WSOP 2019: Israel’s Team Geiger Wins Tag Team Event; Team Akshay Nasa & Sajal Gupta Finishes 28th

Event #57: $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold’em of the WSOP 2019 came to an end, after 10 levels on Day 3! It was originally scheduled as a 4-day event but culminated a day early, crowning a winning team in Ohad Geiger, Daniel Dayan & Barak Wisbrod, who defeated the team of Jerod Smith – Matthew Moreno – Lawrence Chan in heads-up play to earn a hefty $168,395 in top prize money.

The tournament drew 976 teams and generated $878,400 in prizepool, which was shared by the top 147 teams, with a min-cash being $1,498. Some notable teams to finish deep were Tuan Le & Thanh Tran (10th for $9,340), Kevin Andriamahefa, Joe Huang & Alexander Ziskin (11th for $9,340), Dragos Trofimov, Mihai Niste, Alexandru Papazian & Florian Duta (12th for $9,340), Jared Jaffee, Ralph Massey & Aaron Massey (14th for $7,372) and James George & Jonathan Walker (18^th)($5,906)

Indian Teams 

The WSOP Tag Team Event had been dominated by Indian Teams over the past two years. The 2017 saw the team of Aditya Sushant & Nipun Java bagging the title and the last year saw Adda52 Team Pro Nikita Luther & her German partner Guiseppe Pantaleo wining the event. This year, three Indians teams made it to Day 2, namely Team Akshay Nasa & Sajal Gupta, Team Kevin MacPhee, Dhaval Mudgal, Abhinav Iyer & Siddharth Karia and Team Aditya “bitti” Agarwal & Ankush Agarwala.

While Team Aditya exited empty-handed on Day 2, Kevin MacPhee, Dhaval Mudgal, Abhinav Iyer & Siddharth Karia cashed out, finishing in the 36th place for $3,970 prizemoney. The only team from India entering Day 3 of the tournament was Team Akshay Nasa & Sajal Gupta. They had come into the day with the 15^th biggest stack of 570,000 among 35 remaining teams. They lost a big pot early on Day 3 and could not make a comeback, eventually exiting in 28^th place for $3,970.

Final Table Action

 The first team to exit from the FT was Team Chang (Shaotong Chang & Jie Xu) who shoved their last eight big blinds and was called by Team Smith with ace-seven. Chang’s five-four didn’t find any help on the board and she and her team went out in 9^th place. Following them in the 8^th place was Team Hallaert (Kenny Hallaert & Steven van Zadelhoff). Their aces got cracked by the jacks of Team Geiger.

A few minutes later, Team Marder (Michael Marder , Daniel Marder & Paul Steinberg) went out in 7^th place when their ace-four shove was called by Team Geiger who held with pocket jacks again. Following them in 6^th place was Team Jung (Chahn Jung, Danny Wong, Steve Sung & Aaron Motoyama). They got their last chips in with king-jack against the pocket sevens of Team Smith (Jerod Smith, Matthew Moreno & Lawrence Chan). Team Smith rivered a full house to win the pot and eliminate their opponents. Team Richard Washinsky & Fabio Coppola went out in 5^th place.

Team Jurkieiwcz (Timothy Jurkiewicz & Zachary Gruneberg) exited in fourth place when their Ace-King couldn’t beat the pocket fives of Team Hinds (John Hinds & Anthony Zinno). After over 64 hands later, it came to heads-up as Team Geiger eliminated team Hinds in 3^rd place. Team Hinds’ pocket sixes failed to win against the ace-five of Team Geiger who improved to trips to win the pot.

The heads-up finale between team Ohad Geiger, Daniel Dayan & Barak Wisbrod and Team Jerod Smith, Matthew Moreno & Lawrence Chan started with the former holding 15,000,000 chips against 4,500,000 of the latter team. The heads-up did not last long and was over within 30 minutes. The last hand saw Team Geiger with Jc 10c and Team Smith with 8c 7h. The board ran out 5s Kc 10s Qc Ah where Team Geiger won the title for $168,395. Team Smith settled for $104,025 as runner-up prize.

Final Table Payouts (USD):