The 33-years-old poker player Gaurav Raina topped a field of 1 086 players to win his first WSOP gold bracelet and add to his poker earnings the significant amount of $456,822 by participating in 2017 World Series of Poker $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Event.
This is the first time for the poker player, in which he managed to amass such a considerable winning from a WSOP event. Before that, it is reported that Raina won a WSOP cash prize only two times, estimated to be $9,749 in total. Besides the massive cash prize, this event brought the player the WSOP gold bracelet, which is the first in his poker career.
Due to the great interest in the event and the 30 players, who reached the 3rd day of the competition, an extra day was added to the 3-days competition. On the 3rd day, Raina took the 11th position, but he managed to amass a significant stack of chips thanks to his hot streak. Thus, he entered the heads-up battle against 51-years-old James Calvo.
Despite Raina’s success, it was James Calvo, who entered the heads-up battle as a chip-lead, holding 9,600,000 against Raina’s almost two times less 4,000,000. The intriguing heads-up match, which was about to decide who will earn the title and the big prize started on the 4th day after a small break. The decisive heads-up battle continued for almost two hours, full of tension and unexpected twists.
However, Raina managed to emerge on the surface by doubling his bankroll. With a big blind of 120,000 and an ante of 15,000, Raina called the big blind and Calvo checked. After the flop, which brought [Ks], [7h] and [2s], Calvo bet 275,000, Raina raised to 800,000.
Calvo moved all-in and Raina moved the rest of his chips towards the center of the table, striking a top and bottom pair. Calvo, on the other hand, was holding [9s] [4s], hoping on the turn to give him a flush. The turn brought [Q][d] on the table, followed by the [Q][h] on the river. Thus, Raina gained the upper hand over his opponent.
In the last couple of minutes, the flop gave Calvo a top pair, which was still not enough to outperform Raina, who flopped a set of jacks and three of a kind. Thus, Raina’s full house bested Calvo’s top pair, who left the poker table with $282,276 cash.
Gaurav Raina, on the other hand, added almost two times more to his poker earnings, bringing back home $456,822. In fact, the winner has a rich career on the poker field, with a small break of two months, in which he shared that he studied the game closely.
Despite the fact that Raina’s stack of chips was way smaller during most of the time, the cards allotted him the first prize and the title. The game developed in an interesting way, but the outcome of the whole event was even more striking. This event is one more proof for the unpredictable nature of poker.
