India Poker Championship

IPC August 2011 event roundup

2011-08-27T05:04:00.000-07:00

Mere baap, iss baar please write the tournament report before the damn month runs out!

Now when someone resorts to making paternal references in order for a tournament recap to be posted, I think its only fair that one indulges such an individual. My work this time around becomes a touch easier as the leading poker website in the world has opened shop in good ole Bharat. So first off welcome to PokerNews India and we hope for loads of good things to happen with your presence in the niche but growing poker fraternity of this country.

Day 1 saw previous attendance records being shattered when 135 players turned out for the 6k Double Bubble tournament. This tournament deducts a small share (INR 1000) of the original buy-in and moves it into a seat prizepool so for every 20 players that participate in the Double Bubble, one seat is awarded into Saturday night's 20k Big Game. Therefore players are battling to survive the money bubble and subsequently the seat bubble, hence the tournament's name. The final hand of the tournament saw Meerut's Paawan Bansal take down the title of the IPC 6k Double Bubble.

Day 2 was the weekend kickoff i.e. the 10k Friday Night tournament . A total of 106 players participated in this tournament. It finally came down to three regulars in Varad Patil, Paras Kumar and Lawrence Sanjay. After Patil's knockout by Sanjay, there was virtually no difference in stacks between the two players in headsup. And in a hand-over-hand situation, Lawrence Sanjay's (9h 9s) dominated and held up against Paras Kumar's (4c 4d) giving Lawrence his first title at the India Poker Championship.

Day 3 was the big one! And appropriately, the featured tournament of the IPC weekend was the 20k BIG Game which drew 81 participants eventually. June's 20k winner Mubina Rattonsey who had been missing all weekend finally turned up to defend her title but wasn't able to go the distance busting out in 37th place. However her husband, Sameer Rattonsey (also a winner of two IPC titles) was very much in the hunt and was busted out in 3rd place by the eventual champion. And that champion was another regular finalist at the IPC tournaments, Shreyabha Pandey, an investment banker from Mumbai. The final hand which took place between Pandey and his opponent, master mariner Captain Kenneth Sequeira went like this:-

From the button, Pandey raised to 60k only to see the Captain moves the rest of his stack into the middle with Ac Tc. Pandey who held with Ad Qh quickly made the call. Both players hit their Ace on the river but of course Pandey's Queen kicker ensured that he would be crowned the winner!

Day 4 being the final tournament of the weekend has a lower turnout of 68 players who participated in the 12k Headhunters tournament on Sunday evening. The Headhunter is a bounty tournament where INR 2000 from each buy-in would go towards the knockout. Re-entries were also allowed in this tournament till the end of Level 4 in case a player lost all his chips. Rakesh 'Raka' Agarwal was the 3rd place finisher and this was his first cash in the IPC. Having done well at all the other tournaments held in Goa, a good finish at the IPC was the only feather missing from his hat. Headsup went on for a while between Jodpur's Aakash Khokher and Bangalore's Rishi BN who had much of the crowd behind him. Aakash though did not let that affect him and went on to take down the title of Headhunter!

As usual our players keep surprising us with the turnout. 135 was a monstrous number for the 6k Double Bubble and what it indicates is that people are getting out of their comfort zone. Players who've been playing home games or online for an extended period of time are now looking for that something extra. They want to challenge themselves and raise the bar higher. And the IPC is where they come to test the 'live' waters so to speak. We delighted and grateful that new players choose to bust their live-tournament-in-Goa cherry at the India Poker Championship :)
Next event is from 6th-9th October 2011 and you can visit our website or this link to register.

Till then, stay frosty!

Tournament report sourced from PokerNews India

IPC June 2011 event roundup

2011-06-14T02:51:00.000-07:00

One of the best times to visit Goa outside the typical year-end celebrations of Christmas and New Year, is the monsoon season. The beaches, and the shacks on them, might be deserted but the rain adds a fresh, inviting look to all the natural greenery in this state which makes it wonderfully serene. But the rain-enhanced scenery is last thing on the poker player’s mind when he or she visits Goa. It's all about poker and there’s no bigger brand out there to test one’s skills than at the India Poker Championship. The seventh edition of the Championship took place from 2^nd – 5^th June 2011 in the card room onboard Casino Royale, the biggest off-shore casino located in the Goan state capital of Panaji (or Panjim). The four day event would see several different buy-ins with the biggest one being saved for Saturday night.

Day 1 was the 6k Double Bubble (DB) which was the opening tournament for the event. The DB features two prizepools – one, the main cash prizepool and the other is a seat prizepool. A small portion of every buy-in would go towards seats into Saturday night’s 20k tournament and in this case 1 seat would be awarded per 20 players. Players would have to battle their way to first bust the money bubble and subsequently add to their earnings with an additional prize in the form of a 20k Big Game seat. By the time late registrations got done, there were exactly 100 players battling for the title and the top 5 finishers would also receive that seat into the Saturday night tournament. The eventual winner of the IPC 6k Double Bubble was Goa local, Husain Lakda who took home about INR 135,000 for his efforts. Prabhat Saini, who was runner-up in a previous IPC event made it two for two with his 2^nd place finish. Chetas Shah (whose day job is that of a DJ… wait a minute!) made sure he got the means to buy a lot more vinyl with the green he won as a result of his 3^rd place finish.

Prabhat Saini (2nd), Husain Lakda (1st) & Chetas Shah (3rd)

Day 2 was expected to have more players since it was the beginning of the weekend with the 10k Friday Night Tournament kicking things off. By the end of the 2^nd level, there were more than 100 players and the final count at the end of late entries, one level later, would be 104 players. The action was a bit slow in the early and middle stages but then the pressure of the blinds stated to kick in and there were a lot of moves made by the short and intermediate stacks. The final table of the 10k had several new faces. It was the first IPC final table for some of the regular players like Ketan Kurani and Amar Katharani. On the other hand past winners like Amit Jain and Farukh Shaikh once again showed why they are regarded for their consistency. It was great to also see a lady at the final table in the form of Padmasree Bhakta as well as IPC tournament newbies like Haroun Mirza, Vikram Singh and Sumit Asrani. In a massive pot, Amit Jain who was one of the bigger stacks on the table, picked up TT which managed to hold up against Singh’s AK. From thereon it was no turning back as Jain would make a clean sweep and pick up the IPC 10k Friday Night Tournament’s title in headsup battle with Farukh Shaikh. And rounding off the Top 3, a very commendable 3^rd place finish for Padmasree Bhakta.

Padmasree Bhakta (3rd), Amit Jain (1st) & Farukh Shaikh (2nd)

Day 3 was the big one or in this case the 20k BIG Game! The big money to be won would be at this featured event of the weekend. The last edition of the IPC in June saw 94 runners participate in this tournament and this time too it would not be an easy task as the final count of players was 91. In about 6 hours, the field was whittled down to a third once again several familiar faces made their presence felt at the tables. Prabhat Saini was hoping to make another solid run to back up his 2^nd place finish in the 6k Double Bubble on Thursday Night. While Saini was unable to go the distance, his opponent and the eventual winner of the DB, Husain Lakda made it to another final table and was hoping for a dream weekend of winning more than one IPC title. The ladies were having none of it and once again we had another female player in Mubina Rattonsey make the last 9. It was going to be a cracker of a final table with the very first hand played being a Royal Flush for Stanley DaCosta who knocked out Varad Patil as a result. Stanley would knock out one more player, Navin James in the very next hand. It seemed like the big hands would not stop as Sumit Sapra hit quads with his JJ to knock out Husain Lakda and Arash Farsi in a double elimination! Stanley and Sumit finished in 6^th and 5^th while Mubina Rattonsey was hanging on gamely doubling up through Rajeev Raut and then knocking out Hemant Arora in 4th. She then finished off Rajeev Raut in 3^rd place to go heads up against Bangalore’s Roshan Mampilly. That battle did not last more than a few hands as Mubina’s AQ went on to clinch the IPC 20k Big Game title for her. A superb performance by the first ever female winner of an IPC tournament, Mubina Rattonsey! Incidentally the Rattonsey household will add a second 20k Winner’s Medallion on their mantle as Mubina’s husband, Sameer Rattonsey won the same title in the April edition of the Championship.

Roshan Mampilly (2nd), Mubina Rattonsey (1st) & Rajeev Raut (3rd)

Day 4 featured the final event of the weekend which was the IPC 12k Headhunters on Sunday evening. This was the only event of the weekend which allowed players to make multiple buy-ins in the form of re-entries. The re-entry period was for the first hour of the tournament and the format tends to make players a bit more aggressive than usual in trying to build a big stack for the later stages. The Headhunters, as the name suggests, is a bounty tournament where every knockout fetches a player INR 2000! By the end of late entries, there were a total of 78 players who would do battle to take home the title. It was a 10-handed final table although only 8 places paid out. It was Delhi’s Tanuj Moorjani who knocked out 2 players in a single hand and ensured that he along with the remaining 7 players would go home with a share of the spoils. And while players from the rest of the country fell by the wayside, it was the three lads from down South who kept the Bangalore flag waving high! Abhishek Goindi, Krishna SM and Aneesh Dabral were the final 3 and that’s the order they finished in with Abhishek taking home the IPC 12k Headhunters title. A long overdue victory for Abhishek who has put in some terrifically consistent performances which will no doubt see him at the top of the India Player of the Year (IPOY) leaderboard.

Aneesh Dabral (3rd), Abhishek Goindi (1st) & Krishna SM (2nd)

A fantastic four days of poker came to an end and what a weekend it was for the India Poker Championship! Great fields, fantastic prizepools and a bunch a new winners including the first ever female winner of an IPC. As players made their way back to their hotels or to the airport to catch the early flights, travel plans were already being made for the next edition of the Championship which will take place from 4^th – 7^th August 2011. More information can be found on the website – www.indiapokerchampionship.com

See you in August!

IPC April 2011 event roundup

2011-06-14T02:49:00.000-07:00

Tom had this problem of getting up late in the morning and was always late for work. His boss was mad at him and threatened to fire him if he didn't do something about it. So Tom went to his doctor who gave him a pill and told him to take it before he went to bed. Tom slept well and in fact beat the alarm in the morning by almost two hours. He had a leisurely breakfast and drove cheerfully to work.
"Boss", he said, " The pill actually worked!"
"That's all fine" said the boss, " But where were the hell were you yesterday??"

And that, all ye poker faithful, is exactly how late I am writing this particular trip report for the April edition of the India Poker Championship. Due apologies to all the readers who take the time to visit this blog to get some information about the recently concluded event and found none for April. There are no excuses and I'll keep this post short and sweet just to make sure a record has been kept of what has been an exceptional event by our standards. And with that let's just dive straight into it...

Day 1 was the IPC 6k Double Bubble (DB) tournament, a new introduction which replaced the customary 5k Freezeout tournament which would usually take place on Thursday evening. the concept of the DB is simple - a small portion of the buy-in is set asides towards a seat prizepool so for every 20 players, one player would get a seat into Saturday night's 20k Big Game! The IPC directors were looking to provide players, especially the smaller stakes players, a chance to compete in the bigger tournaments. The name Double Bubble arises from the fact that participating players need to bust the first bubble to make the money and the subsequent bubble to score a seat into the 20k Big Game. It seemed that the new tournament went down well with players in the run-up to the event from feedback received through our online mediums. And finally on Thurday evening, a massive 123 players took part in the inaugural IPC 6k Double Bubble! Action was fast and furious and eventually it was Yogendra Saboo from Mumbai who took down the title with Nipun Kumar from Hyderabad and Shreyabha Pandey also from Mumbai taking 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Shreyabha Pandey (3rd), Yogendra Saboo (1st) & Nipun Kumar (2nd)

Day 2's turnout was expected to be pretty good given the large number of players that had attended the opening event of the weekend. Also the second tournament i.e. the IPC 10k Friday Night Tournament is the classic Freezeout which really starts off the weekend so many players were expected to fly in after work that evening. And so it was... with a total of 109 players taking part in this weekend kickoff tournament. Bollywood was in the house once again with Harman Baweja and Minissha Lamba participating in this tournament. The tournament had just crossed the 6 hour mark when the final table gathered around to play down for the title. It was a long, protracted headsup battle between Philip Raju and Ramu Mahto. However Philip was on the hottest streak of his life and so it came as no surprise when he eventually triumphed against a very determined Mahto and took home the IPC 10k Friday Night tournament title. Good performances by Ramu Mahto and a commendable 3rd place finish for tournament regular Vikram Verma.

Vikram Verma (3rd), Philip Raju (1st) & Ramu Mahto (2nd)

Day 3 was the featured tournament of the weekend - the IPC 20k BIG Game! Everyone was vying to win the biggest prizepool of this Saturday night tournament and in fact there were a number of players who had flown in to participate in just this one tournament! This evening too saw a record-breaking field of 94 players, the first time ever that there's been over 90 players in a buy-in of this magnitude. That magical 3-figure mark is not too far away from the look of things. Repeat final tables for Nipun Kumar and Vikram Verma whilst we had a past IPC title winner in Sameer Rattonsey also looking to add another Winner's Medallion to his existing 10k one (from IPC June 2010). And it seemed like the dream might come true when he made it into 3-way action with Anish Dedhia (Mumbai) and Boston native Ian Moskowitz. Anish gets eliminated by Sameer when his A 4 is bested by Sameer's A 10. Headsup between Ian and Sameer lasts for exactly one hand when Ian who hits bottom pair moves all-in which is snapcalled by Sameer who hit his Ace. No more help for Ian on the board and Sameer wins the IPC 20k Big Game! A superb finish for him coming on the back of making the previous evening's 10k final table as well.

Ian Moskowitz (2nd), Sameer Rattonsey (1st) & Anish Dedhia (3rd)

Day 4 is always a bit of a downer for the Crew. It's the last tournament of the weekend and the long wait till the next edition tends to give us the blues. But excitement levels were palpable because Sunday night would see the introduction of the 2nd new format of the IPC weekend. This was the 12k Headhunters tournament which was a Bounty + Re-entry format. So a player would receive INR 2000 per knockout and for the first one hour re-entries were allowed but only if the player lost his/her entire chipstack. So they would re-enter as a 'new' player altogether. This, the IPC Directors felt, would reduce the shovefest that rebuy tournaments invariably tend to become. The final count of players in the Headhunters was 93 including re-entries. Belgian pro Mihail Stoykov who'd been making waves recently on the Indian poker circuit showed exactly why his game is regarded so highly by taking down the IPC 12k Headhunters title. Anosh Patel from Dubai put up a good fight for his first runner-up finish and Harman Baweja finished a commendable 3rd.

