Mario Prats Garcia Wins Big Blind Antes $1,000 NLH; Amit Jain, Aditya Agarwal & Nipun Java Cash Out

Mario Prats Garcia has been crowned as the newest champion at the WSOP 2018. He defeated a strong field of 1,712 in just 2 days of play to win his first-ever WSOP bracelet and $258,255 in top prize in the WSOP Event #45: Big Blind Antes $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em (30-minute levels).

The Spanish poker pro Prats Garcia notched up a second-place finish at the 2017 WSOP and this year he upped it by taking down a gold bracelet. When asked about how he felt after taking down the event, he said: “Super excited, I’m super happy. I thought I could never get back here and the FT was hard. I sucked out a couple of guys and I got all the chips! I’m super excited and nervous.”

Prats Gracia came into the second day as eighth in chips with 41 players remaining. It was fast-paced action and the final table was reached within just four hours. The first elimination from the final table came in Lander Lijo from Spain whose A-2 didn’t hold against A-Q of Michael Wang. 2011 WSOP main event runner-up Martin Staszko was the next player to exit the tournament. He was eliminated in eighth place by Prats Garcia. Following him was DJ MacKinnon who went out in the seventh place when he shoved with the K-7 and ran into the 7-7 of Matthew Hunt.

Later, Prats Garcia busted Gregory Worner in sixth place ($45,828). Up next, he finished off Mark Schluter in fifth place ($61,580). A few hands later, WSOP bracelet winner Michael Wang moved all-in with 3-3 against Prats Garcia’s A-K. A king falling on the board saw Wang leaving in fourth place ($83,663). Very soon, Prats Garcia then knocked out Sebastian Dornbracht in third place.

Matthew Hunt made it to heads-up with Garcia, although he had a 7.5-to-1 chip disadvantage. The battle lasted only 3 hands. Although Hunt managed to double up once, he finally lost the battle.

The last hand of the tournament saw the flop 5c 4s 7d where Garcia checked and Hunt bet 130,000. The action folded back to Garcia who check-called. The turn opened 9d and it was checked around. The river was 8d where Hunt holding 10c 6s moved all in and Garcia snap-called with his Qd 6d. Hunt hit the straight, but that was not good enough against Garcia’s queen-high flush.

Team India

Team India’s Aditya Agarwal, Nipun Java, Adda52 Team Pro Amit Jain and Muskan Sethi joined in the action. It was Mumbaikar Amit Jain who made the deepest run among the Indians finishing 117^th place for $2,019 ( INR 1.37 Lac). Amit Jain has made seven cashes in the WSOP since 2016.

The two stalwarts Aditya Agarwal and Nipun Java who have been notching up scores at the WSOP 2018 also cashed out in this event. Java maintained his impressive form and took 150th place for a cool $1,851 – INR 1.25 Lac). Agarwal ended up finishing in 246th place and taking home $1,501 – INR 1.01 Lac. Unfortunately for India’s top female pro – Muskan Sethi, she hit the rail empty-handed.

Final Table Payouts