IPC Feb - 11/2/2011 - 10k Freezeout

The second day of the India Poker Championship dawned bright and sunny... we think. For the first time in 3 events we actually left the casino with the sun still not having risen. An accomplishment of sorts and an indicator of just how smoothly and quickly the 5k tournament had been run. After logging in the bare minimum hours of sleep, it was time to head back to the casino again for Day 2's 10k Freezeout. Given the long hours people tend to spend at the table during our events, it really makes me wonder just how the pros do it night after night. I suppose jab rozi-roti ka sawaal hai, then you'd have to.
 The evening of the 10k began with lots of satellites, Superturbos and One-handed, being held prior to the featured tournament. By the time the tournament was underway, we had 100 runners battling it out for the chance to take down the 10k title. There were a lot of ladies in the house for this tournament. Seeing this the IPC Directors decided to sweeten the deal a little more by offering a free seat into the Sunday 5k tournament to the last lady standing. And the ladies returned the favour with many of them outlasting the men when we were down the latter stages of the 10k game. The final count of players at the end of the Alternates round was 105. A superb number to hit for a Friday night! Four hours into it, we were down to the last 3 tables. Eventually there were 2 girls left in the fray when it was down to the final 20 players and it was Mubina Rattonsey who claimed the free 5k seat when Anjali Pandey got knocked out in 20th place. Mubina's great run would however end just short of the final table where she got busted out in 14th place. But it wasn't the end of the road for Anjali however as she would soon make her mark on this particular IPC weekend...
Tonight too there would be a 10-handed final table with all these players making it to the money and this is what the final table looked like with their chipstacks:-

1. Kenneth Sequeira - 125,000
2. Rajiv 'Rocky' Motwani - 118,000
3. Jasven Saigal - 116,000
4. Rishabh Jhunjhunwala - 89,000
5. Kavin Shah - 74,000
6. Ratan Chawla - 64,000
7. Sangeeth Mohan - 62,000
8. Piyush Singh - 54,000
9. Shreyabha Pandey - 43,000
10. Dhaval Mudgal - 34,000

Our chipleader Captain Sequeira was making an appearance at the IPC after the June 2010 event where he had come 3rd and it seemed like he wanted to go one (or two) better than that finish. The shortstack on the other hand, Dhaval Mudgal of Cardplayer India has started his consistent run of making final tables ever since making the Main Event final table in the December 2010 event as well last night's IPC 5k. However he would be unable to improve on his 9th place finish from last night by busting out first on the final table. Piyush, Shreyabha and Ratan are the next three to go taking 9th, 8th and 7th place respectively. Tournament regular and Goa pro, Rocky takes 6th place while Sangeeth who claimed this was his first MTT poker event scored 5th place. The blinds caught up with Kenneth who shoved with his Q 9 and got called and then busted by Jasven's bullets! It was then down to Jasven, Kavin and Rishabh who would do battle for the IPC Winner's Medallion. Once again it was Jasven who busted out another player and Rishabh finishes as second runner-up.

There would be no consecutive 10k titles going to Delhi as Jasven and Kavin, both from Mumbai would go headsup. Headsup went on for a while primarily because both players play regularly against each other back home and are clued in on the other's game. Jasven had a chance to close it down when he hit trip 8s but Kavin did not take the bait. It had to come down to two big hands going up against each other for this headsup to come to an end and so it came to be:-

Jasven - 8 8
v
Kavin - A Q

Board - 8 2 10 10 10

And with his flopped trips turning into a fullhouse, Jasven Saigal wins it! He is the new IPC 10k title holder and a commendable 2nd place finish to Kavin Shah who is starting to make Top 3 finishes at the IPC a habit.
For Jasven, it has been a long wait to his first IPC title having come close in our inaugural event in March 2010. He final tabled the 20k event then but could manage only a 7th place finish. No surprise as to why he had such a big grin on his face at 7am in the morning! The Big Game takes place tomorrow and it is going to be fun!
See y'all on the other side. 

IPC Feb - 10/2/2011 - 5k Freezeout

The first event of the year is always an exciting one and with the IPC 5k kicking off proceedings for 2011 with its February event there was a lot of anticipation among players especially after the stupendous success of the last edition in December. The run up to the event though was not as smooth as we expected it to be… About a week or so prior to the event, there were some issues faced by our host venue Casino Royale with regards to some licensing matters. As a result of which the casino was shut down by the authorities for a day or so. While we weren’t immediately concerned, there was a twinge of wariness which crept in given how close this happened to our first event of 2011. 

As Indians we’re great believers in karma and good luck and this was not necessarily the most auspicious of signs to begin the year off with.

