Vishal Patel Wins Two Rings in Two Days to Take WSOPC Potawatomi Casino Championship Lead; Donarski Still in the Hunt
For most of the WSOP Circuit Potawatomi Casino stop, Ken Donarski and Brett Reichard sat atop the points leaderboard in the race for "Casino Champ," which will award the top points finisher with a seat into the 2020 Global Casino Championship.
That all changed this weekend when 33-year-old Vishal Patel won back-to-back tournaments.
First, he topped a 190-entry field to win Event #12: $400 NLH One-Day for $15,272 and his first gold ring. The bodies at the final table fell one after another until it was Jim Kilarjian and Patel heads-up with Kilarjian holding a 2:1 chip advantage. Even though Patel was behind, a few cooler turned the tides and it was Kilarjian was in rough shape after calling Patel’s all-in bet with ace-rag while Patel held pocket kings. Kilarjian didn’t find an ace with the runout ending his night just short of victory once again while Patel captured his first ring.
“It feels really good to get this win,” Payel said after his victory. “I had two close finishes last week, so I wanted to come back and give it another try.”
Those two close finishes are the only WSOP events Patel has played in and was a 12th-place finish in Event #3 and a 14th-place finish in Event #4.
“I just want to thank my wife for her support and letting me play.”
As if that wasn't impressive enough, Patel returned the following day and came out on top of a 255-entry field in Event #13: $400 NLH Double Stack, good for $18,873.
In that tournament, Patel got was heads up against ring winner DJ MacKinnon. Patel had a clear chip advantage over MacKinnon and started to steamroll him over as McKinnon didn’t win one hand in the first 20-minutes of the heads-up battle.
It wasn’t until MacKinnon was down to his last 500,000 chips where he found a little momentum after he cracked Patel’s pocket tens on the river holding ace-seven. MacKinnon then continued to win hand after hand until his ace-jack came up short to Patel’s pocket three’s.
“I can’t even describe how I’m feeling right now,” Patel stated. “My goal was to win one ring and hopefully win another a few years down the road but getting two rings back-to-back is unbelievable.”
The second victory catapulted Patel into the top spot for Casino Champion as he now has 120 points but still has a little sweat as Donarski is still in the hunt for Casino Champion and can take the number one spot if he finishes in second or third place in the Main Event.