Live Reporting - Chapter 1 - 5K Freezeout

The India Poker Series took off in grand style at the Casino Royale, Goa on the 23rd with the 1st event (5k buy-in tournament) attracting 78 players from all parts of the country like Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Rajasthan and Gujarat. Also in the midst were a healthy mix of amateurs and professionals from the local poker scene in Goa.

Some popular names in the players field included Rohit Bhalla from Delhi, Aditya Agarwal from Kolkata who is a well respected Omaha Hi-lo player but has had deep finishes in Texas Holdem tournaments and Arjun Singh who took 3rd in the IPC 10k event. Unfortunately all of these players got eliminated before the bubble, some to extremely unlucky bad beats. Missing in action were Keshav Sethia, who has had a breakout season in the IPC finishing 2nd in the 10k buy-in and 3rd in the 15k event, and Anil Gulati, another established high stakes cash poker veteran from Delhi, who has been on a good run recently, taking down several live tournaments in a row.

It took over 4 hours to narrow down the field to the final 9 , who will battle it out on the final table for the coveted IPS trophy along with the prize money of over 1.2 Lacs.

The final table saw some familiar faces along with some relative new comers on the live tournament scene.

Action at the table was initially dominated by the chip leader Rishabh Chawla who pushed the shorter stacks around taking down several uncontested pots.  Short stacks Abhishek Rathi and Anjali Gulati were forced to shove all in with the increasing blinds and both busted out in the process. Abhishek showed down against his Anjali's . The board ran , giving no help to Rathi, who was the first one to be eliminated from the final table. Anjali Gulati was next, she also went out on a coin flip.

Bobbe Suri and Rishabh Chawla duelled on several hands but a huge reraise by Rishabh on a large pot made Bobbe fold and Rishabh took down the biggest pot of the evening to further consolidate his chip lead. The highlight of the final table was Y J Nim who made several remarkable plays. On a tight board with action folded to him he shoved all in claiming a flush on the flop, the chip leader who had initially made the call thought really long and folded. Y J Kim showed his hand:   for a bluff and almost doubled his stack to the thundering applause by the floor audience.

A change of fortune occurred when the chip leader Rishabh decided to squeeze Bobbe with King high 4-handed who hit the jackpot with Aces and insta-called his huge re-raise. Others folded and the aces held up crippling Rishabh who soon crashed out.

The heads up play was a see-saw swing with Ambar suffering several consecutive setbacks. The play started with Ambar dominating Bobbe but Ambar suffered a bad beat when his was beaten by Bobbe's . Ambar never quite recovered and finally finished, 2nd giving Bobbe his maiden tournament victory