Despite failing to score any points in the first two days of competition, Norway’s number 1 player and Gujarat Acers’ wildcard proved why he’s considered one of the best in the league by securing a fifth place finish in the main event on day 3 of the Poker Sports League (PSL). Another 57,600 point in the kitty, helped the franchise maintain their fourth position with Kolkata Royals breathing down their necks just 600 points away.
Day 3 began with a poor start for the Acers, after three of the main event players – Anish Juwarkar, Abhinav Iyer and team Mentor Sumit Asrani were knocked out early. With a low chip stack, it seemed Hendrik would also succumb to a similar fate, but patient play saw him reach the final double with relative ease. He told Sportskeeda, “I won four back to back hands, when I had a low chip stack, hence I was pretty confident. In fact, when I went down to a low chip stack, I wasn’t really worried because I knew I could come back from that situation. It worked out well at the end.”
The Omaha event saw experienced campaigner Raman Gujral crash out and remains to be the only event, where the team is yet to make any point yet. Speaking about this, Mentor Sumit said, “It was a tough day for us, but Hendrik pulled it back quite a bit for us. we expected at least 100,000 points today, so that way it's a bit disappointing. We aren’t really that worried about Omaha as you know, it's a lot about luck there, so it depends on the luck of the draw, tomorrow just might be our day. I think what affected us today a bit was the lack of rest, because we were up playing till 7 pm in the morning on the final table yesterday, so it did get a bit tiring, but yes every team who makes the main table has to face that, and we have to plan our resources accordingly.”
According to league rules, all online or league qualifiers have to play the main table at least once, hence the team winner Anish and Ramesh Rao Thotapalli had to be split, despite a successful campaign. Sumit added, “We are happy with where we are, yes it would be great if we didn’t have to tweak that much, but at the end of the day everyone will face this problem. So, we aren’t putting some thought on it.”
The Punjab Bluffers still lead the table with 458400 points, closely followed by main event winner Mumbai Anchors, Bengaluru Jokers are third followed by Gujarat. However, the Acers will have to finish on the final day of group competition, if they want to maintain their fourth position as Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi are breathing down their necks.
