Dhaval Mudgal Takes Down Inaugural 5k Ruby Re-buy Event at Rockets Anniversary Series, Three days of Action Yet to Come

Rockets Poker Room shifted to a swankier, cooler location in Indiranagar earlier this week, spicing up the action this side of town one bit further. With 5,000 sq. ft. of gaming space, and capacity for over 11 tables, co-promoter Rajeev Raut seems to have some grand plans up his sleeve. To celebrate it`s first anniversary, Rockets put together an inaugural ‘Rockets Anniversary Series’ that got underway yesterday and will run till May 2. Headlining the series is the ₹50K Golden Grind Main Event that takes flight tomorrow.

First up in the series was the 5K Ruby Re-buy event that kicked off yesterday to some stellar action. Besting the 43 player field was Dhaval Mudgal (cover image) who pocketed ₹1,72,500 in prize money after a heads-up deal with Kishan M. An ecstatic Dhaval was seen posing happily with the huge winner’s trophy. PokerGuru caught up with him after the win and Dhaval summed it up perfectly: “I bubbled three events at APT, Manilla and this win definitely pumps up the morale. All I can say is Bengaluru is definitely becoming one of my favorite places to play poker.”

Tournament Recap

The action kicked off from the word go with Rockets co-promoter Rajeev Raut moving his stack in the middle on the very first hand of the day, and Shravan Chhabria made the call with pocket Aces. Rajeev tabled , and failed to get any help from the board, immediately asking for a re-buy.

Bary was next to spring into action and doubled up through Rajesh Singh when his Jacks held up against Rajesh’s . Krishna M and Neelesh G then got in a coin flip, with Krishna’s up against Neelesh’s pocket nines. Krishna clipped the Ace on the flop to knock Neelesh out.

Adarsh J’s open shove with pocket Kings then found a caller in Sahil ‘antilog’ Agarwal who showed . The board was no help to either player, and it was time for a double re-buy for Sahil! Chennai boy Yuvanesh R, in his trademark style, called Jaydeep D’s shove with , tabling . The board opened with a 10 on the flop, and a 10 on the turn, and the suck-out was delivered perfectly!

It looked like Shravan Chhabria had Rajeev Raut’s number for the day, as he tabled to call Rajeev’s open shove with . Shravan clipped an Ace on the board to seal the deal and Rajeev re-bought immediately.

A total of 63 re-buy’s and 29 add-ons were executed before the re-buy period ended and just a short while after that, Arsh Grover walked into a set of 6’s to get eliminated. While at different tables, Praveen Dwarkanath and Sahil Agarwal hit the rails as well.

Shridhar G doubled through Sangeeth Mohan when his shove received a call from Samoh’s . He clipped his Queen to stay alive and doubled up. Rajeev Raut’s bad day continued, as his open shove was called by Krishna M’s . Rajeev got some help on the flop with two hearts and a diamond, as he shot into the lead with two pair. Krishna overtook him fast, with runner-runner diamonds to take the pot, and Rajeev’s tournament run came to an end.

Rohit Tiwari’s Ace high ran into Dhaval Mudgal’s Aces to eliminate him from the tourney. Jasven Saigal next moved all-in with , only to get called by Shridhar G with Ace high. An open-ender on the flop for Jasven failed to improve, and Shridhar clipped the Ace on the River to eliminate him.

By the second break, Shravan Chhabria and Manjit Bakshi were the top two stacks, and some notable stacks looked like this:

1. Shravan Chhabria – 41,900
2. Manjit Bakshi – 41,500
3. Dhaval Mudgal – 26,450
4. Ashish Ahuja – 22,000
5. Sangeeth Mohan – 18,200
6. Kunal Patni – 12,775
7. Abhishek Goindi – 2,200

Ashish Ahuja’s call with had Krishna G dominated as he tabled for the button shove. The board failed to help either player, but Ashish’s kicker played, getting him the pot and eliminating Krishna. Soon thereafter, Abhishek Goindi moved all-in with to see Vinay B making the call. Vinay tabled pocket 8’s, and we had ourselves a coin flip! Abhishek took the lead on the flop, clipping the 9, but Vinay made a Queen high straight on the river, claiming the pot and eliminating Abhishek.

