Day 3 - IPC 25k Main Event

4th December is D-Day! This is the day there has been most anticipation about. Saturday night’s Main Event featured the biggest buy-in of the weekend at INR 25,000. The Main Event would also see the winner being crowned as the first ever India Poker Champion! In the past there have been big buy-in events in Casino Royale and other venues but the field for this particular tournament was expected to beat even the IPC’s previously existing record. On previous days, when players asked us about the expected turnout, we were cautiously optimistic saying over 60 would be good and we’d be very happy if we cross the 70 player mark. The eventual turnout of 87 players was quite simply mind-boggling! Several players came up to us and mentioned that they had never expected or seen a turnout like this!

Who will take home this beautiful trophy?

The Main Even had a deepstack structure which was a major point of attraction for tournament players. It also helped that there was a Minimum Guaranteed Prizepool of INR 10,00,000 which of course was almost doubled as a result of the huge turnout. Along with the IPC goodie bag, a beautiful customized folding poker table was also going to be given to the winner courtesy of Nagpur-based AddicT Poker Tables. In the early levels a big hand took place between the 5k winner Ricky Chopra (A A) and the online phenom Aditya ‘Intervention’ Agarwal (K K). The board had an A and a K which of course meant all the money went in and Ricky’s bullets held up with nothing further to help Intervention. Halfway into the tournament we see a slew of eliminations with names like Lawrence Sanjay, Rajesh Goyal, Harman Baweja and Gaurav Law busting out. A few levels later more knockouts in the form of Denny Tait, Anil Gulati and Sandeep Narayanan. Shortly into the 14^th Level with the tournament clock just under the 8 hour mark, tournament director Craig Wildman announces that we should forget the November 9 as we now have the India Poker Championship’s ‘December Nine’ and here’s the line-up:-

The start of the Main Event final table

1. Jan Hlobil – 69,000

2. Amit Jain – 98,000

3. Abhishek Goindi – 195,000

4. Bobbe Suri – 71,000

5. Prabeer Nair – 121,000

6. Dhaval Mudgal – 118,000

7. Rahul Melwani – 61,000 

8. Aditya Sushant – 58,000

9. Farukh Shaikh – 79,000

The first elimination of the final table was tournament regular Bobbe Suri. Bobbe who had a healthy stack entering the final table had one hand against Amit Jain whose pockets Jacks hit got a break on the river to hit trips against Bobbe’s K Q which had hit a K on the flop. This was a monster pot which left Bobbe severely shortstacked on just 2000 in chips. He did manage to quadruple up but got busted by Jan’s T T which sent Bobbe’s Q J off to the rails. A lot of the final table action was being driven by Aditya Sushant who was making a lot of plays and taking down many pots. His aggressive style also lost him some pots as well. A big hand he won against Prabeer 'Rotty' Nair all but knocked Rotty out. But Prabeer who was fresh off his recent trip from the tables at Macau showed exactly why he is such a respected name at the tables. Demonstrating remarkable patience and skill, he built his stack from a few chips into one of the big chip stacks. In the meanwhile Sushant (Q 6) rivers a straight to eliminate Rahul Melwani (K J ) in 8th position. One of the biggest pots of the night took place between Prabeer (A K) who had Amit Jain (A Q) dominated preflop but could only shake his head when a Q hit the flop and again on the turn to knock him out in 7^th. It was then the turn of the initial chip leader Abhishek Goindi who shoved with A 6 and was quickly called by Aditya Sushant (K T) once again. No love for Abhishek who exits in 6^th as Aditya makes top pair on the flop and follows that with Kings up when a T comes on the river.

Through all this Cardplayer India’s Dhaval Mudgal has playing patiently looking for a spot to commit all his chips into the pot and does so when he looks down to see A 4 suited and shoves. Its Aditya once again who calls with A Q. No help for Dhaval on the board and he exits from the Main Event in 5^th place. Aditya is on an absolute tear as he eliminates Pokerguru pro Jan Hlobil and Amit Jain in 4^th and 3^rd positions. A little bit of trivia about Amit Jain. He is actually the 2009 regional champion from the IPC’s local tournaments held in Mumbai. But this time the dream was not to be for Amit as Farukh Shaikh and Aditya Sushant go up against each other for the monster 1^st place prize money and the title of the first ever India Poker Champion. After a few hands not to mention a lot of drama, Aditya gets his chips in with a pair of 5s and Farukh decides to make the call for his tournament life with Jd 9d. The flop 8s 3d 5d giving Aditya trip 5s but Farukh is still in it with a flush draw and when the turn brings a 7 his chances improve with a gutshot possibility being added to the flush. A huge sweat for both players as the river drops a harmless 4 and Chennai-based Aditya Sushant is the new India Poker Champion! He played a very aggressive game and often times won the hand when he was behind. But modern poker is about aggression and Aditya was rewarded with Indian poker’s biggest prize for taking the risks that he did. A special mention for first runner-up Farukh who had been battling illness since he got into Goa even being hospitalized for a few hours on Day 1 – a commendable performance by Farukh who was played through the pain while being on some heavy medication. 

It's been an exhausting 10 hours of poker and still players from the tournament look keen to play some cash and head towards those tables. I guess the word 'fatigue' does not exist in their dictionary. For us, it has been a long night and we need a good bit of sleep to be in shape for the final tournament of the weekend.

Once again many congratulations to Aditya Sushant on his fantastic win as well as the other players who made it to the money.