Anosh Patel (2nd), Mihail Stoykov (1st) & Harman Baweja (3rd)

And that was it for the April edition of the India Poker Championship. The next is set to take place from 2nd - 5th June 2011. Our thanks and appreciation to all the players who turned up for the event. We hope you enjoyed yourselves and look forward to seeing you at our next. As I say 'Adios amigos' and take your leave, here's a final look at the big winners of this particular IPC.

Waiting for the flight

2011-04-06T22:50:00.000-07:00

This is gonna be one of those short and sweet posts only because we're gonna start boarding in about 15 minutes and my laptop's already started its pitiful I'm-gonna-shut-off-on-you battery bleat. Lots of excitement at this time's India Poker Championship!
The main reason for that is the introduction of two exciting new formats which we expect will become popular with the poker faithful. The first tournament to kick off the IPC weekend will be the 6k Double Bubble where players will play not just for a share in the main prizepool but also vie for a chance to score a seat for the 20k Big Game on Saturday night. Think of it as a mega Cash + Seat satellite if you will...

No major changes in the Friday and Saturday games. The weekend crowd comes for its fix of the two deepstack tournaments and why knock it if it ain't broke?! The Sunday night game though has been revamped. This is called the 12k Headhunter tournament which is a Bounty + Re-entry tournament. Knock out a player and you get 2k in cash and for those who become unlucky you can buy back into the tournament in the first one hour if you get knocked out. I can hear the question, "But isn't this exactly like a re-buy tournament??!".
Well upto a point it is. However a re-entry tournament, we feel, reduces the donk-style shoves that is usually prevalent in a regular rebuy format. In the IPC Headhunter tournament, you must lose all your chips before you are able to buy back in. And since there is a time limit on the re-entry, we expect players won't get too crazy and will treat it like any other deepstack tournament.

Well they're calling out my name on the overhead speakers, and since I'd rather not see 200 pissed off faces upon entering the flight late, I will say Adios for now.
Oh if you were unable to make it for this time's IPC, remember you can catch the updates on our website at www.indiapokerchampionship.com under the Live Tournament Update module.
Till later this evening then...

IPC Feb - 13/2/2011 - 5k Freezeout

2011-03-11T02:23:00.001-08:00

The final day of the IPC weekend has a slightly more relaxed atmosphere which is expected of a Sunday night game. Those who needed to make it to work the following day had left earlier so most left were there for a long weekend with no worries about the Monday blues. After triple figured fields on the first 3 days, it seemed like Day 4 would also go the distance but fell just the tiniest bit short at 98 players. Poker is getting even more popular among the Bollywood. At the last IPC event in December it was Harman
Baweja who in fact went on to take 2^nd place in the 10k tournament. This time around it was Minissha Lamba who dropped in to play the 5k tournament. Two ladies on the final table and both of them looking to take it down:-

1. Sudha Kedia – 76,000

2. Kashyap Kejriwal – 71,000

3. Sangeeth Mohan – 71,000

4. Paras ‘Perry’ Kumar – 61,000

5. Ayush Mehrotra – 60,000

6. Sunny Thakker – 49,000

7. Anjali Pandey – 40,000

8. Varun Victor – 38,000

9. Manish Jagwani – 24,000

But Mrs. Kedia wasn’t able to do better than 6^th place when she was knocked out by Anjali Pandey in a double elimination along with Perry. Anjali would eventually finish in 3^rd place followed by Sangeeth Mohan in runner-up. And the spoils would go to casino & tournament newbie Varun Victor who would take down the IPC 5k title!

That was it for this edition but the action from the India Poker Championship continues at their next event from 7^th – 10^th April 2011.

IPC Feb - 12/2/2011 - The 20k Big Game

2011-03-11T02:23:00.000-08:00

And the highlights of the weekend is here... tonight is the 20k Big Game! And as the name suggests this will be the biggest game of the weekend not just in terms of the buy-in but also the prizepool. When we had the 25k Main Event in December last year, our expectations were to cross the 70 player mark. That would be a clear indication that the scene, and therefore the IPC, had grown progressively. Eventually we had 87 runners in that tournament and that made us a touch wary as we weren't sure if this number was an anomaly brought about by it being peak season time in Goa. So while preparing for the Feb event, we kept the same number of 70 in our minds as an indicator. If we hit or crossed 70, it would reconfirm that we and the scene had indeed grown.

So we were justifiably pleased that when the Alternates hour came to an end, there were 77 players who would play for the title of the 20k Big Game. The deepstack nature of this tournament means that players tend to take it nice and easy in the initial rounds as there are lots of chips to play. Others like India Champion Aditya Sushant believe aggression is the key from the get-go. While it has helped him in the past, this time around his flush draw did not get better against his opponent's flopped 2 pair. And just like that dream of making another big score on the weekend was gone... As the game went on, one began to see the more regular faces still remaining in the mix. People like Anil 'The Machine' Gulati, Bobbe Suri, online poker phenom Aditya 'Intervention' Agarwal and others. And so it came to be at the final table as well that many of these names made another appearance there. Here's the final table with the respective chipcounts:-

1. Amit Raheja - 144,000
2. Minica Chhabria - 118,000
3. Rahul Melwani - 99,000
4. Bobbe Suri - 83,000
5. Amit Jain - 72,000
6. Abhishek Goindi - 71,000
7. Aditya 'Intervention' Agarwal - 67,000
8. Shreyabha Pandey - 46,000
9. Gaurav Mehra - 38,000
10. Anil Gulati - 32,000

Of course since only the top 10% of the field would there would be only 8 payouts which means 2 players will walk away from this final table without anything. And the unfortunate 2 were one-time chipleader Amit Raheja and Anil Gulati. Raheja who had a commanding chiplead at the start of the final table was unable to capitalize on his big stack and as is the case sometimes, all it takes is a few hands for things to go badly wrong. The Machine on the other hand played his usual brand of tight solid poker but wasn't able to convert it into a final table money finish. What was interesting and heartening to see was a girl finally making it to the final table and that too in the big game. Mumbai’s Minica Chhabria was second in chips and looking to be the first woman to take down an IPC title. Since this tournament was only paying out 8 players, the unfortunate bubble boy was local pro Anil ‘The Machine’ Gulati whose solid tournament play was unable to see him to the money this time.

In the end it was an all-Mumbai 3-way for the title with Amit Jain, Bobbe Suri and Gaurav Mehra gunning for the 20k title. When he entered 3 way action, Bobbe Suri Suri was on the short stack but in a matter of hands he gained the lead, lost it and then gained it back again! Gaurav Mehra would then get eliminated to make it headsup between Amit Jain and Bobbe Suri. Jain, primarily a cash player, was playing his first big tourney and looking to make a big score but it would be a repeat final tablist Bobbe who would prevail and take down the IPC 20k Freezeout title. The deepstack event was a long and exhausting one with the game winding up at just past 8am. Tomorrow is the final tournament of the weekend and expected to be a little more chilled out than the previous games.

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

2011-02-23T07:46:00.000-08:00

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:-

Kenneth Sequeira - 125,000
Rajiv 'Rocky' Motwani - 118,000
Jasven Saigal - 116,000
Rishabh Jhunjhunwala - 89,000
Kavin Shah - 74,000
Ratan Chawla - 64,000
Sangeeth Mohan - 62,000
Piyush Singh - 54,000
Shreyabha Pandey - 43,000
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

2011-02-21T00:47:00.000-08:00

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^thplace. 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

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

2011-02-08T20:28:00.000-08:00

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!

The Feb event, UB loses their top 2 and the Isildur1 'reveal'

2011-01-10T10:18:00.000-08:00

Well now that the new year's hangover (oh Happy New Year to you too!) is well and truly behind us... unless you're one of those over-the-top degenerates :D it's time to look towards the fun stuff coming up for you, O poker player. The Feb edition of the India Poker Championship is all set to take place from 10th-13th February on board Casino Royale in Panjim, Goa. With the IPC Player of the Year (POY) started in December, there is a lot of interest in the leaderboard and many will look to break into it while those who already have will look to score more points and consolidate their positions in the POY race. Here's what the Feb 2011 schedule looks like:-

10th Feb - IPC 5k Freezeout
11th Feb - IPC 10k Freezeout
12th Feb - IPC 20k Freezeout
13th Feb - IPC 5k Freezeout

As of now our India Champion Aditya Sushant is on the top of the leaderboard and given that he intends to play all events possibly, he will be the man to beat. That said, many of the known faces who have not scored any points thus far will be looking to make their mark on the event. Besides bragging rights of being the POY, there is also an IPC sponsorship worth INR 1,00,000 for the eventual POY of the 2010-2011 season.
To register for the Feb edition you can visit our website at www.indiapokerchampionship.com or alternately you can also register at this link.

Some interesting bits of news from the other side of the globe. The first is the departure of Phil Hellmuth from his primary and long-time sponsor Ultimate Bet which came as a bit of a surprise to a few people even though there had been plenty of rumors circulating for a few weeks prior to the official announcement when the Poker Brat showed at an event without the yellow UB logo branding on his clothing. Phil's departure was closely followed by another senior pro leaving the site - Annie Duke. While in recent times both players have been in the media more for their personal behaviour or their ugly clashes with other pros (here's some vitriol unloaded by Kid Poker), it cannot be denied that both, and waayyyy more so Hellmuth, have formidable reputations in the poker world. While I don't think UB will care too much about the loss of Duke, Phil Hellmuth's departure is definitely gonna put a dampener on things. All parties have played nice and wished each other well with UB saying its gonna focus on building a young team with the likes of Joe Sebok, Eric Baldwin, Maria Ho and others. Phil on the other hand is obviously in talks with lots of entities not in the least of which are other poker sites. He tweeted a day or two ago that he was heading into a meeting with Full Tilt. But most folks believe that Helmuth is too big a brand to be part of a team. He can provide every advantage to a potential sponsor by being the face of their brand. That said there are enough of rumors about Phil starting his own poker site which in my personal opinion seems a touch unlikely. Nothing to back that up... just a gut feeling.

The second piece of news is of course the much awaited reveal of Isildur1, the mysterious online sensation who played heavy stakes poker and was and down by millions across the course of his play! For a long time when those huge games were taking place on Full Tilt and PokerStars, the identity of this player remained unknown. As time went on, there was speculation about a young Swedish player named Viktor Blom being the anonymous Isildur1. That speculation turned into heated discussions and debates on various forums as weeks went by. At the time, Blom also started playing in live events and at a point in time, it was all but certain that Blom was indeed Isildur1. About a couple of weeks back, PokerStars announced that they had signed on the player known as Isildur1 and would reveal his true identity at one of their events in the coming weeks. That event was the PCA and the announcement happened this past Saturday and Isildur1 was indeed Viktor Blom or vice-versa if you like. By the time the 'great reveal' happened, there was no mystery so in the words of one of the forum posters, it was like, "going to a movie, the ending to which you already knew...". Still now that the news is official, his many fans can now follow (with any remaining doubts rested) Blom as he continues to operate a high stakes both online as well as on the felt.

I end this post by saying watch out for some excitement next week! There's a satellite planned in the run-up to the Feb event. We will giving seat packages so stay tuned to our Facebook profile and pages (1. 2) for more information.

IPC POY standings

2010-12-18T23:47:00.000-08:00

Now that the December edition is behind us, the interesting thing (besides even more poker :) for players now is the leaderboard situation with the IPC POY. With two money finishes including the Main Event, it's India Champion Aditya Sushant who is sitting pretty at the top of the rankings. As far as cities are concerned, Mumbai is leading the pack with 6 out of the Top 10 from the nation's financial capital. Here's the Top 10 on the IPC Player of the Year leaderboard:-

Rank	Name	Points	Finishes
1	Aditya Sushant	936	2
2	Farukh Shaikh	700	1
3	Akash Malik	576	1
4	Amit Jain	560	1
5	Harman Baweja	480	1
6	Jan Hlobil	420	1
7	Avinash Rajpal	384	1
8	Dhaval Mudgal	350	1
9	Ricky Chopra	312	1
10	Hrishikesh Mundargi	288	1

To see the complete listing of the IPC Player of the Year rankings, click HERE.

And here's one of the IPC Directors closing out the tournament weekend with a round of thanks to a few people...

The next IPC edition is coming up from 10th-13th February 2011. To register for this event, visit our website at www.indiapokerchampionship.com or you can also register here - http://bit.ly/IPCRegister

Day 4 - IPC 5k Freezeout

2010-12-16T02:05:00.000-08:00

The final event of the weekend was another 5k Freezeout. The organizers had mentioned there were requests in past events to add Sunday night to the tournament weekend for those folks who could stay back. Keeping that in mind and also to appeal to the smaller stakes player, the IPC 5k Freezeout was introduced for this December event. The action was very loosey-goosey as many players got their chips in with marginal hands. There were a few bad beats but most ended up paying the price with the loss of their tournament life. It seemed that players were more relaxed and willing to ‘gamble’ after the initial intensity of the first 3 days. The tournament started a few minutes after 8:30pm with 80 initial runners. There were plenty of people waiting to get in and it looked like we would get another packed house. Eventually at the end of the late entries, there were 93 runners. The 3-figure mark could have been achieved but many of the players on the waiting list decided to head to the casino floor and didn’t make it back in time.

Several prominent names got knocked out before the end of the 4^th level including the India Poker Champion Aditya Sushant, Arjjun Singh and Rajesh Goyal. Main Event runner-up Farukh Shaikh and Dhaval Mudgal too got eliminated a couple of levels later. As the tournament progresses the number of bad beats seem to go up and most of these are accompanied by the elimination of players as well.

Eventually we get the final table into place and here’s what it looked like:-

Champagne flowing amongst the money finishers at the final table

Raghav ‘Chilly’ Singh – 42,000
Satish – 37,000
Aditya ‘Intervention’ Agarwal – 96,000
Amith Guthi – 26,000
Kavin Shah – 35,000
Sachit – 56,000
Rajiv ‘Rocky’ Motwani – 59,000
Lawrence Sanjay – 58,000
Dr. B Ravichandra – 51,000

Already dubbed as a rising young star of online poker, it was expected that Aditya ‘Intervention’ Agarwal would definitely make a final table at the IPC tournament weekend. However despite decent runs in the first three events, Intervention couldn’t quite make it through and was looking to make a serious dent in the last event of the weekend. With over a 70% lead in chips over the next player, Intervention was in a commanding position as he entered his first final table in the India Poker Championship. First elimination on the final table was Lawrence Sanjay who had quite the run coming into the final table knocking out several players. But his T T were no match for Dr. Ravi’s pair of Ladies. But the good doctor was unable to last long getting knocked out in 8^th place. Intervention who’d taken a huge beat against Satish earlier was now once again staring at elimination from his nemesis who’d made the call. A King on the flop for Satish and Aditya goes out in 7^th place. The man with the spiky hair, funky red shades and spicy name, Raghav ‘Chilly’ Singh was the next to go in 6^th place knocked out by Sachit. Rocky Motwani then busts out Satish in 5^th place and follows that up by eliminating Sachit in 4^th.

