WPTDeepStacks Berlin: Adda52 Team Pro Kunal Patni Storms Into Main Event Final Day With Chip Lead

Kicking off the New Year, World Poker Tour (WPT) DeepStacks Berlin is well underway at Casino Spielbank. Making waves at the series’ headline €1,500 Main Event is Adda52 Team Pro Kunal Patni (cover image).

The event registered 561 entries across two starting flights with the field now down to the final 12 players. Leading these 12 survivors is Patni with 1,965,000 in chips.

The sole Indian in the field, Patni started the penultimate day eighth in chips with a stack of 162,600 and juggernauted his way to the top with 1,965,000 to bag the chip lead tying up with Finn Zwaid who will return for the final day with the same stack.

A total of 71 players make money in what has become the biggest WPTDeepStacks ever held outside of North America beating the 433-turnout record set in Marrakech last year.

A total prize pool of $881,555 is to be shared with the lion’s share of $161,770 (~₹1,02,61,879) to be claimed by the eventual champion today.

Day 2 Recap

Just 208 players survived for Day 2 led by Day 1a chip leader Bassel Zebib (254,100) followed closely by Day 1b chip leader Elias Sahlman (239,300).

Thijs Menco had a great start and quickly moved into the chip lead but soon Bassel Zebib claimed back the lead. Zebib became the first player to accumulate over 500,000 in chips and after the dinner break; it was Ole Schemion who was on top of the heap.

The eventual end-of-day chip leader Finn Zwad flexed his muscles and scooped in a monster pot with Aces to take a commanding chip lead.

The money bubble burst shortly thereafter, with Fabrice Soulier sending Angel Cobo Garcia to the rail in 72^nd place.

Some notables who made in-the-money finishes include Bassel Zebib (17^th place – $9,342), Thijs Menco (19^th place – $7,728), Michel Abecassis (25^th place – $5,496), Ole Schemion (30^th place -$4,698) Ben Bensimhon (33^rd place – $4,698), Thomas Muhlocker (43^rd place – $4,200), Hans Bosman (51^st place – $3,840), Laurent Polito (52^nd place – $3,840), and Benjamin Baltruschat (71^st place $3,300)

Patni started the day eighth in chips with a stack of 162,600 and slowly maneuvered his way up to 250,000. By the time the field was down to 65 players, Patni had managed to stack up to 290,000. As the field further trimmed down to 25 players, Patni had amassed almost 1.1 million in chips.

Down to final two tables, Vegard Andreassen exited in 16th place. Andreassen shoved with Qx Jx and Finn Zwad called with . The board ran and Zwad took down the pot eliminating Andreassen.

After William Liang’s elimination in 15^th place, Patni was seen in action as we woke up with pocket kings against Jan Bendik’s pocket queens. Patni has had a love-hate (mostly hate) relation with pocket kings. Patni’s pocket king’s bad beats stories are known to almost everyone who is active in the live poker circuit. This time though, he wasn`t disappointed as the board ran out clean and it was the end of Benik’s tournament run in 14^th place. Notably, Patni got dealt pocket king’s four times on Day 2 and fortunately he won each time!

The last player to exit on the day before the bagging up began was short stacked Daniel Nietrzebka. First he doubled up, then was at risk with against Dustin Mangold’s . Mangold rivered a straight on the board to rail Nietrzebka at 13th place.

At the end of the day, in a bizarre coincidence, both Adda52 Team Pro Kunal Patni and Finn Zwad bagged up the same 1,965,000 in chips, to share the overnight chip leader tag.

Final Day Chip Counts

1. Kunal Patni – 1,965,000
2. Finn Zwad – 1,965,000
3. Dustin Mangold – 1,685,000
4. Tobias Mathaess – 1,510,000
5. William Defty – 1,395,000
6. Bulent Demirtas – 1,385,000
7. Claudio Celenza – 1,240,000
8. Adem Gul – 1,070,000
9. Ricardo Valim – 930,000
10. Fabrice Soulier – 670,000
11. Alescha Lechner – 625,000
12. Zikai Li – 610,000

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