The remaining players kept trading chips for 2 levels, as nobody wanted to be the final table bubble. It was Shravan Chhabria who finally called an open shove from Manjit Bakshi, who held , with his own . Shravan hit a runner-runner flush, eliminating Manjit from the tourney and forming the final table, sans short stacked Ashish Ahuja, who was eliminated in 9th place.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Vinay B – 97,000
2. Kishan M – 69,500
3. Dhaval Mudgal – 65,000
4. Mukunda Dasharathy – 2,000
5. Shravan Chhabria – 51,000
6. Sangeeth Mohan – 48,000
7. Krishna M – 44,000
8. Muthu Kumar – 35,000

Team PokerGuru Pro Sangeeth ‘Samoh’ Mohan was the first casualty on the final table. Sangeeth’s pocket 7’s saw Vinay B wake up with pocket Aces. They failed to improve on all three streets, and Samoh was eliminated in 8^th place.

The remaining top 7 players agreed to insure the bubble boy, guaranteeing him ₹10K for his 7^th place finish. Krishna would eventually claim this when he open shoved with , and found two callers in Dhaval Mudgal and Vinay B . The board missed Krishna, but Dhaval clipped a 7 to take it down, eliminating Krishna in 7^th place with ₹10,000 as consolation.

Vinay B then spiked Kings against Mukunda Dasharathy’s pocket 7`s, as he went on an elimination rampage! Mukunda was the first in a spree of eliminations. Vinay then made short work of Muthu Kumar, who had just stacked off a large portion of his chips a few hands back to Shravan Chhabria. Muthu’s all-in with was called by Vinay who showed . Vinay clipped a Jack on the board to eliminate Muthu and assume the lead at the final table with a stack of about 1.8 Lakhs. Muthu earned himself Mukunda Dashrathy42,000 for his efforts.

Here are the chip counts of the four-handed final table:

Vinay B – 1,80,000
Dhaval Mudgal – 1,14,000
Shravan Chhabria – 95,000
Kishan M – 76,000

It was still anybody’s game.

No game is over until the fat lady sings, and we saw this demonstrated almost immediately. Vinay lost a couple of small hands immediately after the break, and lost out on the chip lead for a bit. He shockingly saw his last hand of the tournament soon, as Kishan opened for 18k, and Vinay 3-bet shoved on him, to get snap called by Kishan, who tabled pocket 10’s. A disappointed Vinay turned over . The case 10 hit the board, and Kishan’s set was good to eliminate Vinay, who started the 4-handed table as clear leader. He collected ₹60,000 for his efforts.

Shravan Chhabria’s shove with was next in line to get snap called, this time by Dhaval Mudgal’s . Ahead pre-flop, Dhaval maintained his lead to take the pot as the community cards were no help to Shravan, eliminating him in 3^rd place with ₹84,000 for his troubles.

Down to heads-up, Dhaval and Kishan decided to split up the money, and left just the title and the bragging rights to play for! The last hand saw Dhaval moving in with , and Kishan made the call with . The board opened with a flush draw for Dhaval on the flop which completed on the river, getting him the title. Both players walked away with ₹1,72,500 in prize money, but Dhaval had the wider smile for sure!

5K Ruby Re-buy Final Payouts

1. Dhaval Mudgal – ₹1,72,500

2. Kishan M – ₹1,72,500

3. Shravan Chhabria – ₹84,000

4. Vinay B – ₹60,000

5. Muthukumar Rajagopalan – ₹42,000

6. Mukunda Dasharathy – ₹30,000

7. Krishna M – ₹10,000

Don’t go anywhere, Rockets promises to keep your attention, as we gear up for three days of exciting action in Bengaluru. PokerGuru will constantly be your eyes and ears on the ground, bringing you complete coverage of all the action from the series!