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WSOP 2019: Punjwani, Chakravarthy make FT of Event #82

Yesterday, we spoke about 6 Indians progressing among 350-odd survivors after Day 1 of the Double Stack tournament at the 2019 World Series of Poker (WSOP). They were all in the money and with big prizes up for grabs, none wanted to just take home another small cash. Everyone was playing only for the prestigious gold bracelet!

When these players returned today, Sachidananda Sivakumar was the first to fall out of the race, busting in 253rd for $2,911. The next to go was Karan Radia in 209th for the same pay-out of $2,911. The third Indian to hit the rail on Day 2 today was Himmat Singh, exiting the tournament in 120th place for $3,654.

The rest of the 3 Indian survivors took it deep into Day 2 and unfortunately, we had Goonjan Mall exiting after his Queens lost to AK of Pablo Fernandez. J 7 9 8 on the board meant Mall was ahead until the turn but Ace on the river sent Mall packing. He ended a good run in 19th place for $17,063 (~INR 11.18 Lakh), which is his second cash of WSOP 2019 and also the best live score of his career so far.

Two Indians still in the field are Kalyan Chakravarthy and Kunal Punjwani, the former leading the Indian stacks overnight, while also finishing among the top 5 stacks overall. With Hye Park being eliminated in 10th place, both these Indian pros made the Final Table of 9 in Event #82: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Double Stack, keeping the hopes of India’s third gold bracelet alive!

The last elimination of the day was that of Pablo Fernandez. He jammed from the small blind with K3 and got a call from Kunal Punjwani in the big blind who had pocket Threes. With the board rolling out 9 7 A 4 9, Punjwani won with Nines and Threes and chipped up as play halted for the day, with only 8 players still in contention. 

Final Table chip counts:

1. Freek Scholten – 26,000,000
2. Darren Rabinowitz – 20,050,000
3. Barry Shulman – 18,450,000
4. Kunal Punjwani – 15,500,000
5. Adam Hendrix – 15,350,000
6. Philip Scaletta – 13,575,000
7. Tom Koral – 10,550,000
8. Kalyan Chakravarthy – 9,925,000                

Chakravarthy lost a few pots towards the latter stages of the day but he’s a brilliant poker player, with memories of a DeepStack Championship title last year in Las Vegas for $147k. He’ll be looking to chip up early tomorrow on Day 3 and move ahead of the current average stack of 14.4 million chips.

When they return tomorrow, each player is guaranteed at least $56,850 (~INR 39 Lakh) for 8th place, while the top prize is $530,164. Stay tuned to GutshotMagazine.com for timely updates from this tournament in Las Vegas, as well as other gaming stories from around the world.

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