IPC Feb 2016: Spartan Team Pro Sangeeth Mohan Wins 60K Highroller, Aditya Sushant Finishes Runner-Up

Spartan Team Pro Sangeeth ‘Samoh’ Mohan (cover image) won the India Poker Championship (IPC) 60K Highroller for a sum of ₹14.1 Lakhs. The win came after a deal at heads up with Aditya Sushant, who collected ₹11.5 Lakhs for a second place finish.

For Mohan, the win has come after almost three years. The gentle giant had had a great run during 2010-11, after having been one of the lucky few to have received mentoring from pioneering Indian player, Aditya ‘Intervention’ Agarwal, who is now the country’s only and first PokerStars Team Pro.

Post the win, Mohan told PokerGuru, “It’s been one of the toughest field and topping it makes it remarkable for me as I had to prove to myself that I can play tournament poker as I used to before. I had two options, to try and play the new age poker or the poker I learnt from Adi (Aditya Agarwal). I decided to follow the latter strategy and what can I say, it paid off”.

Mohan’s win was an incredible tale of perseverance and strategy where he maneuvered his short stack with precision to get to the top. Speaking about the series, Mohan adds, “Its the extreme competetive mindset of players in IPC that makes this win as well as this series so prestigious in the country. Every poker enthusiast wants to win an IPC event and thats what makes it special for me“.

Sushant also comes from Agarwal`s mentorship stable and has had a frustrating past year, where he played well, but never quite made any top spot.

Day 2 began with Sushant leading the 36 survivors and after a long time it was a day that had pros taking the top spots, with a final table made up of known regulars, as against the recent slew of newcomers winning at the IPC series.

Play began at 3pm and within ten minutes Arun Poply was eliminated at 27^th place, followed by Jaideep Sajwan and Apoorva Goel at 26^th and 25^th place respectively.

The race was to make the money line, and in the top 14 that would get paid. About an hour into play, Mohan who was the sixth smallest stack, got a timely double up from Sahil Agarwal, which was the turning point for his fortunes.

Sangeeth Mohan

Sahil Agarwal

The board gave forth and Mohan doubled up.

Sushant meanwhile, was aggressively wielding his stack to bust players, eliminating Abhineet Jain at 19^th, Amar Reddy at 17^th and Pawan Jain at 16^th place in quick succession. With this the Chennai pro took his lot to 579K.

Finally the money bubble burst on Nirav Parekh, who exited at 15^th place. On his last hand of the tournament, Parekh moved all in for 56,000 with and Swaroop B reshoved with . The board with had no King or Jack for Parekh and Swaroop took down the pot.

Sushant went on to eliminate Neelabh Baranga at 11^th place and then Mohan eliminated Rizwan S at 10^th, to setup the nine-handed final table.

Final Table Recap

The final table began at 8pm, with Sushant having almost 30% of the chips in play.

Final Table Chip Counts

Sumit Asrani – 111,000
Vaibhav Sharma – 154,000
Mayank Agarwal – 167,000
Sangeeth Mohan – 227,000
Riyaz S – 225,000
Aditya Sushant – 825,000
Sumit Sapra – 234,000
Swaroop B – 245,000
Gaurav Jain – 315,000

Sumit Asrani, with the smallest stack exited almost immediately at ninth place. 30 minutes later, Mohan and Sushant moved in tandem to take out players in quick succession. Mohan eliminated Gaurav Jain at eighth place, with Sushant busting Sumit Sapra at seventh place a few minutes later.

Swaroop B was Mohan’s next victim, exiting at sixth place, while Sushant ousted Vaibhav Sharma at fifth place.

Four-handed play took an hour before Mayank Agarwal was railed at fourth place and a little while later Riyaz S was eliminated at third place by Mohan.

Heads up play saw Mohan with the advantage of 1,410,000 against Sushant’s 1,085,000. A deal was immediately agreed on with Mohan getting ₹12.5 Lakhs, Sushant taking ₹11.5 Lakhs, with an additional ₹1.60 Lakhs and the title for the winner.

The heads-up battle lasted 30 minutes and soon Mohan had doubled up, after which the final hand sealed the deal. Sushant bet 65,000 and Mohan raised it to 160,000. Sushant called and the flop came down . Mohan bet 180K and Sushant went all-in. Mohan responded with a call.

Sangeeth Mohan

Aditya Sushant

The turn and river opened and respectively and Mohan took down the title with his pocket aces. Sushant finished runner up for ₹11.50 Lakhs, while Mohan collected the trophy and the winning prize of ₹14.10 Lakhs

Congratulations to both the pros on their superb performance in the IPC 60K Highroller.

Final Table Results (₹)

1. Sangeeth Mohan – 14,10,000*

2. Aditya Sushant – 11,50,000*

3. Riyaz S – 7,34,000

4. Mayank Agarwal – 5,80,000

5. Vaibhav Sharma – 4,20,000

6. Swaroop B – 3,07,000

7. Sumit Sapra – 2,08,000

8. Gaurav Jain – 1,60,000

9. Sumit Asrani – 1,26,000

*denotes heads-up deal

The 30K Main Event will play down to champion today, so stay with us, as we bring you all the updates live from ground zero.