2015 ACOP: Kunal Patni & Shashank Rathi Make Day 2 in Main Event, Phanlert Sukonthachartnant Wins High Roller

The much-awaited HK $100,000 Main Event Day 1A finally got underway yesterday. Among the first of the Indian brigade to participate were Kunal Patni and Indian-origin player from Hong Kong Shashank Rathi, both now regular faces at the Asian circuit. Patni with 76,400 in chips and Rathi with 43,100 have made it to Day 2.

Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal and Anant P are also expected to join in on Day 1B, slated to start at 3pm local time.

Simultaneously, Event 8 – HK $250,000 High Roller played down to find a winner in Phanlert Sukonthachartnant (cover image) who collected HK $4,890,600 and the title.

2015 ACOP HK $100,000 Main Event – Day 1A

Day 1A of the ACOP Main Event was a thrilling one filled with unexpected action. 110 runners signed up on Day 1A and only 66 of these have survived.

US player Andy Andrejevic dominated most of the play, eliminating defending champion Gabriel Le Jessoc early on. It almost seemed that he would claim the chip lead, but in the last hand of the day, Zhengye Yao busted Jonathan Karamalikis giving Yao the advantage and the chip lead with 136,500.

Andrejevic is extremely close behind in 2^nd place with 136,200 and notable US player Erik Seidel is in 3^rd place with 130,400.

Several other known names that made it to Day 2 include Patrick Mahoney (79,900), Tony Yat Wai Cheng (100,300), Yuguang Li (115,200), Andrew Hinrichsen (86,000) and Ryan Yum (105,100).

Kunal Patni played Day 1A and survived with 76,400 at 14^th place on the chip counts. Hong Kong based Indian-origin player Shashank Rathi also made Day 2 with 43,100 in chips at 37^th place.

Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal and Anant Purohit, both are expected to play today on Day 1B, which will start at 3pm local time.

Day 1A – Top Ten Counts

1. Zhengye Yao – 136,500
2. Andrejevic Andjelko – 136,200
3. Erik Seidel – 130,400
4. Yuguang Li – 115,200
5. Ryan Yum – 105,100
6. Shunu Zang – 101,600
7. Tony Yat Wai Cheng – 100,300
8. Mingjie Sun – 87,300
9. Andrew Hinrichsen – 86,000
10. Daniel Demicki – 78,000

Event 8: HK $250,000 High Roller

Thai player Phanlert Sukonthachartnant who had taken the lead at the end of Day 2, refused to relinquish it until he made it all the way to the top, claiming the title and the largest piece of the winning money reserved for the winner i.e. HK $4,890,600.

In all, the event had drawn 63 entries, leading to a prize pool of HK $14,817,600. The last day of the High Roller saw a seven-handed final table, representing seven different countries.

It was also one of the quickest to end with heads up play reached within two hours. Sukonthachartnant faced Stanley Choi of Hong Kong in the finale that ended in less than an hour.

The final hand saw the flop open . Choi bet 400,000, and Sukonthachartnant raised to 850,000. Choi then three-bet to 1.3 million and Sukonthachartnant called. The turn and river sent out blanks and Sukonthachartnant’s pocket queens won against Choi’s queen jack. Sukonthachartnant was declared champion and Choi finished runner up for HK $3,112,000.

Final Table Results (HKD)

1. Phanlert Sukonthachartnant – $4,890,600
2. Stanley Choi – $3,112,000
3. Wang Zuo – $2,074,000
4. Anton Astapau – $1,630,000
5. Aleksandar Denisov – $1,185,000
6. Stevan Chew – $1,037,000
7. Fedor Holz – $889,000

Stay tuned on PokerGuru for the latest updates from 2015 ACOP.