Team India is off to an impressive start in the 23rd edition of Macau Poker Cup with final table presence in consecutive events. Event#1: $2,000 Deepstack NLH saw Adda52 Team Spades pro Kunal Patni making a deep run and reaching the Final Table on Day 2. Kunal finished 6th in the tournament bagging HK$24,120 in prize money. Shashank Rathi, one of the tournament regs of India has battled through a field of 353 players in the Event#2: HK$1 million Gtd Baby Dragon making his way to the final table. He was 6th in chip count with a stack of 282,000 on the final table of this event today at the time this news went live.
Event 1: $2,000 Deepstack NLH
The opening event of Macau Poker Cup 23 saw 307 players vying for a prize pool of HK$536,022. The tournament was played down to top 36 in the money on Day 1. Kunal Patni was the only Indian survivor in the money of this tournament. On Day 2, he capitalized over his 5.5 BB stack to reach the final table. In the end, it was Maurice Wee Teck Tan of Singapore winning the top prize of HK$125,970 with the trophy. Kunal who ranks 35th on the Asia Player of the Year (APOY) leaderboard placed 6th for HK$24,120.
Event 2: HK$1,000,000 GTD Baby Dragon
The Baby Dragon event in its 2nd season drew 353 players accumulating a prize pool of HK$1,849,014. The MPC23 organizers reserved HK$430,000 for the champion and announced to distribute the remaining prize money in 40 players. Many notable players of the Asia-Pacific region including 2-times Red Dragon champion PokerStars Pro Celina Lin joined the Baby Dragon battle on Saturday.
The Event reached its Final Table today with Alex Kim of Korea (774,000) at the top. Team India marked its presence in the Baby Dragon event with Shashank Rathi making it to the final table with 282,000 chips. Shashank has an impressive record in the Macau Poker Cup over the years with 1 event win and 6 final table finishes.
Here is the final table chip count:
| Seat 1 | Alex Kim (Korea) | 774,000 |
| Seat 2 | Yi Huang (China) | 115,000 |
| Seat 3 | Xiang Rong (China) | 722,000 |
| Seat 4 | Aaron Lam (Singapore) | 323,000 |
| Seat 5 | Shing Yui Yip (Hong Kong) | 296,000 |
| Seat 6 | Yasuhiro Ojiri (Japan) | 599,000 |
| Seat 7 | Chia Hui Tu (Chinese Taipei) | 178,000 |
| Seat 8 | Alan Lau (Hong Kong) | 252,000 |
| Seat 9 | Shashank Rathi (India) | 282,000 |
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