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.