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The biggest event of the India Poker Championship (IPC) January 2020 edition was undoubtedly the ₹50K Main Event. There was a lot of anticipation around this event, and the turnouts didn’t disappoint. The Main Event logged in an impressive 693 entries (Day 1A – 360 and Day 1B – 330) to collect a ginormous prize pool of ₹3.36 Crores! While the Main Event failed to beat its predecessor’s record of 777 entries, with an increased buy-in of ₹50,000, the event was able to comfortably surpass last edition’s Main Event prize pool collection of ₹2.65 Crores.
Grabbing the most significant share of the prize pool kitty was Rubin Labroo (cover image), who banked a mouth-watering ₹61.80 Lakhs, along with the honor of becoming the ‘India Poker Champion’! A beast on the online felts, Labroo proved that he is equally good on the live felts with this thrilling win. He had entered the final table as the chip leader and kept his nerves all through the swingy final table play to grab the title!
Labroo was fearless in his play, and he eliminated Alexandr Moiseev, Pradeep Sharma, Alok Birewar and eventual runner-up Siddharth Mundada on the final table to win the Main Event title! Along with his cash winnings, Labroo also bagged a one-year sponsorship deal worth a whopping ₹20 Lakhs from Spartan Poker, along with a gorgeous engraved limited-edition Panerai watch worth over ₹5 Lakhs!
PokerGuru caught up with the 31-year-old champion, who sharing his elation on winning the IPC Main Event trophy, said, “It’s amazing! I’ve been trophy-hunting for a while now. My last trophy was in April 2017, in the DPT. So, it was long back. And I came second in the WPT Vietnam Kick Off. And I’ve final tabled here and there, but nothing converted.”
Talking about his final table strategy, Labroo said, “I did come in with the chip lead, but I came in with a different strategy, and I had to change it cause people were playing differently. I had to adjust in every situation, so no specific strategy.”
The Delhi-based pro revealed that he was actually planning to skip the IPC, but was convinced by his friends to stay. He said, “I was actually planning to skip IPC. I had come for BPT and had booked my flights to go back. But I’m so glad that people convinced me to stay!”
The runner-up Siddharth Mundada also deserves special mention. He has been in stellar form throughout the series. He started out on a high note and looked poised to take down the ₹10K Kick Off event for a second consecutive time, but ultimately finished runner-up to Vinod Megalmani, bagging a second-place payout worth ₹4.73 Lakhs. He played spectacularly to reach the heads-up against Labroo; however, the latter had a commanding 4:1 chip lead against Mundada, which the 2019 IPC 10K Kick Off champion failed to overcome. Nevertheless, he took home an equally impressive payday of ₹43.33 Lakhs.
Catch the live stream of the Main Event Final table right here.
Day 2 Recap
Alok Birewar headlined 130 players who returned for Day 2 (Day 1 – 74, Day 1B – 58, 2 players bagged twice). With the top 86 runners slated to receive payouts, the race to the money line was intense.
Among the known names who hit the rail short of the money were the likes of Abhishek Goindi, Armaan Kochhar, Sajal Gupta, and Pranav Somani, as well as PokerGuru Ambassadors Ashish Ahuja and Gokul Raj.
Sambhav Raj became the unfortunate stone bubble of the Main Event when his were bested by Young Gun Ujjwal Narwal‘s .
Following Raj’s exit, the first player to cash the Main Event was Savvy Ranchal (86th for ₹82,700).
Seventy-seven more eliminations took place before the nine-handed final table was formed.
The notables who finished in the money included Phanindra Akkina (14th for ₹4.10 Lakhs), Sarala Ramakrishna (15th for ₹4.10 Lakhs), Television personality Chetan Hansraj (16th for ₹3.40 Lakhs), Akanksha Singh (22nd for ₹2.35 Lakhs), PokerGuru Staking’s Vikram Kumar (23rd for ₹2.35 Lakhs), Harsh Dembla (25th for ₹1.99 Lakhs), Jasven Saigal (26th for ₹1.99 Lakhs), BPT January 2020 Main Event champion Gautam Sachdeva (27th for ₹1.99 Lakhs), Chirag Sodha (30th for ₹1.62 Lakhs), Kunal Patni (38th for ₹1.42 Lakhs), Goonjan Mall (41st for ₹1.42 Lakhs) and defending champion Raj Talwar (47th for ₹1.26 Lakhs), along with PokerGuru Ambassadors Madhav Gupta (13th for ₹4.10 Lakhs), Rohit Mishra (31st for ₹1.62 Lakhs), Faiz Alam (33rd for ₹1.62 Lakhs), Laksh Pal Singh (40th for ₹1.42 Lakhs) and Jayjit Ray (42nd for ₹1.42 Lakhs).
Young Gun Ujjwal Narwal bubbled the final table, finishing 10th for ₹5.12 Lakhs.
