fundoopoker.com

24/05/2012

Date:

24th May 2012

Venue:

Casino Royale, Goa

1. 50K Main Event DAY 1A - Level 5 to Level 7

11.10pm Vimal Snap Calls Twice with Ace High

Varun Vimal is proving rather entertaining to watch. In this hand, he was up against Kanishka Samant and we caught the action on the flop of 3♠ 3♥ J♣. Vimal is first to act as the UTG man and checks his option to Samant on his immediate left who bets 2100.

Varun Vimal

A quick call brings the turn 10♠ and both players decide to check. On the river 5♠, Vimal checks a third time and Samant takes his cue to send another 3200 into the middle. No sooner has it left his hand then Vimal places in a call. Samant thinks he has lost the pot and is about to muck his hand saying “ace-high” but Vimal tells him he also has ace-high. They turn them over and Samant’s A♥ 8♥ is actually good enough to chop the pot with Vimal’s A♠ 6♣.

10:50pm Bagai Lays Hooks Into Chip Lead

Pocket jacks are considered to be the most difficult hand to play by many players, it becomes more difficult when your opponent moves all-in before the flop. However for Pranav Bagai, it was the hand which gave him the early chip lead in the tournament. His opponent moved all in before the flop with pockets eights making his Jacks a huge favourite to win. After dodging the two remaining eights on the community cards, he scoops in a pot of 85,000 for the chip lead.

10.40pm Singh Holds with Two Pair

Sonu Singh just got all his money in good with Q♣ 10♠ on a flop of Q♠ 10♦ 4♦ for two pair. His opponent made the call to put his tournament life at risk on a nut flush draw holding A♦ 9♦. Fortunately the turn came a 8♣ and, with no jack or diamond on the river 2♣ , Singh eliminates his opponent and now has almost 40,000 in his stack.

10.30pm Level 7: Blinds 200/400 Ante 50

9.50pm Players are on a 40 minutes Dinner Break.

9:40pm Sheksaria Shoves

A huge check-raise is perhaps the most terrifying move to face when it requires a major chunk of your stack to call. But that wasn't the case for Rohit Sheksaria as he moved all-in over his opponent’s strong check-raise on the flop. With the action pre-flop and the all baby cards on the flop, it was difficult to say if the flop favoured either of the players. The opponent tanks for a long time and mucks his hand. Was it a strong hand in the pocket or just pure guts which won Rohit the pot?

9.30pm Bhalla Slips on Big Slick

Rohit Bhalla’s tournament life has come to an end after he raised from UTG to 700 and saw Nitin Gupta put in a re-raise to 3000. Kevin Neves calls in the small blind before Bhalla ships for 5600. There’s some confusion over whether Gupta can come over the top but, with the dealer silent, the players decide for themselves that he can before floor staff can come over. Neves steps out of the way and the two opponents flip over their hands:

Rohit Bhalla

Bhalla: A♣ K♣
Gupta: K♥ K♦

The dealer tables Q♠ 10♣ 10♥ to have Bhalla drawing to an ace or jack to win the pot but the turn and river give him a 3♠ and 3♥ to send him home instead.

9:20pm Lakda Misses a Clubbing

Husain Lakda pumps his fist in the air after dodging his opponent’s Nut flush draw. It happened on a flop of Q♥ 3♣ 6♣, he bets and gets an insta-all-in raise from his opponent. After tanking he makes the call only to realise he was ahead by a good margin with K♥ Q♦ for top pair.

He was up against his opponent’s A♣ K♣. A 6♦ kept his hopes alive and, as the dealer slowly peeled the turn, Husain screams ‘one time’, successfully cashing it in with a blank river. He is now sitting healthy with a stack of 27,000+.

9.10pm Level 6: Blinds 150/300 Ante 25

9.05pm: Agarwal With Unusual Raise

Praveen Agarwal raises pre-flop to 1550, an unusual raise which definitely would make any poker player suspicious for a cheeky attempt to steal the blinds. Two opponents call out of which one was brimming with confidence.

The flop of 4♦ 6♥ 2♦ did not deter the determination of the Pre-flop raiser, with a calm face Praveen puts in a stack of 3800 chips leaving his oppoenents as confused as all the other players on the table. ‘When confused, fold’ may have been the common concluding mindset of both of his opponents. Praveen scoops in a healthy pot of around 8000 chips to add to his arsenal.

9.00pm Vimal Delivers Death Blow to Sushant

After Varun Vimal’s previous misstep cruelly cracked Aditya Sushant’s set of kings, it seems only fitting that he was the one to now administer the coup de grace and give those evil poker gods something chuckle over. In the hand, Sushant opened for 550 from UTG+1 and was called by You Hyun Kim (aka “Dennis”) before Vimal decided a three-bet was in order to 1550.

Sushant responds with an all-in and Kim gets out of the way as Vimal quickly calls. With cards on their backs it’s a classic race with Sushant’s J♠ J♣ against Vimal’s A♣ Q♠. The board then delivers 8♣ 9♣ K♥ Q♦ 9♥ to pair up Vimal’s queen and send Sushant to the rail to lick his wounds. Either that or jump off the ship into the less than inviting waters of River Mandovi.

8.30pm Goindi Bombs River, Up to 30k

We only caught the action in this hand with a board reading 3♦ 7♥ 4♦ 7♣ A♠ and a whole bunch of chips in the middle already. 2012 MPC: Red Dragon runner-up Abhishek Goindi dumped 5500 more into the pot and his opponent went deep into the tank. He eventually made the call but was pretty disgusted when Goindi turned over A♥ 8♥ for a rivered ace.

Abhishek Goindi

According to Goindi, there had been action aplenty on each street so without hitting and no draw he had found a way to win the pot as his stack moves up to around 30,000. Go Goindi!

8.20pm Level 5: Blinds 100/200 Ante 25