WSOP 2018: Indian Challengers Going All Guns Blazing in Main Event, Nishant Sharma & Aditya Agarwal Headline 9 Indians For Day 4

WSOP 2018: Indian Challengers Going All Guns Blazing in Main Event
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  • PG News July 8, 2018
  • 8 mins Read

The biggest and most prestigious event at the 2018 World Series of Poker (WSOP), Event #65: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event – World Championship is well underway with a huge number of competitors still in contention for the prized gold bracelet. It was a crucial day for the 1,182 survivors, who all made it in the money today and will now reconvene for Day 4 action!

Displaying remarkable resilience, the 12-player strong Indian group locked horns with some of the best poker players from across the world and nine among them are now assured a payday. Headlining Team India`s Main Event campaign on Day 4 will be 9stacks qualifier and our Young Gun Nishant Sharma with a stack of 684,000! Sharma however is not alone as accompanying him on Day 4 will be WSOP veteran and Team PokerStars pro Aditya ‘Intervention’ Agarwal who bagged a sizeable 653,000 himself.

Rohan Bhasin (458,000), Kartik Ved (144,900), Jaideep Sajwan (104,000), Apoorva Goel (102,000), Vivek Rughani (97,000), Sriharsha Doddapaneni (85,000) and Yudhishter Jaswal (48,000) are the other Indian challengers who will be coming back for Day 4 action with the assurance of taking home at least $15,000 (~₹10.31 Lakhs).

Meanwhile, Event #66: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em is now down to the final six players with Longsheng Tan (3,260,000) leading the way. Indian-origin Shyam Srinivasan bubbled the final table placing 10th for $18,988 (~₹13.05 Lakhs).

Event #67: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Bounty had two Indians in the running on Day 2, Nipun Java (36,100) and Navkiran Singh (28,200). Both players fell through the course of the day with Java placing 86th for $1,566 (~₹1.07 Lakhs) and Singh finishing 116th for $1,421 (~₹97,715).

Event #68A: The Little One for One Drop – $1,000 +111 No-Limit Hold’em opened with 947 runners on Day 1A and saw 9stacks qualifier Sanjay Taneja (30,400), Nipun Java (25,600) and Tarun Ravi (25,100), all moving through to Day 2. John Utley topped the 194 survivors at the end of play with his stack of 159,800.

WSOP 2018 Coverage
WSOP 2018 Coverage

Event #65: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event – World Championship

The biggest poker tournament on the planet, Event #65: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event – World Championship saw participation from 7,874 players who made their way to the Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino for a shot at the World Championship title. After Day 3, 1,182 among them have survived, all guaranteed a $15,000 payday, but it’s the whopping first place prize of $8,800,000 that they’d be gunning for, not to forget the most elusive gold bracelet in tournament poker!

In Sun Geoum bagged the overnight chip lead with 1,696,000, and leading the Indian camp is 9stacks qualifier Nishant Sharma (684,000). This is Sharma’s maiden trip to WSOP and his only score at the WSOP before this event was at the $1,000 Double Stack NLHE event where he finished 365th for $2,508 (~₹1.72 Lakhs). Young Gun Sharma is a regular at both domestic events and other prominent tournaments on the Asian circuit and his most prominent live score came at the 2017 HK$ 2,700+300 NLHE Macau Poker Cup 27, which he won for $8,423 (~₹5.79 Lakhs). Sharma has also fared well in several non-WSOP tournaments hosted in the Venetian this trip.

Nishant Sharma
Nishant Sharma

Team PokerStars India pro Aditya ‘Intervention’ Agarwal who narrowly missed out on winning the APPT Macau HK$ 40,000 NLHE – Main Event is a regular at the WSOP! With 13 years of experience at the series, Agarwal’s scores have been impressive and he has an enviable record in the Main Event. With a stack of 653,000 coming into Day 4, Agarwal has already locked in his seventh career Main Event cash, but cashing the Main Event hasn’t really been the goal for this seasoned go-getter, it is the dream of winning the World title that has kept him coming back to Las Vegas all these years! This year Agarwal has already cashed in six 2018 WSOP events with his best score coming in the $1,500 NLHE Monster Stack where he finished 27th for $35,819.

Aditya Agarwal
Aditya Agarwal

Starting Day 3 with a stack of 126,200, Agarwal chipped up early and his stack grew to 295,000 by the second level. He went on lose some through the levels and by Level 13 his stack had dipped to 275,000. Here onwards he kept up chipping up fast to reach 770,000, right up till the dinner break. After the tables were redrawn and Level 15 began, Agarwal moved to the Amazon Tan section. By then he had slipped down slightly to 680,000. Agarwal eventually bagged 653,000.

Agarwal kept his rail well informed with regular tweets!

