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The three National Poker Series 2.0 final tables that ran alongside the ongoing 2022 Baazi Poker Tour (BPT) are now in the history books, with the third and final event, ₹1 Crore GTD NPS#82 Golden Rush crowning a winner.
Following the footsteps of the previous NPS champions PokerGuru Ambassador Kartik Ved and Chirag Sodha, it was the start-of-FT chip leader Sankesh Jain holding out strong till the end. The 30-year-old player poker pro from Chennai struck a heads-up deal with Arbaaz Ahmed to seal the payouts and won the coveted NPS gold medal and a personal-best ₹9 Lakhs!
Jain is primarily a cash game player who also plays mid-stakes MTT. Earlier involved in a family property mortgage business, Jain decided to go pro only four years back.
Before yesterday, Jain had singular cash; an 80th place finish in the 2019 IPC 35K Main Event worth ₹72,900.
The NPS Golden Rush was the biggest crowd-puller at PokerBaazi’s flagship National Poker Series. The ₹550 buy-in event registered a gigantic 14,881 field across 14 starting flights. Still, it had to fill in an overlay shortfall of ₹25.59 Lakhs.
The final table was initially scheduled to start at 1.30 PM on Friday. but the organizers postponed it to 8 PM at the player`s request. The PokerGuru team provided regular updates on the exciting final table action.
You can watch the FT replay below.
Final Table Chip Counts
Final Table Recap
Arguably the player with the best stats on the FT, Kritarth Pant was the first to fall. He lost a big pot to the eventual runner-up Arbaaz Ahmed to go down to his last big blind. Sankesh Jain finished the job in the next hand, dominating Pant’s with his that rivered the top pair on the board.
Pramod Ashokkumar lost his tournament life in a three-way confrontation with Karan Walia and Dilip Kumar. Kumar opened and Ashokkumar jammed. Walia defended his big blind. The flop opened and Walia jammed. Kumar called.
Dilip Kumar
Karan Walia
Pramod Ashokkumar
The turn and the river completed the board, and Kumar hit a full house of kings full of deuces to win the main pot, while Walia, who had two-pair, took down the side pot. Ashokkumar was eliminated in seventh place.
Jain kept chipping up and soon claimed his second FT victim in Nitin Tomar, who lost the race in sixth place. His were dominating by Jain’s that hit a superior pair on the runout .
The start-of-day short stack Arbaaz Ahmed continued his upward climb by scoring double-ups from Priyanka Choudhary, Sankesh Jain, and Karan Walia.
Down to his last big blind, Karan Walia was eliminated by Sankesh Jain in fifth place. Walia was all-in from UTG, and Jain checked his option in the big blind.
Karan Walia
Sankesh Jain
The dealer peeled out and Jain’s rivered two-pair won him Walia`s chips.
Less than 10 minutes later, Priyanka Choudhary hit the rail in fourth place after her all-in jam with found a caller in Dilip Kumar who held . Kumar spiked a ten on the board to take down the pot.
It didn’t take long for the field to narrow down to the heads-up. Jain jammed with and Dilip Kumar called it off with . Kumar had his tournament life on the line and the board ran . Jain hit a broadway straight to eliminate Kumar in third place.
Jain began the heads-up with Arbaaz Ahmed with 139,000 versus the latter’s 63,000. The duo quickly struck a deal sealing the payouts.
The heads-up match lasted all of 30 minutes, and the final hand saw Ahmed open with with Jain made the call with . Ahmed bet 8,000 on the flop and Jain check-shoved. Ahmed called.
Jain hit a flush on the turn, making the on the river a mere formality. Ahmed was eliminated as the runner-up and won the NPS silver medal and ₹7.10 Lakhs.
Final Table Results (INR)
*denotes a heads-up deal
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