fundoopoker.com

25/05/2012

Date:

26th May 2012

Venue:

Casino Royale, Goa

1. 50K Main Event Day 2 - Level 11 to Level 13

 

6.25pm Level 14: Blinds 1000/2000 Ante 300

6.20pm Bhatija Calls on River

Pranav Bhatija raises to 4000 on the cutoff and gets a call from Rishabh Jhunjhunwala on the button. Both players checked the flop of . The turn  is also checked around. After Bhatija checked the river , Jhunjhunwala makes a bet of 8000 but mucks his hand immediately as Bhatija makes the call. Bhatija flashes the  and scoops in the pot.

6.00pm Khetan’s Big Chick is the Nuts

After a limp from the lojack, Manan Khetan just calls in the small blind even though he is holding the premium hand of .  The big blind checks his option and they go three-handed to a flop of . The action is checked all around and the dealer tables the turn.

The big blind then leads out for 4900 and Khetan is the only one to call with his double belly gutshot. The river is the perfect card for him as it gives him the stone cold nuts for a Broadway straight. His hand is so perfectly disguised after his preflop limp and he continues the deception with another check. The big blind falls into the trap by betting another 6900.

Khetan tanks for the Academy Award and decides to shove all in for 25,200. His opponent makes the call and its speed suggests he possibly had a Nine or possibly Queen-Nine but we will never know as he folds when Khetan shows his hand.

Pranav Bagai

5.45pm Kalia’s Rockets Hold in Three-way Shove

Pocket Aces could not have come on a better time for Pulkit Kalia in a three-way all in pot. Amit Varma had moved all in on the button and it was a simple re-shove for Kalia. Pranav Bagai then moved all-in from the small blind. As Varma and Bagai turned over and respectively, Kalia screams “Come on, hold up one time please”.

The community cards fall and Kalia uses up his ‘one time’ to scoop a huge pot of over 65,000.

5.40pm Level 13: Blinds 800/1600 Ante 200

5.30pm Break Time

Players are now on their first 10 minutes break of the evening.

5:28pm Naik Misses Draws and Falls

Ashutosh Naik stayed as still as he could as his opponent Apoorv Goel tanked on the flop showing . Naik had shoved all his chips of 22,300 after the flop. Perhaps Goel got a read from the motionless Naik as he made the call. Naik turns over for a flush draw while Goel had for the lead.

The turn of gave additional outs to Naik for the up and down straight. Naik now needed any club, queen, ace or a nine to stay alive. However, the river was a blank and washed Naik out of the tournament.

Amit Varma

5.15pm Kapoor Doubles Through Varma

Amit Varma called Niel Kapoor’s 12,000 preflop shove but was disappointed to see his was sorely behind Kapoor’s . The board of was no help to Varma and his stack takes a big hit.

It’s further whittled down a few hands later until Varma puts it all on the line with and is again facing off with Kapoor dominating holding . Both players paired their ace on the flop but we were away from the table so we weren’t quite sure whether the money was in preflop or on the flop. However, it was definitely before Varma spiked a seven on the river to take it down with aces-up.

Vamra is still pretty short-stacked, sitting on just over 15,000.

5.05pm Bullets Fatally Wound Bindra

We were just in time to catch Apoorva Goel slowly sliding all his chips in on the flop showing . His opponent is the last woman in the field Niharika Bindra and she tanks for a while before finally deciding to make the call.

Goel quickly turns over and see he is  a huge favourite against his opponent’s . As the dealer turns over for the  turn and river, Goel breathes a sigh of relief and sits back in his seat, cheerfully piling up his new found chips. Bindra, meanwhile, has only around 10,000 left and is knocked out of the tournament shortly after.

4.55pm Ashutosh Doubles with Broadway

Ashutosh ‘Ash Burner’ Naik open shoved his last 12,700 chips and gets a call from Hisashi Ogi. Naik turns over and Ogi turns over . The flop isn’t great for Naik but the turn gave him a double belly buster straight draw. The dealer then flips over the and Naik pumps his fist, happily scooping in the pot of more than 27K for a timely double up with the rivered Broadway straight.