 Fortunately the matter was sorted and the poker room was back in action barely 48 hours after all this went down. There were a lot of queries from players especially those involved in the stock market as the stock of the company owning the casino took a bit of a pounding upon news of the casino operations being affected. A flurry of phone calls and emails were exchanged between us and the players as well as the card room and soon the matter was at rest. And so soon after the day was upon us and come the evening of the 10^th we looked forward to meeting the players. As is now typical of our Thursday tournaments, the card room was packed to capacity when we started with 100 seats being filled up. By the end of the Alternates round an hour later, the final count was 103. The start to the weekend was a good one after all and it was hoped that things would get only better as the tournament weekend progressed.

The action began fast and furious with eliminations taking place minutes into the tournament. Over the past many events done, the IPC tournaments have become better and smoother in operational terms and this was very evident from the way the tournament progressed with no hitches with regard to time. As the tournament clock hit the 5 hour mark, we were down to the final 2 tables.
There would be a 10-handed final and all places would not only make the money but also score points on the IPC Player of the Year leaderboard. About half an hour later, the final table took their seats to much fanfare and this is what the player list along with their chipstacks looked like:-

1.       Dhaval Mudgal – 47000
2.       Dheeraj Pulluru – 41000
3.       Srinivas Reddy – 35000
4.       Banotpal Chakraborty – 40000
5.       Aditya Sushant – 46000
6.       Mehernosh Captain – 35000
7.       Vikram Verma – 40000
8.       Praveen Tammana – 61000
9.       Prabeer  Nair – 123000
10.   Vitali Bezylava – 40000

As our tournament director Craig Wildman aptly put it, he had never seen a final table at any Indian tournament with so many closely matched stacks. Leading from the front with a superstack was, tournament regular and well known pro, Prabeer ‘Rotty’ Nair who was looking to make the moves and get people out in a hurry. His aggressive style did mean his stack taking a few swings. The only non-Indian at the table was the first to go. Vitali Bezylava played an aggressive and fearless game to get to the final table but could not get anything going and busted out in 10^th. His exit was followed by that of Dhaval Mudgal of Cardplayer India. Dhaval who had a good showing in the December Main Event was able to add some more points to his name in the POY race. Next to get busted were Srinivas Reddy and Praveen Tammana in 8^th and 7^th place respectively. Our 6^th place finisher was Mehernosh Captain who was followed out by Banotpal Chakraborty in 5^th place. Vikram Verma was the next to go in 4^th place and it was then time for the final 3 to battle it out for the title.

Seasoned pro Rotty Nair, IPC Champion Aditya Sushant and Hyderabad’s Dheeraj Pulluru were evenly matched in stacks when 3-way action began. Sushant, who was down to 100 chips right at the start of the tournament, had clawed his way back into the tournament making some superb plays and milking his big hands for all their worth. He did have more than his fair share of luck by getting lucky a few times on the river and holding on for his tournament life. However the rub of the green does need to go your way if you have to outlast big fields and Aditya had it in spades. He and Rotty repeatedly got into hands and chips were moving back and forth between the two given their aggressive styles of play. Eventually though Aditya managed to best Rotty and knock him out in 3^rd place. It was then headsup between Dheeraj and Aditya which didn’t last too long. With a substantial chiplead Sushant put Dheeraj all in right away into the headsup battle which Dheeraj called looking relatively at ease when the cards were flipped over:-

Aditya Sushant – 10 2

vs

Dheeraj Pulluru – K J

A King in the window looked to make both the stacks equal but it seems Aditya’s got the luck of the devil at exactly the right time he needs it. Sure enough his Doyle Brunson hits the deuce on the river to knock out Dheeraj and seal the win! It was a rollercoaster ride for the India Poker Champion (website link) who managed to ride out an early near-disaster to come back and taking down the title. A commendable 2^nd place finish for Dheeraj who played solid on the final table to score a healthy payday. As far as Aditya Sushant is concerned he seems in a hurry to close down the POY race as this win puts more distance between his and the rest of the field. Everyone is now playing catch-up to this Chennai native who becomes the first ever player to win two titles at the IPC and that too in back-to-back editions!

More excitement coming up tomorrow with the IPC 10k Freezeout.
Stay tuned...

24 hours to go for the IPC and other news from the poker world

If there's one aspect of poker which excites me, well besides the game itself, it has to be the chance of traveling to different venues across the world. Between the IPC Crew, we've had the opportunity to play in destinations from Las Vegas to Macau to Goa of course and a few others in between. Vegas was once referred to as the gambling capital of the world. Obviously Macau in recent years has taken over that title in a big way but Vegas still remains the poker capital of the world. Every serious and semi-serious poker player, nevermind the stakes he plays at, wants to visit and play in Vegas. Not surprising as Sin City has a game pretty much around the clock to suit most appetites.