Our fantastic service staff at the Royale Card room

3-way action then ensues between Rocky, Amith and Kavin. Kavin with pocket Jacks then eliminates Amith who was holding A T. He spikes a J on the turn and this is enough to end Amith’s tournament run. Headsup between Kavin and Rocky goes on for a while with hands and smallish pots being traded. Rocky picks up a few pots in a row and then makes another push with A 3. This time Kavin decides to make the call and lips over A 8. The flop causes a lot of cheer from the Mumbai contingent as their boy Kavin hits trips on an 8 8 3 board. The turn throws up a 6 and it’s all over as the celebrations begin even as the river shows an inconsequential King. Kavish Shah is the IPC 5k winner and a commendable 2^nd place for Goa local and tournament regular Rocky.

Rocky Motwani, Kavin Shah and Amith Guthi

It was an action packed 4 days of intense tournament poker. With most tournaments crossing the 9 hour mark, players making the final table were battling not just mental but sheer physical fatigue as well! While some of the known names of the tournament circuit did not score across the event, we had the opportunity to observe several young and aggressive talents. All events from December will also award points to players towards the IPC Player of the Year rankings. India Poker Champion, Aditya Sushant is currently on top of the Leaderboard with the Main Event title as well as a points finish in the 10k event. While the points race has just begun, it will be interesting to see if he can hold onto to his lead.

The next IPC event will take place from 10^th – 13^th February 2011.Visit our website at www.indiapokerchampionship.com to register or alternatively you can also click here to register - http://bit.ly/IPCRegister

Day 3 - IPC 25k Main Event

2010-12-16T01:38:00.000-08:00

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.

Day 2 - IPC 10 Freezeout

2010-12-15T23:18:00.000-08:00

The next day was the IPC 10k Freezeout which was expected to have a decent turnout. By the time the late entries got done, there were 100 players in the tournament! This was a record turnout across all tournaments held in Goa for a similar buy-in! The 10k tournament had an added buzz because we had a celebrity in the house in the form of Bollywood star Harman Baweja. Harman who was originally supposed to come only for the 25k Main Event the following evening had decided to show up a day earlier and get suitably warmed up by playing in tonight's 10k event.

Players waiting for the 10k tournament to begin

The evening didn't start well for the previous evening’s 5k winner Ricky Chopra. He got knocked in the 2^nd level itself when his flopped straight get hammered by his opponent’s turned full house. Heartbreak for the genial Ricky who was hoping to make another deep run. Other prominent names to get get knocked out in the early stages – Rajesh Goyal (June 20k winner), Farukh Shaikh, Prabhat Saini (June 10k 2nd place) and Sameer Rattonsey (June 10k winner). It seemed that the star from the silver screen wanted to prove a point or two on the green felt as Harman Baweja started off the final table as the chipleader and here’s what the rest of table looked like:-

TD Craig Wildman making notes for his final table commentary

Harman Baweja – 161,000
Aditya Sushant – 27,000
Girish Ganganna – 32,000
Vishwanath Murugappan – 88,000
Kavish Kukreja – 61,000
Umesh – 45,000
Hrishikesh ‘Rosh’ Mundargi – 108,000
Akash Malik – 82,000
Avinash Rajpal – 78,000
Ali Haq – 66,000

The short stack at the table, Aditya is the first to go after his pocket 6s run into Rosh’s Cowboys. After taking a few hits and getting reduced to just one 1000 chip, it was soon Vishwanath’s turn to exit in 9^th place courtesy Akash Malik. Girish and Umesh are the next two to go in 8^th and 7^th taken out by Avinash and Rosh respectively. Our repeat final tablist from Day 1 Kavish made an impressive run again in a 100 player field to make it out in 6^th place. The big chipleader at the start of the final table, Harman also made his presence felt at the table by knocking out Ali in 5^th position. Down to 4-way action and each of these players would be taking home a minimum of one lac for their efforts. Rosh was the first to get eliminated when Harman (KK) hits the stone cold nuts on a flop of K 2 2!

Avinash Rajpal (3rd), Akash Malik (1st) and Harman Baweja (2nd)

Harman continues his knockout run when his A K busts out Avinash’s 8 T. It then got down to headsup between Akash Malik and Harman Baweja. There were lots of hands which shifted the chip lead frequently between the two. Eventually both players get it in with Akash holding A 7 against Harman’s K Q. With no help on the board, Harman is knocked out in 2^nd and Akash Malik from Delhi is the winner of the IPC 10k Freezeout. We got to see some great poker from both players but eventually it was Akash who managed to get the better of Harman. A superb 3-figure turnout of players made this event an exciting one with a very hefty prizepool as well. Fingers crossed for the Main Event which will take place tomorrow. The Crew would be extremely happy if we cross 65 players coz that would make it a worthy field for a Championship battle.

Till tomorrow...

Day 1 - IPC 5k Freezeout

2010-12-12T00:16:00.000-08:00

The now extended weekend of the India Poker Championship would feature 4 days of tournament poker and as usual things were kicked off with the IPC 5k Freezeout. While we had expected a decent turnout for the game, it took some time for the field to cross 100 as a few flights had gotten delayed coming in from Mumbai and Delhi. Eventually by the end of the late entry and Alternates time period, we had 110 runners who were gonna try and score a big payday at the end of it. The tournament structure was tweaked a little by adding more chips (5000 this time as compared to 3500 in September) so the participants could get more play. In four editions of this event, this has probably been the most ideal structure we've managed to come up with as far the 5k game is concerned. It is likely that we will continue to stick with this structure for future 5k freezeouts as well.

The action began fast and furious and by the time the time for late entries was over we had already lost 10 players. The tournament started slightly differently with all tables featuring 10 seats instead of the usual 9. This was to try and accommodate most of the participants in the poker room itself rather than the upper level. Fortunately those tables did not come into play because of the large number of early eliminations. Lots of newbies came to get their first taste of tournament poker action and it was many of these newbies who were the initial casualties not realizing the patience factor is extremely crucial when it comes to surviving big fields in a poker tournament like the IPC. Some big names from previous tournaments were in the field like our 1st runner-up from the September event, Amit Varma who was on a healthy stack of about 35k when there were about 3 tables left. Another name still in the fray was our 10k winner from June, Sameer Rattonsey who was looking to make another final table at this December event.

By the time the 3 hour was complete we had lost just about 60% of the field and a couple of hours later it was time for the final table to begin. Prior to the final table, the player who was running red hot was Rajeev Raut who was a monster stack compared to not just his table but indeed the rest of field. However in the run-up to the final table, he lost all his chips and was our bubble boy busting out in 11th. place. This is what the lineup looked like with their chipstacks:-

Anil 'The Machine' Gulati - 99500
Grenville Dias - 87000
Sameer Rattonsey - 76500
Ridesh Sejpal - 72000
Amit Varma - 67500
Ricky Chopra - 52000
Santosh Govindaraj - 41500
Kavish Kukreja - 25500
Girish Shahane - 19000
Amey Gad - 6000

The chiplead was held by one of the regulars on the Goa poker circuit Anil Gulati who was (rightly so) dubbed by our TD Craig as 'The Machine' for his consistency in tournaments. Besides Anil, there was Sameer and Amit who have done very well for themselves in past IPC tournaments and were looking to make another big score. Right off the bat, Amit and Ricky got involved in a couple of pots where Ricky doubled up in the first hand leaving Amit in very bad shape and then Amit returns the favor and manages to get chips from Ricky to stay alive at the final table. The short stack at table, Amey was looking for any half hand to get his chips into the middle and when he looked down at A 9, he could not shove fast enough. Unfortunately for him, Ricky Chopra wakes up with Big Slick and with no help from the board, Amey Gad is our 10th place finisher. Girish is the next to bust out finding a similar hand (A 8) to Amey's and he gets eliminated by Kavish's T T. Kavish seems to be unstoppable as his AA destroys Amit's pockets Jacks knocking him out in 8th place. But the dream run is not meant to be as 2 hands cripple and then eliminate Kavish from this final table and in both cases, it is Sameer who causes the damage. The first hand has Sameer's T T dominating Kavish's 9 9. Not long after, Kavish faces an all-in call when Sameer shoves on a Q 5 6 board. Having Q J in his hand, Kavish nonetheless tanks for a fair while before (almost reluctantly) making the call. It seems his premonition was right as Sameer shows Q 6 for two pair and takes down the pot and Kavish is out in 7th.

Grenville is the next one to go when his J T gets called by Ricky Chopra who once again has Big Slick. A King on the turn means that Grenville will be our 6th place finisher. In the meanwhile, Ridhesh has been sitting quietly, trying to survive on his meager stack but the blinds are not being kind. He survives after repeated shoves and finally looks down to see a pair of 8s. Once again it is Ricky Chopra who calls with 10 7 and hits his T on the flop and makes it trips on the river thereby knocking out Ridhesh in 5th place. The former chipleader Anil Gulati has also been fighting for his tournament life and his cause is helped by Ricky when his A K doubles up through Ricky's K J. Shortly thereafter Sameer's Q 8 goes up against Ricky's J T and with a ton of draws for Sameer by the turn, Ricky can only pray for a miracle. And the miracle comes in the form of a 2 outer Jack which reduces Sameer to barely 3x BB. He soon shoves in the next hand with 6 8 and is called by Anil's A T which prevails and Sameer is our 4th place finisher.

Ricky is on a roll as he cripples Santosh when his K Q spikes a K on the turn against Santosh's A T. This is followed up by Santosh going all-in with his remaining stack on 6 7 and Ricky makes the call with Q 4. No help for Santosh who goes out in 3rd place. It's now down to heads and it's Ricky Chopra who has a marginal chip lead but it really is anyone's game as one right (or wrong) hand could seal the deal. Headsup battles goes on for a while as both players try to get into a stronger position. It's Ricky who makes the stronger plays in the beginning and builds his lead to better than 2:1 over Anil. But he isn't called The Machine for nothing as Anil fights back and over the course of a few hands the chip lead once again rests with him. After many swings on both sides sides, this crucial hand comes up - Preflop raise by Anil which is called by Ricky and we go to the flop of 2 7 T. Anil fires out again and once again he is flat called Ricky. The turn is an A and Anil puts Ricky all-in which Ricky immediately calls showing a flopped set of deuces where Anil shows Q T for top pair on the flop. The river is of no help and Ricky and his pals start to celebrate thinking he's won it. But Craig steps in and after a quick count, it is determined that Anil still has just under 3x BB which means headsup will continue. Anil shoves on the very next hand with A 2 and Ricky called with Q J and hits his Q on the flop to take down the win of the IPC 5k Freezeout!
Just an absolutely fantastic start to the tournament weekend and a final table that had its share of 'TV hands' which kept the players and the railbirds very interested in the action. Given the turnout of Day 1, we expect good numbers on Day 2 as well.
Till then...

B-I-G news from the India Poker Championship

2010-11-10T00:20:00.000-08:00

Here, at the India Poker Championship, we have always believed in pushing the boundaries and being the pioneers in introducing new elements and experiences. We've built ourselves up from humble beginnings at the start of this year. Our constant focus on improving our numbers pushes us to do better with every event. We also introduced online freerolls to provide another avenue where Indian players could not only try and win seats into our live events, but also get a chance to interact with their peers from across the country. Now as we move closer to our 4th edition, the crowning of the first ever India Champion is in the offing.

So what is the big news for this particular post?? The player who takes home the title of India Champ will get a One Year Sponsorship of INR 1,00,000/- which can be used to play in whichever IPC tournament he/she wishes to! That's right, our champion will be the first ever sponsored poker player in the country. With every other sport having an ambassador, we figure it's time that poker in India also gets it own. The inaugural India Poker Champion, we hope, will be the first in a long line of players who will be sponsored by us. So now not only does the winner get a handsome share out of a Minimum Guaranteed Prizepool of INR 10,00,000 at the Main Event but their buy-ins into future IPC tournaments will be sponsored by us as well. And it doesn't stop there! The IPC Player of the Year rankings which will be introduced from December 2010. The POY seeks to reward the most consistent performer across the 24 tournaments in the 2010-11 poker season. The winner (who will be declared on 1st November 2011) will also have the same One Year sponsorship deal of INR 1,00,000 for the following poker season.

There are a couple more announcements we will make in the coming days but this was the juiciest one of the lot and we were so kicked about it, that we couldn't wait to share it with y'all. Just one more to the growing list of 'firsts' that the IPC is pulling out of the bag for its players. If you still haven't registered for our tournaments in Goa, here's the link where you can register - http://bit.ly/IPC_Dec2010

Are you ready to take home the big one? Are you ready to become an India Poker Champion??!

**Terms & Conditions:-

The sponsorship period for the India Champion will be from 6th December 2010 to 31st December 2011. The sponsorship period for the IPC POY will be from 1st December 2011 to 31st December 2011.
The sponsorship prize of INR 1,00,000 is inclusive of a seat worth INR 25,000 which is the entry into the December 2011 event.
The sponsored players must wear an IPC patch during all events (IPC & non-IPC) played during the sponsorship period.
In case we get sponsors, the players must wear their logos as well.
Sponsor patches and/or apparel will be provided by the IPC.
The balance amount aside from the 2011/2012 Main Event seat (i.e. INR 75,000) will be used only towards buy-ins into IPC tournaments of the player's choice. No cash will be paid out.
Any balance amount left over will lapse after the sponsorship period is over. No cash will be paid out.
Sponsored players must click photographs of him/herself at all tournaments (IPC & non-IPC) he/she participates in.
The IPC reserves the right to all pictures, interviews and other media featuring the sponsored players taken during IPC tournaments.
Final decision with regard to any sponsorship related matter rests with the IPC.

Diwali and IPC's Poker Festival

2010-11-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

The Festival of Lights is coming up and a different sort of fest will also take place in less than a month's time in Goa. We are very excited about the India Poker Championship's December event because it is the start of the new poker season/calender for us and with the introduction of additional events in the coming year, there is just so much to play for.

