This Wednesday saw India’s premier live poker tournament series – India Poker Championship (IPC) make a comeback to Goa after an interlude of over three years. The series got off to a flying start with its opening event – 10K Freezeout drawing a record-breaking field of 437 entries. After its super successful opening event, expectations for its INR 1 Lac buy-in High Roller event to set a new benchmark were high. The event lived up to what was expected, drawing a record 207 entries.
The massive field of the event generated a prize pool of INR 2.03 Crores, which is to be shared by top 24 finishers. While min-cash is worth INR 1.88 Lac, the High Roller champion will receive a hefty INR 51.66 Lac. Day 1 of the event concluded with just 70 players left in running for the title. Leading the 70 survivors is the well-known pro Praveen Dwarkanath who has bagged a stack of 1.24 million for Day 2, which resumes at 3 pm with Day 1A of the Main Event starting 3 hours later at 6 PM.
Dwarkanath is a respected player in the Indian live circuit with plenty of scores to his name. The talented pro has scored several FT finishes in tournaments taking place in India and abroad. His last recorded cash was in the 2019 DPT Colossus 50K Warm-Up in May where he finished 4th for INR 2,70,000. The player has already won two poker titles and will be looking to add one more title today.
Trailing Dwarkanath is recent APPT High Roller winner Kanishka Samant (1,06,000) who had finished 8th in the 10K Freezeout yesterday. Rounding out the top 3 stacks is WSOP 2018 Main Event best Indian finisher – Nishant Sharma (957,000). Some other notables still in contention are Deepak Bothra (737,000), Sam Anand (724,000), Casino Pride II operator Madhav Gupta (689,000), Jagdeep Singh (682,000), Pradeep Sharma(682,000) and Kanishk Upreti (600,000).
Day 1 also saw Adda52 Team Pros – Minissha Lamba and Nikita Luther joining action. While Lamba was reportedly eliminated before the day concluded, Luther managed to bag 566,000 for Day 2.
Top 10 Chip Counts At Day 1 End:
- Praveen Dwarkanath – 1,24,000
- Kanishka Samant – 1,06,000
- Nishant Sharma – 957,000
- Manish Gandhi – 818,000
- Deepak Bothra – 737,000
- Sam Anand – 724,000
- Ganesh Koampella – 722,000
- Pulkit Goyal – 702,000
- Madhav Gupta – 689,000
- Jagdeep Singh – 682,000
