DPT July 2019: Rishabh Vekaria Defeats Ankur Sehgal Heads-Up to Win Main Event (₹30 Lakhs)

The last Deltin Poker Tournament (DPT) edition of 2019 has just wrapped up proceedings onboard Deltin Royale where a rank newcomer won his career-first title in the ₹35K Main Event. Rishabh Vekaria (cover image), who is primarily a cash game player, came out on top of the 448-entry field, ultimately defeating Ankur Sehgal heads-up to win the most prestigious title at the stop along with a very decent ₹30 Lakhs in prize money! This was interestingly Vekaria`s first recorded live score.

The last two days for what was the second-largest Main Event field at the DPT ever, have been taxing for players. For one the Goa monsoons have been particularly severe since the start of the weekend, and to make matters worse, the local taxi strike has made inter-city travel extremely inconvenient for everyone. All of this forced the Main Event to start over 90 minutes late the last two days, the final day being no exception.

Fourteen players came back to play Day 3 with well-known pro Paawan Bansal starting off as the chip leader. Bansal was going strong for the most part on Day 3 and had even entered the final table in the chip lead. But he lost all his chips in two crucial flips a few levels into play and hit the rail in seventh place for ₹5 Lakhs.

Popular poker operator Anup “Papa” Palod is a well-known name on the domestic circuit. He is part of the management team at one of India`s biggest staking operations but has always called himself a recreational player. He came into Day 3 with the seventh-largest stack and did well to finish third, again for a personal-best score worth ₹13.80 Lakhs.

The final table saw an eclectic mix of new faces and seasoned pros battling it out for the title and just making it to this final table was a significant achievement for most. Incredibly, the top six finishers in the Main Event picked up their respective career-best scores in the event, while for two of them (including the eventual champion Vekharia), this was their first live cash ever!

Day 3 got underway after a short delay around 4:10 PM, and within no time the nine-handed final table was formed.

PokerGuru Ambassador Arjanveer Singh Chadha was sporting the shortest stack at the start of the play and unsurprisingly fell out first. The next few eliminations came quickly with Gaurav Sood (10th for ₹2,55,000), Anil Adiani (11th for ₹2,55,000), Pradeep Sharma (12th for ₹2, 55,000), and Ritesh Khatwani (13th for ₹2,10,000), all busting one after the other.

The start-of-day chip leader, Bansal, powered his way into the final table as the chip leader while Anmol Chawla and Siddarth Singhvi were languishing towards the bottom end of the leaderboard. Visharia started his final table journey holding the third largest stack.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Paawan Bansal – 2,290,000
2. Samit Mehta – 2,210,000
3. Rishab Vikaria – 2,015,000
4. Ankur Sehgal – 1,890,000
5. Anup Palod – 1,660,000
6. Tarun Goyal – 1605,000
7. Amit Tejura – 755,000
8. Anmol Chawla – 670,000
9. Siddarth Singhvi – 415,000

Final Table Recap

Kicking things off on the final table was Ankur Sehgal who raked in a healthy pot right off the bat. He kept the winning momentum by taking down pots here and there.

Circuit regular Siddarth Singhvi was in no mood to hang around hoping for pay jumps and decided to play for the glory. After a few valiant efforts to double up, he finally found a spot and moved all-in with his seven big blind stack (445,000) holding . The table folded and Singhvi won some much-needed chips to stay afloat.

Thirty minutes into play, Sehgal opened the action with and Samit Mehta made the call holding . Mehta bet 175,000 on the flop and Sehgal check-raised all-in for 835,000. Mehta was evidently bummed and went into a deep tank. He ultimately folded his pocket pair, and Sehgal took down the pot to further climb up.

By this time, Vekaria had taken over the chip lead and was sitting with over 25% of the total chips in play. Both Paawan Bansal and Samit Mehta were the next top stacks holding 15% of the chips in play each. Anmol Chawla (6 BB’s) and Siddarth Singhvi (7 BB’s) were the short stacks.

Anmol Chawla, who was apparently playing in his very first live tournament, had a dream debut making it to the final table of a major tournament on his first go. Unfortunately, a ninth-place finish is what he would get as his first career score after moving all-in behind Vekaria with . The eventual champion made the call tabling pocket fives and took down the pot eliminating Chawla. Chawla, who was the second shortest stack at the start of the final table, got a sweet ₹1 Lakh pay jump.

