WSOP 2017: Gaurav Raina & Vladimir Shchemelev Win Bracelets; Aditya Agarwal Advances to Day 2 in Event 36

WSOP 2017
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  • PG News June 19, 2017
  • 3 Minutes Read

The roar of Indian names was certainly heard amidst the growing action and volume of World Series of Poker, as after Aditya Sushant and Nipun Java clinched the first gold bracelet for the country, Indian-origin player from USA Gaurav ‘Gary’ Raina won his first gold bracelet in Event #29: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em.

The 33-year old born in Livingston currently resides in Athens, Georgia and had previously worked in sales before turning pro. Before this win, Raina had just two WSOP cashes totaling to $9,749 and has now added $456,822 as his career-best score.

Event #32: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Mix was the other event to crown a champion with Vladimir Shchemelev besting the 688-entry fieldfor $193,484.

A few players from the Indian contingent were seen in action in Event 36: $5,000 No Limit Holdem 6-Max but Team PokerStars pro Aditya Agarwal was the sole Indian to make it to Day 2 bagging 44,000 in chips.

The Indian Team at the series has expanded since our last update with Shashank Jain being the latest to join the contingent. Dhaval Mudgal and Nikita Luther are both expected to join in soon. Meanwhile, Vikram Kumar has come back to India and may come back in time for the Main Event.

 

Event #29: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em

The event attracted a total of 1,086-entry field taking the prize pool to $2,443,500 with the top 163 players making in the money. Outlasting them all was Indian-origin Gaurav “Gary” Raina who defeated his heads-up opponent James Calvo on the unscheduled Day 4, clinching his first WSOP bracelet along with $456,822 in prize money.

With this win Raina has accomplished 1/3rd of his plan to capture three bracelets in the series which started as a joke. He elaborated on it saying “We had a joke with my friends. I said I was going to win three bracelets this summer, and we were all laughing. None of us thought that anyone of us is actually going to win a bracelet. But we were like ‘we’ve been prepping’, we’re beasts.”

Day 3 of the event saw 30 survivors return to play down to a winner but due to a long heads-up battle, the play extended on to Day 4.

Among those to bust without making the final table were John Dolan (22nd place), Day 1 chip leader Pablo Fernandez (19th place), former Asian Player of the Year Pete Chen (15th place) and Chi Zhang (13th place).

The unofficial final table was set after Tom Thomas took the 11th place with Eddy Sabat leading the pack.

 

Final Table Recap

UK-based Sadan Turker was the first casualty of the final table followed by his countrymate Scott Margereson who went out at ninth place.

Giuseppe Pantaleo hit the rail in eighth place and was soon joined on the rails by (player requesting anonymity) who was eliminated by Eric Cloutier.

Cloutier didn`t last much longer either, and was the next to fall followed by Eddy Sabat, courtesy the eventual champion Raina.

Asi Moshe who until now was leading the way soon saw his chip lead slipping and he went out in third place.

The heads-up battle that ensued saw 70 hands play out between Calvo and Raina but without result and both players bagged their stacks to come back for an unscheduled Day 4.

 

Day 4 Recap

Raina was the shorter of the two but managed to get a double up on just the fifth hand of the day. Raina took a slight lead and then the two players exchanged the lead several times through the course of the day.

The last hand of the event saw Raina opening to 400,000 and Calvo called to see the flop . Raina fired another bet of 400,000 and Calvo check-raised to 1,200,000, only to get the call. The dealer burned and turned the and Calvo announced all-in after pausing for a while with . Raina snap-called and jumped out of his seat holding

Raina had a commanding lead with a turned full house against Calvo’s two-pair and “No queen” pleaded Raina’s rail. The poker gods obliged with the completing the board and just like that Raina was crowned the champion!

Gaurav Raina
Gaurav Raina

Final Table Results

1. Gaurav Raina – $456,822

2. James Calvo – $282,276

3. Asi Moshe – $199,718

4. Eddy Sabat – $143,148

5. Eric Cloutier – $103,957

6. Griffin Abel – $76,506

7. (player requesting anonymity) – $57,068

8. Giuseppe Pantaleo – $43,154

9. Scott Margereson – $33,087

 

Event #32: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Mix

The $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Mix event drew a total of 688 entries and besting them all was Russian banker Vladimir Shchemelev who won his second bracelet along with $193,484 in prize money.

Day 1 of the event saw the field whittle down to 244 survivors that further reduced to 29 players on Day 2. Shchemelev bagged the seventh biggest stack among the 29 players remaining for the final day. He slowly chipped up and by the time the final table was set, Shchemelev was second in chips.

 

Final Table Recap

American pro Jesse Simonelli was the first to fall on the eight-handed final table followed by countrymate Erle Mankin in seventh place.

The next elimination was seen in China based Yueqi Zhu who was followed by UK’s Usman Siddique.

The next two eliminations came in Russians Igor Sharaskin and Nikolai Yakovenko, which set up the inevitable heads up match between Howard Smith and Shchemelev.

Both traded the chip lead back and forth as Shchemelev started the heads-up match with a slight chip disadvantage but quickly recovered and gained the lead. Smith battled back trying to come back in the game but Shchemelev soon ended it all to win his second WSOP bracelet.

Vladimir Shchemelev
Vladimir Shchemelev

Final Table Results

1. Vladimir Shchemelev – $193,484

2. Howard Smith – $119,524

3. Nikolai Yakovenko – $81,232

4. Igor Sharaskin – $56,187

5. Usman Siddique – $39,565

6. Yueqi Zhu – $28,375

7. Erle Mankin – $20,730

8. Jesse Simonelli – $15,435

Keep following the latest updates from WSOP 2017 right here on PokerGuru!

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