There are countless poker tournaments taking place every year in various parts of the world, but nothing beats the World Series of Poker (WSOP) that attracts thousands of players to Las Vegas to battle it out for life-changing prizemoney across various poker events. The schedule for this year’s WSOP edition is already out. The 49th edition of the world’s richest tournament series will take place from May 29 – July 17. Once again, it will be held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
This year’s WSOP promises to be the richest one as it will feature 78 Official Gold Bracelet Events and the $10,000 NLH Main Event, which will run from July 2 -14. Adding to the delight, there will be a dozen of other exciting events, which will begin after the Main Event kicks off. The $ 1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop will make a return. It will run from July 15 – 17 to close out the series.
The doors will open on May 29th with registration for live action games and satellites. The first bracelet event will begin on May 30th. Once again, the biggest attraction will be the Main Event. Last year, a total of 7,221 players participated, creating a 3rd largest field in WSOP history. About $68 million was up for grabs and it was Scott Blumstein, who won the Main Event for $8,150,000.
In 2018, another huge field is expected. ESPN and PokerGO will bring the daily live coverage of the WSOP Main Event. That is not all, the full TV and live streaming schedules for all 2018 WSOP events will be released at a later date. So, it is going to be exciting poker extravaganza ahead!
Largest Indian Contingent Expected At WSOP 2018
This year, the World Series of Poker is expected to see the largest number of Indian players taking shot in different popular events. Some notable players who are going to attend the series this year include the stars like Aditya ‘Intervention’ Agarwal, India’s first WSOP bracelet winner Aditya Sushant and the well-known poker faces like Rahul Byrraju, Adda52 Team Pro Amit Jain, Shashank Jain, Adda52 Team Pro Kunal Patni, Sahil Agarwal, Raghav Bansal and Akash Malik.
Adding up to this strong line-up will be top poker ladies – Adda52 Team Pro Nikita Luther and India’s first ladies award winner – Muskan Sethi. Joining them will be other well-known faces such as Antony Pereira, who won a Rio Deepstack event at the 2016 WSOP, the veterans like Jasven Saigal and Vikram Kumar, and the young talent Sikander Rajwade, who is currently based in Toronto.
WSOP: A Lookback at 2017 that was a breakout year for Team India!
The WSOP 2017 was a great season with Team India notching-up several big scores. Aditya Sushant and Nipun Java won the Tag Team No Limit Hold’em event and thus got the first gold bracelets for India. Paawan Bansal from Meerut and Rahul Byrraju cashed at the Main Event for $53,247 each. Paawan also cashed at $ 1,000 No Limit Hold’em (Event #37) where he finished 74th for $ 3,171.
Among Indian players cashing at the WSOP 2017, it was Aditya ‘intervention’ Agarwal, who topped the chart with 11 cashes. His biggest score came in $ 1,500 No Limit Hold’em (Event #12 where he finished 9th for $ 30,773. The well-known Aditya Sushant who notched-up 10 cashes was second on the list. His best moment during WSOP 2017 came when he won the first gold bracelet for India by winning the Tag Team Event. The young gun Shashank Jain from Delhi made 4 cashes with his highest score $ 4,156 coming from $ 888 No Limit Hold’em Crazy Eights (Event #60).
Adda52 Team Pro Amit Jain collected 3 cashes at the WSOP 2017 and his biggest cash came from Event #47 $1,500 NLHE-Monster Stack where he finished 44th and won a cool $24,717. Samay Parikh also collected 3 cashes at the series and his biggest score came in $ 1,000 No Limit Hold’em – Super Turbo Bounty (Event #39) where he finished 9th for $ 5,765. Another player collecting 3 cashes at the WSOP 2017 was none other than the Adda52 Team Pro Nikita Luther, who grabbed big headlines in 2017 for finishing 5th in the WPT500 Main Event in Las Vegas for $ 65,000.
Adda52 Team Pro Kunal Patni cashed out at two events. The Delhites Akash Malik and Apoorva Goel also collected 2 cashes each. Other notables who notched-up cashes at the WSOP 2017 included Raghav Bansal, Sumit Sapra, Dhaval Mudgal, Shuchi Camera and Vikram Kumar.
2017 was a breakout year for Team India with two WSOP bracelets and several big scores coming their way. With a larger contingent going to the WSOP 2018, it is going to be a crazy summer this year for Indian challengers in Las Vegas, USA. Stay tuned in for the latest updates from WSOP 2018!