Puneet Dua Takes Down Baazi Poker Tour 25K Main Event For ₹10 Lakhs, Gaurav Mittal Wins 15K Bounty

Concluding its four-day sojourn yesterday, the Baazi Poker Tour (BPT) found its first Main Event champion in Puneet Dua (cover image), who took home a winning prize of ₹10 Lakhs, with runner-up Sameer Tavanandi making ₹8.5 Lakhs, after a four-way deal.

In the final event i.e. the 15K Bounty, it was Gaurav Mittal who came out on top, taking home ₹ 2.7 Lakhs after a deal between the last three players. Once again, the second place winner, in this case Krishna, collected a higher amount of ₹3.7 Lakhs and third place finisher R Sridhar also made ₹2.7 Lakhs, the same as the winner.

The BPT proved that the poker boom of the past year is flourishing well into 2016. The inaugural series by PokerBaazi came in as a much-welcomed event for domestic players looking for a good platform for live tournaments. Additionally, it gave several new players a chance to shine in the spotlights, as most of the old pro order are currently busy in Las Vegas at the 2016 World series of Poker (WSOP).

₹25K Main Event – Day 2

Day 2 of the Main Event began at 3pm with Nikita Luther in the top seat with 323,800, leading the 40 survivors.

Among the early eliminations were Arvind and Tarun Goyal, with action at a fast pace. In less than two hours the bubble was reached leaving the rest in the money and the first ITM finisher was Ujjwal Rana, who took home ₹50,000 for a 24^th place finish.

After almost five hours a final table of nine was formed with the elimination of Rashid at 10^th place for ₹1 Lakh.

Rashid

Sumanth

The board with kept Sumanth in the lead and Rashid hit the rails.

Rajat Sharma who was playing an aggressive game throughout was the first final table casualty exiting at ninth place, followed by start-of-day chip leader Nikita Luther at eighth place.

Abhishek Jalan, Sumanth, and Revanth were then all eliminated within minutes of each other, at seventh, sixth and fifth place, respectively.

A deal was struck at four-handed play with the prize money rearranged –

Four-way Deal

1^st – 10 Lakhs

2^nd – 8.5 Lakhs

3^rd – 7.5 Lakhs

4^th – 6.5 Lakhs

Thereafter, Sameer Tavanandi took back-to-back eliminations, railing Ankush Agarwala at fourth place and Simon Mint at third place.

Heads up action saw Sameer Tavanandi start with 2 million in chips versus Puneet Dua`s 2.2 million. The match lasted almost an hour until Dua got lucky.

Dua was finally dealt , the first time he got pocket aces in the event. As luck would have it, Tavanandi also picked up a premium hand in and it didn`t take long for all the chips to go in the middle. Dua`s aces held on the board and he collected the title and a cash prize of ₹10 lakhs. Tavanandi made a runner-up finish for ₹ 8.5 lakhs.

Final Table Results

1. Puneet Dua – ₹10,00,000
2. Sameer Tavanandi – ₹8,50,000
3. Simon Mint – ₹7,50,000
4. Ankush Agarwala – ₹6,50,000
5. Revanth – ₹3,40,000
6. Sumanth – ₹2,60,000
7. Abhishek Jalan – ₹2,00,000
8. Nikita Luther – ₹1,55,000
9. Rajat Sharma – ₹1,25,000

₹15K Bounty

175 runners signed on for the ₹15K Bounty event generating a prize pool of ₹17.8 Lakhs with the top 18 finishers making the money.

The bubble burst on Apaar Gautam, who held against Nadeem Basha’s with the board bringing forth .

Basha found his tournament life cut short at 10^th place and a final table of nine continued for another four hours.

Krishna SM began the eliminations, first busting Vineet Kumar at ninth place followed by Kartik Ved at sixth.

Haresh Kukreja`s deep run in the tournament was over in fifth place and after Abhishek Kumar was railed at fourth place, the remaining three players struck a deal –

R Sridhar – 2.7 Lakhs

Krishan SM – 3.7 Lakhs

Gaurav Mittal – 2.7 Lakhs

Within ten minutes, Krishna SM eliminated R Sridhar at third place, setting up the heads up match.

An hour into heads-up play, the final hand arrived.

Krishna SM

Gaurav Mittal

The board rolled out , clinching the title for Mittal.

Final Table Results

1. Gaurav Mittal – ₹4,80,000
2. Krishna SM – ₹3,00,000
3. R Sridhar – ₹2,15,000
4. Abhishek Kumar – ₹1,60,000
5. Haresh Kukreja – ₹1,15,000
6. Kartik Ved – ₹90,000
7. Dinesh Kumar – ₹ 70,000
8. Rakesh Sharma – ₹55,000
9. Vineet Kumar – ₹45,000