He was playing his first ever tournament in Goa and he had got a returning flight on Sunday, June 4. At the end of Day 1 on June 6, he found himself the 2nd in the chip counts and decided to take it further on the final day canceling his flight. Finally, the skill, the patience and what we call in poker – the grind paid off in an excellent way winning him the IPC June Main Event title with the top prize of Rs 11,20,000. Karan Khushlani who started off with poker a few years back in USA was just another player in the Indian circuit but, the main event victory has made him a promising star.
In the 10K Super Knockout event, Rajesh Rajpopat outplayed a field of 131 runners winning the title while one of the few female players in the field, Laveena Belani finished 2nd.
Main Event Round-up
The 30K Main Event of IPC June attracted 164 players to vie for the title which brings a 7-figure cash prize. Adda52 Team Spades pro Amit Jain, IPC April ME champion Kanishka Samant, Rakesh Sharma, Abhishek Panda, Arsh Grover, Rajeev Kanjani, Sameer Rattonsey, Rajat Sharma and IPC January ME champion Sumit Asrani were among the notables in the field of the main event this season. A prize pool of over Lacs was accumulated which the organizer announced to distribute in the Top 18 players with Rs 11,20,000 for the champion.
Day 1 Action
Arsh Grover, the defending champion Kanishka Samant, Anudeep Srinivas and Santosh Govindraj were among the early elimination of Day 1. Kanishka flopped a flush with in hole and on the table was unluckily beaten by the higher flush of the opponent who showed . Amit Jain was leading the field in the early stage of the game while the short stack kept falling. After 10 levels of play, Wasim Rozani rose up to the lead position while many notables as in Team Thrill pro Sahil Agarwal, Vinay B Amit Ajwani and Kanishka Kapoor hit the rails.
The Day 1 game shortened the field to 31 players led by Atul Nandi who had amassed 156400 chips. Karan Khushlani, Naitik Jain, Sameer Rattonsey, Rajat Sharma, Abhishek Panda, Amit ‘bblackleged’ Jain and Siddhant Jain were the other players with 6-figure chip counts.
Day 2 Game
The Day 2 game of the IPC June Main Event started on Sunday and saw Vishal Gajaria in the first elimination. Sumit Sapra busted when the dealer opened 3 Jacks from the deck and Prabhakar Che showed against Sapra’s . The game intensified as the field approached the money bubble and it was Rohit Bhalla falling shy of the money.
Once the players were assured of the money, the game slowed down in pace. After 18 levels of play, Karan Khushlani was leading the field with 302000 chips followed by Rajat Sharma and the Adda52 Team Spades pro Amit Jain. Sahil ‘$lim$hady’ Chuttani finished in the 15 place when his set of Nines met Vishrut Jain’s flush. Vishrut progressed in the game but was unlucky to become the final table bubble of the tournament.
The Final table
The 9-handed final table of the IPC June Main Event was set at the Deltin Royale poker room led by Kavish Kukreja with 631,000 chips. Naitik Jain was the first to hit rails from the FT while Atul Nandi and Nimmit Patel finished 8th and 7th respectively. Rajat Sharma’s pocket fives busted against Karan‘s s1 cK when the dealer opened another King on the flop. Prabhakar’s tournament run came to end in the 3rd place when his couldn’t find any help from the table against Karan’s pocket 7s. Now, Karan was one step behind the glorious win with Siddhant Jain as the last man up against him in this tournament. In the very first hand of the heads up, Siddhant moved all-in with which Karan called with . The board ran giving Karan the edge of Ace and winning him the title.
Siddhant Jain took home Rs 7,10,000 in the runner-up place while the champion Karan Khushlani bagged Rs 11,20,000.