WPT Korea 2018: Team India Bows Out of Global Teams Event, China Leads 9 Remaining Teams

Team India
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  • PG News September 21, 2018
  • 6 Mins Read

With 14 country-based teams in the fray to claim the top prize in 2018 World Poker Tour (WPT) Korea Global Teams Event, the Paradise City Casino at Incheon, South Korea has seen epic action over the past three days.

While two teams, USA and Australia were eliminated after play for the third and fourth event of the tournament got over, Team China stayed on the top of the rankings with 232 points at end of Day 3, followed closely by Team Hong Kong SAR with 229 points.

Much to the disappointment of Indian fans, Team India has been eliminated. The Indian team, captained by World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Nikita Luther and comprising of Amit Jain, Kunal Patni and Dhaval Mudgal had a rough Day 2 but managed to make it through to Day 3 with 144 points, where they were seen in thick of action in Event 5: Turbo NLHE but busted early on.

While Luther who was in Shootout A, and Patni who made through Shootout D kept the hopes high by entering the respective final tables, Jain and Mudgal failed to make it to the final tables in Shootouts C and D. Eventually, Patni ended his run in fourth place, garnering 14 points for India and Luther in fifth place adding 12 points to Indian tally. Team India was placed 11th with 186 points and was eliminated along with Team Norway and Team UK.

Team India

Team China, being the biggest scorer among the remaining nine has won a payday of KRW 13,737,640 (~US$12,250). All the other teams i.e. Team Hong Kong, Team Singapore, Team Netherlands, Team Japan, Team Korea, Team Taiwan, Team New Zealand and Team Malaysia have advanced to the WPT Global Teams Final.

The top three teams will finish in the money and the winning team will snag a glittering top prize of KRW 27,475,000 (~US$24,500).

Apart from the WPT Global Teams Final, the WPT Korea Main Event is also scheduled to kick off today.

Day 2 Recap

Two tournaments, Event #3: PLO that included PLO Shootout A, PLO Shootout B (two players) and Tag Team NLHE (two players) and Event #4: Six-Max NLHE played out on Day 2 of the WPT Global Teams Event.

End of day, Team USA and Team Australia were eliminated. Team India, with 144 points was 11th in rankings and just about scraped through to Day 3.

Event #3: PLO

There were two shootout events, PLO Shootout A and PLO Shootout B, as well as one Tag Team NLHE in Event #3: PLO.

As the PLO Shootouts began, Team India’s Kunal Patni was seated at table one of PLO Shootout A while Amit Jain was on Table four in PLO Shootout B. Alongside, Team India captain Nikita Luther and Dhaval Mudgal took their seats on table six for the Tag Team NLHE.

Action on the PLO Shootout A saw the field narrow down to the final eight players after Martijn Gerrits from Netherlands doubled through Malaysia’s Victor Chong after hitting a three-of-a-kind on the board against Chong’s turned gutshot nine-high straight draw.

Patni who scored three points in 14th position however, couldn’t make it to the final table.

The PLO Shootout A concluded with Taiwan’s Leon Li-ta Hsu (20 points) in the lead. Hsu defeated Malaysia’s Victor Chong (18 points) in the final hand of the event with his eight-high straight reigning over Chong’s pair. Prior to this, USA’s Dylan Wilkerson (16 points) finished in third place.

In PLO Shootout B, Jain (36,000) performed well and advanced to the six-handed final table second in chips, while Bas de Laat (39,500) of Netherlands held the biggest stack. Jain eventually ended his run in third place in the event, earning 16 points for Team India, while China’s Xixiang Luo (20 points) won the Shootout after relegating de Laat (18 points) to second place.

Action in the Tag Team Event kicked off with Team China doubling through Team Malaysia, followed by Team New Zealand finding a double up through Team USA.

Each team member of the Tag Team event switched in and out after every 20-minute level. When the field whittled to the final three teams, comprising of a total six players, both players from each team were seated at the table, jointly playing one hand between them.

The Tag Team event was won by Team Singapore (20 points) while Team Taiwan SAR (18 points) comprising of Lin and Chen finished runners-up. Team India (4 points) finished in 13th place.

After Event 3 concluded, it was Team Taiwan that was at the overall forefront with 140 points, followed closely by Team China with 138 points.

Event #4: Six-Max No-Limit Hold’em

The teams were randomly split up into four different three-table shootouts for Event#4 which was based on the Six-Max No-Limit Hold’em format.

