14 Mins Read
Opening to a big gathering on the country’s 72nd Independence Day, The Indian Poker Series (TIPS) made a sizzling run through a five-day course, right up to finale on Sunday.
The venue for TIPS for its inaugural run was the Kings Casino Rozvadov, located in the Czech Republic, distinctively the biggest poker room in Europe. There were nine featured tournaments and two days of live-streamed high stakes cash games. The concluding day of TIPS saw an exciting finale of the Main Event and there were challenges galore in the side events running alongside, i.e. the High Roller €500 and NLH Bounty that crowned winners.
Many international names of repute were in the mix at the series and from the Indian contingent there were a good number of seasoned players including TIPS founders Jaydeep Dawer and Manish Goenka alongside 25 others headlined by Kanishk Upreti who chopped the High Roller for €6,086 (₹4.85 Lakhs) with Tanveer Singh Kohli who finished runner-up.
Following Upreti and Kohli was Samay Parikh’s (€3,165 – ₹2.51 Lakhs), who finished third in the High Roller and Denish Ashok Desai’s (€2,522 – ₹2 Lakhs), who made a runner up finish in the Poker Classics II.
With five starting flights, the Main Event simmered with thrilling live poker action and 24 Indians marched to Day 2 from different flights, with seven among them managing to cross the money line. The top performer was Hetalkumar Desai (35th for €561 – ₹44,599) and close on his heels was Varun Gupta (44th for €466 – ₹37,047).
Indian Cashes in TIPS 2018
Over the weekend, the TIPS Poker Classics 2 title was taken down by polish player Marcin Jerzy Jaworski, who claimed the top payout of €3,667. Johan Cornelis Stijnen won the Poker Classics I for €2,424, Victor Knebusch took down the Turbo Deepstack event for €855, while Yehuda ‘chiKKita banAAna’ Cohen won the €90+10 Omaha for €1,508.
Alongside Upreti’s win in High Roller, the series wrapped up with Martina ‘Simona’ Kabrhel taking down the Main Event for €18,406, while Soufiane Jardi bagged the title and €1,555 in the NLH Bounty event.
The TIPS High Roller that featured a €500 buy in, registered 36 entries and Team India rocked the show in style! Six of the top eight finalists were Indians.
Kanisha Upreti triumphed over the tough competition to win the title and a payday of €6,000 (₹4.78 Lakhs) while Tanveer Singh Kohli €6,000 (₹4.78 Lakhs) bagged the runner-up title. The duo had entered a heads-up deal after Samay Parikh (€3,165 – ₹2.52 Lakhs) was eliminated in third place, setting the heads-up match in motion.
Rounding up the top five were Marcin Jerzy Jaworski (4th for €2,288) and Pranay Chawla (5th for €1,850 – ₹1.47 Lakhs).
Vickey Narwani and Gaurav Gala also reached the final table but fell short of the money.
Final Table Results (Euro)
1. Kanishk Upreti – €6,086*
2. Tanveer Singh Kohli – €6,086*
3. Samay Parikh – €3,165
4. Marcin Jerzy Jaworski – €2,288
5. Pranay Chawla – €1,850
*denotes heads-up deal
Concluding the series, the €60+€30 buy-in NLH Bounty event attracted 79 runners including 23 re-entries. French pro Soufiane Jardi emerged as the winner and banked €1,555 for his efforts.
Jardi found a tough competitor in Christian Spengler whom he finally relegated to the runner up place. India’s Chetan Jain (3rd for €725 – ₹57,594) headlined the Indian performance at the event where his two other countrymen namely, Anurag Jain (8th for €212 – ₹16,841) and Prashant Malik (10th for €142 – ₹11,280) also ran deep.
Final Table Results (EURO)
1. Soufiane Jardi – €1,555
2. Christian Spengler – €1,107
3. Chetan Jain – €725
4. Jan Schatral – €558
5. Heat Ger – €442
6. Ali Eghbalzad – €345
7. Ronald Mielenski – €272
8. Anurag Shah – €212
9. Georgi Dangel – €161
Outlasting a field of 86 entries, polish pro Marcin Jerzy Jaworski took down the TIPS Poker Classics II on Saturday. Since the event allowed players to re-enter, there were 21 re-entries and the prize pool reached €15,000.
Jaworski defeated Indian player Denish Ashok Desai in the heads-up battle to claim the title and €3,667 in prize money, while Desai banked € 2,522 (₹2.01 Lakhs) for his runner-up finish.
The top 15 spots earned a minimum assured €242, while Ankit Saxena (10th for €299 – ₹23,862) failed to make it to the final table. Chetan Jain made it in the final 9 eventually finishing sixth for €841 (₹66,810).
Final Table Results (Euro)
1. Marcin Jerzy Jaworski – €3,667
2. Denish Ashok Desai – €2,522
3. Christofor Stefanidi – €1,653
4. Keko Door – €1,340
5. Sergii Kyslyi – €1,076
6. Chetan Jain – €841
7. Nicolas Sebastian Pohl – €663
8. Alexander Ebel – €506
9. Andrea Ströher – €371
With a buy-in of €90, the TIPS Omaha event saw 43 players enter the fray, including 11 re-entries. A prize pool of €6,000 was created and Yehuda ‘chiKKita banAAna’ Cohen claimed the top prize, banking €1,508 for his finish.
German pro ‘Kanzzo’ had to settle for a runner-up finish for €1,340 while Indian pro Durga Deepak Botta finished third for €855 (₹68,236).
The three other players who cashed the event were ‘Attila85’ (4th for €656), Nikolai Alexander Dauner (5th for €513) and Jamal IF Ali (6th for €399).
The TIPS Turbo Deepstack with a buy in of €60 was held on August 17 and saw 30 players enter the field. German pro Victor Knebusch won the event for €855 after a three-way deal with India`s Saumil Krishnani, who eventually finished runner-up for €513. Italian pro Vittoria Di Troia finished in third place and pocketed €342.
Only the top five spots made it in the money. Germany’s Nerius Tahiri and Italian player Gianbattista Corbelli finished in fourth and fifth place respectively, both players taking home €342 each.
The TIPS Poker Classics I was won by Belgian player Johan Cornelis Stijnen, who banked €2,424 after besting a 126-player field that included 43 re-entries. A total of 17 players took home a share of the €10,000 prize pool and two Indians, Anish Patra (10th for €197 – ₹15,722) and Pranay Chawla (13th for €173 – ₹13,806) added to the team`s scorecard.