Here at the IPC we're big fans of the kill-2-birds-with-1-stone style of working philosophy, here's a rundown on things ranging from introduction of new stuff to changes being made to the existing stuff and of course why we're sick of Lady Gaga. (OK so the last one's a total rant but our therapist tells us its unhealthy to keep strong emotions inside. Bad for the skin!)
The reason for this post is we've had quite a few players sending in emails asking us to explain in detail about the new things happening at the IPC and while we are very serious about communicating with our players, writing out the same reply over and over again can a bit tiresome :)
So here's what's what:-

The first ever India Champion - This one is big. Say it again - B-I-G big! No one has attempted to do this before and if they have, we haven't heard of it. We believe it is high time there was an India Champion especially in a sport which is growing day by day in this country. Like the way it is done in the WSOP for instance we will do a Main Event every December and the winner will be crowned the India Champion. The Main Event will have a buy-in of INR 25000. The India Champion will hold the title for the entire season.
More events - OK this is pretty simple. Indian poker players are desperate for more poker! Right from our first event back in March this year, players have asked about including Sunday night into the tournament weekend. From the December event, our usual tournament weekend will now begin on Thursday night and end on Sunday night. This also means there are a total of 24 featured tournaments which a player can participate in to try and rack up points towards the IPC POY.
IPC POY - The Player of the Year (POY) is a way of tracking (and rewarding) the most consistent players who play our events. Points are awarded on the basis of three factors - buy-in amount, finishing position and number of players. Being the IPC POY isn't just about the bragging rights because there is a big cash prize which is also awarded to the POY. At the end of the year this pool will be awarded to the most consistent one of them all. We will reveal the nature of this cash prize soon!

A quick recap of the event schedule
Venue: Royale Card Room onboard Casino Royale, Panjim Goa

Day 1
2nd December 2010
08:30 pm - IPC 5k Tournament (INR 5000)

Day 2
3rd December 2010
08:30 pm - IPC 10k Tournament (INR 10000)

Day 3
4th December 2010
08:30 pm - IPC 25k MAIN EVENT (INR 25000) The winner of this Main Event will be the first ever India Champion

Day 4
5th December 2010
08:30 pm - IPC 5k Tournament (INR 5000)

- There will be Superturbo and One Hand Satellites held on each day prior to the featured tournament.
- Superturbos Sats will begin at 7pm and the One Hand Sats will begin at 8pm.
- All tournaments will award points towards the IPC Player of the Year (POY) leaderboard.
- All tournaments are Freezeouts i.e. No rebuys allowed.

Still need answers?! Send us an email at info@indiapokerchampionship.com

Hopefully this will clear a lot of the queries players might have with regards to the new things at the IPC. And no... we haven't forgotten about the Lady Gaga rant. Just gonna save it for next time :)

The Diwali weekend is coming up and the team here at the IPC would like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous Diwali. Have fun, eat loads of mithai and be safe when lighting up those fierce Laxmi bombs!:) :)
Peace out.

Exciting news from the IPC!

2010-09-29T04:58:00.000-07:00

We take great pleasure in announcing the MEGA event of the IPC from 2nd - 5th December 2010. It might be the end of the calender year but for poker enthusiasts across the country, it is only the beginning! The December event is an especially exciting time for us given the many things the IPC intends to introduce for the 2010-2011 season.

The first ever India Champion - We will crown the first ever India Champion at the December event. The Main Event will feature a buy-in of 25k and the winner will hold the title for the 2010-2011 season. An added incentive is that this tournament will feature a Minimum Guaranteed Prizepool of INR 10 lacs!
Increased number of Events - We did mention the word season and with good reason! The IPC will now have 6 events for the year starting from February 2011. So the full calender will feature tournaments in February, April. June, August, October and December. Each event will now contain 4 featured tournaments which means the IPC tournament weekend will now start on Thursday and end on Sunday. In all there will be a total of 24 featured tournaments through out the year all of which will go towards the IPC POY.
IPC POY - From the December event the IPC will launch a Leaderboard known as the IPC POY or Player of the Year. This will essentially award points to the top finishers in every tournament. The most consistent finishers will find themselves on the Leaderboard with a chance to become the IPC POY. A healthy cash bonus will be awarded to the POY which will be derived every single buy-in (500) from each of the 24 featured tournaments. Aside from this the POY will also receive lots of goodies!

Event Schedule for IPC's December edition:-

2nd Dec 2010 - IPC 5k Freezeout (INR 5000+500)
3rd Dec 2010 - IPC 10k Freezeout (INR 10000+500)
4th Dec 2010 - IPC Main Event 25k Freezeout (INR 25000+500)
5th Dec 2010 - IPC 5k Freezeout (INR 5000+500)

Aside from the featured tournaments there will also be plenty of Satellites (Superturbos & One Hand) from 6pm on all tournament days.

Keep an eye out for our new look website which will be launched by the end of October. There will detailed information about the schedules and formats for December's mega event as well as for the rest of the 2010-2011 season.

In case you have any queries, feel free to email at info@indiapokerchampionship.com

Indian poker history will see a new chapter begin in December. Are you ready to make your mark on it?!!

Day 3 - IPC 20k Freezeout

2010-09-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

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):-

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

Day 2 - IPC 10k Freezeout

2010-09-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of the India Poker Championship started off with about 66 registrations. Late registrations were accepted till the first hour of the tournament. By the end of that hour, there were a total of 74 players who took part in the 10k Freezeout.

As in our previous editions, there were 'repeat offenders' from the final of the 5k tournament who eventually made it to the final table of the 10k event. Aside from winning the big one at the end of the night, a good poker player will always take heart and pride in his consistent performances at the felt. And a couple of these players had every right to be proud of their consistent play which got them into the money. Here is what the final table of the IPC 10k Freezeout looked like:-

Seat 1 - Sandeep N - 51,000
Seat 2 - Yogesh - 34,000
Seat 3 - Susmit P - 39,000
Seat 4 - Anil D - 4,000
Seat 5 - Shreyabha P - 64,000
Seat 6 - Nikhil M - 88,000
Seat 7 - Sailesh L - 33,000
Seat 8 - Rishi - 7,000
Seat 9 - Paras K - 51,000

The final table began with chipleader Nikhil M from Delhi holding the big stack and the first of our back-to-back final tablists, Anil holding a tiny stack of 4000 chips. It seemed like Anil would ending up busting first once again on his second final table of the evening. However it was Susmit from Mumbai who made a push and ending up losing the hand bustng out in 9th place. A good performance from Susmit who has proved to be a consistent money-finisher in many of the tournaments he has taken part in. The other short stack at the table Rishi then got eliminated in 8th place which meant that Anil would end up going 2 better than the previous night when he was knocked out in 7th place. The next two players to go were Paras and Yogesh in 6th and 5th place respectively. Yogesh was hanging to his car keys and chip stack for the longest time battling away for his tournament life. It then came down to 4-way action which had our other back-to-back final tablist from last night, Sandeep N wanting to make sure he would take home the big prize of the night. He shoved with 6 6 and was called Nikhil's A 6 which spike an A on the flop and ended up knocking out Sandeep. A rock solid performance from Sandeep ensured that he ended one better by busting out in 4th place.

When it was down to the final 3 players, it was Nikhil who had about 50% of the total chips in play. Shreyabha was in 2nd position with Sailesh having the short stack. Hands were traded back and forth with Nikhil using his stack and position to stamp his authority on the final table. Chips continued to move around the table but the stack remained more or less the same till a big pot won by Sailesh through Nikhil ended up making all three stacks virtually identical. Shreyabha was bleeding chips and decided to make a stand but was done in by Nikhil and then it was time for headsup. Headsup play lasted for about 45 minutes before Sailesh's KJ of clubs busted out Nikhil's hand ensuring that he would be the new IPC 10k Champion. Apparently Sailesh had already put in a 24 hour session at the cash tables before entering the tournament so his achievement is even more commendable given the physical and mental strain the IPC tournament puts the player through.

Shreyabha (3rd), Sailesh (1st) and Nikhil (2nd)

It was a wonderful end to an evening filled with a lot of action and excitement. A big congratulations to our winner and all our final tablists who made the money. If you wish to follow us online, then find our group on Facebook (India Poker Championship). We are also on Twitter under the handle IndiaPokerChamp
Till tomorrow...

Day 1 - IPC 5k Freezeout

2010-09-03T05:33:00.000-07:00

A recording breaking field of players on Day 1 of the India Poker Championship, some truly awful bad beats and the young guns dominating the final table of the IPC 5k tournament feature in this report.

The 3rd edition of the India Poker Championship was expected to show increased numbers and while we were confident of a good turnout, the weather was giving us some cause for worry. It had been pouring away in Mumbai for almost a week non-stop and it seemed like there would be no end. So when Wednesday dawned bright and sunny, it felt like the Rain Gods decided to give us a break. As we were boarding our flight, we felt good and were looking forward to seeing some old faces and several new ones at the event.

Action is underway at one of the tables in the IPC 5k

The evening of Wednesday had us at the venue taking care of last minute details. It was good to catch up with Craig Wildman (Card room Manager) after a long time. If you remember June's report, Craig was unable to be a part of our 2nd edition due to visa issues. After sorting out the prep for the following day, we had a long and interesting chat about the Indian and world poker scene. Craig regaled us with some funny and shocking stories about his life as a pro traveling the circuit and some legendary old Vegas tales. After saying our goodbyes to him, we killed a bit of time at the roulette tables upstairs before finally calling it a night.

The day of the IPC 5k Freezeout dawned cloudy and just a tiny bit rainy. We were awakened by the strains of, "Kya paisa paisa karti hai kyon paise pe tu marti hai". After being suitably pissed for being woken up sooner than required, it struck me that this song has some serious Poker Zen. The essence of being a true champion at the felt is to stop yourself from thinking about the money... not too much anyway. There's no doubt about the fact that the money factor is important but a successful player manages to keep it in perspective and rises above such base (?!?) desires in pursuit of the win.

Day 1 of the IPC had a recording breaking field of 112 players for the 5k event and we're quite pleased at having bested our June number of 103. There were additional tables set up on the 2nd level and the total number of seats on offer was 114. There were a fair number of last minute dropouts else I think 120 players was a very real possibility. Anyway that is something to achieve for the next event. Unlike June's 5k event, the early action was a lot slower this time. In June we were down to 27 players within a 3 hour duration. This time however the eliminations were a lot slower and we were down to about 65 players at the 4 hour mark. There were quite awful beats which took place on some of the tables. Almost all of them ended with horrendous river cards that eliminated a player. AK v. AJ with the underdog rivering the J was seen more than a few times. There were 10 places paid out for the 5k event and when we lost the bubble boy a huge cheer went up as Craig made the announcement that we were now in the money. After losing #10, the final table reconvened with the player stacks looking like this:-

Seat 1 - Sandeep V - 118,000
Seat 2 - Shravan C - 69,000
Seat 3 - Rahul R - 29,000
Seat 4 - Raj T - 30,500
Seat 5 - Rahul G - 58,500
Seat 6 - Nikhil H - 17,000
Seat 7 - Sandeep N - 24,500
Seat 8 - Anil D - 5,000
Seat 9 - Nikhil M - 42,000

As is often seen at many a final table, the small stacks got wiped out pretty soon with Anil and Nikhil H taking 9th and 8th place respectively. They were followed by Rahul G (7th), Raj T (6th) and Sandeep N (5th). Sandeep V who started the final table with a monster stack went out in 4th place and we were then down to 3-way action. Eventually it was Nikhil M who prevailed and was crowned the IPC 5k winner. Shravan who was the 2nd big stack at the start of the final table took 2nd place with Rahul R ending up in 3rd. It was an epic 7 hour 20 minute marathon of a game and you could clearly see the fatigue showing on the faces of the Top 3 as they accepted their prizes and posed for pictures.

Many congratulations to the big winner Nikhil and those who made it into the money. They bested a field of more than 100 players which is a tremendous achievement!

Our big winner of the IPC 5k Freezeout - Nikhil M

We could not have asked for a better start for the September edition of the Championship and look forward to welcoming many of the players from Thursday's game at the 10k game tonight. The weather seems like it will hold up and we expect a good turnout this evening. Will be back to post on Day 2 tomorrow at this time again. Till then if you wish to follow us online, then find our group on Facebook (India Poker Championship). We are also on Twitter under the handle - IndiaPokerChamp

Till tomorrow...

The long wait is almost over!

2010-08-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

Well here we are again. It's incredible how quickly time passes between tournaments. It just feels like yesterday when we were at the poker room handing out IPC Winner's Medallions and certificates not to mention the cash to the winners of the June tournament.

The past few days have been depressing and the weather is squarely responsible for that. I haven't seen this much rain pelt the city in quite a few years now. Which of course brings us to the obvious question - what's the weather in Goa like? Fortunately not as bad as here in Mumbai. And the forecast looks pretty good for the weekend too.

The good life :)

I'm writing all this while waiting for my flight at Mumbai airport. I can see a few vaguely familiar faces. They're rank strangers but I know I've seen them in Goa's casinos. Aah the weekend has already begun for the real degenerate gamblers! :D

So what's the plan for today? Once we touch down, head to the hotel and grab a meal, followed by a visit to the venue later in the evening. With lots of cold beers thrown in the middle :D :D We will put up all the banners and what-not as well as meet up with the card room manager (and our TD) Craig. If you were at our June event you might remember that Craig was not present as he was out of the country at the time. So it will be good to catch up with him again after almost 6 months.

Before the start of play tomorrow, the IPC directors intend to make a few key announcements regarding their next event. So should be an exciting time for the Indian poker scene. Well they're calling my flight now so I'm off. We will be posting on Facebook and Twitter so do follow us there. There will be live updates from the venue as well as a report right here at the end of each tournament.

See you in Goa!

The most important things in poker

2010-07-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

Came across the article today and it kind of puts together some of the most important things in poker. I think it is a good read especially for those who are just entering the game and it wouldn't be a bad idea for even regular players to take a look at this...

There has been quite a bit of discussion and subsequent disagreement about what the most important thing in Poker is.

Some suggestions include:

* Making good decisions

* Bluffing well

* Eliminating tells

* Reading other players well

* Picking the right tables

* Picking the right games

* Playing agressively

* Trapping players

* Money management

* Having a good bankroll

* Having a positive attitude

* Playing at the right time

* Playing the right levels

While these suggestions are all good, is any one of them really the single most important thing in poker?