As it turned out, Siddharth Singhvi was the next to fall. Down to five big blinds, Singhvi moved all-in with pocket deuces after Sehgal opened the action with . Action folded back on Sehgal, who tank-called and went ahead to win the pot on the rundown .

Charting a meteoric rise, Sehgal next doubled up through Paawan Bansal, who in fact, became the next player to fall. Bansal, after losing a crucial flip holding to Sehgal`s pocket sixes, finally jammed with pocket treys. Adda52 Team Pro Tarun Goyal isolated him by moving all-in over-the-top with . Goyal`s strategy worked as the rest of the table folded, and he took down the massive 2.3 Million pot on the rundown.

Anup “Papa” Palod went on to extend his lead after winning a large 1.1 Million pot off Tarun Goyal to climb up to 3.4 Million in chips. The game dynamics shifted drastically during six-handed play with Vekaria piling on enough chips to assume the role of table captain while the erstwhile chip leader Palod slipped down.

After a few hands of push/fold poker, Samit Mehta, who was sitting with a 1.5 Million (15 big blinds) stack, decided to move all-in holding . Palod on the button picked up and made the call. The ₹15K Deep Dive NLH third place finisher, Mehta was looking in good shape for a double up before the community cards completed a three-of-a-kind for Palod. Mehta hit the rail in sixth place.

At level 31, with the blinds at 50,000/100,000, Palod had accumulated a dominating chip lead holding almost 35% of the chips in play while Amit Tejura was on life support down to just three big blinds. As expected, Tejura soon committed his short stack in the pot with but failed to catch up to Vekaria’s pocket fives.

Shortly, Tarun Goyal would be relegated to the rail in fourth place. The hand in question saw Goyal moving all-in on the button with . The next to act Vekaria woke up with pocket tens and made the relatively easy call. Palod in the big blind decided to fold making it a two-way showdown. Vekaria flopped a set and raked in the pot eliminating Goyal in the process.

Taking an early bite was Sehgal who turned a nut flush against Vekaria`s flopped flush to rake in a decent-sized pot. Just while it looked like Vekaria`s inexperience may limit his chances at a real shot at the title, he pulled off an epic bluff against Sehgal, forcing the latter to lay down the better hand.

As for Anup Palod, the Mumbai-based operator went card dead for a prolonged period and had to contend with the other two fighting it out while he blinded away. On his final hand, Palod open-shoved with pocket deuces and Vekaria called tabling . It was off to the races, and Vekaria spiked an eight eliminating Palod in third place.

The heads-up play between Vekaria (9.8 Million) and Ankur Sehgal (4.3 Million) started with the former holding almost 70% of the chips in play. As has become customary at the DPT, the heads-up finalists were given a short break before the final leg of the play, and speaking to the DPT host Barney Trouble during this time, Sehgal said, “Now we have just reached the business end of the tournament. I definitely want to take it down, so I do have enough left in the tank, and it feels amazing. Hopefully, I can finish it and take it down”.

“It’s not unusual for the shorter stack to take the tournament down, it’s just a matter of a hand right,” Sehgal had confidently added.

His heads-up opponent Vekaria was equally confident. “I am feeling confident and good about it,” he had said. Talking about his strategy, Vekaria stated, “Put some pressure on him and pick some good spots, you know, to 3-bet and 4-bet”.

What followed was perhaps the shortest heads-up match in DPT history as all it took was one hand to decide the champion. Sehgal opened the action with and Vekaria 3-bet holding pocket nines. Sehgal decided to 4-bet jam his 40 big blind-stack, and Vekaria quickly made the call. The board ran and just like that Vekaria was declared the new DPT Main Event Champion!

Final Table Results (INR)

1. Rishabh Vekaria – ₹30,00,000
2. Ankur Sehgal – ₹21,00,000
3. Anup Palod – ₹13,80,000
4. Tarun Goyal – ₹9,30,000
5. Amit Tejura – ₹7,10,000
6. Samit Mehta – ₹5,80,000
7. Paawan Bansal – ₹5,00,000
8. Siddarth Singhvi – ₹4,00,000
9. Anmol Chawla – ₹3,00,000

Watch the final table live stream below.

Content & Images Courtesy: Online Poker News India & Adda52 live streaming