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It’s that time of the year when all roads lead to Las Vegas with pros and amateurs alike chasing fame and fortune at WSOP 2018. And just a week into the World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2018, Team India has got into full swing with players already making deep runs!
On Wednesday, as poker fans from India watch with bated breath, India’s pioneering poker player – PokerStars Team Pro Aditya ‘intervention’ Agarwal (cover image) entered Event 13 – Big Blind Ante $1,500 No Limit Hold ‘em and climbed up the field of 1,306 entrants to make it among the 224 survivors who have advanced to Day 2 of the event.
Agarwal, is one of the most consistent Indian poker pros at WSOP and also the only Indian to be reach the top 100 in the WSOP Main Event. His poker resume boasts of 36 WSOP cashes with total WSOP earnings crossing $484,095!
Last year, we saw him make several exciting and deep runs into WSOP 2017 events, and this year, he seems to be back for more!
Day 1 play saw Agarwal rough it out like a true pro through the intense grinding action and, being adept at the tension and high intensity drama of WSOP events – this being his thirteenth consecutive year at the series – he maintained a calm and focused approach through the different levels of the play.
Agarwal’s stack at Level 5 was 8,400 and despite moments of struggle, he sailed through the challenging field and climbed up to 20,100 by Level 8. Thereafter he went on an upward drive. The home champ bagged and tagged a stack of 49,300 (49 big blinds) as Day 1 concluded. He will now resume play on Day 2 along with 223 others blinds of 500/1000.
49k to end day 1, restart at 500-1000(1000), 224 left wth 196 cashing #WSOP2018
— Aditya Agarwal (@AdiAgarwal_int) June 6, 2018
The tournament is running on a unique Big Blind Ante structure, which essentially means that the ante is posted by the big blind, giving the play a much faster pace. Out of the 224 players, 196 will cash in the event. A dazzling gold bracelet and a first-place payday of $315,346 awaits the event winner and Agarwal certainly has his eyes locked up at his first bracelet.
Early on, Day 1 began with players starting on a stack of 7,500. Ten levels of one-hour each were held. The late registrations closed off after the first eight levels and among who registered late were Chris Ferguson, Dylan Linde, Anthony Ruperto and Alexander Lynskey.
It is Stephen Song who will be entering Day 2 with the largest stack of 193,100. Song wasn’t really going very strong and was struggling to survive till Level 9, when he started building up on chips and didn’t look back since. Following Song is Stefan Vidojkovic (160,600) who is second in chips and Qui Nguyen (155,100) round up the top three stacks. Nguyen, who won the WSOP 2016 Main Event Championship, will be returning on Day 3 for a shot at winning his second WSOP bracelet.
Other notables who have survived through to Day 2 are Romain Lewis, Ankush Mandavia, Chance Kornuth, Jeff Gross, Alexander Lynskey, four-time bracelet winner Jeff Madsen, and six-time bracelet winner Chris Ferguson.
However, known faces like Phil Hellmuth, Kenny Hallaert, Maria Ho, Pfizer Jordan, Chris Moorman, Mohsin Charania, Joey Weissman, Ari Engel, Georgios Sotiropoulos, Kristen Bicknell and Tom Hall, all fell through the course of the day.
1. Stephen Song – 190,300
2. Stefan Vidojkovic – 160,600
3. Qui Nguyen – 155,100
4. Vojtech Ruzicka – 128,800
5. Iraj Parvizi – 128,000
6. Arthur Conan – 125,500
7. Victor Hoffman – 112,200
8. Mario Prats Garcia – 108,500
9. Colin Robinson – 106,400
10. Patrick Truong – 106,400
Content and image courtesy: WSOP.com.
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