fundoopoker.com

24/05/2012

Date:

24th May 2012

Venue:

Casino Royale, Goa

1. Chip Leader Day 1A - Varun Vimal

VIMAL SETS PACE AT APT ASIAN SERIES GOA DAY 1A

Varun Vimal has become the only player to amass a six-figure stack at Day 1A of the APT Asian Series Goa Main Event. Finishing with 113,800 in chips, Vimal topped the 21 players that survived until bag up time from the 64 players that registered for the INR 50,000 buy-in event at Casino Royale.

The airport closure in Goa may have caused a one-hour delay in the start time of the tournament but the wait only seemed to energise players to lock horns early in the tournament. Just 15 minutes into the first blind level, Y.J. Kim had crippled Bobbe Suri. It happened on a flop of J♠ Q♣ 10♥ when Suri bet out strong with his K♣ K♦ overpair but was called in two positions. On the turn 6♦ he shoved for 12,000 but YJ called with a flopped straight holding 9♦ 8♦ and on the 5♦ river he had carved his opponent down to just 800 in chips. Suri did well to hold on for a few hours more before eventually heading to the rail.

Others to fall included reigning APT Asian Series Goa champion Sangeeth Mohan, Abhishek Goindi, Ramandeep Gujral, Phil Sanders, Rahul Byraju, Amit Jian, Rohit Bhalla, Aditya “Mastermind” Agarwal, Jasven Saigal and Aditya Sushant. It was actually Sushant who had the unfortunate honour of starting Vimal’s climb to dominance and it came in a ripper of a hand that Vimal should have rightly lost.

Jasven Saigal

With four-bet action preflop, Vimal shoved with total air holding just 8♠ 5♣ after the dealer tabled K♠ 3♣ 6♦. Sushant had just flopped a set of kings with K♥ K♣ and thought his Christmas had come early until the 7♠ turn and  9♣ river gave his opponent a runner-runner straight. While Sushant still had plenty of chips left, he would later cross paths again with Vimal and be railed out of the tournament, getting all his money in holding J♠ J♣ and losing out to Vimal’s A♣ Q♠ that paired a queen on the turn.

The other defining hand for Vimal came when he ousted well-known Indian player and tournament organiser Pranav Bagai. With action on all three streets on a board reading  8♠ 4♦ 10♦ Q♥ K♦, the preflop aggressor of Bagai check-raised all in only to crash head on into the nut flush of Vimal’s  A♦ J♦. That pot carried Vimal’s stack to around 120,000 in chips, putting him miles into the chip lead of tournament at the time.

Varun Vimal

Also snatching success at the felt today was Sweden’s Martin Nilsson (76,400), Denmark’s Kristian Faering (67,000), Arindam Mukherjee (61,600) and Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal (37,200).

Head to Fundoo Poker’s Day 1A Live Updates to see all the hand highlights plus chip counts of the remaining players and don’t forget to join us again for Day 1B starting on Friday, May 25 at 5pm local time.