Aditya Agarwal Wins First World Series of Poker Bracelet

Longtime Poker Pro Takes Down $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Event To Earn $189,661

Aditya Agarwal first cashed at the World Series of Poker back in 2007. The longtime poker pro, who was once an Card Player Online Player of the Year race fixture, has made the money 65 times since that first summer. Finally, after more than a decade and a half, Agarwal broke through to win his first bracelet this summer in a $1,000 no-limit hold’em event. The poker pro from Kolkata, India earned $189,661 and his first bracelet after topping the field of 1,424 entries.

This event took just two days to complete. It kicked off at 7:00 PM local time on Saturday, July 6, catching many players who played in day 1D of the 2024 WSOP main event after they either busted or bagged.

Just 214 players moved on to day 2, with each locking up a piece of the $1,253,120 prize pool. Plenty of big names ran deep, including four-time bracelet winner David Peters (76th), two-time bracelet winner Wing Po Liu (61st), and three-time bracelet winners Chance Kornuth (32nd) and Jim Collopy (27th).

The field didn’t combine onto a final table until nearly midnight on day 2. Agarwal sat towards the bottom of the leaderboard at that point, but managed a double-up during eight-handed action to give himself some breathing room. He then eliminated Robert Macri (8th – $20,754) and Tengqi Zhan (7th – $27,143) to continue his climb.

Two-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Frank Lagodich (6th – $35,975) was the next to fall, with his top pair running into the rivered straight of Jesse Wigan. Agarwal and Wigan then took turns scoring knockouts, sending Alexander Holtz (5th – $48,313) and Suhail Khan (4th – $65,731) to the rail to narrow the field to three.

Wigan then lost a preflop race with A-10 against the pocket nines of Agarwal to finish third for $90,584. As a result, Agarwal took roughly a 6:1 chip lead into heads-up play with Augusto Hagen. It didn’t take long for him to convert that advantage into the title.

Agarwal shoved from the button with 86 in the final hand and Hagen called with 108. After the flop came down A104 it looked like Hagen was on his way to a double up, but the 5 turn gave Agarwal a gutshot. The 7 river completed his straight to give him the victory. Hagen earned $126,424 as the runner-up.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credit: WSOP / Rachel Kay Winter.

by Erik Fast