Final Table Chip Counts
1. Rubin Labroo – 3,560,000
2. Jagdeep Singh – 3,100,000
3. Pradeep Sharma – 2,770,000
4. Siddharth Mundada – 2,760,000
5. Alexandr Moiseev – 2,525,000
6. Alok Birewar – 1,550,000
7. Manish Gandhi – 1,495,000
8. Abhishek Katiyar – 1,470,000
9. Mubeen Saudagar – 1,445,000
Final Table Recap
One of the shortest stacks on the final table, Abhishek Katiyar, was the first player to be eliminated in an epic three-way showdown. Down to his last 2 BBs, Katiyar moved all-in from UTG+1, after Manish Gandhi raised it to 160K from UTG. Well-known comedian Mubeen Saudagar and Alexandr Moiseev called from the hijack and cutoff, respectively. Pradeep Sharma called from the big blind for 80K, and the flop came . Sharma, Gandhi, Saudagar, and Moiseev checked down the turn . Sharma checked. Gandhi led out for 200K. Saudagar called, while Moiseev and Sharma got out of the way. On the river , Gandhi fired a bet of 300K. Saudagar called.
Manish Gandhi
Mubeen Saudagar
Abhishek Katiyar
Gandhi and Saudagar chopped the pot, eliminating Katiyar in ninth place.
The sole international player on the final table, Alexandr Moiseev, was the next player to depart. Labroo raised to 210K from UTG. Jagdeep Singh called from the cutoff. Moiseev called for 160K from the small blind to see the flop open . Moiseev, Labroo, and Singh checked down the turn . Moiseev checked again, and Labroo fired a bet of 350K. Singh tank-folded. Moiseev also tanked for a while before deciding to move all-in for 1.2 Million. Labroo called, tabling , while Moiseev turned over . The river was of no help to the Russian, who walked out in eighth place.
After losing a big pot to Singh, Manish Gandhi was left with just 2 BBs. In the very next hand, he was automatically all-in from the big blind. Labroo called for 120K from the button, and Sharma called for 60K from the small blind. The flop fell , and Labroo and Sharma checked through the turn and . Sharma won the pot with a turned pair of deuces, dismissing Gandhi in seventh place.
With 2 BBs left, Mubeen Saudagar was involved in a three-way pot. He moved all-in from UTG for 525K with , Pradeep Sharm called from the button with . Jagdeep Singh shoved over the top for 3.7 Million from the big blind, holding . Sharma called, risking his tournament life.
Mubeen Saudagar
Pradeep Sharma
Jagdeep Singh
The rundown brought and Sharma’s pocket tens held, sending Saudagar to the rail in sixth place.
Jagdeep Singh lost a chunk of his stack in the three-way pot that led to Saudagar’s elimination. He did manage to double up against Sharma, but in the end, it was too little too late, and on the very next hand, he was eliminated. Singh jammed for 1.8 Million from the cutoff and Sharma snap-called from the big blind.
Jagdeep Singh
Pradeep Sharma
Singh was a 63% favorite to take down the pot pre-flop; however, the runout saw Sharma river a two pair, eliminating the former in fifth place.
Next to go was Pradeep Sharma. Labroo limped from the small blind, and Sharma checked his big blind. The flop fell and Labroo led out for 250K. Sharma shoved all-in for 3.6 Million, and Labroo promptly called, showing for a flopped three-of-a-kind kings. Sharma turned over and needed help on the remaining two streets to stay alive in the competition. The turn and river blanked for Sharma, eliminating him in fourth place.
Finishing in third place was Alok Birewar. Labroo jammed from the button for 10 Million, and Birewar called from the small blind, putting his tournament life at risk. Mundada got out of the way and the board revealed . Birewar’s failed to catch up to Labroo’s which hit a flush on the turn.
Birewar’s exit set up the heads-up between Rubin Labroo (16,850,000) and Siddharth Mundada (3,825,000). The former had an overwhelming chip lead, and, in the end, it was too much for Mundada to overcome. It was a fairly short-lived heads-up that saw Labroo walk away with the title!
On the final hand, Mundada moved all-in from the button for 2.8 Million with , and Labroo called with from the big blind. The board missed both players. Labroo’s pocket nines sealed the deal, relegating Mundada to the runner-up spot. Labroo claimed not only the title and top prize of ₹61.80 Lakhs, but also the bragging right of becoming ‘India Poker Champion’!
Final Table Results (INR)
1. Rubin Labroo – ₹61,80,000
2. Siddharth Mundada – ₹43,33,900
3. Alok Birewar – ₹27,94,400
4. Pradeep Sharma – ₹20,46,900
5. Jagdeep Singh – ₹15,64,600
6. Mubeen Saudagar – ₹12,48,600
7. Manish Gandhi – ₹10,34,200
8. Alexandr Moiseev – ₹8,23,100
9. Abhishek Katiyar – ₹6,18,100
Read our complete coverage of the event here.
For a complete list of payouts, click here.
Keep following PokerGuru for all the latest updates from the IPC January 2020!