WSOP 2015: Aditya Agarwal and Akash Malik Storm Into Day 4 of Main Event, Amar Anand Leads Final 661

After the slew of entry-flight days and two action packed Day 2`s, the 1,796 survivors from all flights finally combined today and the play begun in earnest towards the final goal of finding the November Nine.

At the end of the day only 661 players remain and the Main Event finally reached the money around the midway stage. The money bubble found two bubble boys and 339 players have already collected the min-cash of $15,000.

Silicon Valley techie, Amar Anand began with the largest stack and chipped up all through the day to remain the chip lead with 1,139,000 going into Day 4. Close on his heels are Joseph McKeehan with 1,052,000 and Brian Hastings with 1,034,500.

Indian origin player, Vivek Rajkumar is at 131^st place with 465,000 and just three places behind at 134^th place on the chip counts is Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal with 457,000.

Keeping him company on Day 4 tomorrow will be Akash Malik, who is at 179^th position with 391,000 in chips.

From the Indian contingent, Raghav Bansal became the 961^st casualty, taking home $15,000, while Muthu Ramamirutha who had flown in courtesy Adda52 also cashed the same amount at 768^th place.

However Jasven Saigal, Shashank Jain and Rajesh Goyal were unable to make it in the money and busted before the money bubble.

Among the other notable Indian origin players, Mukul Pahuja is still in the reckoning with 153,000, but elder brother Vinny Pahuja did not quite make it through the day.

Another notable Indian origin player, Nipun Java made the money at 914^th place for $15,000.

Day 3 Highlights

Indian participation

It’s a truly exhilarating time for our Indian challengers, as they ride in deeper in the Main Event, charging like Arjuna the warrior with eyes only on the most coveted bracelet at WSOP!

After Akash Malik led the Indian brigade earlier, on Day 3 Aditya Agarwal took over the reins and seemed to flourish under the pressure, eliminating players to finally end the day with a stack of 457,000.

An early hand saw Aditya accumulate the major portion of his stack.

Aditya three-bet to 9,000 and action returned back to the original raiser, and he four-bet all-in for his last 35,000 and Aditya called.

Aditya

Opponent

The board ran out all bricks and Aditya’s superior ace-high took down the pot and sent his opponent to the rail. Aditya climbed up to 339,000 in chips after this hand.

In the latter half of play, Aditya played another crucial hand crippling Andre Akkari. Action folded around to Aditya who raised to 5,100 and got one caller in Andre Akkari from the button.The flop came down and Aditya checked. Akkari quickly checked behind and the two players watched as the dealer turned over the . Aditya led for 4,200 and Akkari called.The river was the and both players checked, with Aditya turning over , enough for Akkari to concede the pot and give up.

Aditya constantly tweeted his progress all through the day.

“Good start, 220k playing 800-1600(200), 1796 started day 3 today and 1000 of us will cash #WSOP2015ME

Internet wasn’t working last Cpl hrs, have 400k going to second break of the day and coming back to 1200-2400(400) #WSOP2015ME

Wohoooooo end of h4h,gtd 15k playing for 7 mill first place.Still at 400k playing 1500-3000(500), 30 mins left in the level. Phone dying tho

550k with 40 mins left at 2k-4k and to end day 3, 700 players remain #WSOP2015ME

Ended day with 457k coming back to 2500-5000(500), come back at noon tomorrow #WSOP2015ME”

Akash Malik had a swingy day, but managed to consolidate his stack to 391,000 by the end of the day.

As the field contracted many of our Indian challengers hit the rails, but among those eliminated, Raghav Bansal made the money at 961^st place for $15,000.

Raghav was another, like Malik, whose stack swung wildly all through the day. He improved on his starting stack of 29K, taking it all the way to 80K at one point. But then he lost it to come down to 33K, before a double-up to reach 67K. He once again doubled-up to reach 136K, when his pocket Queens were crippled by an opponent’s pocket Tens.

Raghav busted shortly after the bubble burst, in an ill-fated hand that saw him get very unlucky. Raghav opened with pocket Deuces with a 45 BB stack and a player in middle position called. Raghav hit a full-house on the flop . The money went on the turn Queen and his opponent tabled pocket Nines. The river brought the and his opponent got the upper hand with a better full-house. Raghav min-cashed at 961^st place for $15,000!

Adda52 “Fly to Vegas’ sponsored player Muthukumar Ramamirutha saw a dream come true, as he not only played the Main Event, but cashed in this very first attendance. Muthukumar made $15,000 for a 768^th place finish.

The play was not as lucky for three of our challengers though.

Jasven Saigal was the first from the Team to hit the rails, when he failed to hold pocket Queens against Ace-King. Shashank Jain was the next one out with Ace-Queen failing to cope up with Ace-King.

Rajesh Goyal too busted, holding pocket Queens against an opponent’s cowboys.

Indian-origin player Nipun Java finished 914^th making the min cash of $15K, but Vinny Pahuja was unable to sustain and busted before the money. He tweeted it saying,

“Folds to me in CO and I shove 28k/2k w ATo. BB finds AQhh and holds after a QT8 flop. GG and GL to everyone still in!”

Money Bubble

The money bubble was to burst at 1,000^th position, the first time in the history of the WSOP that so many would make the money in the Main Event.

When there were just 1002 players left, play was stopped by the staff.

On the first hand there were no eliminations. Then with hand-for-hand play, on the second hand, two players bust at the same time – Jonas Lauck and Roy Daoud!

As per tradition, the bubble boy was to get a seat to the next year’s Main Event. So the two got into a high-card challenge to find out who would get the $10,000 ticket.

Daoud was the lucky one, as he drew the against Lauck`s .

The official bubble boy Daud personifies the global character of WSOP, with his Lebanese birth, Canadian upbringing and current Dubai residence. With this seat, he will once again visit Vegas next year for the Main Event.

Notable Survivors

At the end of Day 3, only 5 earlier Main Event champions are left. These include Phil Hellmuth, who had an agonizingly slow day in increasing his stack. Ryan Reiss, Jim Bechtel, Joe Hachem and Jonathan Duhamel are the other former world champions still in the fray.

1998 champion Scott Nguyen was eliminated just before the end of the day.

Day 1A chip leader William Kakon was also eliminated. 2013 WSOP Europe champ Adrian Mateos, Dan Colman, Brandon Shack-Harris, Dan Cates, Bryan Yoon, Byron Kaverman and Mike Matusow were a few of the other notables to bust on Day 3.

Daniel Negreanu, Matt Glantz, Jared Jafee, Antonio Esfandiari and George Danzer are some of the known names to survive to Day 4.

Naked Cartwheel On the Felt

The day’s play was not without its moments of humour and one such hand played out like this…

The player in the cutoff raised to 8,500 and only Mark Kroon, in the big blind, called. He told his opponent, “I’m so confident that I will win this hand, I will only play with my left hand so it’s fair, like a handicap. And if I don’t win this hand, I will do a naked cartwheel across the stage!”

The flop came out .

Kroon bets 11,500 (with his left hand) and his opponent called.

The turn brings the . Kroon bet 22,000 (again with his left hand) and his opponent called. The floated on the river and Kroon put out a bet of 38,500. His opponent shouted, “Hey! You bet with both hands!”

A calm Kroon replied, “I had to, it’s a lot of chips!”

The opponent went into a trance so deep that the clock was called on him and with a few seconds to spare, he finally called.

Kroon showed for a flush, and his opponent mucked his hand.

And a relieved observer loudly remarked, “Whew! Naked cartwheel averted!”

The going has just begun its exciting phase at the Main Event, stay with us, as we bring you all the thrilling moments these next few days.