We think not! As important as all these suggestions are to winning, we propose another suggestion which we think is probably the most obvious thing in poker; Yet is the most often violated rule for playing poker successfully.

It is the "one rule" you will probably violate more often in each poker game you play. It is also the one rule that, when violated, will cost you more frequent and larger losses than any other rule.

Our suggestion for the most important rule for success in poker is: PATIENCE

* Patience to wait for quality hands to play.

* Patience to win one pot at a time.

* Patience to wait for the right game.

* Patience to wait for the right table.

* Patience to wait for the right time to play.

* Patience to wait for the right time to move up in levels.

* Patience to build up your bankroll before moving up to higher levels.

* Patience to learn new poker games well before playing.

* Patience to learn and read all you can about playing winning poker.

* Patience enough not to play junk when you just don't get the cards.

* Patience to play well even when you are losing.

* Patience to wait for the other players to make mistakes, go on tilt, or just get tired.

As you can see, patience covers a lot of things. Most likely, there are many more important winning qualities related to poker that you could add to this list.

Just as patience should be your most important objective when playing; It should also be your objective to find players who do not have patience, then play against them. So, by all means, look for players who lack patience due to:

* Being tired

* Being drunk

* Being on tilt

* Being low on chips

* Being nervous

* Being anxious to play

* Being short on time

* Being lucky or unlucky

* Being there just for fun

* Being there just to gamble

* Being there to socialize

* Being there to lose

Naturally, we expect that if you find yourself Being any of the above, You, by all means, should have the Patience to wait for a better time to play.

Senior Poker Columnist
Janice Carroll
www.headsuppokerchampion.com

This article has been sourced from www.theedgepoker.com

Meet the 2010 November Nine

2010-07-20T03:55:00.000-07:00

Well the November Nine is finally here.

While for the regular non-poker playing Joe, November Nine's significance perhaps lies only in the fact that it is the 313th day of the year (314th in a leap year), for the avid poker player and follower this term takes on different connotations. For the reader who has accidentally stumbled on this IPC blog and has no idea what the term means, the November Nine are the final nine players remaining in the Main Event of the WSOP. The Main Event takes place in July with several thousand player taking part. Play continues till all but nine remain. There is a break of a few months and then these nine will come back in November to determine the winner.

(L to R) Jason Senti, Joesph Cheong, John Dolan, Johnathon Duhamel,

Michael Mizrachi, Mathew Jarvis, John Dolan, Filippo Candio & Soi Nguyen

For the November Nine, the next four months of will change their lives. And this is despite the fact that only one from them will be the owner of a Main Event bracelet by the end of it. While many players (and fans) were not in favour of the November Nine concept when it was first introduced in 2008, the concept is now here to stay. From ESPN's perspective, this concept allows them to build on the excitement of the WSOP and in particular the final table. As the years have gone by the WSOP has steadily expanded the number of events offered to players at the WSOP and as a result for the TV audiences as well. From having 7 events in 1973, the WSOP in 2010 had 57 events including the Main Event. Having a break of 3-4 months allows ESPN to broadcast the various events which have taken place in the WSOP with the focus squarely being on the No Limit Hold'em events. It's all about the ratings game anyway in the television business and the WSOP is a big draw for the various brands that choose to associate themselves with the event. These brands are predominantly 'male' and range from beer to automobiles and even beef jerky.

While many pros still feel that the 3 month break messes with the 'purity' of an endurance event like the World Series, most current and past November Niners will beg to differ. Along with life-changing money that they stand to make, this interim period allows them an opportunity to establish themselves on the circuit, score sponsorship deals and become overnight celebrities of the poker world. This is a boon for them all regardless of the eventual winner for whom life will just become some kind of wild poker fantasy for the next 12 months. Eventually of course players must decide what's more important for them. In case of Joe Hachem who is one our favorite pros, the win at the 2005 ensured that he did not have to go back to his day job as a chiropractor and subsequently mortgage/brokerage executive. He is the face of Australian poker and is a great ambassador for the game. Then there is someone like Peter Eastgate who the youngest ever winner (subsequently broken by Joe Cada in '09) of the WSOP Main Event beating Phil Helmuth's almost 20 year old record. This kind of an accomplishment made Eastgate a huge and respected name in poker that year because he had the game to back it up as well. Eastgate just prior to this year's Main Event stated that he would be retiring from poker to pursue other things since his motive was to become financially independent with his poker playing which he managed in a spectacular manner.

The WSOP really is the dream as far as professionals and amateurs are concerned. A chance to win fame and millions of dollars on the one hand and the opportunity to be recognized forever in the annals of the game we all love.

The India Poker Championship's 3rd edition will take place from 2nd - 4th September in Goa.

For information and to register, log onto www.indiapokerchampionship.com

World Series, India Poker Championship update

2010-07-16T01:38:00.000-07:00

Well its that time of the year again folks. The cards are in the air and everyone who is a poker fanatic is glued to the television to get a taste of the action. I am of course talking about the this year's Main Event at the World Series of Poker which is taking place right now... literally.

The ballroom at the Rio where the WSOP takes place

Now us poor deprived poker fans in India have no way of catching all the action on television seeing as ESPN here is more than content to keep showing classic cricket matches from decades ago which, let's be honest, gets tiresome after a while. Don't get me wrong... I like my cricket (but am definitely not one of those hardcore painted-face types who scream their guts out) and wouldn't mind watching the classics occasionally but it seems quite silly to me that ESPN in India would rather show the Home Run Derby over some poker coverage which Indian audiences would lap up as compared to baseball. I caught the Derby a couple of nights back at a really late hour and if you wanted to fill up some slots why not put in some poker. Hey if not the current year's, even old episodes from past WSOP events would do... throw us a bone here guys.
Fortunately Internet zindabad! And due thanks to our equally nutty fellow poker enthusiasts across the world who are able to see the WSOP on tv and then are kind enough to upload it to torrent sites. Not to mention a site like PokerTube which is just awesome for the kind of varied content they put up. There are some videos of tournaments which you've never even heard before. Oh by the way to any of our readers who might be in the US or visiting there soon, here is the TV schedule.

2009 was the year for the pros finishing really deep. Many fans were delighted with this as was I because it seemed off late that just any dude with 10k and a monster hot streak could swing by and take home the biggest prize in poker (cases in point Jamie Gold & Jerry Yang). Of course a lot of that delight was a result of Phil Ivey's incredible run to the final table. Our good friend Girish Shahane who is a huge Phil Ivey fan wrote about him on his blog last year and it was a heart-breaker for him and us to see Ivey bust out in 7th place. 2010 thus far looks like an even mix of pros and amateurs although that could change really quickly. I had started writing this post about yesterday and what a difference 24 hours makes. A decent sized paragraph was to be dedicated to the two former champions still left in the fray but unfortunately my inbox was screaming with news reports of both Scotty Nguyen and Johnny Chan having been eliminated from the Main Event. So the dream is over for a repeat or 3-peat as the case may be...
On a side note, here's an interesting read about the best performers in the game after the poker boom back in '03.

Closer to home the India Poker Championship has opened up its registrations for its 3rd edition in September and if you still haven't registered, here is the LINK. Players are excited about the event and so they should be as things have only gotten bigger and better. The IPC might be only 2 events old but with every event we strive to provide Indian poker players with the best experience they can get. The best thing about this is that we can actually see the poker scene in India picking up momentum. It's high time that the game here in India gets its due and is legalised. It must enjoy the status that a game like bridge does because I personally believe this is a sport which involves a huge amount of skill and it's something which can be seen as plain-as-day by anyone who has played poker for even a short while. Fortunately there are people like Girish and Amit Varma who are big fans of the game and whose opinions and columns are read by many thousands and perhaps even lakhs of people. Hopefully information about the game from people like them and other forms of media will filter through to the general public and the resulting greater awareness will lead to some changes being made to the laws regarding poker in this country.
After all, haven't we always been a nation of gamblers?! From Sunday mornings long past I quote Duryodhan, "Mamashree... 6!"

And since it is dealer's (or blogger's) choice here on the IPC Blog, I choose poker over faaaaarrrkin teen patti.
Peace Out

Update: Shortly after this post was put up, the final nine participants or the November Nine as they are more popularly known, have come through. The most well-known pro amongst the lot is Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi who stands a good chance of doing a massive double, having earlier taken home the Winner's bracelet and over $1.5 million in the Tournament of Champions event.

Shameless Plug!

2010-06-11T09:27:00.000-07:00

Two of our favorite bloggers/columnists/novelists not to mention poker players, have each written a poker/gambling-related post in their respective blogs.

The first is by Amit Varma (of My Friend Sancho fame) where he speaks on his blog 'India Uncut' about the practicality of legalizing gambling in India among other things. Click HERE to read that post and more.

The second is a post by Girish Shahane (former editor of Art India) on his blog 'Shoot First, Mumble Later' where he talks about his experiences of playing in the IPC and also details some key hands he was involved in.

Besides their blogs and columns, Amit and Girish also write at Yahoo India on 'Viewfinder' and 'Anything That Moves' respectively.

That's the shameless plug for the week and month even... unless we come across more! :D

Day 3 - IPC 20k Freezeout

2010-06-07T01:13:00.000-07:00

Once again, the Berry decided to thrown a few tantrums but I was able to sending out a decent number of updates before my phone decided to just up and quit. Unfortunately we were just about getting into the final table when this happened so I wasn't able to send out any updates during the most exciting part of the tournament. But that's what these blog posts are for - to allow you, the avid Indian poker fan, to devour as many details that I can provide about the India Poker Championship.

After the success of Day 1 and Day 2, we were quite upbeat about the turnout of Day 3 figuring that we should crack the 50 mark fairly comfortably. We did but there were some jitters getting there. Around 9 pm we were still at around the 40 player mark when we were informed that a minor accident had taken place outside the jetty which had resulted in some traffic buildup. This of course meant that some players weren't able to make it to the casino as soon as they would have liked. But we waited for an additional 30 minutes for these players and then it was off to the races!

Anyone who entered the poker room could see there was a big tournament on. There was a lot of intensity on the players' faces and not surprisingly the poker room was a lot quieter on this evening as compared to the previous two nights. By the time the first hour had passed and the Alternates round was closed, there were 54 players in total who were in the fray to win the IPC 20k Freezeout. Our champions from the previous events Neel (IPC 5k winner) and Sameer (IPC 10k winner) were also back to try and add another IPC Winner's Medallion to their kitty. Neel's run in the 20k ended when the field was about half the size it began with. Sameer displayed some solid shortstack play to survive as long as he did. But it eventually wasn't enough and our 10k champ from the previous night was knocked out just before the final table.
And this is what the final table for the IPC 20k Freezeout looked like. Players' names are mentioned along with their respective chip counts:-

Seat 1 - Rajesh G (Hyderabad) - 83000
Seat 2 - Susmit P (Mumbai) - 5000
Seat 3 - Achin S (Mumbai) - 57000
Seat 4 - Girish G (Bangalore) - 58000
Seat 5 - Avi A (Chicago/Mumbai) - 63000
Seat 6 - Mukul C (Mumbai) - 35000
Seat 7 - Kunal S (Mumbai) - 17000
Seat 8 - Amit V (Mumbai) - 44000
Seat 9 - Masood S (Mumbai) - 44000

Bombay once again came to the party and it seemed like all the IPC Winner's Medallion's would be scooped up by Mumbai natives. But someone had other ideas... The tournament would feature 6 payouts and so while the final tablists were given champagne for having made it this far, they knew that three amongst them would go home tonight empty-handed. The table began with Rajesh from Hyderabad as the dominating chiplead. Rajesh also known as Royalsflushed online, had played a solid and selectively aggressive game to build up his stack and lead the final table. Avi who was the second chipleader was a super-aggressive player who kept making lots of moves in the run-up to the final table.
Susmit and Kunal being the shortstacks tried to last but the overwhelming lead everyone else had meant that they would have to get really really lucky to survive. Unfortunately that didn't happen and they were out and were soon followed by the bubble boy Masood. Girish, Amit, and Achin were the next 3 to get eliminated and then there were 3.

Mukul (3rd place), Rajesh (IPC 20k Winner) and Avi (2nd place)

From the 400000 chips in play, about 200000 were with Rajesh while Avi had about 150000 and Mukul was the shortstack with a little over 550000. Mukul was eliminated in 3rd place when he made a move with 8 5 off on the button in an attempt to steal the blinds before the next level. Unfortunately for him, Rajesh woke up in the Small Blind with AsKs and there was no bad beats which meant Mukul was out in 3rd place. Headsup batte between Avi and Rajesh did not last for more than a few hands when Avi's J 10 ran into Rajesh's A J and we had our winner for the IPC 20k Freezeout - Rajesh G from Hyderabad.
Along the IPC Winner's Medallion, Rajesh takes home the biggest prize from all IPC events held till date! Avi played an aggressive game till the very end and it was this aggressive style which was largely responsible for him coming to the final table and then claiming the Runnersup position eventually.

Given the amount of Red Bull we've had over the last three nights, we should approach them for sponsorship! :D As usual its been an exhausting 3 days but there is a warm feeling of having done a good job. Given that we had a few glitches on the first day with the massive field along with having to run the tournament on our own, I think we did a fairly decent job. The players in fact had only good things to say but we hold ourselves to a higher standard so while the praise was great to hear, we are already breaking down each event day and examining areas where we can improve for our subsequent events.
The next edition of the India Poker Championship will take place in September 2010. Till then we will remain in touch with our players through our website - www.indiapokerchampionship.com. There's also the group on Facebook (India Poker Championship). If you are a tweetoholic, we are also present on Twitter under the handle IndiaPokerChamp

A quick note of thanks to our hosts - the poker room at Casino Royale and the management, staff and dealers there. Most of all we'd like to thank our players who came in from across (and even outside) the country to play at the India Poker Championship. It is because of them that a brand like ours enjoys the popularity and goodwill that it does. We are certain there will be more players for the next event. Once again I was unable to participate in the event but there is always next. As usual its been fantastic to write these blog reports and keeping our followers updated on the event.

Till the September edition...

Day 2 - IPC 10k Freezeout

2010-06-05T04:33:00.000-07:00

Before I begin detailing Day 2, a quick apology for not having done the customary FB updates and tweets. The Blackberry was acting up and didn't allow me to send out any updates. Hopefully the situation should be sorted by tonight.
So after the madness of the huge field from Day 1, we were fairly certain Day 2 would give us a pretty decent turnout as well. The turnout would be lower than the 5k tourney but that was to expected given that the higher buy-in would keep some of the low stakes players away. Still a field of 80 was what we were expecting and eventually we managed to get 78 players for the IPC 10k Freezeout.

