Live Reporting - Chapter 1 - 10K Freezeout

Day 2 at the IPS saw mostly familiar faces from Day 1 but a few people from places like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai flew in to participate in the tournament over the weekend.

The runner up from the first event, Ambar Prasad, made an early exit after his   on a board of    got counterfeited by a second Jack on the river, giving his opponent who held  a 2 pair with a better kicker. Ambar did not recover and was eliminated shortly after.

One of the biggest pots early in the tournament was taken down by Aditya Agarwal when he made a tricky play by just limping in with   Rajesh Goyal, who has competed in the World Poker Tour, raised in middle position and Aditya all too willingly called. The board ran and Aditya quickly checked, Rajesh went All-in and Aditya called with his top set. Surprisingly Rajesh showed for a straight! The rivercard was a   , giving Aditya a full house and all of Rajesh chips.

After a couple of hours of exciting play we were ready for the final table......

The first player to be eliminated was Anant Bhandari, who thanks to his great play just made it on to the final table, after having only 2000 in chips earlier in the tournament.

Another interesting hand came up when Anand Dalmia went All-in just before the blinds were about to hit him and got called by Rachita Parekh in middle position who had him covered. Anand held ;@4s, Rachita   and the the flop came . The turn card is a   and the river card is another 9 , giving Anand a better full house! This huge pot only extended his tournament dreams; he was eliminated in 8th place.

With a small blind of 3k and a big blind of 6k Arjjun Singh was first to act and raised to 14k, followed by an All-in of Aditya and a snapcall from Arjjun. Both players had great hands, Arjjun held and Aditya held . The flop gave Arjjun a flush draw but neither diamond nor an Ace comes on the turn or the river and Aditya`s Kings hold up, leaving Arjjun with 55k in chips.

Soon after Arjjun is eliminated in 5th position when he shoved his remaining stack in with 66 and is called by Rishabh Chawla. An ace on the board gives Rishabh top pair and sends Arjjun home with 27k prizemoney.

The play advanced quickly from 6 to 4 players and Rishabh is eliminated in 4th place by Luchi after a long four handed battle.

With the final 3 players left in the tournament, Luchi proposes to make a deal over the remaining prize money with the following chip stacks : Luchi 140k, Aditya 175k and Nikhil Jain 206k.

After a short discussion the players decide on the following payout:

Nikhil Jain 165.5k INR

Aditya Agarwal 156.5k INR

Luchi Veljee 130k INR

The play continues for the IPS title!

We start of slow with all players playing tight and quite a few hands went by without anyone making a move. This goes on until we see a board of   and Nikhil bets out 24k. Aditya calls and the turn is the   . Both players check, the rivercard is the   and Nikhil bets 40k. Aditya, holding   for a straight, asks Nikhil for his stack size and moves all-in after hearing 130k. Nikhil folds eventually, claiming he held two pair. Soon afterwards Luchi, who was visibly impatient, shoves all in with Q7o against Nikhil`s Ajo, the board gives no help to Luchi and he finishes in 3th place.

The duel between Nikhil Jain and Aditya Agarwal seemed to be clearly in favour of Aditya, having nearly 3 times more chips than Nikhil!

Nikhil doubles up when he goes all-in with    on a flop of    and Aditya calls with  for an open ended straight draw. Aditya misses his all his outs and Nikhil doubles up, shifting the advantage to his side. The final hand was Aditya's    against Nikhil's   . The board ran completely blank and Nikhil Jain is crowned the winner of the India Poker Series and takes home 165500 INR.