fundoopoker.com

27/05/2012

Date:

27th May 2012

Venue:

Casino Royale, Goa

1. APT Asian Series Goa MAIN EVENT - Winner: Martin Nilsson

NILSSON WINS APT ASIAN SERIES GOA MAIN EVENT 

Sweden’s Martin Nilsson has conquered the INR 50,000 Main Event at APT Asian Series Goa 2012. Despite coming into the heads up with Manan Khetan at a significant chip deficit, the contest proved to be a one-sided affair with Nilsson always looking in control. He takes home INR 1,942,000 in prize money after topping a field of 131 entries in the event at Casino Royale.

Nilsson, who was born in Sri Lanka, moved to Sweden at age one and has been living in Beijing for the last six years. Having honed his poker skills in cash games, Nilsson only rarely plays tournament poker, coming to the event to meet up with his fellow Swede poker playing friend, Fredrik Hallen, who lives in India.

Nilsson was one of only two international players amongst the predominantly Indian final table. The other was Japan’s Hisashi Ogi who was the first player to be railed today. Ogi began play with the second shortest stack and ran his into the of the ever vocal Ravi Goel. When the dealer tabled a board giving him a set of aces for the bustout, Goal bolding declared that the event was his to win.

Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal 

Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal likely had the most tournament experience of the final table players, having won over USD $250,000 over the course of his career, including a 96th place in the 2008 WSOP Main Event, but he was the next player out today. After getting his cracked by the of Prabhat Mukherjea, Agarwal then shoved his short stack from early position with and lost out to Nilsson’s .


Rahul Byraju soon followed Agarwal to the rail, heading out in 8th place. After being down to just one chip yesterday, his dream run back from the dead ended when his shove came up short against Khetan’s .

Manan Khetan

Next to go was Goel whose ambitious blind steal shove with was called in the big blind by Nilsson with . Despite Goel hitting two pair on the board of , Nilsson had also flopped a set of eights and with Goel’s departure the table just didn’t seem the same without his trash talk, self-proclamations and jokes.


After Nikhil Maheshwari exited in 6th place, it was then Sameer Rattonsey’s turn to walk out the door, thanks largely to Nilsson. In a crucial hand that turned the tide of the tournament Nilsson’s way, Rattonsey’s was up against Nilsson’s but a board of gave the double to Nilsson and left Rattonsey with less than one big blind. And, with no miracle comeback in the style of Byraju, Rattonsey’s quest to go one better than his runner-up finish last year had come to an end.

Martin Nilsson (L), Prabhat Mukherjea (C) & Manan Khetan (R)

With , Prabhat Mukherjea then railed Sonu Singh holding before Mukherjea bowed out in a car crash hand at three-handed. A preflop raising war saw Mukherjea’s unable to catch against Khetan’s . The bustout gave Khetan the chip lead going into heads up with 1,233,000 to Nilsson’s 732,000.


However, Khetan failed to capitalise on the advantage, often preferring to limp on the button and getting caught out in one or two bluffs. Nilsson never lost a meaningful pot at heads up and the final hand came when he had a 3:1 chip advantage. Khetan limped from the button once more but this time he did so to trap with . His plan worked when Nilsson raised but his four-bet was called and the two went to a flop of . Khetan then shoved after Nilsson’s check but he was called by his opponent’s top pair that held on the turn and river and the APT had its newest Main Event champion.

APT ASIAN SERIES GOA MAY 2012 MAIN EVENT CHAMPION

1. Martin Nilsson – INR 1,942,000
2. Manan Khetan – INR 1,061,000
3. Prabhat Mukherjea – INR 531,000
4. Sonu Singh – INR 413,000
5. Sameer Rattonsey – INR 354,000
6. Nikhil Maheswari – INR 295,000
7. Ravi Goel – INR 236,000
8. Rahul Byraju – INR 177,000
9. Aditya Agarwal – INR 118,000
10. Hisashi Ogi – INR 106,000

Don’t forget you can head to Fundoo Poker’s Final Table Live Updates to see all the hand highlights from today.