Since we had less than 80 players, we did not require the additional tables which were setup on the higher level. The action took place in the poker room only and at just past 9 pm we were off. The action was a lot more focused on Day 2 due to the higher stakes involved but we still lost 2 players within 15 minutes of the tournament starting off. There were a few more dropouts within the first one hour but then the action settled down with players battling it out for the big prizes.
We were down to half the field within 4 hours and then the extended blind levels kicked in to slow the dropout rate even more. This was a particularly important phase of the tournament as many of the short stacks were starting to feel the heat as far as the increasing blinds were concerned.

We ended up with our players for the final table by the 9th level of the blinds. The final table on Day 2 was slightly different as we had two players sharing the chip lead going in. This how the final table looked with each player's chipstack given as well:-

Seat 1 - Masood S (Mumbai) - 23,000
Seat 2 - Sameer R (Mumbai) - 78,000
Seat 3 - Prabhat S (Panchkula) - 38,000
Seat 4 - Kevin N - 13,000
Seat 5 - Nitesh M (Bangalore) - 74,000
Seat 6 - Mahesh K (Bangalore) - 78,000
Seat 7 - Akshat D (Mumbai) - 39,000
Seat 8 - Seshank S (Hyderabad) - 22,000
Seat 9 - Susmit P (Mumbai) - 26,000

Once again Bombay players made up about half the table and importantly we had two 'repeat offenders' from last night. Akshat and Seshank make an impressive back-to-back final table appearance. Just goes to show what good solid poker will do for you. Of course to make through a field this big you also need that slice of luck which Akshat managed to score to get to the final table. This evening there would be only 8 payouts made so somebody on the final table would be the bubble boy. That someone turned out to be Seshank. Despite not making the money an impressive showing for the man from Hyderabad.

Play went on for another 90 minutes before we reached three way action with Nitesh (185,000) and Prabhat (150,000) with Sameer rounding off as the shortstack with just over 50,000 in chips. Players traded a few hands trying to get back in the groove after the break taken. As play went on, the hand played between Nitesh and Sameer proved to be a critical one. Blinds were 4000-8000 with Sameer on SB and Prabhat on BB. Nitesh moved all-in from the button and was called down by Sameer while Prabhat got out of the way. Nitesh showed Kc 5c which was dominated by Sameer's Ah 9s. The flop opened up two 9s for Sameer who won a very healthy pot. All 3 players now had fairly even stacks. Play goes on till Nitesh's all in is called by Prabhat who A Q hits hard with both hole cards pairing up and Nitesh finishes up in 3rd place.

Headsup play started halfway into the level where the blinds were 4000-8000. Prabhat had about 270000 chips and Sameer about 120000. A few hands were traded up and down with not much movement in chips. Sameer then went on a bit of a heater taking down about 4 pots in a row uncontested. At this point he moved into the chiplead but only by a slight margin of about 30,000 chips. The final hand of the tournament had Sam on the button limping in to complete the big blind with blinds at 5000-10000. Prabhat checked and the flop opened up to show 2s 3d 5s. Both players checked the flop and the turn was 6s. Sameer bet the pot and Prabhat thought about it long and hard before he moved all-in which was insta-called by Sameer. Cards opened up to reveal Prabhat's 10 6 o/s brutally crushed by Sameer's 4d 8d who made the nut straight on the turn. Prabhat had no outs and was drawing dead which meant the Sameer was the big winner of the night!

Prabhat, Sameer and Nitesh

There were huge cheers from many players of the Bombay contingent when Sameer was announced as the winner of the IPC 10k Freezeout after just under 7 hours of action. A very commendable performance by first runner-up Prabhat who played a solid game to take 2nd place. Players gave positive feedback on the way the game was run and everyone including the players' friends and spectators alike had a good time.
It was a fantastic night with some great poker action and our final event, the IPC 20k Freezeout is to start in less than 4 hours time. Still hoping to get the Blackberry going in order to provide more updates when we're at the venue. Since the turnout tonight will be the lowest amongst the three tourneys, I hope to put up more frequent updates on Twitter and Facebook.

If you wish to follow us online, then find our group on Facebook (India Poker Championship). We are also on Twitter under the handle IndiaPokerChamp
Till tomorrow...

Day 1 - IPC 5k Freezeout

2010-06-04T05:31:00.000-07:00

The evening of 3rd June was quite balmy and as we headed to the casino, we hoped this was a good sign of things to come for later. It was...

We got to the casino and overlooked the final prep as far as putting up the banners in the room and on the jetty was concerned. Once done we sat in the poker room chilling and waiting for the players to come. By 6:30pm there were barely 12 players in the room and most of them got together to play some cash games to kill time before the start of the tourney. While we were a little apprehensive at the initial low turnout, things changed dramatically over the next two hours. By 8:30pm the room was buzzing with activity and we had over 80 players in the poker room registering and receiving their seat allocations. At 7:30 pm we had also started the One Hand Satellites (OHS) which caused a lot of excitement amongst players and spectators alike. 4 players eventually won a seat through the OHS at a fraction of the buy-in!
There was a slight delay in the start of the tournaments as more players kept coming in and they had to be moved to the upstairs level where additional tables had been setup. At just a few tickets after 9 pm, the IPC 5k Freezeout Tournament began. The final number of participants that took part in the event was 103! This is the biggest field of players that has ever been seen in a poker tournament in any Goan casino ever!

While we were ecstatic at the tremendous response the IPC event got, it was time to get to work. Our regular tournament director Craig Wildman was unable to make it for the event having some visa issues which held him back in England. So we rolled up sleeves and dove right into it. It was a bit of a task coordinating 2 floors which we running multiple tables but it seemed like a lot of the players were in a tremendous hurry! Within 3 levels the upstairs tables had to be merged into the main tables within the poker room. The player eliminations were like a contagious disease which was rapidly spreading through the room and at just under 3 hours we were down to 27 players! We had a fleeting thought that perhaps the tournament might not last even 5 hours let alone the average of 6 hours. But as usual our players would end up proving us wrong...

The final table

The dropouts continued but at a slower rate than the previous hours with players battling it out to add to their chipstack. The field was split into almost even halves with small stacks and the big stacks. At around 1:30 pm we finally got down to the final table! It was a range of stacks from the smallest at 5500 chips to the biggest at a monstrous 91500 chips. Below are the players who reached the final table at the IPC 5k Freezeout:-

Seat 1 - Neel V (Mumbai)
Seat 2 - Kenneth S (Mumbai)
Seat 3 - Kiran K (Bangalore)
Seat 4 - Sailesh S (Hyderabad)
Seat 5 - Akshat D (Mumbai)
Seat 6 - Anil Desai
Seat 7 - Rajeev K (Mumbai)
Seat 8 - Hrishikesh M (Mumbai)
Seat 9 - Seshank S (Hyderabad)

As can be seen from the above list, Bombay was represented quite heavily at the final table of the 5k Freezeout. The final table started with Rajeev K being the short stack with 5500 and Kenneth S was the biggest of them all with over 91000 in chips. The action then slowed down tremendously with the smallish stack waiting to pick a spot to move and try to double and the bigger stacks were looking to consolidate their existing stacks. In the first hour after the start of the final table we lost 3 players. Rajeev K made moves and caught good hole cards to stay in the game and not be eliminated despite having started the final table on the lowest stack. Akshat or AK-47 as he is known played several plays and picked small pots at regular intervals. A few chips moved from the bigger stacks to the smaller ones. Another hour and we down to the final three who were Hrishikesh (Rosh), Neel and Kenneth.

Getting close to headsup

Rosh started the final table with a stack of more than 65k chips and was played a very solid game adding to his chips and maintaining a solid state of play to ensure that he would enter headsup with a stack that would give the chipleader a few jitters. Kenneth eventually got knocked out in 3rd place. This was a very commendable for a player who picked up the game less than a year ago and has been intermittently playing poker for less than half that time. A strong performance by the Goan native and we hope to see more of Kenneth in future IPC events.

It was then time to start headsup play. Hands were traded back and forth and Neel found his chip lead being reduced by some strong plays by Rosh. At the start of headsup with over 360,000 tournament chips in play, Neel held approximately 200,000 chips with Rosh claiming the rest. Headsup lasted for just about an hour and a couple of big pots at crucial moments ensured that Neel had over 90% of the chips when the final hand of the tournament was dealt. Rosh pushed his remaining stack into the middle with 10 7 off and was immediately called down by Neel who showed A J. No help on the board for Rosh and finally after more than 7.5 hours of play, Neel V from Mumbai was the winner of the IPC 5k Freezeout.

Neel V our winner of the IPC 5k flanked by the runnersup Rosh (left) and Kenneth (right)

The customary congratulations were passed around to the Top 3 by players and spectators alike. There was a buzz in the room and Neel was hugged and congratulated by his supporters for having pulled a win in the biggest tournament field any Goa casino has ever seen. Neel, Rosh and Kenneth outlasted exactly 100 other players to claim the top prizes in the first tournament of the June edition of the India Poker Championship. After the prizes and gifts were given out, the winners took pictures with one of the IPC directors and then some more were taken of the winners themselves.

It was a fantastic start to a what promises to be an exciting poker weekend and tomorrow being the start of the weekend we expect a pretty good field for the IPC 10k Freezeout as well. We should a lot of faces from Day 1 on Day 2 as well and if the 5k tournament was any indication, then there is going to be a lot more fun poker action to be expected over the next two days. It's time to get a bite to eat and grab a few winks before we head to the casino later this evening. It's going to be awesome!

Will be back to post on Day 2 tomorrow at this time again. Till then if you wish to follow us online, then find our group on Facebook (India Poker Championship). We are also on Twitter under the handle IndiaPokerChamp
Till tomorrow...

24

2010-06-01T20:43:00.000-07:00

No... this isn't some kind of Jack Bauer fan post. Although given my overactive imagination, I can well imagine Jack Bauer breaking into the White House Presidential poker game and going, "Mr.President... you HAVE to attend the India Poker Championship! It's less than 24 hours away and the future of the country depends on it... Damnit Chloe!" :D

Just about 24 hours remain till IPC June 2010

OK OK 'nuff with the retarded jokes so early on this fine Wednesday morning and the reason for my super cheery mood (besides the caffeine) is that we leave for Goa in a few hours. The excitement is palpable and the IPC Crew can barely sit still thinking about the start of Day 1 tomorrow evening. Three months since our last event and you'd think we'd be a little dignified about it. But no! We're still as (in fact more) excited as we were before our inaugural event. That's kinda the nice thing about working on an event like the IPC. You put in the hard work promoting it and the results are there to see in a matter of weeks.

Speaking of results, we have a good feeling about the turnout in the June edition. In some ways its almost expected because at the time our March edition had drawn in the biggest number of participants for a tournament event in Goa. The scene has also been gradually growing and here at the IPC we like to think we have done our bit towards that growth. We firmly believe the day is not far off where we will be able to host $1000-2000 events which is par for the course as far as many Asian tournaments are concerned. That will also mean an influx of players coming in to play from the Austral-Asia region which is good news for us personally and overall for Indian tourism.

While I have put up more detailed posts in the past, this time I will try to write more posts (albeit shorter ones) and leave the detailed reports for each event's end-of-day coverage. You can follow us through Facebook and Twitter as well since I will be tweeting live from the venue through each event.

And now I must love you and leave you to go pack me bags. And I end this post the way I started... with a Jack Bauer ~~joke~~ fact:

Jack Bauer got Helen Keller to talk.

For more information on the Championship, visit our website at www.indiapokerchampionship.com

What to expect at the Tournament this time round?

2010-05-25T22:05:00.001-07:00

The exciting thing about the IPC for its second edition from 3^rd - 5^th June 2010 is the introduction of Minimum Guaranteed Prize-pools (MGP). If there’s one thing that excites a tournament player, it is the thought of outlasting a big field and therefore scoring a big payday. In the past, people have kept enquiring what kind of a field size they can expect at the India Poker Championship events. This of course can only be accurately answered on the day of the tournament itself. We figured there ought to be a way to provide a clearer number than say a broad range.

And thus the idea of the Guaranteed Prize-pools was born. Now each tournament definitely has a number associated with it and remember, this number is the minimum amount that is being played for. For the IPC 5k Freezeout on 3^rd June, the MGP is INR 330,000. The IPC 10k Freezeout on 4^th June will feature a minimum pool of INR 675,000 and finally the big game, the IPC 20k Freezeout on 5^th June will feature a INR 900,000 prizepool. Of course all prize-pools mentioned are expected to increase given the tremendous player response we’ve received thus far.

The second edition of the IPC is taking place in one of the most popular casinos of Goa – Casino Royale. With the casino running 24x7, players can now get a game whenever they want. The IPC satellites are also running everyday for those interested in winning a seat into the bigger games at a fraction of the cost! A luxurious setting like the Royale, fantastic catering from China Garden, premium beverages and of course world-class tournament poker events make the India Poker Championship the place to be for any poker enthusiast!

For more information, do visit our website at www.indiapokerchampionship.com

What makes IPC different?

2010-05-24T22:57:00.001-07:00

As promoters and marketers of this event, our primary goal is to ensure that players enjoy themselves at our events. From the get go, our focus has been on ensuring player satisfaction by doing all the small things right!

So what does make us different from the other operators out there? Let me explain through an example… I have mentioned in earlier posts about our Tournament Director Craig Wildman who does a fantastic job running our tournaments. I believe the reason Craig is a great TD is because he is first a poker player and then a TD which helps him understand both perspectives – the management of the game itself and the people playing the game. The same holds good for us as well. We have been playing the game for almost 8 years now and have been organizing games for about half that time. As players we knew the kind of experience that we personally were looking for. We would often be disillusioned with the games run in our city as there was always some thing or the other that we found lacking. This led to us skipping a lot of games. Not to sound like an excessive nitpicker, but elements like rake and blind structures are vital components for us in game selection.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to player experience. We want to make sure that anyone who takes part in the India Poker Championship walks away with one thought – “I had such a good time that I will return to take part in the next edition of the IPC”. We have received some very encouraging and positive feedback from our players which makes us believe we are on the right track. If we can do this consistently, I believe we will be the best tournament poker event in the country.

For more information on the Championship, do visit our website at www.indiapokerchampionship.com

The IPC website is up and running!

