Kalyan Cheekuri Crushes the Field to Take Down the Main Event ($297,359)

It was an action packed Day 3 that launched the final table to a winner. After six and a half hours of play, Kalya Cheekuri overcame the 850 player field to take down the Main Event. The field combined for a total prize pool of $1,762,050, with $951,756 of that reserved for Day 3. Cheekuri bested Tommy Nguyen in heads-up play, to take home his first WSOPC Ring.

Cheekuri entered the day with a middling stack of 3,285,000 (27 big blinds). Eliminations were rapid early into the day with Cong Nguyen-Vu being the first to fall. His flip with Ace-King against Carter McCauley’s pocket fours saw him drawing dead when the turn came the 4♦. Soon after, the short stacked Michael Khan doubled with Kings against Christopher Alcindor’s Jacks. Left short stacked, Alcindor jammed for 14 bigs. Nguyen made the call, and his big slick sent Alcindor’s weaker ace to the rail.

The short stacks of the table found doubles bringing majority of players to an average stack of 4,500,000. Nguyen found a triple barrel bluff before calling off against Khan’s all in. Khan found a pair of Queens, but it was no good with Nguyen finding a four card king high flush. However, Nguyen’s big stack faced danger on the horizon. First he lost a chunk to back to back shoves from Cheekuri to fall to 4,600,000. Shortly after, Kyle Ho jammed all in with Q♠10♠, and Nguyen made the call with 8♣8♦. The 10♦ on the flop flipped the odds, and Nguyen couldn’t improve. He was left with just 550,000.

Cheekuri’s hot streak continued with him finding a hero call against Ashkan Razavi to overtake the chip lead (10,500,000). As the short stack, Nguyen found back to back doubles bring his stack back up to 1,900,000. He wasn’t done finding another pair of doubles, to sit more comfortably at 3,375,000. Soon after, he eliminated Jay Foong finding top pair with Ace-Jack. By the break, Cheekuri and Ho sat at the top of the charts with 9,950,000 and 9,025,000 respectively.

Nguyen defended his big blind, against Razavi. He moved all in on the 3♠3♥9♦6♥, and Razavi priced himself in to call. Nguyen’s 8♣3♣ had Razavi’s Q♠J♣ drawing dead. He hit the rail shortly after getting it all in with fives against Carter McCauley’s sevens. Action was rapid, with Ho all in for his tournament life on the next hand. His A♥Q♦ flopped better than Cheekuri’s K♣J♦ on the 10♣7♣Q♥. However, the 9♦ turn saw Ho drawing dead, and Cheekuri holding 21,800,000 chips.

He found the elimination onto McCauley right after calling off McCauley’s king high shove with King-Jack suited. Cheekuri made two pair to enter heads-up play with 30,000,000 of the 34,000,000 chips in play. Heads-up play was a battle with Nguyen finding back to back doubles. Soon after, he moved all in to secure the fold from Cheekuri and chip up to 12,650,000. With momentum on his side, he found max value with King-Nine on the king high runout.

However, a double barrel bluff attempt saw Cheekuri call off with Q♠6♣ on the 2♥Q♣6♠5♥5♦ runout. With the chip lead of 26,750,000 to 7,250,000, Cheekuri applied max pressure. The short stacked Nguyen moved all in for 4,050,000, and Cheekuri called off.

Tommy Nguyen: 6♣6♥
Kalyan Cheekuri: Q♠5♦

Nguyen looked poised for a double up when the turn came J♣A♠4♦9♦. However, the Q♣ on the river gave the pot and victory to Cheekuri.

Main Event Day 3 Results

Position	Player	Prize
1	Kalyan Cheekuri	$297,359
2	Tommy Nguyen	$198,211
3	Carter Mccauley	$139,113
4	Kyle Ho	$99,185
5	Ashkan Razavi	$71,857
6	Jay Foong	$52,912
7	Michael Khan	$39,611
8	Christopher Alcindor	$30,155
9	Cong Nguyen-Vu	$23,353