My Top 5 Hands in the IPC ₹100K High Roller – Pranay Chawla

My Top 5 Hands - Pranay Chawla
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  • Attreyee Khasnabis September 29, 2019
  • 5 Minutes Read

The India Poker Championship (IPC) comeback series was the stuff of legends with almost all events shattering records. While the ₹35K Main Event registered the biggest-ever field of 777 entries, eventually crowning a champion in Raj Talwar, it was the ₹100K High Roller that awarded the most significant top prize of ₹51.66 Lakhs at the stop. This massive prize was collected by Noida-based Pranay Chawla.

This is a follow-up feature to an interview piece we did with Chawla after his win. Here we take a closer look at the top five hands of Chawla at the event which, according to him, played an essential role in his High Roller journey.

 

Hand 1

Pranay: “First hand was on Day 1. I opened from the button, Sreekanth Narayan defended the big blind. The flop came 10-5-6 two clubs, and I got check-raised after betting small. I called. The turn was another 6, he bet around 80% pot, I called again. The river was a and went check-check. He mucked and K high was good. I had noticed Sreekanth was not afraid of pulling the trigger, and I was beating all his missed draws. I had just made my way back up down to the starting stack before this hand, and this was a hand that gave me a lot of confidence.”

Analysis: In a deep structured tournament like the ₹100K High Roller, the gameplay early on tends to get loose aggressive at times. Pranay had come down below the starting stack when he got dealt king-queen on the button. He opens, and Sreekanth Narayan defends his big blind (this tournament followed a big blind ante format). Sreekanth pulls off a check-raise on the flop 10-5-6 (two clubs) representing strength and Pranay calls. The turn pairs the board and here Sreekanth bets around 80% of the pot – Pranay calls again putting his opponent at a draw – chances of Sreekanth holding an overpair or even a set (that would give him a full house) here were slim – also hands like or didn’t seem likely given the preflop action. The river is another . The action goes check-check, and Pranay takes down the pot with King-high.

Verdict: Sreekanth most likely missed his flush draw, and Pranay read it correctly to win the pot. This early pot gave Pranay some much-needed confidence.

Sreekanth Narayan
Sreekanth Narayan

Hand 2

Pranay: “With 15 left on Day 2 and already in the money, the cutoff opened 2.5x, I flatted from the small blind, and the big blind (a high stakes cash reg) made it around 3.5x. The cutoff folded and even though I was out of position, I called. The flop was 6-6-7 with two diamonds, I check-called a 70% pot bet. The turn brought an offsuit 10, and it went check-check. The river was a brick, and I made the mistake of leading the river. I just felt compelled to try and win the pot as I’d committed a lot to it and was hoping he somehow has or (both of which I was blocking, damn) but he called pretty quickly with .”

Analysis: What makes this particular hand interesting is that Pranay gets dealt the same cards as in the previous example, King-Queen suited, but both the stage of the tournament and his position are radically different. He is now out of position (in the small blind) and also with 15 players remaining, they are all in-the-money, and the pay jumps are getting steeper.

When the player in the cutoff position opens for 2.5X, Pranay flat calls from the small blind. The player in the big blind, who is an anonymous high stakes player, raised the pot to 3.5X that got the cutoff to fold. A point to note here is that the blinds at the time were 30K-60K and with a big blind ante of 60K, there was an obvious incentive for the big blind to try and defend. Pranay realizes that he has a marginally strong hand and makes the questionable call. The flop 6-6-7 with two diamonds gets Pranay a flush draw, and he realizes that his equity in the hand just improved. He follows the pragmatic approach by checking his option to pot control, but his opponent was not giving him a free card and is made to call off a 70% pot bet to see the 10x open on the turn. Both players checked through to a brick river. Pranay leads out and calls this bet a mistake – probably because he was always going to be called only by a better hand and with a missed flush draw, he has no showdown value – he is essentially holding king-high. He was putting his opponent on or an kind of range – and as he later admits, he was holding blockers to both those hands. As it played out, his opponent immediately called and showed pocket rockets.

Verdict: The bluff attempt with a marginal hand like out of position could have dented Pranay’s chances at a deep run. The good thing is Pranay survived the mistake.

 

Hand 3

Pranay: “This could have been my bust-out hand, but I guess I was destined to go on a bit further. Soon after the bluff, the cutoff opened and by this time I was left with just 13bb. I looked down at off-suited in the SB and ripped. The cutoff snapped with . The flop was , the turn was an and the river was another . Back to 30bb.”

