WPT India 2018: ₹55K Main Event Creates New Record With 697 Entries, Anup Palod Takes Overall Chip Lead For Day 2; Sacheen Ramchandani Wins Ship IT ₹7K NLH

Anup Palod & Sacheen Ramchandani
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  • Namita Ghosh November 18, 2018
  • 6 Minutes Read

The excitement at Casino Deltin Royale in Goa truly reached a crescendo on Saturday night where after an eventful run of the Day 1B flight, the last of three starting flights at the 2018 World Poker Tour (WPT) India ₹55,000 Main Event opened to 157 runners. While we had already seen the event surpassing its previous year’s (527 entries) numbers on Day 1B itself, the Main Event, with a mammoth 697 entries not only crushed last edition`s record, but also overshot the field size at the 2018 WPT Vietnam Main Event (679 entries), setting a new attendance record!

Well known poker pro and staking stable operator Anup Palod (296,500) commands pole position among the 70 Day 1C survivors and is holding the overall lead coming into Day 2. Day 1A chip leader Niranjan NJ (284,500) is a close second in chips ahead of Pranay Kapoor (231,500) and Karan Kakkad (229,500). With a total of 241 runners still in contention, the battle for the prized WPT title will kick off today.

On the sidelines of the Main Event, the Ship IT ₹7,000 NLH ran its course with 110 entries and topping them all was Sacheen Ramchandani, who won the title and ₹2.35 Lakhs.

Manish Adnani, Business Head of Poker at Deltin Royale was obviously ecstatic with the record-breaking turnout and shared his excitement on social media.“We hit a new milestone in the Indian poker fabric today at the WPT India Main Event. We hit 697 players with a total pool of 3.8 Crores! This is a collective win for poker in India and we all share this together!”

Meanwhile, the record-breaking 697-strong entry field at the Main Event created a prize pool of ₹3,62,49,576, with a massive ₹66.35 Lakhs reserved for the champion. The prize money will be distributed among the top 88 finishers with a min-cash worth ₹89,500.

Many players who had hit the rail on the opening two flights took a last shot yesterday and among the list of runners were names like Minissha Lamba and Kunal Patni, World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Nikita Luther, Team PokerStars India pro Muskan Sethi, Masha Soboleva, defending champion Vikas Mantri, ₹25K Big Bounty winner Alok Birewar, and winner of ₹35K Superstack, Abhishek Jalan. Surprisingly, all of them hit the rail before the end of play.

Day 2 will see a star-studded field in action as the best domestic talent resumes action in a bid to take down the title at this record-breaking event. Day 1B chip leader Akshay Nasa (213,500), last year’s event runner-up Arjun Arora (198,500), Adda52 Team Pro Amit Jain (172,500), Shuchi Chamaria (102,500), Eka Vedantham (113,500), Navkiran Singh (67,000), Ship IT NLH winner Sacheen Ramchandani (90,500), Aditya ‘Bitti’ Agarwal (56,500), Paawan Bansal (48,500) and Canadian Kevin Ayow (98,500) are just a few big names that will be returning on Day 2 today.

55K Main Event- Day 1C

The Main Event Day 1C Turbo saw 157 runners ponying up the ₹55,000 buy-in. The fast-paced day saw over half the field failing the mission to make Day 2, with only 70 runners managing to make it through. Topping the list of survivors was popular poker stable operator Anup Palod (296,500) who is now the overall chip leader coming into Day 2 today.

Anup Palod
Anup Palod Chip Leads 70 Day 1C Survivors

Palod has been particularly active on the Asian circuit in the last two years. In 2017 he final tabled the 2017 WPT India ₹30K Superstack where he finished fifth for ₹5,09,000 and narrowly missed winning the ₹30K NLHE Main Event at Baadshah Gaming Live Tournament (BLT) in December 2017, finishing runner-up to Aditya Sushant. This year he already has two deep runs to his name in the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Manila including a 17th place finish in the ₱10,000 NLHE Deepstack.

Palod was among the big stacks for the majority of the day but clinched the chip lead on the last hand of the day where he eliminated a player with pocket kings.

Some of the best female players in the country came out to play the final starting flight. While Nikita Luther was eliminated early on in the day, both Minishha Lamba and Muskan Sethi were going strong on Day 1C with above-average stacks at the mid-way stage. However, neither among them could make the cut for Day 2.

Nikita Luther
Nikita Luther

Masha Soboleva has been quite a revelation at this series with her unconventional style of playing. She fired another bullet on Day 1C but to her dismay, Rajesh Rajpobat eliminated her from the event early on in the day.

Masha Soboleva
Masha Soboleva

Some big stacks after Day 1C include Gaurav Kalra (181,500), Dinesh Kukreja (171,500), Sahil Arora (128,500) and Ashish Munot (104,500).

