The first week of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) has been quite exciting with more than 9 out of 74 events coming to completion. There were various players who impressed over the last few days. Daniel Negreanu made two final tables on his quest for three bracelets, poker’s power couple Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov won their first bracelet together in the $10K Tag Team event. WSOP 2017 has been turning out to be a good series for Indian contingent as well, as India’s Aditya Sushant and Nipun Javan won the tag team event (event 10) , claiming the first-ever bracelet for themselves and India.
While it was hard to pick up Global Poker Player of the Week, Doug Polk, the winner of the highest WSOP buy-in Event #6: High Roller for One Drop – $111,111 No-Limit Hold’em, became the top choice and was picked up as the best player of the week for his super show across the series. He beat a field of 130 of the best players to claim his third bracelet and claim to over $3.6 million in High Roller for One Drop. He started final table in sixth position. It was not easy road for him to reach victory, but patience, good decisions, and a bit of luck propelled him.
“To win that much money against tough people in a world-class event, it’s way different,” Polk had to say when asked about his win in High Roller for One Drop. Phil Hellmuth thinks that Polk has what it takes to bring new fans to poker and grow the sport. Polk plans to attract new fans to poker by giving away 2% of his WSOP profits. Always smiling and joking, he is definitely a player we should watch out for. While it is too early to say, Polk is sitting on top of the World Series of Poker Player of the Year 2017 Leaderboard. Here is how the top ten players are shaping up as of Wednesday this week:
| Rank | Player | Points |
| 1 | Doug Polk | 275.69 |
| 2 | Mark Scacewater | 267.51 |
| 3 | Benjamin Zamani | 220.08 |
| 4 | Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier | 189.67 |
| 5 | Joe Mitchell | 188.31 |
| 6 | Aron Dermer | 184.56 |
| 7 | Jesse Martin | 184.01 |
| 8 | Ryan Hughes | 180.63 |
| 9 | Dario Sammartino | 168.87 |
| 10 | James Obst | 166.2 |
India’s Aditya Agarwal Finishes 9th in Event #12: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
The $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event of the WSOP 2017 attracted a huge 1,739 hopefuls and the 275 surviving players returned to play Day 2 with 262 players finishing on paying positions. At the end of day, 23 players remained with Australia-based Melissa Gillett leading the pack with 3,443,000 in chips. He was followed by India`s pioneering poker mentor Aditya Agarwal holding 1,286,000 in chips.
Unfortunately for Aditya Agarwal who played smartly and enjoyed a deep run, he ended up his game finishing in 9th place, earning $30,774 for his efforts. Agarwal started his day with 33,000 but he managed to chip up and reached to 223,000. According to the reports, he was leading with a stack of 396,000 by the second break of the event, but ended his run in the 9th place finally. But a great show by Aditya, as he continued his efforts to get 2nd bracelet for the country. Apart from Aditya Agarwal, Samay Parikh and Aditya Sushant also made it in the money in this event. Parikh managed to finish at the 103rd place for $3,055 and Sushant finished 145th for $2,796.