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WPT India: Neeta Banker Wins SHIP IT NLH Event; Daniel Weinman Tops Main Event Day 1B

PG News November 12, 2017
3 Minutes Read

Deltin Royale Goa was abuzz with action once again as it was time for the first-ever World Poker Tour (WPT) India’s ₹7,000 buy-in SHIP IT NLH event. The event featured a unique format wherein each player started with a stack of 1,200 for the first round and got a 10,000 stack for the final round 2.

Besting the lot was Neeta Banker (cover image) who defeated Abhishek Jalan in the heads-up battle in the last round to clinch the title along with ₹1.32 Lakhs in prize money. Incidentally this was Jalan’s second runner-up finish of the series as he had earlier finished second best in the SuperStack event for ₹12.53 lakhs.

The SHIP IT event wasn’t the only attraction for the day as the final starting flight of the highlight ₹55K Main Event also got in the books. Day 1B of the Main Event drew 283 runners taking the total count of players in the event to a record-breaking 527 entries. The massive ₹2,74,08,216 prize pool will pay out the top 52 finishers.

By the end of play, only 75 survivors remained with USA’s Daniel Weinman bagging the biggest stack of 414,500 in chips. Weinman will start Day 2 as the overall chip leader and is well ahead of Day 1A chip leader Rakesh Singh (376,000).

Other notable stacks from Day 1B include Archit Saraogi (249,500), Dhruvin Kothari (241,000), Anup Palod (224,500), Abhishek Goindi (191,500), Anuj Gupta (152,500), Niharika Bindra (133,500), Aditya Sushant (117,000) and Mayank Agarwal (116,000).

SHIP IT NLH event

The first round saw a total of five tables with each table’s last remaining player advancing to the final round. The five survivors were namely Akhi Hiro, Nishant Sharma, Kunal Patni, Abhishek Jalan and Neeta Banker who started with a 10,000 stack and played down till a winner was crowned.

The first casualty of the last round was Adda52 Team Pro Kunal Patni who shoved with Ax 10x and got one caller in Jalan who tabled Ax 4x. Patni was looking in good shape to double up but unfortunately for him, Jalan hit a three-of-a-kind on the board Kx 8x Jx 4x 4x to send the former packing in fifth place.

Akhi Hiro fell next with Jalan once again doing the damage. Jalan opened and Hiro called to see the flop 2x 3x 7x. Hiro immediately announced all-in holding Kx Jx and Jalan called with top pair tabling 8x 7x. The remaining two streets blanked out and Jalan took down the pot with his pair, busting Hiro in the process.

Young Gun Nishant Sharma was going strong but took a bad beat from Jalan to exit in third place. Action saw Jalan opening with Qx 4x and Sharma called with Kx 2x. Both players connected on the flop Kx 3x 4x with Sharma hitting top pair. Jalan moved all-in with middle pair and Sharma tank called with his top pair. The turn was a blank but Jalan caught lightning in a bottle on the 4x river to setup the heads-up battle against eventual champion Neeta Banker.

Banker was a new face in the reg-infested field and she later revealed that poker is just a hobby for her and she plays only recreationally.

Heads-up was mostly a shove fest and both Banker and Jalan traded chips for sometime before Banker shifted gears and managed to whittle down Jalan’s stack to less than 4 big blinds. However, Jalan fought furiously and took back a commanding lead.

Both players were unrelenting in their efforts to win the title and despite Banker reaching the brink of elimination with just 1.5 big blinds in her stack, she didn’t lose hope and finally made the near impossible happen. Banker moved all-in four hands in a row and took them all down to seal the title.

The last hand of the event saw Jalan moving all-in with Jx 10x and Banker called with Qx 4x. The board fell nine high declaring Banker the first female WPT India champion!