Seen a lot of variance. Tough

The other Indians who has made it past Day 3 include Rohan Bhasin (458,000), Kartik Ved (144,900), Jaideep Sajwan (104,000), Apoorva Goel (102,000) Vivek Rughani (97,000) and Yudhishter Jaswal (48,000).

Kartik Ved
Kartik Ved

Sriharsha Doddapaneni (85,000) who came back with 182,100 on Day 3 was going strong but lost a very crucial pot at the fag end of the day to bag 85,000 in chips. The hand in question saw an opponent moving all-in with a gutshot straight draw on the turn against Doddapaneni`s top set and he got there for a massive 650,000 pot right around the money bubble.

Early on in the day though Doddapaneni did win a big pot off Michael Terhaar where, picking up the action on the river with the board open , Terhaar announced a bet of 50,000 with 80,000 already in the pot. On this Doddapaneni went all in and Terhaar snap-called for his remaining stack. Doddapaneni flipped over :@@7d for quad sevens while Terhaar tabled for aces full of eights.

Team India Update After Day 3

Team India Update After Day 3
Team India Update After Day 3

So vast was the player field in the Main Event that even as eliminations leading up to the third day sent many railing out, three huge poker rooms in the Rio were filled with players. Tables were redrawn many times as top pros like Jason Mercier, Parker Talbot, Greg Merson, Matt Waxman, Matt Berkey, JC Tran, Loren Klein, Phil Hellmuth, Erick Lindgren, Tom Marchese, and Steffen Sontheimer busted out short of the money.

Among the Indian challengers, Kavin Shah, Dharmesh Patel and Paawan Bansal failed to ride past the day’s challenges and busted empty-handed.

Phil Hellmuth who had entered the Main Event as the God of Thunder ‘Thor’ had an unceremonious ouster in a hand where he was leading with against Jan Arends’ but busted as the dealer brought out the on the board. Hellmuth’s bratty demeanor was evidently visible here as well. Just a few hands before his elimination, Hellmuth played a three-way hand where he was filmed using abusive language against opponents Alex Kuzmin and James ‘Camby Campbell. Though Hellmuth shut up before Kuzmin called, the scene was live-streamed and later players like Shaun Deeb openly criticized Hellmuth’s behavior and said he deserved penalties. The 14-time bracelet winner later apologized on Twitter.

The Main Event also brought in high action entertainment. With an hour left for the final level of the day to get over, players were sent on a sudden break and for the first time during the tournament every player into the Amazon room was relocated. The bubble was still 22 eliminations away and play slowed down after the break, as the tournament director announced hand-for-hand play! To the displeasure of the remaining players, the tournament went on break immediately after the third hand of the hand-for-hand process and the 500-denomination chips were colored up to hasten the bagging.

After the break, two all-in`s occurred and Matthew Hopkins eventually bounced out as the bubble boy. Though Hopkins run ended here, he earned a free entry into the 2019 WSOP Main Event, as is the tradition at WSOP.

In Sun Geoum
In Sun Geoum

Top 10 Chip Counts At The End of Day 3

1. In Sun Geoum – 1,696,000

2. Frank Flowers – 1,624,000

3. Samuel Benrabeu – 1,418,000

4. Michael Lavenburg – 1,356,000

5. Julius Malzanini – 1,292,000

6. Eric Froehlich – 1,235,000

7. Farukh Tach – 1,224,000

8. Eric Hicks – 1,200,000

9. Adam Geyer – 1,191,000

10. Anthony Marsico – 1,164,000

Event #66: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em

The 26 remaining players who came back on Day 3 in Event #66: $1,500 NLHE have now been reduced to just six finalists who will reconvene one last time to play down to a champion.

The first few eliminations of the day came through Vladimir Fomine (26th for $9,657), Jorge Aristizabal (25th for $9,657) and Xiaoqiong Liu (24th for $9,657).

Thereafter, players were eliminated fairly quickly starting with Nick Cipiti (22ndfor $9,657), Timur Margolin (17th for $11,942), Kfir Nahum (15th for $14,961) and Austin Hughes (11th for $18,988).

Indian-origin player Shyam Srinivasan had started the day with 370,000 and ran deep to finish 10th for $18,988 (~₹13.05 Lakhs) on the final table bubble.

Three more players were eliminated from the nine-handed final table including Jason Paradis (9th for $24,409), Georgios Tavoularis (8th for $31,775) and John Pannucci (7th for $41,884), before the bags were brought out.

Leading the way on Day 4 will be Longsheng Tan (3,260,000) who has managed to maintain his lead from Day 2, followed by Adam Laskey (2,345,000) and Jayaram Kovoorchathoth (1,660,000).

