Buddiga Can Spell Chips
From under the gun, Andreas Vlachos raised to 43,000. His only customer was Pratyush Buddiga on the button and the two of them took a paired flop of 
. Vlachos fired a continuation bet of 43,000 and Buddiga made the call.
Fourth street was the 
and Vlachos checked. Buddiga bet 94,000 and Vlachos quickly made the call. Then, the dealer completed the board with the 
. Vlachos checked and Buddiga fired another bet. He slid out 133,000 and Vlachos quickly called.
Buddiga tabled the 
for queens and fours with a king. Vlachos gave his cards one last look before tossing them into the muck and dropping back to an even one million in chips.
We're not sure how good Buddiga is at math, but he's up to nearly 1.5 million in chips. We do know that he's one heck of a speller. In fact, Buddiga won the 2002 Scripps National Spelling Bee in the United States when he was just 13 years old. He beat out 249 other contestants and won $12,000 along with the title.
To win the event, Buddiga spelled the word "prospicience," which means "the act of looking forward." The way we see it, we're looking forward to seeing Buddiga at the final table to see if he can win himself a heck of a lot more cash than $12,000 and add major title to his trophy case.
Lynn Gilmartin spoke with Pratyush during the break:
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,426,000
236,000
|
236,000 |
|
1,000,000
-350,000
|
-350,000 |