IPC August 2011 event roundup

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

Hierarchy of Hands

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?

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.