Speaking of traveling to different venues leads me to the opening topic of this post which is the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure or the PCA as it's more commonly known. This event takes place in the beautiful Atlantis Resort located in the even more beautiful Bahamas. I don't know about you, but I am a beach guy. Nothing like stretching your legs out on a lounger with an ice-cold brew by your side as you allow the tranquil sites and sounds of the ocean to soothe your worries away :)
Besides these attractions, poker pros also descend upon the Atlantis for their annual Caribbean pilgrimage to play in what is the second largest event on the planet after the WSOP. This time's PCA has a total of 48 events and what's got the pros really excited is the sheer variety in the games offered. There are many Omaha and Stud games and there's big money 8 game tournaments happening too. While Texas Holdem is undoubtedly the game of choice for millions, the pros both young and seasoned alike, are relishing the prospect of flexing their versatility across these not-so-popular poker variants. Eventually at the end of the PCA, it was Galen Hall who took down the Main Event win after defeating a massive 1560 player field. Already having had an impressive set of online cashes, the 24 year old American pro takes home his biggest offline cash of about $2.3 million!

And pro reminds me of a sorta forgotten one in the form of Chris Moneymaker. The man, whose win at the 2003 WSOP Main Event, is credited with boosting the popularity of global poker hasn't really done anything noteworthy since his big win seven years ago. With personal problems relating to marriage taking a turn for the worse in the meantime really hasn't given the man the opportunity to focus on his game. However he seems to be on a comeback trail of sorts now - the marriage seems to be going strong, he's got 2 little daughters and it seems to be having a positive affect on his game as well. After a long time, Moneymaker made a deep finish, busting out in 11th place in the PCA Main Event. While a final table appearance or a win might have improved his standing some more, it's safe to say that Chris Moneymaker is likely not complaining.

And from one corner of the Caribbean to another beautiful part of the world - Melbourne, Australia and specifically the Crown Casino which hosts the Aussie Millions. The Millions has grown into one of the premier destinations for poker professionals in the world with a large number of events and big prizepools on offer. This time's Main Event had a first place prize of $2 million and the man who ensured that the title stayed in the homeland was 68 year old Adelaide native, David Gorr. The long time pro who also works as a computer analyst during the day, credits his fitness (as a result of his daily running) to be the secret of his success in outlasting a field of 721 players who each chipped in with a buy-in of $10,000. Of course a couple of bad beats, in that marathon 4+ hour headsup battle against English pro James Keys, no doubt contributed in helping Gorr take home the big one.

From offline to online, I'm quite excited about the release of Full House Poker on the Xbox gaming console. While there have been plenty of poker video games created for various platforms, they really haven't been up to the mark. The previews suggest that Microsoft is betting big on their new release and I'm hoping that I finally get to dust off the old Xbox and get it going for the game we all love. And from game releases to movie releases, the next big poker or more to the point poker-related movie is the Brad Pitt starrer Cogan's Trade about a professional enforcer who has to investigate a heist of a poker game. The confirmed male cast is like the who's who of macho roles with the likes of Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo, James Gandolfini, Sam Rockwell and Casey Affleck. This, along with Rounders 2, are like the two delicious poker movie morsels which poker and movie fans alike are waiting for with loads of anticipation.

Moving onto the small screen, some sad news - Gabe Kaplan will no longer be in the commentary booth of High Stakes Poker. The bossmen of the GSN network on which the show runs, have roped in comedian Norm MacDonald to take over from Kaplan.
In my mind, there are only 3 combos as far as poker commentary is concerned - the ESPN WSOP team of Lon McEachern and Norman Chad, GSN High Stakes' AJ Benza and Gabe Kaplan and of course the ever immortal poker voice of Mike Sexton who along with Vince Van Patten co-commentate the WPT events. Humour is a huge part of poker commentary along with analysis and Kaplan has one of the driest wits that I've ever seen/heard/enjoyed. Not to mention his own experience as a cash game player which he brought into the commentary booth and even took to the felt in one of the seasons of High Stakes. While I do like Norm, Gabe's voice and wit will certainly be missed. Oh and High Stakes for its upcming 7th season intends to shoot in 3D! Imagine that! The cards are gonna come flying at you through the TV screen it seems :D

And finally as I race against the clock to finish this piece and head out to the airport to catch that flight to Goa, that usual mix of excitement and adrenaline has kicked in for the Feb IPC event. We've had a fantastic 2010 where we started small in March and built ourselves up to our big blowout event in December. There is a lot of pride in knowing that the India Poker Championship has done its bit towards growing 'the scene' and we hope for bigger and better things for 2011 as well staring with our first event for the new year.
And with that I have to say adios and the IPC Crew will see you all at the tables soon!