Analysis: After the previously discussed hand, Pranay’s stack had come down to a below-average 13 BBs. Needing to rebuild his stack, he decides to move all-in from the small blind with off-suited. Though by most standards this was a pretty standard shove, unfortunately for Pranay, the cutoff made an almost immediate call tabling a monster – pocket queens. Statistically, the cutoff was practically a 71% favorite to win the hand preflop. The flop brought , giving Pranay some hope, but he was still behind. He needed an ace or another 10 to stay alive. The turn brought an , but the on the river got Pranay trip tens, and with that, he was back in the race with an average stack.

Verdict: Any tournament pro will tell you that you need to get lucky a few times if you have to win major tournaments. This could have very easily been Pranay’s elimination hand, but he won the hand to get back in contention. This was a ‘do or die’ move by Pranay, and a good thing that the board favored him!

 

Hand 4

Pranay: “This is probably my favorite hand of the tournament and actually played out this way because I meant to 3bet preflop but accidentally called. Raman Gujral opened to 225,000 from UTG + 1, I called on the button, so there was already 700,000 in the pot. The flop was 234 with 2 clubs and no diamonds. Raman bet 215,000 on the flop, I called. The turn was the . Raman checked – I bet 300,000, and he called. At this time, I was pretty confident I had the best hand. The river was another 2. He checked – I bet big – almost 850,000 pot – and he went into the tank before finally calling.”

Analysis: Pranay notes this as his favorite hand of the event, possibly because he accidentally called instead of raising preflop and well, the eventual outcome of the hand was favorable as well. Well-known high stakes reg, Raman Gujral opens UTG+1 for 225,000 and Pranay who had accidentally calls instead of raising (as he intended to do) on the button. With almost 700,000 in the pot, the flop opens 2 3 4 with two clubs and no diamonds. Raman fires a c-bet of 215,000 and Pranay decides to make the call. He catches a lucky break as the King of hearts opens on the turn. Raman checks. Holding top pair, Pranay is confident that he has the best hand here and looking to extract value, he fires a bet of 300,000 which Raman calls. The river brings another 2, Raman checks, and Pranay puts in a pot-sized bet of 850,000. Raman takes his time before calling but mucks his hand when Pranay shows him the King pair.

Verdict: This is one of two such hands Pranay describes in this list of top hands where his big bet on the river paid off. Disclaimer: Raman informed us that he had .

Raman Gujral
Raman Gujral

Hand 5

Pranay: “This was with 3 people left. Nitish Gupta limped the button, and I completed off-suited from the small blind because Vaibhav Sharma was pretty short in the big blind and I thought he couldn’t jam without a big hand. He checked as well. The flop was J-6-2 two hearts and one spade, and it checked around. The turn was the 10 of spades bringing another flush draw. I bet small, Vaibhav got out of the way and Nitish called. The river was an offsuit J. I’d made my mind up to bet almost all rivers except probably an ace or a ten, but when the jack hit, I felt I could polarize myself and still get hero called by or . I fired a big bet around the size of the pot and Nitish probably felt I was taking too many of these spots and ended up calling with ace high.”

Analysis: This hand stands out because of the exciting dynamics. The play was down to three players and one of them – Vaibhav Sharma – is very short. Pranay is almost a shoo-in to go heads-up for the title against Nitish Gupta. Gupta limps, and Pranay completes with Jack-four offsuit in the small blind aware that Sharma is not shoving without a decent hand (this sounds like a read). Sharma checks through to see the flop open J-6-2 two hearts and a spade. The flop here brings good news for Pranay who hits top pair, but the wet board gets checked around. The 10 of spades on the turn opens another flush draw possibility. The pay jumps by now are crazy – the difference between 3rd and 2nd is ₹14.34 Lakhs. Pranay is fishing for information and bets small and gets Sharma to fold. Nitish calls. Pranay gets another lucky break with a Jack on the river. To make things even better – it’s neither a heart or a spade, so he is almost certainly holding the best hand now. As he describes in his words – he bet almost pot to polarize his range and Nitish calls showing ace-high.

Verdict: Pranay caught another lucky break on the river in this hand but instead of going the conventional route by trying to extract some value – his pot-sized bet on the river won him the massive pot – even possibly the title!

Vaibhav Sharma & Nitish Gupta
Vaibhav Sharma & Nitish Gupta
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