Team India is doing amazingly well in Las Vegas. While the key attraction is the WSOP, there are plenty of other exciting poker tournaments that have been running alongside the world’s largest series. One of these tournaments was Event #75: $1,100 NLH MonsterStack with $1 Million guarantee, which ran from 29th to 30th June and drew 2,233 entries, creating a $2,166,010 prize pool, which was distributed among the top 225 players with a min-cash of $3,466. Topping the field in this event was India’s Ankit Ahuja who beat Jesse Cohen in heads-up to win $266,824, his best score.
Ahuja was ranked 17th in ‘India All Time Money List’ with $239,094 in live earnings before this big win. With $266,824 (INR 1.84 Crores) coming in top prize from Monster Stack, he has now taken his total live earnings to a whopping $505,918. This is not the first international poker title for Ahuja, as the player has already taken down several international tournaments over the years. He got his first international title when he won $120 NLHE at the 2011 Mega Stack Series, Las Vegas for $7,438. 2017 saw him winning the € 330 No Limit Hold’em – Dublin Poker Cup #10 for $ 11,342. He followed up that score with a win for $ 44,684 in the € 550 + 50 NLHE – Thor Hansen Memorial in Dublin (April 2019). Now he has added one more win to his resume by winning Monster Stack for his best score.
340 players had returned on Day 2 of the event. Eliminations were quick and the final table was reached after 14 hours. The eventual winner – Ahuja played some top notch poker and was responsible for eliminating Josh Boulton and Hugo Pingray in tenth and eighth respectively. He then secured a double-up through Phachara Wongwichit to extend his chip lead at the final table.
After Wongwichit got eliminated in sixth place, Ahuja then went on to eliminate three players, including Ubaid Habib (5th for $88,767), Mehdi Hsissen (4th for $116,912) and James Romero (3rd for $153,718) to take a 3-to-1 chip advantage into heads up with Jesse Cohen. The latter fought hard to chip up and eventually both players opted for a heads-up chop with Ahuja claiming the title.
Final Table Payouts (USD):
- Ankit Ahuja – $266,824*
- Jesse Cohen – $266,824*
- James Romero – $153,718
- Mehdi Hsissen – $116,912
- Ubaid Habib – $88,767
- Phachara Wongwichit – $69,281
- Mark Ketteringham – $54,126
- Hugo Pingray – $43,301
- Robin Peraldi – $33,558
- Josh Boulton – $27,063
