The India Poker Series held its second tournament in Goa between the 16th and 18th of July @ Casino Royale Goa. Card Player India brings you a report.
July is usually a very dull period for Goa tourism. However, on Friday 16th July 2010, Goa hotels saw a new set of faces, similarly the casinos saw the same new faces at their gates. It was the first day of the three day poker carnival which is called India Poker Series. India Poker Series is a series of poker tournaments organized by Ways2Events of Kolkata run by its director Bharat Agarwalla. Till now two chapters have been held, one being in April 2010 and other being in July 2010 and both were at Casino Royale Goa.
This flurry of activity continued for 3 days only to end on Monday 19th of July 2010. The unrelenting rain kept disrupting flights and schedules but didn't deter the participants as after the grand success of Chapter 1 which was held in April 2010, the participants were enthusiastic to participate in India’s most popular Poker Tournament. The participants had come from every nook and corner of the country. To name a few, Gangtok in the extreme east of the country, small towns like Bhuj, Jabalpur, Indore, Manipal, Coimbatore, Kochi and also a relatively less heard of Panchkula which is in Haryana. The larger towns which were represented were Kolkata, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Surat, Nagpur, Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, Mangalore, Mysore, Hyderabad, Chennai etc. There were those who opted to drive down from Bangalore and Pune to enjoy the scenic view rather than to fly down. Couple of participants were from Dubai as well.
The jetty of Casino Royale Goa was full of participants keen to go on board the “ship” so that they can complete their registration for the much awaited tournament India Poker Series. The tournament hall saw record number of participants, this was in spite of the rain. The rains continued to lash the costal state for next 2 days as well and this resulted in a lower turnout than expected but for the said low season this was also excellent.
The brief statistics are:-
Day 1 - 16th July 2010 – Rs. 5,000 Buy-in Tourney - 106 Participants
Day 2 - 17th July 2010 – Rs. 10,000 Buy-in Tourney - 67 Participants
Day 3 - 18th July 2010 – Rs. 15,000 Buy-in Tourney - 40 Participants
A summary report of the event:
106 Participants on Day 1 which was the 5K entry. Event lasted about eight and half hours which was healthy. The participants were very happy with the structure and the organisation. 9 places were awarded the prizes. The top three places were taken by Y J Kim – Rs 1,66,000, A Agarwal – Rs 1,00,000 and Rahul Guha – 65,000.
67 Participants on Day 2 which was the 10K entry. Rain since previous day has disrupted the flow of participants. Event lasted eight hours which was again healthy and competitive. Participants were enthusiastic and excited till the end. 9 places were awarded the prizes. It was the most competitive final table ever witnessed with all the 9 players being of high experience and quality play. The top three places were taken by Rajiv Motwani (popularly known as Rocky) - Rs 2,25,000, Rajesh Goyal (has played International tournaments as well) - Rs 1,28,000, and Shashikant Koya (popularly called Cobra) - Rs 85,000. Rajesh has missed the top place at the IPS twice and stood 2nd both the times. He is yet to get top place at any IPS event.
40 Participants on Day 3 which was the 15K entry. The final table ended after 8 hours of fantastic poker. The top 5 places were awarded and the top 3 were taken by Shashikant Koya, Prabhat Saini and Mac. They got Rs 2,25,000, Rs 1,40,000 and Rs 80,000 respectively.
The event was a super success, thanks to the participation of people from all over the country and the efforts put in by Phil Sanders, Craig Wildman and Casino Royale Goa. Phil and Craig have been instrumental in getting poker to the floating Casinos of Goa. Phil, himself a top rated poker player and a UK citizen handled the poker room at one of the leading Casinos of Goa from mid 2009 till March 2010 before moving on to Casino Royale in April 2010. Craig has always been part of Phil’s team. He is also an excellent poker player having played the WSOP as well and is also a UK citizen. He has been our Tournament Director in all our past events and it can easily be said that today, he is the best Tournament Director in India. His handling of the mike and leading his team to ensure that the IPS participants get maximum satisfaction out of the tournament.
The IPS (India Poker Series) promises an even more exciting tournament next time thansk to an easier online enrollment procedure and other improvements for their October event.
Information courtesy: India Poker Series
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