Macau Poker Cup 23: Dhaval Mudgal & Akash Malik Win Teams Event, Nikhil Maheswari & Devang Shah Keep Hopes Alive on Day 3 of Red Dragon Main Event

MPC 23
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  • PG News September 9, 2015
  • 3 Minutes Read

Macau Poker Cup (MPC) 23 is now deep into its 17-day schedule, with the Red Dragon Main Event past Day 2 and only another five events left for the series to close.

Dhaval Mudgal and Akash Malik (cover image), together claimed victory in the HK $4,000 Teams Event, the first title for Team India at the series. It is sure to be a sweet victory-party for Team Thrill Pro Dhaval Mudgal, as the Teams Event win comes immediately after his 3rd place finish in the Midnight Turbo MTT for HK $40,960 yesterday.

Team India has been putting up a consistent performance at MPC 23, with continuous cashes at numerous side events from day one of the series. Unfortunately, the performance in the Main Event has been rather lackluster.

Day 2 of the event came with a shocker and saw – Shashank Jain, who had begun the day as chip lead bust at 86th place, as did Raaj Chandra Mohan, who was second chip lead on Day 1B. Amit Jain was also eliminated before the money bubble.

With practically all the notables out of contention, hope now lies only on the shoulders of Nikhil Maheswari, who ended Day 2, third in chip counts and Devang Shah, who also survived, to bring home the elusive Red Dragon Trophy.

In the past two days, three more events have concluded, these are Event – 11 – HK $5,000 NLH, Event 12 – HK $1,500 Flip-out and the HK $3,000 Midnight Turbo.

A player’s party has been planned tonight with Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal tweeting saying, “Players party tonight at D2 from 11 pm onwards #MPC23”.

It`s sure going to be one big celebration for Team India tonight!

 

HK $12,000 Red Dragon Main Event – Day 2

Day 2 saw 214 survivors take to their seats, but after six levels of 60 minutes each, only 48 of these remained for Day 3. The day began on a fast note with 100 players hitting the rails within the first two levels of play and the money bubble burst after just two hours of starting.

Chengtao Sun was the unlucky bubble boy, who lost his tournament life when he moved all in preflop with pocket fives, which were no match for an opponent’s pocket nines.

At the end of an action-packed day, China’s Mu Ke Jian was chip lead with the only seven-figure stack of 1,006,000, a massive lead over the second chip lead, Jiwan Park of Korea, who bagged 722,000 in chips.

Mu Ke Jian
Mu Ke Jian

India`s Nikhil Maheshwari is presently third in the chip counts with 615,000. Devang Shah was the only other Indian to make it through to Day 3 with 185,000 chips.

Nikhil Maheswari
Nikhil Maheswari

The day did not augur well for most of Team India though, with three eliminations out of the five playing. Shashank Jain had started off the day as chip leader and it was shock to find him eliminated at 86th place for HK $25,500.

According to the PokerStars blog live coverage, “Jain got his money in good with against his opponent’s and looked good for a double up.

That was until he saw the jack in the window on the flop. The turn brought some added home with a Broadway sweat but the paired the board with his opponent‘s aces and jacks ahead to scoop the pot.

Chandra Mohan who ended 2nd in chips on Day 1B, also busted the event in 87th place for HK $25,500.

Indian-origin player from Australia, Karan Punjabi made a 77th place finish for HK $27,500.

Indian pro Amit Jain was unable to make the money and tweeted his busting hand,

Busted main day 2 AKs<1010 now playing teams event with fellow spadie @kunalpatni13 #lfg #1fortheteam #teamspades”

MPC23 Red Dragon Day 2 Top Ten Counts

1. Mu Ke Jian – 1,006,000
2. Jiwan Park – 722,000
3. Nikhil Maheswari – 615,000
4. Huafeng Gu – 567,000
5. Jingrong Ji – 507,000
6. Shao Po Liu – 491,000
7. Yuefeng Pan – 461,000
8. Jongmin Park – 438,000
9. Saehoon Lee – 431,000
10. Chen Zhang – 428,000

Day 3 of the Red Dragon Main Event will continue at 3:00 pm local time on Thursday.

 

Event 11 – $5,000 NLH

Event 11 had 280 runners, leading to a prize pool of HK $1,222,200. The ultimate champion was Yanzhong Tong of China, who took home HK $276,500.

Yanzhong Tong
Yanzhong Tong

Danish Shaikh made an 8th place finish for HK $36,700 and Chandra Mohan Raaj finished 19th for HK $11,600.

 

Event 12 – HK $1,500 Flipout (re-entry)

Chinese player, Wayne Weiyi Zhang won Event 12 for HK $62,205. The event had a prize pool of HK $248,805, with 190 hopefuls signing up and only 19 making the money.

Wayne Weiyi Zhang
Wayne Weiyi Zhang

 

HK $3,000 Midnight Turbo MTT

This limited (10 table max) event saw 136 entries vying for a share of the HK $356,184 prize pool.

Chao Yang of China was the winner, collecting HK $92,624 for his victory.

Chao Yang
Chao Yang

India`s Dhaval Mudgal made an impressive 3rd place finish for HK $40,960. He kept updating the progress with tweets,

 

HK $4,000 Teams Event

Dhaval Mudgal, along with team mate Akash Malik won the HK $4,000 Teams Event. The Teams Event had 106 teams participating for a prize pool of HK $370,152.

Akash Malik and Dhaval Mudgal
Akash Malik and Dhaval Mudgal

All along, Dhaval kept tweeting updates,

MPC 23 will continue at 3pm on Thursday with Day 3 of the Red Dragon Main Event, where the plan will be to play till the final table is reached. The other event slated for Thursday is Event 13 – HK $20,000 NLH, a 3-Day event with a HK $1 million guaranteed prize pool, that kicks off at 7.00 pm (local time). Keep watching this space for the latest updates from MPC 23!

Image Courtesy: Kenneth Lim Photography courtesy of PokerStars LIVE Macau.

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