IPC: Alok Birewar Bags the Most Massive Stack Among 74 Survivors on Main Event Day 1A

It was an action-packed day at the India Poker Championship (IPC) January 2020 edition. While the ₹100K High Roller crowned a champion in Anmol Srivats for ₹39.37 Lakhs, Day 1A of the ₹50K Main Event pulled in a packed field of 360 entries.

Only 74 players made it through to Day 2, and headlining the survivors was Alok Birewar with a massive stack of 460,000. A renowned name in the domestic circuit, Birewar’s most acclaimed performances came when he shipped the ₹25K Big Bounty at the 2018 WPT India and the ₹65K Adda52 High Roller at the 2018 DPT February edition.

Hot on Birewar’s heels is Goonjan Mall with a stack of 375,000. Mall jumped into the Main Event action after bubbling the final table of the High Roller and will be a player to watch out for on Day 2. Akanksha Singh bagged 366,000 chips, rounding out the top three stacks.

Last edition’s record-shattering ₹35K Main Event had logged in 30 more entries, i.e., a total of 390 entries, on Day 1A. This edition’s Main Event, which features a slightly higher buy-in of ₹50,000, did quite well in attracting 360 entries. Almost 300 more entries are required to meet the enormous guarantee of ₹3.25 Crores, but the event seems well poised to comfortably cross its advertised guarantee. In fact, it may even surpass the prize pool record of ₹3.62 Crores set at the 2018 WPT Main Event!

Other notable names who qualified for Day 2 featured the likes of BPT January 2020 Main Event champion Gautam Sachdeva (329,000), Anish Patra (277,000), Sahil Mahboobani (275,000), Chirag Sodha (254,000), Jasven Saigal (215,000), Siddarth Singhvi (190,000), Kanchan Sharma (142,000), Siddharth Mundada (131,000), Deepak Bothra (130,000), Samay Parikh (129,000) and Anita Hassanandani Reddy (120,000), along with PokerGuru Ambassadors Jayjit Ray (259,000), Mithun Mahesh (177,000), Ashish Ahuja (103,000) and Ankit Wadhawan (76,000).

Defending champion Raj Talwar has also made it through to Day 2 with a below-average stack of 73,000. He will be looking to repeat his historic win from last year but will need to get things moving fast on Day 2.

Day 1B, which was earlier slated to begin at 3 PM on January 18, has been delayed by an hour and will now kick-off at 4 PM instead. All those who failed to advance from Day 1A can try their luck on Day 1B. Multiple re-entries are allowed until the end of late registration, before the start of Level 9.

Top 10 Chip Counts at the End of Day 1A

1. Alok Birewar – 460,000

2. Goonjan Mall – 375,000

3. Akanksha Singh – 366,000

4. Gautam Sachdeva – 329,000

5. Jay M Pandya – 328,000

6. Kamal Naruka – 289,000

7. Anish Patra – 277,000

8. Sahil Mahboobani – 275,000

9. Jayjit Ray – 259,000

10. Ghanshyam Tripathi – 258,000

For the complete end of Day 1A chip counts click here.

Read our complete coverage of the event here.

Keep following PokerGuru for more exciting updates from the IPC January 2020!