Rahul Byraju

4.50pm Huge Call for Byraju Gives Him Chip Lead

In what we’d definitely call the hand of the tournament so far for its daring and skill on the part of both players involved, Rahul Byraju has stormed into the chip lead and eliminated Arindam Mukherjee. It started with a simple raise from Mukherjee holding at UTG. Byraju is the player to his immediate left and three-bets with a speculative to 6500.

With Mukherjee’s call the flop lands and he decides to lead out for 7600. But Byraju doesn’t budge, making a quick call. On the turn , Mukherjee fires out another barrel of 12,000. Again, Byraju is an immovable object with just second pair and a weak kicker. The two players go to the river and Mukherjee announces that he’s all in for 37,500. Surely with four cards to a straight now out there and three streets of betting Byraju could not think he was in front?

But he’s still interested, asking the dealer for the count and checking how much he’d have left in his stack if he was wrong. With his mental calculations adding up and putting his faith in his initial read of Mukherjee’s hand, Byraju makes the call to win the pot. His tablemates are impressed and why they shouldn’t they be? Byraju is up to over 130,000 to be our new chip leader.

4.45pm Level 12: Blinds 600/1200 Ante 200

4.33pm Jacks Win Race for Jhunjhunwala

We were just in time to witness Dushyant Shekhawant moving all in with his last 20,000 chips only to get an insta-call from Day 1B chip leader Rishabh Jhunjhunwala. As Shekhawant turns over , Jhunjhunwala realises that it’s a flip with his slightly in front. The dealer sends out on the board and, as Shekhawant exits towards the rail, Jhunjhunwala adds another pile of chips to his stack.

Rishabh Jhunjhunwala

4.20pm Nilsson Takes First Blood against Chip Leader

Varun Vimal and Martin Nilsson are running first and second in stack size amongst the field and, fortunately for us, they’re seated at the same table and are certainly not going to avoid each other. In this hand, the two players saw a flop of and checked it but on the turn Vimal fired out 3500. Nilsson made the call and they went to a river .

Vimal sent another barrel of 7000 more into the pot but Martin instantly flicked in chips to call. Vimal says “damn… five” but it’s not good enough to beat Nilsson’s pair of kings, which he played for value with a flop check.

4.10pm Lohia with Early Ship

In the second hand of his table for the day, Aditya Agarwal makes a raise of 2700 and, as action is folded to button man, Sailesh Lohia, he immediately announces all-in for another 15K chips clearly indicating that he in for double up or nothing strategy. Agarwal tanks for a moment and folds.

Hisashi Ogi

4.05pm First Hand Busto for Chawla

Rishabh Chawla had a shocker of start, losing his entire 33,000 stack and going out in the first hand of his table. We didn’t catch the action but grabbed Chawla on the way to the rail to get his story. It began with Hisashi Ogi raising to 2200 from the hijack. Chawla just flats in the big blind holding and the flop comes down K-9-9 with two diamonds.

Chawla check-raises Ogi to 10,000 and then calls his opponent’s shove. But when Ogi flips over Chawla is drawing super thin and doesn’t catch up on the turn or river.

We are now down to 47 players.

4.00pm Let’s Go!

The cards are now in the air. Our starting level today is Level 11 with blinds 500/1000 ante 100.

3.55pm Day 2 About to Fire Up

A field of 48 players remain in the INR 50,000 APT Asian Series Goa Main Event and we are only minutes away from our start time of 4pm. Way out in front is the Day 1A chip leader of Varun Vimal who was the only man to reach six figures in his stack, sitting on a colossal 113,800 in chips. He has almost three times the average stack of 41,000 and is well clear of his nearest rival, Sweden’s Martin Nilsson, who amassed a 76,400 stack in Day 1A.

There are only nine international players left in the predominantly Indian field. One person also in the minority is the last woman standing (one of only two that entered the tournament), Niharika Bindra. She held the chip lead for much of yesterday’s Day 1B but lost some of her stack in the last levels.

Get set for another hot session of poker as we countdown to the APT Asian Series Goa final table.