Day 3 - IPC 20k Freezeout

From a physical perspective, hosting IPC tournaments in Goa ends up causing jet lag. No, Goa hasn't crossed the Atlantic and moved into a different timezone. But entering the casino at 7pm every evening and leaving it at 7am the following morning will take a toll on the body. No wonder they say Poker is a young man's game. And this statement is truer when you think about these young bucks taking part in the tourney after putting in 24 - 48 hour sessions at the cash table. I am primarily a tournament player and like to think I have the patience to sit down for long periods at the table. However just the thought of playing a tourney after such long cash sessions makes me bones squeak in protest! They were right when they said that playing cards is a tough way to make an easy living...
The final day of the India Poker Championship dawned bright and clear. But we wouldn't know anything about it since we were fast asleep! By the time we rolled into the poker room there were about 25 odd players milling around the tables. 

The birthday boy Craig Wildman flanked by the IPC Directo

Given the long sessions that people had been putting in at the tables, we expected maybe 40-45 players for the final game of the Championship. But our players proved us wrong and we eventually cracked the 45 player mark about 30 minutes into the game. When the hour of Alternates came to an end, the final count of players was 51. It would once again be a very healthy prize pool that the players would do battle for. Given the additional number of chips and higher blind levels, action progressed slowly and we had only lost about 6 players 3 hours into the tourney. After that however, players had no choice but to try and make moves as the price of poker went up.
We eventually got our final table at about 4 am in the morning and it looked something like this (chip stacks at the final final table are mentioned alongside the player names):-

1. Seat 1 - Jasven S - 17,500
2. Seat 2 - Sameer R - 25,000
3. Seat 3 - Rajesh G - 60,000
4. Seat 4 - Amit Varma - 24,000
5. Seat 5 - Gaurav B - 50,500
6. Seat 6 - Manish B - 55,000
7. Seat 7 - Girish G - 11,500
8. Seat 8 - Avinash R - 71,000
9. Seat 9 - Manjeet A - 68,000

It was quite the star studded final table in a sense with June's 10k champion Sameer in Seat 2 and our 20k defending champ Rajesh sitting right next to him. Rajesh was hoping to make it back-to-back wins in this particular event of the Championship. And he was well placed to do so with the second biggest stack on the table after Avinash. The first one to get eliminated was Jasven who probably got the sicket beat of the tournament when his KK was crushed by the 78 of Avinash when he spiked a 7 on the flop and another one on the river. Heartbreak for Jasven who has come close in our past tournaments but he was very gracious in his defeat. The next to go was the other short stack Girish followed by Gaurav B. Sameer had pushed with a wired pair of 10s and was called by Gaurav's AJ of diamonds. When the flop was opened, in the window was an A followed by a J but the third card was a brutal 10 giving Sameer trip 10s. With no further help to complete his flush or full house, Gaurav was busted out on the bubble. A commendable performance by Gaurav who says he's an infrequent poker player and that the IPC was only his 4th or 5th tournament and likely the biggest one he has taken part in.

The final table of the IPC 20k tournament

While one man walked away disappointed, a cheer went up by the remaining players as they were now in the money. From the money finishers, the first to get eliminated was Manjeet (6th) followed by Manish in 5th place. Manish in fact was quite unwell and was battling a fever as much as his opponents at the table. The dream of a back-to-back victory for Rajesh was not to be as he was knocked out in 4th place. As always he played an aggressive game which he stepped up on the final table but it wasn't to be. When action began 3-way Sameer was on the short stack and just looking to double up in order to provide some kind of fight to the big stacks of Avinash and Amit. He pushed with 4 3 and after some thought Amit called with 10 4. The 4 on the flop hit both players but in the end Amit's kicker ensured that Sameer would not take any further part in the action. A consistent performance by June's 10k champion who by the way is the only other player to feature twice on the IPC Champions wall along with Keshav S from Kolkata.
Heads up lasted all of 3 hands with both players eventually getting on this hand - Amit pushed As8s and was called Avinash's 9h6h. While Amit had Avinash's hand dominated preflop, two hearts on the flop meant a big sweat. The sweat didn't last for long though as the turn brought another heart and Amit extended his hand to Avinash knowing he was drawing dead no matter what came on the river.

Amit (2nd), Avinash (1st) and Sameer (3rd)

A fantastic end to the tournament weekend and we saw a whole host of new faces along with plenty of old ones. It was great interacting with people during the break and after the tournament got over. In most cases the top 3 posed for pictures and then immediately sat down at the cash tables. Just goes to show just how desperately we crave this wonderful game.
We will be out of sight for the next couple of weeks mostly because we are catching up on some much needed sleep but the prep for the December event will start soon enough. If you wish to remain updated on IPC tournaments in the future, add Daniel Helmuth on Facebook. You can also follow us on our Facebook group and fan pages as well as /Twiiter. The links are given below:-

• Website: http://www.indiapokerchampionship.com
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/IndiaPokerChampionship 
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/IndiaPokerChamp 
• Blog: http://indiapokerchampionship.blogspot.com  
• Email: info@indiapokerchampionship.com 

That's it for the coverage of the India Poker Championship's September edition. As always its been brilliant being able to bring all the action to you and we appreciate the feedback and support of our players. The year ending IPC event in December now awaits us all.
Till then...