Raghav Bansal Leads With 8 Remaining at HK$103K High Roller in Macau
Raghav Bansal holds the lead in the HK$103,000 High Roller Single Re-Entry Shot Clock, with high-stakes specialists Nick Petrangelo and Dan Smith still in contention.
Just eight remain with all players guaranteed at a payday of at least HK$470,000 (~US$57,536), although it is the HK$3,870,000 (~US$503,100) first prize that all will have their eye on.
Bansal powered into pole position midway through Day 2, after making a full house against 2017 Global Poker Index Player of the Year David Peters shortly after the second break. Peters departed shortly afterward at the hands of Russia’s Sergey Lebedev.
While Smith enjoyed a stint as top dog when play paused for the 60-minute dinner break, Bansal did not drop out of the top three. A late run of hands saw the Indian player edge back in front shortly after the field was whittled down to the last 16.
With the departure of China’s Shou Li in 16th place at the hands of Xiaoyang Luo, it took just 18 minutes to reach the final nine with Adrian Attenborough, Yang Wang, Xiaoyang Luo, Manig Loeser, Michael Addamo and Ryan Yu all departing in quick succession.
Bansal eliminated Wang and Luo in the space of three hands to cement a lead he would not relinquish. Taiwan’s James Chen was the last casualty of the day, running ace queen into the ace-king of Ben Lai to bring play to a close at 12:10 a.m. in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Final Table Seat Assignments:
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
| 1 | Nick Petrangelo | USA | 1,450,000 | 72 |
| 2 | Raghav Bansal | India | 1,787,000 | 89 |
| 3 | Sergey Lebedev | Russia | 805,000 | 40 |
| 4 | Sosia Jiang | Australia | 536,000 | 26 |
| 5 | Dan Smith | USA | 1,238,000 | 62 |
| 6 | Troy Quenneville | Canada | 1,698,000 | 85 |
| 7 | Xixiang Luo | China | 490,000 | 24 |
| 8 | Ben Lai | Hong Kong | 990,000 | 49 |
Remaining Payouts:
| Place | Prize (HKD) | Prize (USD) |
| 1 | 3,870,000 | 503,100 |
| 2 | 2,610,000 | 339,300 |
| 3 | 1,800,000 | 234,000 |
| 4 | 1,465,000 | 190,450 |
| 5 | 1,170,000 | 152,100 |
| 6 | 895,000 | 116,350 |
| 7 | 652,000 | 84,760 |
| 8 | 470,000 | 61,100 |
Day 2 began with three last-minute registrations to bring the total number of unique entries up to 180. With 42 players choosing to re-enter, this ballooned the prize pool to an impressive HK$17,460,000 (~US$2,247,413).
In total 78 players successfully circumnavigated the Day 1 tournament minefield and with late arrivals and re-entries this saw 84 players left in contention to battle it out for the title and the trophy.
The action was fast and furious with over half of the remaining field departing before the second break with Steve O’Dwyer, John Juanda, Tom Alner and HK$206,000 Single Re-Entry Shot Clock Champion Quan Zhou just some of the notables who were unsuccessful in their quest to make the money spots.
Out of these, it was Juanda who came the closest, narrowly missing out after getting the last of his chips in with eight-nine suited against the ace-queen of Chen and failing to hit the flop to take play hand-for-hand as the bubble approached.
Hand-for-hand lasted only a single hand with the unfortunate Zdravko Duvnjak getting his last 23,000 (just over four big blinds) in with king-ten offsuit and running into Sosia Jiang’s king-jack suited. Jiang paired her jack on the flop, and despite turning a pair and backdoor flush draw, Duvnjak missed the river to depart empty handed.
Notables to make the money but not the last 16 included WSOP bracelet holder Martin Kozlov, PokerStars Team Pro Felipe Ramos and High Roller regular Daniel Dvoress. You can see a full list of payouts under the tab at the top of this page.
Play resumes at 12:30 p.m. local time on April 9 with the PokerStars Macau Championship Main Event Final Table also playing out at 12 p.m. local time so join us then for the exciting conclusion to this spectacular poker series.
