Day 3 action is underway here at the National Poker Champion showdown in Goa! Saahib Bawa, representing Delhi, came into today knowing he needed a massive performance to climb back from the bottom of the leaderboard and have a shot at the finale. He’s certainly gotten the kind of start he was looking for in this critical Match 5!

Here’s how it went down: Saahib Bawa opened the action from the cutoff seat, making it 500 (2.5 BBs) holding . He got a crowd, with three players calling: Sreekanth Narayan on the button (), Anish Vijayvergiya in the small blind (), and Goonjan Mall completing from the big blind ().

Four players saw the flop arrive . Bawa hit bottom set, while Mall connected with top pair. Action checked around to Bawa, who put out a small continuation bet of 500. Narayan and Vijayvergiya got out of the way, but Mall made the call with his top pair.

The turn brought the . Mall checked again. Bawa decided to apply more pressure now, betting 4,500. Mall considered it and made the call once more.

The river was the . Mall checked for a third time. Bawa fired again, betting 8,000 for value with his set. Mall thought it over for a little while before deciding to look him up. Bawa tabled his set of threes, and it was good enough to win a nice early pot!

That’s a great beginning for the Delhi champion, who started the day needing a near-miracle. This pot boosts him right up the chip counts early in Match 5!

Chip Counts
Saahib Bawa – 65,600
Goonjan Mall – 35,900