The DPT and fans of the series bid farewell to another successful season just a couple of days ago. As one could expect, the February 2019 edition of the popular DPT series was packed with quality poker action. And it proved to be a great success, particularly its Main Event, which drew 286 entries.
The 5-day series running from 7th to 11th February 2019 at the Deltin Roayle in Goa attracted close to 700 entries, including both professionals and recreational players. And millions were distributed in prize money to the ones who made it deep enough into the festival’s various exciting events.
Here is a quick look at the fortunate ones who emerged as the champions at various events:
Nikita Luther – DPT 15K Deep Dive Champion
The poker festival kicked off on Thursday, 7th February with its opening event – DPT 15K Deep Dive NLH event. The two-day tournament attracted a strong field with 187 entries. The player to ship this opening event was none other than Adda52 Team Pro and 2018 WSOP Tag Team bracelet winner Nikita Luther. The Delhi-girl scooped INR 6,80,000 and a beautiful DPT trophy for her grand win. A total of 18 places were paid out in this tournament with min-cashes starting from INR 35,000.
Luther is a very talented female poker player. She enjoyed a brilliant last year where she not only won a WSOP gold bracelet but also ran deep in various international tournaments. In her long list of poker achievements, Luther was just missing a DPT title, having been a runner-up in 2 previous events in 2017 – 10K Ladies Event for INR 40,000 and 15K Bounty for INR 2, 27,600. This grand win gave Luther her first DPT title and she grew her total live earnings to an impressive $218,554.
Luther started the final table with the second biggest stack of 7,60,000. She played quite aggressively and went on to eliminate several FT players, including Alok Ranjan, Rubin Labroo, Arjun Agrawal and the start of final table chip leader Ankit Kapoor, who finished 3rd for INR 2,90,000.
Luther entered heads-up with Parikshit Dhall, who was fifth in chips at the start of FT. Dhall fought it well but a lack of experience costed him the game. Dhall eventually settled for a good INR 4,55,000 for his runner-up finish in the tournament. The DPT February 2019 proved to be a big series for Luther as she not only won the Deep Dive but also she cashed the 35K Main Event for INR 77,000.
Abhishek Goindi – Adda52 65K High Roller Champion
Abhishek Goindi emerged victorious from the Adda52 High Roller, known to be a popular event on DPT’s calendar each year. The INR 65K buy-in High Roller was a two-day long tournament played on 8th and 9th February. After several hours of competitive play, Goindi defeated an 86-strong entry field and Pradeep Sharma (INR 9,90,000) in heads-up to win the title for INR 14.50 Lac. The top 11 players were paid out in this high roller tournament, with min-cashes starting from INR 1,70,500.
The DPT February 2019 was a good series for Goindi as he not only won the 65K High Roller for INR 14,50,000 but also he cashed the 35K Main Event, finishing 10th for a cool INR 180,000. With his DPT high High Roller win, Goindi took his total live tournament earnings to a hefty $263,369. His best live cash had come back in 2012 when he finished runner-up for $136,245 in the Macau Poker Cup HK$11,000 NLHE Red Dragon Main Event. Well-known on the domestic circuit, Goindi has been a regular at the Deltin Poker Tournament (DPT). In the year 2017, he had posted two big scores, one in the DPT 15K PLO (3rd for INR 2,10,000) and the other in the Main Event (17th for INR 69,300).
Sajjan Barnwal – DPT 15K NLH Bounty Champion
New-Delhi based Sajjan Barnwal emerged victorious from the DPT 15K NLH Bounty, which was played on 10th February 2019. Barnwal defeated a strong 120-entry field and Vishal Lamba (INR 1,62,000) in heads-up to clinch his career’s first live title and add INR 2.30 Lac to his bankroll. A total of 15 places were paid out in this tournament with min-cashes starting from INR 14,000.
Barnwal entered the final table with the second-biggest stack. Soon, he took the chip lead, going on to eliminate 6 out of the final 8 players – Vishal Lamba, Ameya Gokhale, Rajiv Singla, Amit Tejura, Vishal Surana, and Raajiv Sachdeva. Barnwal is mainly known for his scores on the virtual felts. He has a lot of cashes to his name on various platforms. One of his biggest online scores of 2019 include his win in the PokerStars India’s Sunday Special that he won on January 6 for INR 3.50 Lac.
Ankit Kapoor – DPT 35K Main Event Champion
The five-day long series finally came to a close with the culmination of its highlight event – the DPT 35K Main Event, which ran from 8th to 11th February and attracted as many as 286 entries (91 from Day 1A, 114 from Day 1B and 81 from Day 1C). The event declared a winner in Ankit Kapoor, who earned a massive INR 22,50,000 for beating a strong field and Mayank Jaggi in heads-up. Both Jaggi and Kapoor knew each’s other game but it was Kapoor who dominated heads-up to win the title.
After eliminating Ankur Sehgal, Arun Karthik and Rachit Prakash, Kapoor had amassed a massive chip lead into heads-up against Jaggi. Even though the latter fought hard to come back, it did not take long for the event to wrap up and Kapoor scooped his first-ever live poker tournament title.
Though this win was his first live title, Kapoor has been final-tabling since November 2018 when he reached the final table of two 2018 WPT India events – 4th place for INR 4,43,700 in the SuperStack and 5th place for INR 6,58,000 in the High Roller. In this particular series too, he started with a final table in the 15K Deep Dive, the opening event of the series where he finished 3rd for INR 2.90 Lac.
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