2010-05-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

We are very excited to announce that our website is now LIVE! So head to www.indiapokerchampionship.com and take a look. You will find all the information about the tournament and the registration link for the event as well.

There is also some useful information in terms of how to play poker, the history of the game and the basic rules that are implemented in most tourneys across the world including ours.
Some travel information is also included for those of you who are coming in from different parts of the country. We've also got a news feed for poker news from around the world and every so often we will feature some interesting videos in the Video Watch section.

So come on down and check out the website HERE

Guaranteed Prizepools at the India Poker Championship!

2010-05-01T09:14:00.000-07:00

June is going to be an exciting month for poker players across the country. With our March edition going off as successfully as it did, there has been a marked increase in the interest levels of the people who are keen on playing in the India Poker Championship.

We received lots feedback about the last event and we'd like to thank all those enthusiastic players who contributed. You know who you are! :) There was plenty of positive feedback and it was awesome to hear that players really enjoyed some quality poker action. We also incorporated some suggestions with regard to the blind structure and we feel the new structure in June will improve the overall player experience.
But while all of this was good, we wanted to take this one step further. So the question in our minds was - What will motivate a player to come to the India Poker Championship? And the short answer was - Money! And plenty of it!

So we are delighted to introduce Guarantee tournaments at the June edition of the India Poker Championship. That's right! Come June, each tournament will have a Minimum Guaranteed Prize-pool (MGP) which players will do battle for. One of the most common questions we are asked is what the player turnout and prizepool will be. This is relatively unclear till the day of the tourney but atleast now, a player will know the minimum he will definitely be playing for. Here's how the breakup looks like:-

The June edition of the India Poker Championship is going to be H.U.G.E! We are now hosting the Championship at one of most popular casinos in Goa - Casino Royale. This Class 7 luxury passenger vessel draws players from across the country. Besides an awesome venue, there is now the added attraction of Minimum Guaranteed Prize-pools which is music to any poker player's ears. So what are you waiting for?!!

To register for the India Poker Championship, click H-E-R-E

IPC March 2010 - Day 3

2010-03-07T07:41:00.000-08:00

After an entertaining and exciting final table last night, we finally woke up to Day 3 of the India Poker Championship on Saturday. This would be the final tournament of the inaugural IPC event. The buy-in for tonight's tourney would be 20k.

We followed the same routine of the past few days and headed to the casino at about 6pm. We expected a dip in the numbers for the game tonight for two reasons - A) the buy-in had gone up and that would deter a lot of people from playing and B) it was a dry day for 3 days starting today. We hoped however that people would take a shot in the satellites prior and try to get their seats into the main event. The satellites have been quite the hit with our players and we are sure that going ahead this will be an integral part of our events. When we got to the jetty, there were about 10-12 people waiting for the feeder boat to take them to the main ship. Seeing the lesser number of players at the jetty confirmed our suspicions about the reduced number of participants for the final event. Day 1 and Day 2 of the IPC had garnered 60 and 58 players respectively and we were hoping that at least 35-40 players would show up for the 20k game under the circumstances.

The IPC Winner's Medallion

Eventually 16 players started playing the satellite and it was then that our Tournament Director Craig Wildeman approached the IPC directors with an idea to generate some more excitement and buzz as well as up the number of entries. Craig wanted to run a Single Hand Satellite for an entry into the main event. So players are dealt just the 1 hand and the best hand takes it all. In case of a tie, another hand would be dealt to the tied players to determine a winner. There were a total of 3 seats that were given away through this satellite and it was exciting for everyone, players and spectators both gathering around and shouting out what cards they wanted the dealer to deal. It was a nice little 5 minute buzz for everyone.

Finally we got down to business. There were a total of 27 entrants in the IPC 20k Freezeout. However as the game started Craig mentioned that a few players had called in to say they were getting delayed due to the Hindu carnival, Shigmotsav which was causing some traffic issues, thereby delaying them from coming to the venue on time. Eventually there would be a total of 37 players who would do battle to be the IPC 20k champion. The action was tight to begin with although once again we lost a player within the first 2 hands of the tourney. As the action went on, we had a quick chat with Craig about the blind levels. Over the past couple of days, we received feedback that the blinds levels took at harsh jump after 500-1000 and while it is obvious that this point will be reached at some point in any tournament, we decided to tweak things a bit. We believed increasing the time levels would compensate for the jump in levels and as suggested by Craig, the clock would be increased to 25 minute from the existing 20 minutes once action went into the 1000-2000 level and beyond. After Craig's announcement regarding the change in structure we saw many players nod approvingly at the incorporated change.

The action then began to increase rapidly and players started to drop out like flies. At the end of the 4th hour of play, we were down to the final table. Phil S, our 10k Tourney winner from the previous night narrowly missed out on making the final table. However it was a back-to-back final table appearance for Keshav S who had played some solid poker to get to the final table. This tournament had 5 payout positions as a result of the reduced number of participants from the previous night. We finally got down to the money when we lost our bubble boy, Rohit. The rejoicing was short-lived as the focus now was to secure the big bucks and the IPC Winner's Medallion.

Half the table namely Bharat, Kehsav and SV were the the big stacks with only a few blinds separating them and similarly the remaining 3 short-stacked players were Ricky, Tarun and Rohit. Soon enough the inevitable happened and the big stacks got heavier and then it was 3 way action between Bharat, Keshav and SV with Keshav who was on the short stack. Hands got traded back and forth before Keshav's AK gets brutalized by SV's call with a Q9 and he hits two pairs Q and 9 to get knocked out in 3rd place. Keshav's performance like Nikhil Jain (our 5k champ) is quite noteworthy as both gentlemen made back-to-back final tables and had a healthy pay-day for their efforts.

Heads-up battle lasted for no more than 15 hands. Halfway through those hands SV got crippled by a bad beat when his top pair on the flop got beat by Bharat's one card flush which hit on the river! SV tried valiantly to make a comeback by winning a few pots but luck wasn't on his side when his QQ was called by Bharat's A4 and the board threw up a an A on the flop and eventually opened out a straight for Bharat. And with that hands, loud cheers went up as Bharat.S became the winner of the inaugural IPC 20k Freezeout tournament. Along with a very healthy share of the pool, Bharat was also given an IPC Winner's Medallion, a bottle of French champagne, a DVD of Rounders and an IPC coffee mug. Many congratulations to our IPC 20k winner Bharat S along with runners-up positions for SV and Keshav Sethia.

Close-up of the IPC Winner's Medallion

The team headed to the hotel room to have a few drinks and reflect on what has been quite a successful event for us. While we had hoped for slightly higher numbers, we can't complain about how well things turned out. If there was one thing which disappointed us, it was the attitude of registered players who were no-shows and did not communicate the same to us. Perhaps a lot of them are still unconvinced about the authenticity of the championship and the genuine intent of the IPC organisers to make it the poker tournament event for India and indeed the Indian sub-continent.

We do hope that those who did make the effort and came all the way to Goa from across the country had an enjoyable and exciting poker experience. It is because of these players who will spread the word that tournaments like ours will grow exponentially and cause India to be the next place on the world poker map to boom. On a personal front, while I didn't get to play any cards, I have enjoyed myself thoroughly by writing these accounts for the readers of this blog as well as updating our followers on Facebook and Twitter.

Till the next edition...

IPC March 2010 - Day 2

2010-03-05T17:05:00.000-08:00

Another day another tournament!

Once again a late night and less sleep leaves us a wee bit bleary eyed the following day as we decided to hang back at the hotel and try to relax before the evening ahead. The original plan was to head to South Goa and get some lunch at one of our favourite restaurants in Goa - Martin's Corner. I guess we will have to do this tomorrow now.

We reached the jetty on time this evening but Murpy's Law came into play once again with the feeder boats getting delayed for the player pickups. Almost 30 players were waiting at the jetty anxious to get onboard and register themselves for the BPC 1250 Superturbo satellite for seats into the IPC 10k tournament later this evening. At the venue players quickly registered themselves for the Single Table SnG satellites. One seat per 8 players would be awarded. Finally 4 tables were filled up with 32 players and eventually 4 players won their seat at a fraction of the cost into the IPC 10k tourney.

It was then time for the tourney to begin. Many players were playing at the cash tables to kill time before the main game of the evening was to begin. Finally 55 players started the in the 10k tourney. With a few late entrants the tournament was closed with a final field of 58 players. The action till about halfway thru was SUPER tight!! No one was making any major moves and there was limited action with small pots being played across most tables. Slowly the eliminations began to go up and about 9 levels in we were down to half the field. There was a lot of intense poker action with players battling each other for chips and table domination. We were updating periodically on the action LIVE from the venue onto Twitter and Facebook. There was some quite crazy hands and multi-way all-ins too.

Finally we got down to the final table with varying stacks. The short stack on the table was Phil Sanders who at one point in the tournament was down to ONE chip. But he managed to build his stack a bit and held on to make it to the final table. The other name of interest on the final table was Nikhil Jain who was the winner of the 5k tournament the previous evening. Nikhil who was also down to barely 1000 chips at one point battled hi way back and was at 2nd chip position on the final table. The action on the final table lasted for about an hour with the price of poker getting more and more expensive. Once we were down to the final 7 who were to be paid we had faster eliminations and Nikhil Jain added to his winnings from last night by cashing out in 6th place. It then came down to headsup and it was Phil Sanders who literally came back with a chip and a chair and bested Keshav Sethia in a tournament that lasted 6 hours and 15 minutes. Beating out 57 players, Phil took home a very healthy share of the prizepool along with an IPC Winner's Medallion, a bottle of French champagne, a DVD of Rounders and an IPC coffee mug. Many congratulations to our IPC 10k winner Phil Sanders along with runners-up positions for Keshav Sethia and Arjjun Singh.

Back now at the hotel finishing up this blog post. The clock's just hit 6:30am and I hope to get in a good rest before we begin the action and coverage of the final day of the India Poker Championship. The response has been quite good from the participants and we look forward to having a similar field tomorrow (or tonight as it were) as well.
Catch you on the flip side!

IPC March 2010 – Day 1

2010-03-05T01:20:00.000-08:00

The previous night left us a little worse for wear and we barely got enough sleep as the phone was ringing from morning itself with many players calling to enquire about the evening’s event. By the time we took care of that and some other last minute things, it was time for a late lunch at the local pizzeria. Appetites satiated we headed to our hotel to get ready and then head for the venue.

It seems like sometimes nothing seems to go right no matter how much you try and prepare for it. Our driver got lost and landed up at a completely different hotel so we were late getting to the venue. We finally got in about 20 minutes late but Craig and his team had quite efficiently sorted out the players who had come to play for the freeroll satellite for a free seat into the IPC 5k Freezeout tournament later in the evening. There were 27 players who would battle in a superturbo satellite to try and win a free seat into the 5k tourney later this evening.

Once the satellite got done, we mingled with the players and got to know some of them a little more. There was a good amount of excitement from them regarding the tournament and several players displayed a keenness and enthusiasm about the game which we found quite heartening. A short while later, a few words were spoken by one of the IPC directors and then we were off!
There were a total of 60 players who finally registered at the venue. About 1/3rd of these were locals who had heard of the game happening in the weeks before and decided to come and play in our tournament. A total of 7 positions would be paid out for this field of players. The game finally ended a little over 5 hours after it started and we were left with our winner Nikhil Jain from Gurgaon who bested the other 59 contestants and emerged victorious. Besides a healthy cash prize, the winner also received an IPC Winner's Medallion and a bottle of French champagne. Our 2nd place finisher was Jasper Noronha from Mumbai who played aggressively right till the end. Our 3rd place finisher was Deepak Raina from Delhi whose solid play impressed us as much as his stonecold poker face! Besides the prizepool, each of the top 3 finishers received a certificate and a bag of goodies containing an IPC mug and a DVD of Rounders.

Once the game got done a bunch of us sat around and had a long and interesting chat about the game itself and some of the key hands that went down in the tournament. It was a very chilled out time and as organizers we had a good time interacting with our players and understanding their background. Many of the players were really appreciative of the way the tournament was run and a large part of that lies squarely with Craig and his wonderfully efficient team.

I am now back in the hotel room after another long night and the clock has just struck 5 am. Two nights in a row where we’ve stayed up till really late. We are extremely tired but there is a sense of happiness and even pride at the way things got done and it is this feeling this will help us sleep like babies tonight.

Tomorrow being the start of the weekend, we expect our numbers to go up and hopefully we will run another solid event which will be enjoyed and appreciated by our players.
Till tomorrow…

The Night Before

2010-03-05T01:19:00.000-08:00

We had a lovely time last night in Goa. The start to the evening however was marred by some problems we faced with our hotel. Despite repeated reminders and calls about our A/C not working, the staff at the Sun n Sand seemed quite clueless on how to help us out. They had no helpful suggestions on sorting out the A/C situation and it came to a point where we as guests were being looked to for suggestions on how to handle the situation. The whole incident left a bad taste in our mouth and we are unlikely to stay at this hotel again in the future.

We then left for the casino to check on the arrangements at the venue. The staff at Casino Pride had done a great job in making sure everything was setup quite beautifully. Craig Wildeman is the card room manager at the Pride and he is a consummate professional. He will also be acting as Tournament Director for the IPC event. He runs a tight ship and crew who are probably some of the most well-trained dealers you will find in Goa or indeed in any card room setup in the country. A lot of the credit for this goes to Craig who has ensured that his dealers work the table exactly like the dealers would in Las Vegas or Macau. A very pleasant and down-to-earth individual, Craig is what I’d like to call a player’s TD. Having spent many years playing the game and being a regular visitor to the World Series and other events on the European and Asian tours, he understands the nuances of the game from the player’s perspective and is able to use this to his advantage when he is acting as TD.

Craig and his boss Phil Sander were kind enough to invite us for dinner. The venue was Wan Ho, the Chinese restaurant in the Marriot where we had an excellent meal and over drinks were able to discuss what our ideas and plans for the IPC were as well as the direction of poker in India. Phil has been in the casino business for a long time and has worked across the world. His experience and knowledge allowed us to gain some insight into how games are run internationally and how we can incorporate some of these things into our own tournaments.

At the end of the night we bid goodbye to Phil and headed with Craig to one of his (and now ours too) favourite haunts – a karaoke bar called Down the Road. We had a fair few drinks and sang some songs and had a great time. We met the owner of DTR, a gentleman named Lyndon who is originally from Bombay but has now settled in Goa for the past 15 years to run his businesses here. We finally hit our room by 4:30 am and were only just able to get our shoes off and crawl into bed.

