TIPS Winter Edition: India’s Satyam Surendra Misses the Title in Poker Classic 1 By a Whisker, Finishes Runner-up to Israel’s Binyamin Hota

Action has undoubtedly picked up at the second edition of The Indian Poker Series (TIPS), i.e., TIPS Winter Edition. Even as the Main Event was wrapping up the last of its three starting flights, the TIPS Poker Classic 1 kept the lights on at King’s Casino for the better part of the evening on March 8.

The Poker Classic 1 attracted 190 entrants (includes 41 re-entries) and saw strong participation from the Indian camp. Headlining the Indian challengers at the event was Satyam Surendra who put up a tough fight for the title eventually conceding the title to Israel’s Binyamin Hota in the heads-up play. Hota won the event for €3,464 (₹2.72 Lakhs) while Surendra pocketed €2,361(₹1.85 Lakhs) for his runner-up finish.

“Winning and losing are the part of any game but I’m really happy to finish runner-up and get a decent score here,” Surendra said, after the event.

Primarily an online player, this was the first live tournament for Surendra. It was also his biggest poker score till date. “I was pretty much playing my standard game but I had a few bad beats and I was down to three big blinds. But I tried to keep my cool, thanks to my friend Abhigya (Sagar) who kept motivating me during the breaks and kept railing me. So, I just tried to focus on giving the right decisions.”

Surendra recalled a vital hand. “There was this hand where I had ace-six suited and I jammed with three big blinds and the opponent called with jacks. I hit the ace on the flop and I got a double-up. After that I pretty much never looked back and was able to chip up. There was a lot of aggression going on my table and I just made some good calls. I reached the final table with good stacks, I was running second out of nine finalists.

Surendra also happens to be one among six Indians who have made it through to Day 2 of the Main Event on Day 1A. He carries forward a stack of 2,12,000. “My strategy for the Main Event will be to keep my cool and not to make a lot of mistakes. I’ll be playing a solid game and I hope to bring the title home!”

Himanshu Dewan, who won his way into TIPS through an online qualifier on PokerBaazi, already has one final table finish at the event in the Welcome Event (3^rd for €2,052 -₹1.62 Lakhs) and he made another deep run yesterday. Dewan managed to enter the final table, his second at the stop, and took ninth place for €347 (₹27,299).

Another Indian challenger who was seen at the event was Tarun Goyal. Goyal, however, hit the rail before the money bubble. In a three-way pot, Goyal’s pocket tens were up against pocket queens and ace-king. A third queen on the river saw his opponent hit three-of-a-kind to win the pot, while the second opponent took the side pot and Goyal was relegated to the rail.

Healthy participation numbers on a buy-in of €90 (₹7,080) ensured a sizeable €14,440 (₹11,36,037) prize pool collection. The top 20 places were paid with a min-cash good for €188 (₹14,790).

Pit Federspiel was the first player to make it in the money, and like the Welcome Event, the field in this event too was dominated by Israeli players.

Final Table Recap

Indian challenger Himanshu Dewan was the first casualty on the final table and bowed out in ninth place.

Boris Basin and Or Ofek were seen heading out next, in eighth and seventh place respectively.

The only Indian left standing in the field, Surendra kept up the aggression sending several of his final table opponents to the rail. “I was showing a lot of aggression on the final table. I was stealing a lot of blinds and there were a few short stacks on my tables whom I busted,” Surendra recalled later.

Sinan Acabuga got eliminated in sixth place, with ‘Donald Duck’, Simon Christian Ritter and TONI-777’ falling out after him in quick succession.

The heads-up play came down to Binyamin Hota and India’s Satyam Surendra. Surendra maintained his aggression but got unlucky in two back-to-back hands. In the first hand he shoved with ace-jack suited and Hota called with five-eight. With the flop bringing two more eights, Hota collected the pot and surged ahead. In the next hand, Surendra jammed all in with ace-king, prompting Hota who held ace-four to call. Surendra was in the lead but the board opened two fours, and Hota hit a winning set to leave Surendra with crumbs.

“The final hand was quite interesting. I had ace-king and had initially limped. Hota opened with 3X and then I jammed. He called with ace-four and then there was a four on the flop and I thought I was losing. Then a king appeared on the turn and I thought I was winning. But then the river opened a four and I finally lost,” recalled Surendra on the final hand, that saw him conceding the title to Hota while finishing second himself.

Final Table Results (EURO)

1. Binyamin Hota – €3, 464
2. Satyam Surendra – €2,361
3. ‘TONI-777’ – €1,560
4. Simon Christian Ritter – €1,285
5. ‘Donald Duck’ – €1,032
6. Sinan Acabuga – €809
7. Or Ofek – €606
8. Boris Basin – €448
9. Himanshu Dewan – €347

TIPS & KENTA Main Event- Day 1A-1C Recap

In the meantime, three flights of the TIPS and KENTA Main Event are now in the books. A total of 603 entries have come in till now, and 139 among them have advanced to Day 2, including 13 Indians.

Winner of the TIPS Turbo Noon Freezeout Jayant Yewale (4,72,000) leads the Indian lot, followed by Ankit Kapoor (3,09,000) and Gaurav Gupta (2,63,000). Yewale and Gupta made it from Day 1B while Kapoor advanced from Day 1C.

We also saw two Team PokerGuru ambassadors Arjanveer Singh Chadha and Ashish Ahuja (2,18,000) making it through Day 1C.

Indians Advancing from Day 1A, 1B & 1C

Day 1D of the Main Event is currently underway and will be followed by the Day 1E, while Sunday will see the last starting flight for the Main Event, i.e. Day 1F play out. This is a Turbo flight and right as it gets over, Day 2 of the Main Event will kick off.

Also on the tap for Sunday are the TIPS Deepstack Highroller and the TIPS NLH Bounty.

Content & Images Courtesy: TIPS

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