The 5th day of 2015 WSOP Main Event saw 2 Indians vying for the most prestigious title in a field of 237 players left. Team PokerStars pro-Aditya Agarwal once again proved his dexterity finishing 71st for $96,445 while Phani Ramineni placed 185th bagging $40,433. Aditya became the 1st Indian to finish in Top 100 of the WSOP Main Event and eventually bagged the biggest cash prize too.
A total of 237 players returned for the Day 5 action at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino on Sunday. The field was down to 69 players led by Pierre Neuville by the end of day’s play. The 72-year old Belgium pro who has 19 WSOP cashes under the hood will start the Day 6 game with over 7 million chips. David Stefanski (6,480,000) and Thomas Paul (6,140,000) are following him in the 2nd and 3rd position. The 3-time bracelet winner, Brian Hastings will start his Main Event bracelet hunt on Day 6 with 4,740,000 chips in 10th place. The Canadian pro and World #1 in tournament winnings, Daniel Negreanu is also going strong with 3,620,000 chips to add the Main Event bracelet in his list of accolades.
Other notable pros of the international circuit returning for the Day 6 include Anton Morgenstern (4,200,000), Justin Schwartz (3,495,000), Mark Kroon (3,250,000), Toby Lewis (2,645,000), Fedor Holz (1,975,000) and Blake Bohn (1,410,000). Upeshka De Silva who won his maiden WSOP bracelet this year in Event #45: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em will start Day 6 with 1,750,000 chips.
The Indian-origin player Amar Anand who led the Main Event field for 2 days is also in the battle of bracelet with a stack of 3,600,000. Another player of Indian-origin, Vivek Rajkumar finished 197th taking home $40,433. Adding more to the cash winnings of Team India this year was Akash Malik who made a valiant 357th place finish on Day 4 bagging $24,622.
After the fall of Phani Ramineni in 185th place, Aditya Agarwal was the only hope for Indians to bring home the bracelet. The short-stacked Aditya gained chips from two double-ups but ultimately fell against Brian Hastings 20 minutes before the game was called close on Day 5. In the last hand, Hastings raised to which Aditya went all-in. Hasting called with while Aditya showed . The dealer put giving Hastings a pair of Kings with another pair on the table which meant the end of the tournament for Aditya.
The game will resume on Monday at Rio with 69 players left which will take 2 days to form the 2015 WSOP Main Event “November Nine”.