IPC: Raghavendra Hada Takes Down Series-Ending ₹15K Head Hunter For ₹7.39 Lakhs!

Raghavendra Hada wins the 2019 IPC 15K Head Hunter
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  • Namita Ghosh September 16, 2019
  • 2 Minutes Read

The comeback series of the India Poker Championship (IPC) is now in the history books and what a series it turned out to be. The record-smashing series was hosted at the Spartan Live poker room onboard the Big Daddy Casino and managed to bring in massive player fields in all four events. Closing out the series in style was the ₹15,000 buy-in Head Hunter that kicked off at 6 PM on Sunday and saw Raghavendra Hada (cover image) coming out on top to win the title and ₹7.39 Lakhs – his first recorded live score.

The tournament gave many players who had been eliminated from the Main Event a final opportunity to win an IPC title. Once again a massive 348 entries joined the action – much higher than the 211 entries that were recorded at the last IPC ₹15K Bounty event in February 2016! It took nearly 11 hours for the whistle-stop tournament to crown a winner, and when the dust settled in the wee hours on Monday, it was Raghavendra Hada who was holding the trophy in his hands!

Hada, who has no prior record of live cashes to his name before today, had launched himself into the hallways of poker fame in spectacular fashion. He defeated well-known pro and one of our former Young Gun`s Arsh Grover heads-up to win the title. Grover, who had represented the Team Delhi Diehards in the GPL India Season 1 last year, entered the final table as the chip leader and eliminated three players on his way to the final showdown. Hada, however, kept his nerve and ultimately fought his way on top to take down the title. Grover collected ₹5.18 Lakhs for his runner-up finish.

Several notable players added to their bankrolls in the event, but a complete list of payouts is awaited and this article will be updated as the information comes in.

15K Head Hunter – Day 1 Recap

The ₹15,000 Head Hunter kicked off at 6 PM on Sunday and took all of 11 hours from start to finish. Big numbers joined the series-ending tournament early, and just 45 minutes into play, the field had 202 runners jostling over the felts, crushing the advertised ₹17.5 Lakhs prize pool guarantee.

By the time the late registration closed at the end of Level 8, a record-breaking 348- entry field had been formed, generating a tournament prize pool of ₹34.01 Lakhs – almost double the advertised guarantee.

As is the norm at bounty tournaments, Head Hunter featured two prize pools, with ₹10,000 of each player’s buy-in going into the tournament prize pool and ₹5,000 into the bounty prize pool. For every knockout that a player scored they won a band worth ₹5,000, and it was common sighting to see players sitting with multiple bands.

Among the early entrants were notable names like Goonjan Mall, Tanay Hargunaney, Deepak Bothra, Utsav Taneja, Dhawal Lachhwnai and Vikash Mantri.

A fast pace of eliminations ensured that the field was whittled down to 100 runners by the end of Level 8. The payouts were also announced at this point, and assured 40 finalists at worst a min-cash of ₹18,100 with a mouth-watering ₹7.39 Lakhs kept aside for the winner.

Though many couldn’t finish ITM, those who scored knockouts still went home happy with a payout.

Early on in Level 7, an interesting hand was dealt where three players moved all-in pre-flop, and all of them held an ace. The board brought three queens. Eventually Rakesh Sharma and Lawrence Sharma both of whom held an ace-seven split the pot with Kshitij Dhingra who held ace-four hitting the rail.

About an hour later, former Bollywood actress Minissha Lamba who had entered the Head Hunter after being eliminated from the Main Event found herself involved in a three-way all-in with Manoj Singh and Shane Hodges. Lamba had pocket tens, against Singh’s pocket eights and Hodges’ ace-six and took the pot down eliminating Hodges in the process.

Another prominent presence in the tournament was Sajjan Barnwal, who incidentally was celebrating his birthday yesterday. Barnwal seemed to be enjoying himself after going on a rampage and was seen sporting an astounding 11 bands in Level 17, one of his victims being Main Event Day 1B chip leader Sanat Mehrotra.

When the 10-handed final table was redrawn, Grover was in pole position with 1.1 Million with Devbrat Rout (955,000) a close second. Hada who was nowhere to be seen in the top 10 stacks when play was down to 13 players had suddenly climbed up the ranks and carried the third largest stack of 706,000 coming into the final table.

The IPC ₹15K Head Hunter final table
The IPC ₹15K Head Hunter final table

Final Table Chip Counts

  1. Arsh Grover – 1,100,000
  2. Devbrat Rout – 955,000
  3. Raghavendra Hada – 706,000
  4. Rachit Parihar – 450,000
  5. Meet Jariwala – 425,000
  6. Astad Randheria – 340,000
  7. Ghanshyam Tripathi – 340,000
  8. Abhishek Mazumder – 325,000
  9. Vipul Tiwari – 165,000
  10. Manoj Singh -140,000

 

Final Table Recap

The first few eliminations came by quickly on the final table, and it was Astad Randheria who hit the rail in 10th place after running pocket jacks into Hada’s pocket aces.

Next up, Vipul Tiwari found his pocket sevens cracked by Abhishek Mazumder’s ace-queen in a pre-flop all-in situation where Mazumder rivered an ace to eliminate Tiwari in ninth place.

Within the next 20 minutes, Meet Jariwala was relegated to the rail in eighth place.

Soon, Abhishek Mazumder moved all-in for 45,000 and was called by Grover who turned out against Mazumder’s . The board gave Grover a set, sending Mazumder out in seventh place.

Grover then scored another knockout on the final table, his next victim being Ghanshyam Tripathi who pitted his versus Grover’s . Grover hit a straight on the runout, beating Tripathi’s set of queens – packing him off in sixth place.

Grover who had entered the final table as the chip leader continued his hot run by dismissing Manoj Singh next, in fifth place. Singh had shoved all-in with his remaining 550,000 and was Grover made the call turning over pocket aces against Singh’s king-ten. Failing to connect to the board, Singh was booted out in fifth place.

Meanwhile, Hada who was steadily climbing up in chips then tangled with Devbrat Rout who moved all-in with 500,000. Hada called it off with pocket tens. Rout tabled pocket treys and needed a miracle, but no help was forthcoming and with that, he was eliminated in fourth place.

Down to three-handed play, it took another 40 minutes for the next elimination and this time it was Rachit Parihar`s turn to depart. Parihar’s final hand saw him moving all-in for 110,000 pre-flop and Hada re-raised. Grover got out of the way, and Parihar tabled pocket versus Hada’s . Hada paired his ace on the flop forcing Parihar in the corner. The turn and the river kept Hada ahead, while Parihar was sent packing in third place.

Two back-to-back eliminations had helped Hada climb up to 2.87 Million, and he went heads-up with Arsh Grover who was slightly behind with 2.35 Million. Just one hand into the heads-up play and it was all over! Hada moved all-in with and Grover called with . The board ran , and Hada’s rivered pair of jacks won him the pot as well as the title!

Raghavendra Hada wins IPC ₹15K Head Hunter
Raghavendra Hada wins IPC ₹15K Head Hunter

Final Table Results

  1. Raghavendra Hada – ₹7,39,000
  2. Arsh Grover – ₹5,18,200
  3. Rachit Parihar – ₹3,33,300
  4. Devbrat Rout – ₹2,11,300
  5. Manoj Singh – ₹1,63,100
  6. Ghanshyam Tripathi – ₹1,35,000
  7. Abhishek Mazumder – ₹1,13,400
  8. Meet Jariwala – 93,200
  9. Vipul Tiwari – ₹73,900
  10. Astad Randheria – ₹62,300

Content & Images Courtesy: Gutshot Magazine & India Poker Championship

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