Pescatori’s life currently. It’s his 44^th year, this is his 4^th bracelet and he won it after a miraculous recovery when play was 4-handed!

Pescatori claimed the title in Event 41 – $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship for $292,158. The event had a prize pool of $1043,400, with 111 entries and 16 making the money.

With this win, Pescatori joins Brian Hastings as a player to win two bracelets in the same season of WSOP. Just two weeks back, he picked up the bracelet in Event 9 – $1,500 Razz.

“I believed I could do it, because Stud is my best game. The win in Razz wasn’t the event I necessarily though was my best chance, so that was nice to get it there. But I always thought Stud was the game where I could go deep. I even spent a lot of time studying and thinking more about the game.”

Pescatori made a miraculous comeback from four-handed play when all thought he was destined to exit at 4^th place, when he went down to just three big blinds. However, he fought back and doubled up, trebled up and after two eliminations fought heads up with noted British pro Stephen Chidwick to win the event.

Chidwick made $180,529 for his second place finish.

Event 42 – $1,500 Extended Play No-Limit Hold`em

Final 5 Led By Adrian Apmann Set for Day 5 in Event 42

Event 42 has registered a player-field of 1842, leading to a prize pool of $1791,450. The winner will claim $478,102.

A large team of Indian players participated in Event 42 $1,500 Extended Play No-Limit Hold`em, including Aditya Agarwal, Amit Jain, Aditya Sushant, Amit Ajwani, Pranav Bagai, Jasven Saigal, Sahil Agarwal and Apoorva Goel.

Of the above, Sahil Agarwal and Apoorva Goel made it to Day 2, but were busted before making the money.

As of today, 5 players remain for Day 5 with Adrian Apmann leading with a stack of 7,300,000 chips.

Event 43 – $1,000 Super Seniors No-Limit Hold`em

Title Claimed by Jon Andlovec for $262,220

Jon Andlovec was the champion in Event 43 – $1,000 Super Seniors No-Limit Hold’em, collecting $262,220 out of a prize pool of $1,379,700 from 1,533 entries, with the top 171 places paid.

Andlovec with overcame Rod Pardey’s , when the board ran to win the bracelet.

Event 44 – $50,000 Poker Players Championship

Abe Mosseri Leads Final 19

Event 44 holds a prize pool of $36,96,000 formed by 84 players and of these only 12 players will cash. The minimum cash is $87,010 and the winner stands to claim $1270,086.

At the end of Day 3, only 19 players remain and Abe Mosseri is leading with 1.201 million chips.

Event 45 – $1,500 No-Limit Hold`em

Large Indian Contingent In Event 45, Jason Koon Leads Final 24

This event attracted 1,655 players and has a prize pool of $2,234,250, with 171 places paid.

Practically most of the Indian contingent was in the fray in Event 45 – $1,500 No-Limit Hold`em. Raghav Bansal was an exception, as he opted for the Electronic Daisy Carnival musical festival at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, foregoing the event.

Aditya Agarwal, Kunal Patni, Amit Ajwani and Amit Jain all busted early.

Jason Koon is leading the 24 survivors, with 1,405,000 in chips. Koon got a massive pot from notable Olivier Busquet early evening to take the lead and never let go of it till end of play.

Event 46 – $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Handed

22 Survivors Led by Thomas Campbell Make Day 3, Nipun Java in Contention

Event 46 – $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Handed is now in the money, with 22 players remaining for Day 3. Thomas Campbell was chip lead with 1,254,000. Indian origin player, Nipun Java is among the survivors at 11^th place in chip counts with 375,000.

Only the top 78 places will cash in this event. In all 682 entries formed a prize pool of $1,861,860.

Event 47 – $2,500 No-Limit Hold`em

Raghav Bansal and Aditya Agarwal Survive to Day 2

1,244 players lined up for Event 47- $2500 No Limit Hold’em and among them were our very own Indian challengers. The event has garnered a prize pool of $2,830,100 and the winner can look forward to collecting $551,941.

327 players have survived to Day 2 and Kieth Ferrera is leading the chip counts with 187,500 in chips.

Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal, Adda52 Team Spades Pros Amit Jain and Kunal Patni, Shashank Jain, Raghav Bansal, Amit Ajwani and Akash Malik were all playing this event.

Sahil Agarwal and Jasven Saigal chose to opt for small buy in side events and gave this one a miss.

Raghav Bansal was the most successful Indian today and bagged 56,900 chips at the end of play.

Aditya Agarwal was the only other player from the Indian challengers to make it through the day with 41,500 chips.

He tweeted it saying,

“Ran good, gave few brutal beats up to 30k playing 100-200(25”)

“48k with 2 levels left in the day, tough table though”

“41k to end day 1 of 2500 #WSOP2015#bracelethunting”

Kunal Patni had a particularly unlucky day and things went awry for this ex-banker from the word go. He lost a huge pot after hitting three-of-a-kind Nines on the flop with Ace kicker but his opponent rivered a straight flush to bring him down to 5,000 in chips early on.
He recovered a bit before losing a 12K pot with pocket kings to Ace-Jack and was left with just 8,000 chips. He soon got a cooler with pocket Kings again against an opponent’s Aces and was left short stacked with 3,000. Nothing worked his way as his Ace-Queen also got into a chopped pot against Ace-Five off suit on a King-Jack-Four-King-Four board. He finally busted holding King-Nine on the button in a three-way pot against pocket kings and pocket tens. The player with pocket tens hit quads and collected all his chips.

Shashank Jain’s day didn’t go any better with pocket kings turning out to be his undoing and he too lost to Ace-Jack and was left with 5,000 chips. On his final hand of the tournament, Shashank pushed all in with his last 8,500 chips and was looked up by an opponent’s Ace-King. The board did not favor him and he was out.

The bad beat stories continued for the team with Amit Ajwani loosing Ace-Queen vs Ace-Queen with his opponent hitting a one card flush.

Akash Malik and Amit Jain also hit the rails on the opening day. Jain tweeted his bustout hand, “Busto hijack open I ship 16bb co with AQ btn wakes up with KK.”

Event 48 – $1,500 Seven Card Stud

Brendan Taylor Seeking 2^nd Bracelet, Leads 77 Survivors

325 entries and a prize pool of $440,100 ensure the winner of Event 48 – $1,500 Seven Card Stud a purse of $112,591.

2010 WSOP Event 53 bracelet winner Brendan Taylor is the chip leader at the end of Day 1, with 95,700 chips with 77 survivors in the fray.

Side Events

Rio Daily DeepStack $185 No-Limit Hold’em

Jasven Saigal made a 6^th place for $1,752 on Sunday. The event had a prize pool of $38,135, with 263 entries and 23 places paid.

Rio Daily Deepstack $235 No-Limit Hold’em

The event had 1,039 entries and prize pool of $197,410, with the top 108 places making the cash.

Both Amit Ajwani and Kunal Patni cashed in this event.

Amit made a 45^th place finish for $681 and posted “Out 45th ak to a5 to jj flop 5510“.

Kunal made a 53^rd place finish for $612 and wrote, “Busted 53rd with AK“.

Phamous Goliath Event 35

On Monday, June 22, Sahil Agarwal played the Phamous Goliath Event 35, $300 Buy in, $100K GTD at Planet Hollywood.

Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza III

Jasven Saigal chose to play the $600 NLH Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza III today but busted early on. He immediately jumped into the Rio DeepStack $235 tournament.

Here, we bid you a temporary goodbye. But we will return with further developments soon, so stay logged on and watch out for updates.