Gone Goa Gone

Posted by Dhaval Mudgal on 2013-08-01 at 12:00 AM

Try as you might, you always find yourself somewhat attached to your roots.
And Goa for a lot us is where it all started.
The recent downturn in the fortunes of tournament poker in Goa has seen a lot more of us travel to different shores.
But the announcement of the CR cup and with it the absorption of TDS, brought about a fair buzz in the circuit.
With my Macau plans cancelled due to a close friends wedding, I booked my tickets to Goa and headed out to the CR Cup.
Chance encounters with fellow players on the flight and the airport should have given me an indication of what was to follow but, walking into the poker room of the newly positioned CR was something that took all of us by surprise.
It was like rewind back to 2010. The room was buzzing and full of players and old, old friends.
It really did seem like a school reunion of sorts!
Late rugged into the 10k and unfortunately so did KC, Amit Verma, Jasven, Kavish and Bblacklegend and all of us found ourselves on the same table. While that made for some great table talk, it wasn’t too helpful in taking down easy pots.
The table broke within a couple of levels, but the turbo nature of the event made sure no one felt too comfortable with their stacks.
Got moved to a fairly weak table, where I jammed light a couple of times and showed my hands. Next hand I shove AK and and get snap called by Q 10. My hand held up only for me to lose JJ to AK for CL pot with about 22 left and 15 in the money.
My boys Jasven and Samoh chopped the first event and I can tell you it was quite a rail!
Didn’t sleep much before the 20k event, and to be honest the importance of sleep before a tournament is becoming more and more evident to me.
Anyway, @ 150/300 flatted EP position raise to 1100 with AQ on bb. Led 1500 on a 10s 9c 6s flop and got called. Turn was 3s, completing the flush. led for 3600 and got called. River was a 7c. I jammed and got snapped off by K9o. GG!
Jasven chopped this event 3 way as well. What a beast! Mad props!

Decided to go well rested for the main and got a fairly decent table draw. There were a couple of guys I knew but it was all pretty standard. We were only playing unto 1k/2k on day 1 and on the last level I got moved to another table where everyone was pretty deep. I had about 55k.
Last hand of the day, tight player on the button opened to 4800, I 3 bet to 11k in sb with 99 and he 4 bet to 24k. I begrudgingly folded which meant I went into day 2 with 34k.

Day 2 was a different ball game. About one orbit in, picked up 99 in SB to double up against AJ. Next hand, I raise Ah10h to two EP limpers. Get called by one, and check back the Ac4h4s board. Turn is the 5c and he pots for half my stack and I shove. He tank calls 7c2c and I double up.
Im opening almost every pot by now and chipping up quite quickly.
I open AQ in MP and Harshad Bharve and (72 guy) both call in the blinds. Harshad has a pretty big stack like 1.6l at 1200/2400 and flop runs out Qh 3h 3s. Harshad check shoves to my bet on the flop, I call and hold against his Kh9h to become CL with 22 left.
Lose AK to 88 in a 100k pot just before the break but still have CL. Open AhKh UTG to 12k at 3/6, 200k stack 3 bets to 34k, I 4 bet and he shoves AQ and hits a Q on the turn to win a massive pot leaving me with about 17bb.
Just about sneak in to the final table which had a very impressive lineup- KC, Pulkit, Shravan, Sapra (Boronyx), Paras Chakravarty, Sridhar, Antilog and a couple of newer guys.
Sapra, Sridhar and Paras were all shorter than me while KC and Antilog were the bigger stacks so, it was a fairly simple strategy going in to Ft. Get it in, double up and have a fighting chance!
First orbit, first time tourney player and high stakes cash player opens to 80k at 4k/8k, (which he later claimed was a mistake),
I shove 120k with 10 10 and Sapra in the bb puts his 70k stack in with JJ. The raiser folds and Sapra holds up only for me to become even shorter.
Same guy limps next hand and I shove A5o on the button only for Antilog to snap off AJ in the bb.
So that was that and I finished 10th.
Luckily though I always swap equity with beasts! And boy did they deliver!

Partied so hard after the Main that didn’t even wake up in time for the Sunday grind!!

All in all, the kind of numbers that CR cup received were very exciting and hopefully more series with this kind of turnout should revive our scene!
Also start learning Open Faced Chinese Poker (OFC) because its going to be BIG!

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Dhaval Mudgal

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