India’s Kunal Patni, Raghav Bansal and Aditya Sushant were also seen in action. Patni’s run had ended on Day 1, but Bansal and Sushant had made it to Day 2 and finished 121st for $2,658 (~₹1.82 Lakhs) and 161st for $2,343 (~₹1.61 Lakhs) respectively.

Longsheng Tan
Longsheng Tan

Chip Counts At The End of Day 3

1. Longsheng Tan – 3,260,000

2. Adam Laskey – 2,345,000

3. Jayaram Kovoorchathoth – 1,660,000

4. Lanny Levine – 1,175,000

5. Stephen Bierman – 1,035,000

6. Trey Brabham – 590,000

Event #67: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Bounty

The action folded to the unofficial ten-player final table on Day 2 in Event #67: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Bounty with Matt O’Donnell (985,000) leading the way followed by Anderson Ireland (864,000) and Jameson Painter (834,000).

Indian challengers Nipun Java and Navkiran Singh had bagged 36,100 and 28,200 in chips respectively on Day 1, but both hit the rails on Day 2 as Java finished 86th for $1,566 (~₹1.07 Lakhs) and Singh finished 116th for $1,421 (~₹97,715).

Nipun Java
Nipun Java

Out of the 124 runners who returned to the felts for the day, 114 were eliminated including Eric Baldwin (118th for $1,421), Benny Glaser (89th for $1,566), Robert Oxenberg (79th for $1,691), Christopher Doan (42nd for $2,772), Yin Wu (31st for $3,279), Florian Duta (24th for $3,946) and Fernando Brunca (18th for $4,830).

With the WSOP gold bracelet and first-place prize money of $141,161 on the line, Day 3 will be a hard-fought battle which will ultimately declare a winner.

Matt O'Donnell
Matt O’Donnell

Final Table Chip Counts (Unofficial)

1. Matt O’Donnell – 985,000

2. Anderson Ireland – 864,000

3. Jameson Painter – 834,000

4. Hai Chu – 703,000

5. Michal Maryška – 633,000

6. Jonathan Thomas – 598,000

7. Andrew Holland – 572,000

8. Joon Park – 441,000

9. James Morgan – 376,000

10. Harry Pozefsky – 234,000

Event #68A: The Little One for One Drop – $1,000 +111 No-Limit Hold’em

The opening flight Day 1A of Event #68: $1,111 The Little One for One Drop No-Limit Hold’em registered 947 entrants resulting in a prize pool of $852,300. But the prize pool is bound to increase with two more flights left to unfold. With a WSOP gold bracelet and a yet undeclared top prize up for grabs, the 194 survivors of Day 1A will join the survivors from the other two flights on Day 2.

Three competitors from Team India, 9stacks qualifier Sanjay Taneja, Nipun Java and Tarun Ravi were seen in action. All three made it to Day 2 with Taneja bagging 30,400, Java 25,600 and Ravi 25,100 in chips.

Sanjay Taneja
Sanjay Taneja

With John Utley (159,800) dominating the chip counts, along with Alberto Rodriguez (141,400) and Kenny Hallaert (131,900), several other players also managed to bag healthy stacks. David Peters (95,300), Erik Cajelais (93,500), Sorel Mizzi (82,900), Martin Finger (73,800), David Laka (65,100), Samuel Phillips (48,500), 888poker Ambassador Dominik Nitsche (29,400), Scott Bohlman (25,700), and David “ODB” Baker (25,600) all made it through the opening flight.

However, there were several pros who failed to make it past Day 1A and the list includes names like John Hesp, Jonathan Little, Mike Sexton, Aaron Massey, Mike Leah, Matthew Wilkins, Indian origin player Sandeep Vasudevan, Kitty Kuo, Chris Ferguson, Dan Shak, Jon Turner, and Leo Margets.

John Utley
John Utley

Top 10 Chip Counts At The End of Day 1

1. John Utley – 159,800

2. Alberto Rodriguez – 141,400

3. Kenny Hallaert – 131,900

4. BekaIordanishvili – 127,300

5. Richard Kirsch – 125,000

6. LeamondMcgriff – 122,000

7. Phil Laak – 118,300

8. Calvin Anderson – 117,300

9. Robert Damelian – 112,400

10. Stepan Osinovskii – 110,400

WSOP 2018 Coverage
WSOP 2018 Coverage

Content and image courtesy: WSOP.com

Keep following the latest updates from WSOP 2018 right here on PokerGuru!

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1. WSOP 2018: Kavin Shah & Dharmesh Patel Storm Through to Day 3 in Main Event, Raghav Bansal & Aditya Sushant Make Day 2 in $1,500 NLHE

2. WSOP 2018: Galen Hall Wins $888 Crazy Eights NLHE For $888,888

3. WSOP 2018: Aditya Agarwal & Paawan Bansal Lead a Contingent of 20 Indians Into Day 2 of the Main Event

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