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And…it’s a wrap! The Indian Poker Series (TIPS) Winter Edition that was running at Europe’s most popular casino, the King’s Casino closed out another successful series on March 11, and three days down the line, the huge Indian group that attended the series is on its way home.
The TIPS Winter Edition proved hugely successful not just in terms of attendance, it also saw a fair representation of players from different nationalities, demonstrating that the series has fast gained ground in popularity across Europe. While the Israelis topped the list in numbers, Team India wasn’t far behind. A sizeable Indian contingent was in attendance, and seen gunning through nearly all the tournaments with gusto.
A significant factor contributing to the strong Indian turnout was the online qualifiers that were run across various domestic poker sites as well as live venues. Co-founders Jaydeep Dawer and Manish Goenka left no stone unturned to promote the series across the poker fraternity in India. From PokerBaazi to Calling Station, MadOverPoker and Pocket52, the online qualifiers saw a sizeable contingent winning TIPS packages for Rozvadov.
The series stopper was the Main Event that offered a World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) Main Event seat each to the top 5 finishers. A massive field of 1,417 entries was collected over five starting flights, and though the event fell short on the €500K prize pool guarantee by a small margin, the competition was nonetheless intense.
Running along the Main Event was the NLH Bounty that was taken down by Israel’s Eran Elimelech for €2,273 (₹1.78 Lakhs) following a heads-up deal with Yosef Boker.
Indian Performance at TIPS Winter Edition
Even before the series kicked off, Abhishek Jaiswal opened the Indian scorecard by taking down the King’s Special Tuesday for €2,088 (₹1,65,480) and his first live title. TIPS co-founder Jaydeep Dawer (5th for €593 -₹46,997) and Ankit Kapoor (6th for €464 -₹36,773) also posted scores in the same event.
Giving an encouraging head start to Team India’s run at the series was Himanshu Dewan who finished third in the series opener, i.e., the Welcome Event, pocketing €2,052 (₹1.62 Lakhs).
In all, Team India picked up a total of 21 scores including two title wins, three runner-up finishes and ten final-table finishes, all making for cumulative earnings of €78,809 (₹62,13,224). Leading from the front was Pulkit Goyal who ran the deepest at the Main Event and sailed into the final table with the fifth largest stack. Goyal eventually ended his run in fifth place, returning from Rozvadov as the top scoring Indian with total winnings of €31,845 (₹25 Lakhs).
The other top Indian scorer was Jagdeep Singh who conceded the title of the TIPS and KENTA Europe High Roller to Liad Greenberg and pocketed €14,000 (₹10.99 Lakhs) following a heads-up deal.
Coming back to the Main Event, only two other Indians could make it to the final day, Gaurav Gupta (11th for €5,348 ~ ₹4.20 Lakhs) and Tarun Goyal (16th for €3,841 ~ ₹3 Lakhs). Sameer Tavanandi (22nd for €2,896 ~ ₹2.27 lakhs) was the other top performer at the Main Event where a total of 12 Indians earned payouts.
We also saw Jayant Yewale (Turbo Noon Freezeout -€700 ~ ₹55,097) and Ankit Kapoor (KENTA Turbo Omaha – €2,796 ~ ₹2.20 Lakhs) winning side event titles, while Satyam Surendra Verma (Poker Classic 1 – €2,361 ~₹1.85 Lakhs) and Rahul Kumar (KENTA Turbo Omaha – €1,987 ~ ₹1.56 Lakhs) posted runner-up finishes.
Indian Cashes At TIPS Winter Edition
Event | Player Name | Finish | Prize Money |
---|---|---|---|
Main Event | Pulkit Goyal | 5th | €31,845 (₹25 Lakhs) |
TIPS & KENTA Europe High Roller | Jagdeep Singh | 2nd | €14,000 (₹10.99 Lakhs) |
Main Event | Gaurav Gupta | 11th | €5,348 (₹4.20 Lakhs) |
Main Event | Tarun Goyal | 16th | €3,841 (₹3 Lakhs) |
Main Event | Sameer Tavanandi | 22nd | €2,896 (₹2.27 Lakhs) |
KENTA Turbo Omaha | Ankit Kapoor | 1st | €2,796 (₹2.20 Lakhs) |
Poker Classic 1 | Satyam Surendra Verma | 2nd | €2,361(₹1.85 Lakhs) |
Welcome Event | Himanshu Dewan | 3rd | €2,052 (₹1.62 Lakhs) |
Main Event | Avinash Tauro | 29th | €2,079 (₹1.63 Lakhs) |
KENTA Turbo Omaha | Rahul Kumar | 2nd | €1,987 (₹1.56 Lakhs) |
TIPS & KENTA EUROPE High Roller | Abhishek Jaiswal | 9th | €1,763 (₹1.38 Lakhs) |
Main Event | Satyam Verma | 42nd | €1,526 (₹1.20 Lakhs) |
Main Event | Arjanveer Chadha | 55th | €1,526 (₹1.20 Lakhs) |
Main Event | Sanjay K. | 61st | €1,309 (₹1.02 Lakhs) |
Main Event | Rahul Kumar | 74th | €1,105 (₹ 86,840) |
Main Event | Jayant Yewale | 88th | €1,105 (₹86,840) |
KENTA Turbo Omaha | Vineet Kumar | 4th | €1,001 (₹78,768) |
Main Event | Ankit Kapoor | 118th | €980 (₹76,978) |
Main Event | Satyam Raj | 120th | €873 (₹68,573) |
Turbo Noon Freezeo | Jayant Yewale | 1st | €700 (₹55,097) |
Poker Classic 1 | Himanshu Dewan | 9th | €347 (₹27,299 |
Eran Ellmeiech Wins NLH Bounty
The penultimate tournament on the roster of The Indian Poker Series (TIPS), i.e., the €80 (₹6,283) buy-in NLH Bounty ran its course on Monday. Together with 18 re-entries, the event saw a total field of 181 entries, making for a prize pool of €11,765 (₹9,24,131). When the dust settled, it was Israel’s Eran Elimelech holding the trophy and a cheque of €2,273 (₹1.78 Lakhs). Elimelech reached a heads-up deal with fellow countryman Yosef Boker to claim the title, while Boker banked €2,474 (₹1.94 Lakhs) for his runner-up finish.
The top 20 spots returned with payouts of at least €153 and the field was pretty much dominated by players from Israel, with 15 out of the 20 in-the-money players coming from there.
The first player to finish in the money was Israel Abitbul (20th for €153).
Final Table Results (EURO)
*denotes heads-up deal
Content & Images Courtesy: Hina Nainani, TIPS