Red Dragon Manila: Sahil Agarwal Continues Hot Run, Bags Main Event Day 1A Chip Lead; Dhaval Mudgal Other Indian Pro to Qualify

Sahil Agarwal & Dhaval Mudgal
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  • Namita Ghosh January 7, 2020
  • 2 Minutes Read

The action seems to have picked up the pace at the PokerStars LIVE Red Dragon Manila currently underway at the Coral Lounge at the iconic Okada Manila. The tournament series is in its 12th year of running and is making its debut run in Manila.

Monday witnessed the start of the signature Red Dragon Main Event that hit the floor running with the first of three starting flights. With a whopping prize pool guarantee of PHP 50 Million, the Red Dragon Main Event happens to be the largest tournament ever to be hosted in the Philippines! Matching the expectations, Day 1A registered a strong turnout of 213 entries (including 181 unique players).

A small group of Indian pros is in attendance at the stop, and Day 1A saw six of them in action. Hogging the limelight once again was Sahil Agarwal, who, after taking down the series-opener PHP 20K Kickoff on Sunday, came out on top of the Main Event Day 1A field the very next day. A double up on the last hand of play saw the Indian pro bagging a stack of 273,000, making him the frontrunner among the 60 advancing players!

Among the list of Day 1A survivors was another Indian pro Dhaval Mudgal. The former WPT Vietnam Main Event champion has been in stellar form over the past year. He was frequently seen in action at various Asian stops and most notably finished runner-up at the APT Kickoff Vietnam Monster Stack last January. The musician-turned poker pro went on a rampage after that final-tabling both the ₹100K High Roller and the ₹35K Main Event at last year’s India Poker Championship (IPC) before making a third-place finish at the Baazi Poker Tour (BPT) ₹50K Main Event. Last seen placing third in the APT Vietnam Championship Event, Mudgal has now secured his berth for Day 2 in the Red Dragon Main Event with an average stack of 127,000.

Four other Indians, namely, Kanishka Samant, Meherzad Munsaf, Chirag Shah and Ankit Ahuja, as well as Indian-origin player Abraham Ceesvin were all part of the 213-entry field on Day 1A. Still, none of them was able to make it to Day 2.

While Day 1B is already underway and Day 1C (Turbo) is scheduled to start at 8 PM (local time) tonight, it is safe to assume there will be more Indian updates to report.

In the side events, Singapore’s Chris Chong took down the PHP 50K buy-in Deepstack Freezeout for his second PokerStars LIVE title and a PHP 1,543,400 (~₹21.81 Lakhs) payday.

Day 2 of the Main Event will get going at 1 PM (local time) tomorrow while the PHP 40K buy-in Superstack NLH will begin proceedings at 3 PM.

 

PHP 110K Main Event PHP 50 M GTD – Day 1A

Day 1A of the PHP 110K buy-in Main Event attracted 213 entries comprising of 181 unique players and the rest re-entries. After 12 hectic, 40-minute levels of play, only 60 of them could find a bag for Day 2.

Coming out on top at the end of the day was Indian-pro Sahil Agarwal! Fresh off his win in the series-opener PHP 20K Kickoff event, Agarwal picked up things right where he had left them the previous day. A massive double-up on the last hand of the day saw Agarwal surge into the lead. He now carries a sizeable stack of 232,000 to Day 2.

China’s Zheng Shi (223,000) and Super High Roller champion Lester Edoc (221,000) round out the top three stacks from the flight.

Also making it through Day 1A was former WPT Vietnam Main Event champion, Dhaval Mudgal (127,000).

However, it didn’t go so well for the other Indians in the field – Meherzad Munsaf, Ankit Ahuja, Kanishka Samant, Chirag Shah, and Indian-origin player Abraham Ceesvin, all of whom, were eliminated on Day 1A.

Among the other notables who made it through were, China’s Lei Yu (166,000), Japan’s Jun Obara (156,000), Malaysia’s Victor Chong (138,000), Hong Kong’s Sparrow Cheung (117,000), Canada’s Linh Tran (110,500), Thailand’s Phachara Wongwichit (106,000), Malaysia’s Natalie Teh (100,000), Singapore’s Alex Lee (80,000), Taiwan’s Pete Chen (75,000) and Turbo NLH champion Sandro Bruni (70,000).

Day 1B has kicked off at 1 PM (local time) today, with Day 1C (Turbo) to run from 8 PM onwards.

Sahil Agarwal
Sahil Agarwal

Top 10 Stacks at the End of Day 1A

  1. Sahil Agarwal – 232,000
  2. Zheng Shi – 223,000
  3. Lester Edoc – 221,000
  4. Gen Nose – 201,500
  5. Shigeji Kusakabe – 176,000
  6. Jiansheng Chen – 171,500
  7. Zhiqiang Qian – 171,500
  8. Daewoong Song – 169,500
  9. Lei Yu – 166,000
  10. The Naing – 160,500

 

Chris Chong Wins Deepstack Freezeout

The PHP 50,000 buy-in Deepstack Freezeout managed to bring in 136 entries on its opening day. Day 2 of the event played out alongside Day 1A of the Main Event and saw 16 players returning to take a shot at the title!

Taking it down eventually for the PHP 1,543,400 (~₹21.81 Lakhs) up top was Singapore’s Chris Chong. With the win, Chong has snagged his second PokerStars LIVE title.

Chong’s heads-up opponent was UK’s Stephen Nathan who’d come into the final table as the chip leader. However, Nathan was defeated in the title quest and had to settle for a runner-up payday worth PHP 1,039,000.

The event garnered a PHP 5,936,400 (~₹83.90 Lakhs) prize pool and paid out the 15 final players at least PHP 89,000. This included names like China’s Cangsheng Ni (11th for PHP 119,000) and Hong Kong’s Wing Kei Chan (14th for PHP 89,000).

Chris Chong wins DeepStack Freezeout
Chris Chong wins DeepStack Freezeout

Final Table Results (PHP)

  1. Chris Chong – ₱1,543,400
  2. Stephen Nathan – ₱1,039,000
  3. Ngoc Anh Cao – ₱683,000
  4. Vincent Li – ₱534,000
  5. Junyeob Song – ₱416,000
  6. Soo Jo Kim – ₱356,000
  7. Dengke Yang – ₱297,000
  8. Ting Yi Tsai – ₱237,000
  9. Terry Gonzaga – ₱178,000

 

Content & Images Courtesy: PokerStars LIVE

Keep following PokerGuru for more updates from the 2020 PokerStars LIVE Red Dragon Manila!

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