WSOP 2019 Daily Spotlight – July 3

In this daily feature, we will bring you the key highlights of the 50^th World Series of Poker (WSOP) to keep you abreast with the ongoings of the ‘World’s Biggest Poker Festival.

It’s finally here! July 3 was a special day at the 50^th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) with the most awaited tournament on the poker calendar finally kicking off. Day 1A of the $10K No-Limit Hold ‘em Main Event World Championship registered 1,335 entries and among them were a few Indian challengers. Five of them, headlined by Young Gun Abhinav Iyer succeeded in advancing further. Iyer bagged a stack of 79,500 (99 big blinds), with Satchit Kapur (59,100 – 74 big blinds), PokerGuru Staking’s Vikram Kumar (45,300 – 57 big blinds), Rohan Dhawan (23,000 – 29 big blinds) and Jasven Saigal (18,600 – 23 big blinds) also booking a berth for Day 2AB. 345 players were eliminated on Day 1A and among them was PokerStars India Team Pro Muskan Sethi.

The other featured event of the day was Event #71: $500 Salute to Warriors that had two Indians in contention on Day 2. Aditya S who had started Day 2 placed 21^st in chips among 267 survivors played exceptionally well to finish 14^th for $5,819 (~₹4 Lakhs). He would have done much better had it not been for a brutal bad beat that resulted in his dismissal with his king-jack falling to Lu Chen’s king-nine. Sachidananda Sivakumar, the other Indian on Day 2, made an early exit at 141^st place for $865 (~ ₹59,496).

It was a busy day otherwise with three events wounding down to a champion. 27-year old French pro Jeremy Saderne collected his first gold bracelet in Event #69: $1K Mini Main Event, while Ricardo Alvarado did the same by winning Event #64: $888 Crazy Eights NLHE. The first online High Roller event of the series, Event #74: $3,200 WSOP.com ONLINE NLHE High Roller, was taken down by another first-time winner George ‘DrOctagon’ Adams.

Event #73: $10,000 Main Event Championship – Day 1A

Day 1A, the first of three starting flights of the most awaited tournament of the series played out on July 3 with 1,335 entries joining the action. 990 of them have advanced to Day 2B, and part of this group were five Indians.

Abhinav Iyer leads the group with 79,500 in chips (99 big blinds).

Also moving forward were Satchit Kapur (59,100 – 74 big blinds), PokerGuru Staking’s Vikram Kumar (45,300 – 57 big blinds), Rohan Dhawan (23,000 – 29 big blinds) and Jasven Saigal (18,600 – 23 big blinds).

PokerStars India Team Pro Muskan Sethi was unfortunately eliminated before the end of play on Day 1A.

Leading the day`s survivors was Bryan Campanello who carries with him a stack of 417,500 (522 big blinds). Day 2AB is slated to run on July 6.

Read the complete report here

Event #71: $500 NLHE – Day 2

267 survivors from a starting field of 1,723 entries returned for Day 2, and this included two Indians – Aditya S (310,000 – 160 big blinds) and Sachidananda Sivakumar (70,000 – 14 big blinds). S who started the day as the 21^st biggest stack in the field managed an impressive 14^th place finish for $5,819 (–₹4 Lakhs) and would have done better had it not been for a brutal bad beat.

Sivakumar, on the other hand, was one of the shorter stacks on Day 2 and unsurprisingly fell out at 141^st place for $865 (~ ₹59,496).

With only 259 out of the 267 survivors assured to make it in the money, all it took was two hours for the money bubble to burst with Patrick Watts becoming the last player to fall out empty-handed.

With Watts gone, all remaining players were assured of collecting at least $699, and it took several hours to play down to the nine-handed final table.

Taehyung Kim (9^th for $9,486) was the last player to exit on Day 2 and with him gone, the remaining eight finalists were asked to bag their stacks.

Bagging the overnight chip lead was Taylor Carroll who carries 13,525,000 to Day 3. Indian-origin Kulwant Singh (2,225,000) is also in contention.

Read the complete report here

Event #64: $888 Crazy Eights NLHE – Day 4

Seven turned out to be the lucky number for American pro Ricardo Alvarado who after six failed bullets, finally took down the event on his seventh buy-in. Alvarado who has worked in an In-N-Out Burger outlet for six years may very likely be exploring a career shift after becoming the proud recipient of a WSOP gold bracelet and $888,888 in prize money.

Alvarado ran past the last 10 players on Day 4 to win the event. He had asked his mother not to bother coming for the final table since he was the short stack, but she came and even saw her son winning the bracelet!

The event saw a massive Indian invasion with our challengers posting an impressive 22 scores. PokerGuru Staking’s Madhav Gupta came out as the top performer amid this group, finishing 188^th for a personal-best $5,938 (~₹4.09 Lakhs) in prize money!

Read the complete report here

Event #69: $1,000 Mini Main Event – Day 3

Day 3 began with the eight-handed final table and topping them all to take home his first WSOP bracelet was France’s Jeremy Saderne. He pocketed $628,654 after defeating Lula Taylor heads-up for the title.

Earlier on Day 2, four Indians, namely, Nipun Java (51^st for $11,460 – ₹7.89 Lakhs), Kunal Punjwani (99^th for $4,772 – ₹3.28 Lakhs), Paawan Bansal (250^th for $3,125 – ₹2.15 Lakhs) and Sirjan Singh (320^th for $2,762 – ₹1.90 Lakhs) had made it in the money. Gokul Parvathaneni (775th for $1,499 – ₹1.03 Lakhs) was the only Indian to post a score on Day 1.

Read the complete report here

Event #74: $3,200 WSOP.com ONLINE NLHE High Roller – Day 1

The first High Roller online event at the ongoing series attracted 593 entries generating a prize pool of $1,802,720. Capturing the title and the $411,561 cash prize was George ‘DrOctagon’ Adams who eliminated Nabil Mohamed Abdien ‘thebrownbear’ Cardoso heads-up to win the bracelet.

Read the complete report here

Event #70: $5,000 NLHE 6-Handed – Day 3

Day 3 started with 28 survivors and after intense seven-and-half hours of action, played down to the last six players. Joao Vieira emerged the top stack for the second consecutive day with 7,635,000 in chips, a reasonable distance ahead of the next big stacks Jamie O’Connor (5,190,000), and Olivier Busquet (4,050,000).

Event #72: $10, Limit Hold ‘em Championship – Day 2

The day started with 51 survivors, and with registration open until the start of the day, eight new players joined the field, making for a total field of 118 entries.

Only 15 have managed to survive the day’s competition and moving forward as the biggest stack is Mike Lancaster with 1,201,000 in chips.

Content & Images Courtesy: World Series of Poker

Keep following PokerGuru for daily updates from the 2019 WSOP!