What a day for Indians at Macau Poker Cup! Adda52 Team Spades pro Kunal Patni made a runner-up finish in the HK $5,000 No Limit Holdem event of Macau Poker Cup and Rajeev Raut of Rockets Poker Room, also finished in the 3rd place of the same event. Kunal took home the runner-up prize of HK $175,200 while Rajeev bagged $113,100 for his 3rd place finish.
Today, both the Indian players returned for the Final Table battle of this event cruising past a field of 289 runners at PokerStars LIVE Macau poker room and were determined for the big pot. Meanwhile, Rajeev started a thread of updates on Facebook which united every Indian poker lover railing for the duo. The expectations were high from these two players as they have shown some brilliant performance in the tournament earlier. Rajeev had bagged HK $20,100 making a 4th place finish in the HK $2,000 Deepstack PLO and both the players have already qualified for Day 2 of the Red Dragon Main Event of MPC22 with Kunal in the Top 10 from Day 1a.
As the action rolled out today on the final table of MPC22 HK $5,000 NLH event, Kunal and Rajeev aimed for the lion’s share of the accumulated prize pool of HK $1,130,535. After 4 quick eliminations, the game intensified and the stacks swung among the remaining players. Rajeev and Kunal progressed keeping the Indian flag high in the contest.
Rajeev’s fight came to an end in the 3rd position leaving Kunal for the heads up. “I had a normal day. Nothing great in hand but, I played aggressively winning 90% of the hands preflop. I was putting a lot of pressure as I was just shoving most hands,” said Rajeev after finishing.
Kunal kept on vying for the top prize but lost a big pot when he went all-in with a pair of 4 and his opponent Takuya Suzuki rivered a pair of Ace with A,10 in hand. The Final hand started with Kunal holding pocket Jacks raising on a flop of 8,4,2 while his opponent called with 8,10. Kunal lost when the opponent 10 hit on the river making two-pair for the opponent.
Kunal was elated over this finish and said, “It feels awesome to come 2nd. Super excited! Got pretty unlucky in the last two big hands otherwise the trophy would have been mine. I’m still thankful to come this far.” He continued, “It was a tough event and to make is so far itself has given me a lot of satisfaction. I’m super happy with my game. I am playing well. Tomorrow is Day2 of the Red Dragon main event and I hope to carry on the good form.”