APPT9 Macau Day 1a: Riding the wave

Sometimes luck comes in waves. Pros often talk about having to ride out the variance during downswings, but for Team PokerStars Pros Aditya Agarwal and Kosei Ichinose it’s already been a great year.

Signing with the world’s biggest online poker site in January this year they started off 2015 the right way. The first Team PokerStars Pros to represent their home countries – Agarwal from India and Ichinose from Japan – they’ve both become icons in their homelands and helped see poker promoted across the globe.

Team PokerStars Pro Kosei Ichinose at the table todayIchinose continued the year in fine form with two final tables during the recent PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP). A fifth place finish in the SCOOP 25-M: $215 PL Omaha (6-max, Turbo, Zoom) for $11,644, and an eighth place finish in the SCOOP 34-H: $2,100 NL Omaha Hi/Lo for $8,220 were nice scores to add to an already notable collection. These results really came as no surprise.

“SCOOP, WCOOP and Sunday Major cashes are dotted throughout his impressive online resume, while first place trophies in APPT, Macau Millions and Red Dragon events have grown his reputation. He now regularly competes in the toughest MTTs, Omaha and Mixed Games going on PokerStars” his Team PokerStars profile explains.

Agarwal has also kept the run good going, shipping the PokerStars $162 Nightly Forty Grand only weeks ago for $8,957 and placing third in the PokerStars $109 NL Hold’em [Turbo] just this week for $2,509.

“Aditya has since had great success online, cashing for more than four million dollars in the biggest PokerStars tournaments. Highlights include wins in the notoriously tough $100 Rebuy tourney, plus several other high-profile results. He’s also performed well in live tournaments, cashing in the World Series Main Event an impressive three times, including a top 100 finish in 2008, for $51,466. Other results include a deep run at EPT Barcelona in 2007 for $34,313, plus numerous wins and final table appearances in events across India” as outlined in his PokerStars profile.

Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal in the APPT Macau Main EventBoth players are in the field here for Day 1a of the APPT9 Macau Main Event. Early reports are that Ichinose and Agarwal are each still hovering around start stacks and haven’t managed to gain much momentum yet. Time will tell if either of them can continue an already stellar 2015 and make a run at the Main Event title here this week.

We’ll be following both of their progress closely this week so make sure you stay with us here at the PokerStarsBlog with live reporting at the top of the APPT9 Macau page.