Also making it to Day 2 are Canadian pro Kevin Ayow (98,500), Chirag Sodha (94,500), Tathagata Sengupta (78,000), Sanjay Taneja (73,500), Manoj Pentakota (71,500), Sandeep Tulsyan(68,000), Abhishek Panda (62,000), Aditya ‘Bitti’ Agarwal (56,500), Rubin Labroo (56,500), Samay Parikh ( 47,500), Kanishka Upreti (41,000), Rohan Dhawan (40,500), Young Gun Arjanveer Chadha (38,000) and Sahil Agarwal (30,000).

Top 10 Chip Counts At The End of Day 1C

1. Anup Palod- 296,500

2. Gaurav Kalra – 181,500

3. Dinesh Kukreja – 171,500

4. Anil S Singh – 147,000

5. Sahil Arora – 128,500

6. Jairam Parab – 112,000

7. Ashish Munot – 104,500

8. Anil Gulati – 100,000

9. Kevin Ayow – 98,500

10. Kunal Raj Kubba – 96,500

Sacheen Ramchandani Wins Maiden Title In Ship IT NLH

On Saturday evening as the buzz of the ₹55K Main Event reverberated across the Deltin Royale poker room, another tournament i.e. Ship IT ₹7,000NLH side event kicked off offering poker zealots a chance to walk away with a WPT title. Emerging triumphant amid 110 entries was Sacheen Ramchandani, who won his maiden live tournament title at the event, pocketing ₹2.35 Lakhs in the process.

The Ship IT featured a fun concept mixing luck with poker skills over two rounds. The first round was all about luck, where 11 flips took place, each flip having 11 contenders in the fray. In round 1 all players were dealt the hole cards face up on the table followed by the board and the winning hand went ahead to Round 2.

The lucky 11, who were all in the money then advanced to Round 2 where play returned to the usual format, and each player was given a starting stack of 12,000. Ramchandani got off to a brilliant start and cruised his way to the heads-up finale, where he defeated Mayank Jaggi to claim victory.

Ramchandani is no stranger to tournament success. In 2017, he scored a 70th place finish worth ₹2.75 Lakhs at the 2017 WSOPE Rozvadov.

Some notables to scored at the event include Ankush Agarwal (5th for ₹45,000), Kalyan Chakravarthy (6th for ₹36,500), Abhishek Jalan (8th for ₹25,500) and Yudhishter Jaswal (9th for ₹23,500).

Round 2 Recap

Round 2 or the final round at the event was when it all came down to poker. With 15-minute levels it was a shove fest. Dinesh Kukreja became the first casualty of the event and fell out in 11th place.

Next to leave was Kunal Kubba who busted out at 10th place.

Yudhishter Jaswal, who grabbed the limelight in summer when he won the $1,600 NLHE Bounty at the DeepStack Championship Poker Series (DCPS) in Las Vegas for ₹78,56,365 ,was also in the mix. Jaswal was eliminated in ninth place.

Abhishek Jalan was once again in the reckoning for a second title this series. He took second place at this very event last edition but was denied the title by Neeta Banker. Having won the ₹35K SuperStack at the ongoing series, Jalan was unable to make it a double-whammy and hit the rail in eighth place.

Lokesh Budhiraja was another player who has done well this series with a in-the-money finish in the ₹20K Kickoff. Here too Budhiraja ran deep only to be shown the door in seventh place.

Following him to the rail was Kalyan Chakravarthy, who had an eventful summer in Las Vegas where he won the $6,000 NLHE MonsterStack at the 2018 DCPS.

Ansar Khan, Kabir Uppal and Ankush Agarwal were the next casualties in fifth, fourth and third place respectively.

The heads-up play between Ramchandani and Mayank Jaggi saw the former maintaining a clear lead and its wasn’t long before the final hand was played. Jaggi moved all in with and Ramchandani made the call with . The board ran and Ramchandani hit two pair to win the title!

Sacheen Ramchandani
Sacheen Ramchandani – Winner of 7K Ship IT NLH

Final Payouts (INR)

1. Sacheen Ramchandani- ₹2,35,000

2. Mayank Jaggi – ₹1,41,000

3. Ansar Khan – ₹88,000

4. Kabir Uppal – ₹60,000

5. Ankush Agarwal – ₹45,000

6. Kalyan Chakravarthy – ₹36,500

7. Lokesh Budhiraja – ₹30,200

8. Abhishek Jalan – ₹25,500

9. Yudhishter Jaswal – ₹23,500

10. Kunal Kubba – ₹22,000

11. Dinesh Kukreja – ₹21,400

Content and images courtesy: onlinepokernews.in/PokerNews India

Keep following all the latest updates from WPT India 2018 right here on PokerGuru.

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