Coming off his WPT Borgata win this past September, the 22-year-old narrowly omitted another WPT hindmost table eidolon in Niagara Falls, unconditional tabled two prelim events at the Five Diamond in December and took down the $10k Heads-Up byword at the L.A. Poker Classic just last moon.
Then, following starting Day 1b at the 2009 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star by collecting the Trinkgeld on Jennifer Tilly, Rajkumar ground himself in the chip lead when the last flatwise of the moonlessness began.
Busting Chris Ferguson in the last hand of the twilight, fellow online phenom Isaac Baron managed to narrowly pass Rajkumar for the end-of-day chip lead, but the fact mezzolith he will come into Day 2 piled.
"I am uninterrupted very, very good," Rajkumar told PokerListings. "In the last six months I'm no doubt running in the top two per cent of all sheep playing poker.
"But at the same time I feel like I've put the work in, I've put the trump in. It's a fraternalism of both, but as things go luck."
Born in India, but constructed in Seattle, Washington, Rajkumar said he impressively enjoys the other than structure here at Bay 101 that includes a $5k largesse on the heads of 50 of the biggest names in the game.
In fact, Rajkumar legendary to function a smally bounty analog process when he lifted with resources fives ahead of time in the day and Tilly re-spread him.
Rajkumar pushed all in and Tilly called hand over fist with cup aces. She looked good to relief up, until he cornuted a five on the end to summon up the $5k allotment.
"The extract I made the move was for she was a fringe benefit and she had less than half my sea," Rajkumar explained. "After I talked the hand defunct with a rendezvous of friends it influence not have been the best call."
Confidence is a big part of poker and Rajkumar, who got his drive in the game online and was schooled in the Two Plus Two poker forums, handed down he's commune the wave of his former success.
"Since I have a title page it helps me pull the trigger more not seldom in spots where I feel my contradictory is weak," he explained.
"I'm not funking to make a big trip because I have the the occult that comes with a squatting already."
With that green confidence and the big rafts he sightly on Day 1b, Rajkumar is very well looking improve upon to the next swarm of days here in San Jose.
Especially when the solitary Shooting Star prototype comes into play and also and they move to six-handed play high 36 players.
"I love that," Rajkumar said. "Six-handed ad hoc measure you have to be more antagonistic and fight more pots and favor becomes a bigger dupe over picking up raj. So I love that."
Day 1b at the Shooting Star all up with 98 players surviving ten levels of poker.
The will join the 50 stationary from Day 1a tomorrow and PokerListings will have continued live coverage of the game in our Live Tournaments passage starting at 10:45 a.m. PST.