Team India’s captain Nikita Luther was seated on Table 1 in the Six-Max NLH Shootout A Bracket, along with UK’s Sam Razavi, Hong Kong SAR’s Danny Tang, Norway’s Henrik Tollefsen and Korea’s Jimmy Lee.

The first bracket to reach the seven-handed final table was Six-Max NLH Shootout A. Chong topped the table with 36,000 in the bag, followed by Tang (34,000). Luther, placed third in stacks, was hot on their heels with 21,500. Shootout A final table ended with Tang defeating Chong in heads-up play to take away 20 points for Team Hong Kong SAR. Luther finished third and earned 16 points for Team India.

Nikita Luther
Nikita Luther

Dhaval Mudgal was in the Six-Max NLH Shootout B Bracket and found himself seated on Table 4, surrounded by Sparrow Cheung from Hong Kong, Luigi Knoppers from Netherlands, Paul Hockin from New Zealand and Frank Marino from Australia.

Shootout B reached its final table with Cheung in the lead with 36,000. Cheung went on to defeat Norway’s Robert Kaggerud in heads-up play. Mudgal was eliminated in 11th place and managed to secure six points for his team.

Dhaval Mudgal
Dhaval Mudgal

Six-Max NLH Shootout C Bracket featured Amit Jain on Table 7 with Calvin Tan of Singapore, Nick Woodward (UK), Michael Soyza of Malaysia and Guoliang Wei of China.

Japan’s Takumi Samejima bested Hong Kong’s Vincent Kwun Ngai Li in the Shootout C heads-up battle. Jain finished ninth and collected eight points.

The final member of the Indian battalion, Kunal Patni was at Table 10 in the Six-Max NLH Shootout D Bracket and was accompanied by Chen An Lin of Taiwan SAR, Ging Masinda of USA, Xixiang Luo of China and Singapore’s Phua Tzaiwei.

Patni finished sixth in Shootout D and garnered 11 points in the process. Meanwhile, Tzaiwei outlasted Luo in the heads-up match and won 20 points for Team Singapore.

Day 3 Recap

Following the elimination of Team USA and Team Australia on Day 2, 12 teams resumed play on Day 3, with Team China leading with 180 points.

The felts were dominated with Event #5: Turbo No Limit Hold ‘em that comprised of four different shootouts and finally it was Team China that grabbed the maximum points and won the prize for most points in the prelims.

Event #5: Turbo NLHE

In the four shootout events that were hosted as part of Event 5 turbo NLHE, Team India’s Nikita Luther was seated on table one for Turbo NLH Shootout A, Dhaval Mudgal entered table three for Shootout B, Amit Jain was on table six for Shootout C and Kunal Patni was on table seven for Shootout D.

After intense action, Luigi Knoppers (20 points) of Netherlands won the Shootout A, with India’s Nikita Luther (12 points) ending her run in fifth place.

Shootout B was won by Malaysia’s Ivan Seng Yee Leow (20 points). Dhaval Mudgal (5 points) from the Indian team fell in 12th place.

In Shootout C, Vincent Kwun Ngai Li (20 points) of Hong Kong SAR emerged winner and India’s Amit Jain (11 points) finished in sixth place, missing the five-handed final table by a whisker.

Shootout D was won by Jimmy Lee (20 points) of Korea, while India`s Kunal Patni (14 points) end his run in fourth place.

Team China
Team China

Official Team Point Counts At The End of Day 3

1. Team China – 232

2. Team Hong Kong SAR – 229

3. Team Singapore – 224

4. Team Netherlands – 218.5

5. Team Japan – 206.5

6. Team Korea – 202

7. Team Taiwan SAR – 202

8. Team New Zealand – 199

9. Team Malaysia – 197.5

Action has now reached the home stretch with the WPT Global Teams Final where each team has received a starting stack of chips based on the points they have accumulated over the first five events, with every point getting them 1,000 chips.

The Final will be played out on the four-player Tag Team NLHE format and players will be rotated every 20 minutes, with the field playing 40-minute levels.

Related Articles:

1. WPT Korea 2018: Team India Placed 8th in Global Teams Event After Day 1

2. Huge Indian Turnout Expected at WPT Stops in Korea & Vietnam, Nikita Luther to Lead Team India in First-Ever WPT Global Teams Event

3. World Poker Tour Announces Much-Awaited Return to India in November

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