Kunal Patni Leads 33 Survivors After Day 1a of WPT Prime Cambodia; Robert Campbell Bags Big

Kunal Patni

The return of the World Poker Tour to the Kingdom of Cambodia after a hiatus of three years has been a thorough success so far with decent numbers across the board for all tournaments. This has also been the case for the inaugural Season 20 WPT Prime Cambodia $1,100 Main Event, which is en route to surpass the $500,000 guarantee by a significant amount.

It was a busy day at the tables of the Ballroom at the NagaWorld Integrated Resort in Phnom Penh as the first of three starting days attracted 264 total entries. This included 51 re-entries and 213 unique players, which also paved the way for the goal at the end of the night: to be among the 33 survivors, as one out of each eight entries advances to Day 2.

The player sitting atop the leaderboard was a very familiar name of the Asia-Pacific live poker scene as India’s Kunal Patni accumulated 708,000 in chips. For most of the day, it seemed unlikely that Patni would turn his starting stack of 30,000 into more than 13 times as many because he was on a roller coaster ride without a lot of fortune.

That changed mid-way through the day when he doubled two times in quick succession. Another big showdown pot against Hassaan Arif with a pair of jacks swelled his stack above the average and it got even better on the stone-cold money bubble. Even his usual dreadful luck with pocket kings was no threat this time as Patni doubled through then chip leader Mingjun Kim and his pocket eights. Kim still bagged up a very impressive 655,500, which is good enough for second spot on the Day 1a leaderboard.

Only two further contenders crossed half a million in chips including South Africa’s Rayhaan Cook (571,000) and Brent Cook (550,500), the latter of which now resides in Thailand. Among the bigger stacks is also none other than the 2019 World Series of Poker Player of the Year Robert Campbell. Mixed game specialist by default, the Aussie handled the rare two-card competition with ease and bagged up 415,500.

Robert Campbell

Other notables to advance were Christopher Mateo, Frederik De Linde Farrington, Van Hoang Nguyen, Hwa Min Lee, Ankit Wadhawan, and Anil Adiani. It was also Lee who burst the bubble on Day 1a when Joel Singam’s pocket eights were cracked by his king-five suited, which instantly found three further diamonds on the flop.

Some of those who fell on the way-side in nearly 15 full levels of 40 minutes each were the winner and the runner-up of the very first WPT Prime stop earlier in 2022. Zarvan Tumboli and Ashish Munot were both unable to run up a stack but have another two chances on Day 1b and Day 1c. Michael Falcon, Dhaval Mudgal, Laksh Pal Singh, Opening Event winner Semen Kapitonov, Marc Joseph, Minh Quang Nguyen, Aladin Reskallah, Victor Chong, Jiyoung Kim, and Jae Kyung Sim joined them on the rail.

Both remaining flights get underway at 1pm local time on August 19 and 20 respectively. Patni may, as a matter of fact, not take a day off from the poker tables either as he currently sits on second place in the Player of the Festival leaderboard and can chase vital points in the various Side Events.

In today’s satellite, 13 players won their entry for the $1,100 Main Event at a bargain and the $10,000 Single Day High Roller crowned a champion in Mike Takayama, who defeated Florencio Campomanes in heads-up.

Stay tuned for more live poker action from the Kingdom of Cambodia, as the WPT.com live reporting team will be on the floor until a winner has been crowned on August 22, 2022.