Tomorrow’s the BIG day and despite our weary states there is more than a little bit of anticipation at the start of the India Poker Championship. Months of planning and effort will hopefully pay off tomorrow.

Can’t wait!

And we're in GOAAAAA!

2010-03-03T04:07:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone and welcome to the coverage of the India Poker Championship March 2010 on this blog.

The team landed in Goa a few hours back. We're staying pretty close to the venue in a pretty nice hotel and the view from our room is quite lovely. The river Mandovi floats by lazily and if that isn't a sign to kick back in this laidback state of India, then I dont know what is...

The view from our room at the Sun n Sand Hotel

Gotta say that summer has kicked in completely here in Goa and it was hot as blazes when we got out of the airport in Dabolim. A few minutes wait for our vehicle and we're off to our hotel, Sun n Sand. The entrance of the hotel took us a little by surprise as you don't expect the front of a 4-star hotel to be as ordinary as this. But once we headed up it looked a lot better. The view is quite lovely and you can see lot of boats and other crafts moving up and down the river. One vessel is particular has caught our eye (and heart). It's a sleek white craft which looks like it could go really fast! Wouldn't mind buying one of these if I win the big money :D

A quick bite to eat and crash for a bit before we head out to check out the final arrangements at the casino. We will be meeting our host Craig Wildeman who is the card room manager for Casino Pride's poker room. Craig will also be acting as Tournament Director for the India Poker Championship.
This will be our only 'free' night in Goa so to speak and we intend to get with the Goa susegaad philosophy by eating and drinking well and singing songs at a nearby karaoke joint. Should be a fun night ahead.

Will try and post again once I'm back. Till then...

IPC Promo #2

2010-02-17T00:51:00.000-08:00

Well folks, here's a look at the second promo we have created for the IPC. When we were making the first promo we knew we wanted it to be a simple and classy creative. The primary idea was to convey information about the event.

In Promo #2, we decided to have a bit of fun. Rounders being the cult classic that it is among poker players, we thought of making a promo centered around the movie. We absolutely love the Teddy KGB character played by John Malkovich so we wanted to put some visuals of him from the movie. We also love the completely atrocious Russian accent he's got in the film. It reminded us of another 'stylised' voice - Amitabh Bachchan from Agneepath.

So this promo is a mix-n-match of these two beloved characters...

Our favourite pros

2010-02-08T11:23:00.000-08:00

Having been exposed to the world of poker almost 8 years ago; playing it, understanding it, strategy, analysis, personal highs and lows and of course the stories that come out of it all make for an almost feverish obsession with the game.

Cricket is a big sport in India in fact it would not be a far stretch to to call it the sport that anyone really cares about in this country. Until of course an Abhinav Bindra scoops Olympic glory or the quite tireless Leander Paes (also an Olympic medallist) bringing home yet another trophy helping keep India's name on the global sporting map. Till about 8 years ago I was singularly obsessed with cricket (as a viewer not player... I am physically quite unco-ordinated that way) to the point that I would take days off work to watch Test matches. Of course over time my interest in cricket has waned to the point of casual interest rather than the previous fanaticism about it.
The top spot of course has been taken over by poker. From that first video of the World Poker Tour that I'd seen to devouring books and reading articles on various websites, the thirst for knowledge continues. Speaking of the internet, the information that is available on the millions of sites out in cyberspace is a godsend to genuinely interested players and enthusiasts who are looking to improve on their game and read up on their poker heroes.

And when you talk of cricketing heroes, Sachin Tendulkar is probably the most popular player for most cricket fans. Many admire M.S Dhoni, Virender Sehwag and the younger, more dashing lot like Yuvraj Singh. While I like most of these players, I don't idolise them anymore. In my mind the sporting heroes have shifted from cricket players to poker players. I will talk about three pros who we admire tremendously here at the IPC. It is our sincere hope that someday one (or all... might as well go the whole hog right?!) of them will play in the India Poker Championship.

Phil Hellmuth - With 11 WSOP bracelets and of course a win in the Main Event pretty much seals the deal as far as Hellmuth being probably the greatest no limit holdem player in the history of the game. And case you forget that, Phil is more than happy to remind you. His reads are what are incredibly impressive to me. I love the way he breaks down a hand and literally calls out what his opponent has almost to the T. In the recent years Phil's image of being the Poker Brat gets more coverage than his game itself but make no mistake... This is not a man you want to mess with on the felt.

Phil Ivey - The 'other' Phil right now is the best poker player in the world. Even our other favorites mentioned in this post have admitted that Ivey is the man post his final table appearance a few months ago. Probably one of, if not, the best poker faces in the business, Ivey is absolutely fantastic when it comes to betting the right amount. He knows exactly how much to put into the pot to get an answer about what his oppoent is holding. His precise understanding of how much to bet is also what makes a lot of players pay him off when he does have the goods.

Daniel Negreanu - Probably the diametric opposite of Helmuth's behaviour on a poker table, Daniel Negreanu is a poker player who is also a nice guy. He's friendly, affable, love to joke around and has a super sharp poker mind beneath that cap he wears. Like Helmuth, Daniel too has this superb ability of being able to read what his opponent is holding and has used to his advantage time and again. Being the smart guy that he is, Negraneu has realised that he has now become a brand and almost goes out of his way to promote himself albeit in a classy manner. Negreanu is only second to Ivey when it comes to all time career earnings.

IPC Promo #1

2010-01-31T23:51:00.001-08:00

Here's a look at the first promo we have created for the India Poker Championship creatively titled IPC Promo 1 :)

The IPC is only a month away!

2010-01-31T11:12:00.000-08:00

The India Poker Championship begins on 4th March 2010 and will take place over three days on board the Casino Pride in Goa. While a lot of time has been spent in planning the event, I realise that this is a special time as this first event will happen only once and I have decided to document some of the memories here in the pages of cyberspace. I will try and blog as frequently as possible in the run-up to the event and we will be posting live updates on the Facebook group page of the IPC and the BPC as well as this blog.

It's almost difficult to believe that the inaugural IPC is barely a month away. I say difficult only because after having thought and planned for so many months, we're literally within sniffing distance. The excitement is palpable and everyone who is associated with the IPC especially the lads over at the BPC are looking forward to relaxing in sunny Goa and getting some tough poker action going at the same time.

Speaking of Goa, it is incredibly heartening to have atleast one state in India which facilitates an event such as ours. The IPC is essentially aiming to grow the sport of poker in India and having Goa with its multiple casinos is helpful in nurturing the numbers. We wish to be an event which is associated with getting together the many hundreds and indeed thousands of poker lovers which exist in this country. While the Bombay underground scene (as with the other cities in the country) will continue to operate under the radar, it's good that poker players across India have a place where they can come and expect to get some quality poker action.

A little bit about Goa for those who aren't familiar with the place - Goa lies in the Western part of India, just below the state of Maharashtra. This former Portugese colony attracts in excess of 2 million tourists every year. The many many miles of virgin beaches across the state are a big draw with beach lovers from all over the world. Panaji or Panjim is the state capital and is quite the tourist attraction in its own right with many beautiful churches and buildings constructed in Portugese style architecture. It's safe to say that Goa is probably the hub of tourism in India. The inflow of foreigners goes back a long way from the 40s and 50s. Those who came and never left because they fell in love with the beauty and lifestyle of this place. While the Indian tourist numbers have gone up significantly in the past decade or two, before this it wasn't entirely uncommon to feel just a wee bit out of place in this state which seemingly had more white people than brown.

An image taken at Uttorda beach

People rarely come to Goa for work related reasons (although technically this event is work for us hah). Goa is all about the relaxing... the 'chilling'. People come here to take advantage of almost 70 kms of unbroken coastline and beaches. Another big draw is the local cuisine. They say you haven't eaten anything if you haven't had Goan fish-curry and rice. Of course the beverages will free flow through the orgy of food. Hardly surprising as the lowered tax laws in the state mean that anything from a basic bottle of beer to really good scotch cost much lesser than they would anywhere else in the country. So a typical plan for the Goa vacationer would be to bum on the beaches all day... sip on icecold brews... catch some rays... spalsh about in the ocean... eat at the shacks... snooze away in the afternoon. Partake in Susegaad (a Portugese derived typical Goan phrase which means "to relax and enjoy life) as the locals do and then hit the nightlife in the evening at one of the many watering holes, clubs, night markets and restaurants.

Of course if you are a poker player your evenings will be spent on board Casino Pride grinding away at the tables whilst playing in the India Poker Championship. So many weeks and months have passed by in a blur and its going to be the case for the remaining weeks as well. It is going to be fantastic to interact with so many poker enthusiasts from all parts of the country. There's nothing like having a cold beer and good poker conversation with a fellow enthusiast.
I can't wait!

~ Peace Out ~

Schedules for IPC March 2010

2010-01-10T08:33:00.000-08:00

Hey folks,

The schedules are finally here!! Please note that there is one main game every day at 8:30 pm. Registration at the venue opens up at 6:30pm for the Turbos and 7pm for the main games.

Experience poker the way it is meant to be played - on professional tables with well trained dealers and an international tournament director.

We will be running a freeroll and several satellites on all 3 days. So you actually have the chance to win lakhs of rupees at a fraction of the buy-in!

What are you waiting for?! Click HERE to confirm your participation NOW! You can also fill the form on the right of this page.

IPC March 2010 Tournament Schedule

March 4th

07:00pm: BPC's Super Turbo Freeroll - Winner gets a seat into the IPC 5K at 8:30pm.

08:30pm: IPC 5k Freezeout Tourney

10:30pm onwards: Single table Turbo SnGs (Buyin 2400/-) for a seat into the IPC 20k tournament on 6th March at 8:30pm. This table will be running through out the night. (1 seat per 8 players)

March 5th

07:00pm: BPC's Super Turbo Satellite (Buyin 1250/-) - Winner gets a seat into the IPC 10K at 8:30pm. (1 seat per 8 players)

08:30pm: IPC 10k Freezeout Tourney

10:30pm onwards: Single table Turbo SnGs (Buyin 2400/-) for a seat into the IPC 20k tournament on 6th March at 8:30pm. This Satellite table will be running through out the night. (1 seat per 8 players)

March 6th

7:00pm: BPC's Super Turbo Satellite (Buyin 2400/-) - Winner gets a seat into the IPC 20K at 8:30pm. (1 seat per 8 players)

8:30pm: IPC 20k Freezeout Tourney

Hierarchy of Hands

2010-01-05T11:55:00.000-08:00

Poker hands win or lose according to their strength (assuming you get to the showdown) so knowing where various poker hands appear in the official poker rankings is essential. If you don’t know which poker hands are strongest and which poker hands are weakest, you could make the common beginner’s mistake of overplaying your hand and end up losing some or all of your chip stack. To avoid this situation, we advise you to take a look at the official poker rankings below, memorise the different types of poker hands and play accordingly. By all means go all-in if you have a Royal Flush (because it’s the best of all poker hands) but don’t do the same if you only have one pair and you think someone else has two pair.

Poker Hand Rankings (Listed in order from the lowest hand to the highest hand):

•A hand without a pair, straight, or flush, valued only by its highest card

•One Pair - Two cards of the same rank

•Two Pair - Two cards of one rank and another two cards of another rank

•Three of a Kind - Three cards of the same rank

•Straight - Five cards in a sequence, but not in a single suit

•Flush - All five cards are in the same suit, but not in a sequence

•Full House - Three cards of the same rank and two cards of another rank

•Four of a Kind - Four cards of the same rank

•Straight Flush - All five cards in sequence and in the same suit

•Royal Flush - A, K, Q, J, and 10 all of the same suit

If two or more players hold hands of the same ranking then the winner is decided by virtue of their highest card. No suit is higher than any other and suits are never used to decide who has the best hand.

How to play Texas Hold 'em?

2010-01-05T11:51:00.000-08:00

The player to deal the first hand can be decided by any method. The ‘Dealer Button' is placed in front of the dealer. After each completed hand, the ‘Dealer Button' is moved clockwise to the next player who becomes the dealer. The dealer will give two cards face down to each player. These are called ‘pocket cards'. Do not let any other player see your cards.
A round of betting will take place. (See explanation of betting below)
The dealer will turn over three (3) community cards, face up, on the centre of the table. These are called the ‘flop'. Thus each player with his own pocket card and the flop, already has the equivalent of a five card poker hand.
A second round of betting will take place.
The dealer will turn over a fourth community card on the table. This card is called the ‘Turn'; also referred to as ‘Fourth Street'.

A third round of betting will take place.

The dealer will turn over a fifth community card on the table. This card is called the ‘River'. It is the River of dreams.
A fourth and final round of betting will take place.
The Showdown – Each player may use the best five of the community and pocket cards to make a hand. The players, who have not previously folded their cards, show their hands. The best hand wins all of the chips that have been bet. If the community cards are the best hand the remaining players split the pot.
How to Bet:
Betting is always done in clockwise order. The first person to act is the one sitting on the left-hand side of the player who deals the cards. This person has three choices: he can be, fold (turn his cards and drop out of the hand) or check (pass the opportunity to bet to the next player). All bets are put into the middle of the table and make up what is called the ‘pot'.

After the initial bet, if there s one, the rest of the players in turn have three choices. They can fold, call (match the bet of the previous player) or raise a bet (call and make an incremental bet). A round of betting is finished when all remaining players have acted at least once and have contributed the same amount to the pot. The cumulative number of raises for each round of betting shall not exceed three.

Unless otherwise stated before the game, you are permitted to check or call a bet the first time through and raise the next time the action comes to you.

The amount of the bets and raises is predetermined prior to the start of the game. During the first two rounds each bet and raise must be in the amount of the minimum bet. During the last two rounds each bet and raise must be in the amount of the maximum bet. The minimum bet should be one half the amount of the maximum bet; for example two chips and four chips.

To insure there is always money in the pot, each hand starts with ‘blinds'. Prior to seeing their cards, the first player to the left of the dealer will be bet 50% of the minimum bet and the second player will be bet an amount equal to the minimum bet. The betting will then continue from the third player. This is only done once, prior to the first round of betting.

As an option you may play a No-Limit game. There are designated blinds and or antes as well as a designated opening bet. After that, any player may bet any amount of money he has on the table. In fact, a player may call for a bet in the amount of all chips in front of him. This is called ‘all in'. A player is never obliged to drop out of contention because he does not have a sufficient number of chips to match a bet. The excess amount of the bet is either returned to the player or used in a side pot with other players who matched the entire amount of the bet.