The closing day at the Baazi Poker Tour (BPT) January 2020 edition was an action-packed affair. Running alongside the final table of the ₹35K Main Event was the ₹25K MegaStack ₹50 Lakhs GTD that began Day 2 proceedings with 15 returning players from a starting field of 223 entries. MTT specialist Devang Yadav who’d come into the final day in pole position, rode his chip advantage all the way to victory! Along with the trophy, the young Noida-based player earned a top prize of ₹12.65 Lakhs for his win.

This is the second title for Yadav in under a week. He had only a few days back championed the BPT Online High Roller for ₹12.6 Lakhs. “I had the final table chip lead in the BPTO High Roller and ended up shipping it. At the BPT Live, I had fired a couple of bullets in the Main Event, one bullet in High Roller. Everything was covered in satellite winnings,” Yadav said after the event got over.

“Feels great! Feels great to finally get my second trophy. Two titles in a week…insane! My mother is so happy for me, my young brother is so happy,” he added.

We inquired about his poker journey so far, to which he said, “I used to grind cash games at the stakes of 50/100, 100/200 for a year. From the last two years I have moved to MTT. I have had good people around me – Akshay Nasa, Sajal Gupta, Sahil Chuttani, Raghav Bansal. They have been my mentors.”

The MTT specialist is now planning to move to Goa in a couple of months. “So the live scene in India is on an up. You end up having approximately two to three live series within a gap of a few months. Yeah, I’m looking forward to play live more. It gives the feel, gives the chills!”

Yadav’s heads-up clash was with Sanchit Pande, and he was comfortably ahead at the start with a stack of 3.945 Million to Pande’s 1.63 Million. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for Yadav to take it down. For Pande, a runner-up finish translated into a ₹8.87 Lakhs payday.

The MegaStack garnered a total of 223 entries, comfortably smashing its advertised guarantee to collect ₹52.40 Lakhs in prize money.

The bubble burst towards the latter part of the day on Day 1, with Manish Lakhotia hitting the rail in 25th place. Lakhotia’s departure assured the remaining 24 players at least ₹50,300.

Among the notable ITM finishers were notables like Alok Birewar (16th for ₹64,500), PokerGuru Ambassador Naresh Veeravalli (17th for ₹64,500), Vaibhav Khurana (18th for ₹64,500), Jyoti Ranjan Nayak (19th for ₹56,600), Sriharsha Doddapaneni (21st for ₹56,600), Eka Vedantham (22nd for ₹50,300), Abhishek Rathod (23rd for ₹50,300) and Santosh Suvarna (24th for ₹50,300).

Only 15 players came back to play Day 2, where Raghav Bansal (15th for ₹76,000) was the first elimination of the day. Following him out were others like Bhanu Prakash (13th for ₹76,000), Sahil Mahboobani (14th for ₹76,000), PokerGuru Ambassador Vivek Singh (12th for ₹92,200), Yuvraj Choudhary (11th for ₹92,200) and Haider Madraswala (10th for ₹92,200).

Jairam Parab (9th for ₹1.26 Lakhs) bubbled the final table.

When the final table was redrawn, Yadav was still commanding a massive chip lead and was the only player sitting with a million-plus stack of 1,667,000.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Devang Yadav – 1,667,000
2. Sanchit Pande – 685,000
3. Vivek Rughani – 870,000
4. Harsh Bubna – 540,000
5. Apoorva Goel – 575,000
6. Arjun Pasricha – 480,000
7. Vishal Bajaj – 455,000
8. Kavish Kukreja – 280,000

Final Table Recap

The final table saw its first elimination within the first 30 minutes of play. Kavish Kukreja had carried the shortest stack among the final eight players and was unable to spin it up. Kukreja’s last hand in the tournament saw him jam 175K from the UTG. Vivek Rughani called from the cutoff, and PokerGuru Ambassador Vishal Bajaj moved all-in over the top for 355K. Rughani called. Kukreja tabled pocket sixes against Rughani’s pocket nines and Bajaj’s pocket tens. Bajaj was already ahead, and he rivered a straight to eliminate Kukreja in eighth place.

Less than 10 minutes later, Apoorva Goel crashed out in seventh place after his pocket jacks were cracked by Yadav’s straight.

The eliminations kept coming by quickly, and the next one to go was Vivek Rughani, who shoved his 10 big blind stack and found a caller in Arjun Pasricha. Rughani pitted his against Pasricha’s . Nothing on the board helped Rughani, and he hit the rail in sixth place.

The play slowed down for some time, and less than an hour later, Harsh Bubna was eliminated at the hands of Yadav. Bubna open-jammed 600K from the cutoff, and Yadav called from the big blind.

Harsh Bubna

Devang Yadav

The runout confirmed Bubna`s departure in fifth place.

Around 20 minutes later, PokerGuru Ambassador Vishal Bajaj moved all-in from the UTG with , and Sanchit Pande called from the button with . Bajaj paired his king on the runout , but Pande took down the pot with turned trips eliminating Bajaj in fourth place.

The three-handed play didn’t last long, and it was soon down to the heads-up after Arjun Pasricha made his way out. Yadav shoved on the button with and Pasricha, who held , called from the small blind putting his tournament life at risk. Though Pasricha was ahead on the [ flop and the turn, the river gave Yadav top pair, relegating the former to the rail.

Sanchit Pande entered the heads-up play with a stack of 1.63 Million against Yadav’s 3.945 Million.

Their one-on-one duel lasted only a few hands, and the final hand saw Pande open for 130K. Yadav made it 500K, and Pande called. Yadav bet 300K on the flop . Pande made it 800K, and Yadav jammed 2.325 Million. Pande tanked for some time before making the call.

Devang Yadav

Sanchit Pande

The and the river blanked out for Pande, and just like that, Yadav took down the BPT MegaStack title!

Final Table Results (INR)

1. Devang Yadav – ₹12,65,500
2. Sanchit Pande – ₹8,87,200
3. Arjun Pasricha – ₹5,70,200
4. Vishal Bajaj – ₹4,22,400
5. Harsh Bubna – ₹3,17,100
6. Vivek Rughani – ₹2,53,600
7. Apoorva Goel – ₹2,10,700
8. Kavish Kukreja – ₹1,68,700

Read our complete coverage of the event here.

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