India Poker Open, May 12th-15th 2011

Sorry mate, being held at a casino with trained dealers already. Plus anyways, the pay dealers get in India per month will not even cover your hotel stay here...

Nonetheless if you wanna just travel to India for the sake of it, we can contact you if there is a requirement in the future, but again pay will not be too much.

The highly anticipated first ever India Poker Open (IPO) took place from the 12th-15th May 2011 at the Clubs Card room aboard Casino Carnival, Goa. The response to a new tournament brand at a new poker room, being held on a weekend between two established poker tourney brands was very good. The IPO weekend action included a high stakes INR 100,000 buy-in NLHE freezeout event and the first ever Pot Limit Omaha tournament in India.

A common complaint regarding the poker tournament circuit in India is that players enter the final table averaging 10 - 15 big blinds, which leads to the final table becoming an “all-in” competition. To combat this complaint, the starting stacks and blind structures for IPO events were planned by the organizers in a way that ensured deep stacks and enough room for final table play.

Following action was witnessed at the India Poker Open four day poker tournament:

Thursday May 12th: INR 5K No Limit Hold’em Re-buy

The first event of the India Poker Open weekend was the 5K re-buy held on Thursday. The event saw a decent response with a field of 51 players starting including tournament regulars such as Dhaval Mudgal, Sangeeth Samoh, Rahul Melwani, Lawrence Sanjay, Rakesh Agarwal, Pranav Bagai, amongst others. The tournament structure allowed re-buys upto the first hour and one add-on at the end of this ensuring fast & furious poker action including 37 re-buys and 35 add-ons. The total pizepool for the event was INR 562,500 with the first 9 places being paid. The eventual winner after almost 8 intense hours of action was Rakesh Agarwal, a regular tourney specialist at the Goa Poker Tournament Circuit.

Finish Player Name Prize (INR)
1 Rakesh Agarwal 205,000
2 Vedant Thadani 117,500
3 Lawrence Sanjay 75,000
4 Barat 55,000
5 Sangeeth Samoh 40,000
6 Niharika Bindra 25,000
7 Dhaval Mudgal 20,000
8 Yogesh Thakur 15,000
9 Rahul Melwani 10,000


Friday May 13th: INR 10K No Limit Hold’em Freeze-out

Second day of the poker tournament weekend, saw intense action with a field of 54 players vying for the 10k freeze-out title. The event saw a mixture of regular tournament pros such as Rakesh Agarwal, Akash Malik, Rishabh Jhunjhunwala, Dhaval Mudgal and many new faces from around India. An excellent tournament structure saw the event last 8 hours 30 minutes and had a final prize pool of INR 486,000 for the top 6 finishers. Rakesh Agarwal made it back to back victories after winning the IPO 10K freeze-out and guaranteeing the organizers that he would never again miss an India Poker Open event.

Finish Player Name Prize (INR)
1 Rakesh Agarwal 175,000
2 Vishnu 110,000
3 Padmashree 70,000
4 Pranav 60,000
5 Chintan 50,000
6 Joy 21,000

Saturday May 14th: INR 100K No Limit Hold’em Freezeout

The awaited main event of the India Poker Open was held on the third day featuring a high stakes 100k free-out tournament. The event finally got underway with a field of 29 players and with a late registration at the end of the late registration period, the total field ended at 30 players. Total prize-pool was one of the largest in Indian poker tournament history with INR 27,00,000 and the event organizers, as promised kept the payouts top heavy with an INR 12,00,000 prize for the eventual winner. Rakesh Agarwal tried to top off his excellent weekend with another in the money finish, but was knocked out in 6th place. Nonetheless, this saw him win the “Player of the Series” trophy from the organizers. The final table saw an intense heads-up battle between PokerGuru Pro Mihail Stoykov and Card Player India Chief Editor Dhaval Mudgal. After the chip lead being exchanged on multiple occasions, Mihail won the title and retained his reputation for being one of the best high stake tourney players in India.




Finish Player Name Prize (INR)
1 Mihail Stoykov 1,200,000
2 Dhaval Mudgal 800,000
3 Jasven Saigal 500,000
4 Vedant Thadani 200,000

Sunday May 15th: INR 15k Pot Limit Omaha Freezeout

The final event of the weekend was an experimental, but first of a kind Pot limit Omaha tourney, which had PLO players in the country excited. Turnout was below average and there seemed to be limited interest in PLO tournaments in India at present. A field of 12 players started with a member of the organizing team from “The Shark”, Pranav Bagai winning the event.

Finish Player Name Prize (INR)
1 Pranav Bagai 100,000
2 Vedant Thadani 62,000


Overall, players enjoyed the weekend and complimented the organizers from The Shark and IPRT on excellent structures set for all four days of the events. The organizers were extremely happy with the response and said in a statement “We see India as an emerging, but fast growing market and believe that within the next 12-24 months, India will become a regular stop on the Asian Poker Circuit with multiple international tourneys being held every year. The India Poker Open is the first step towards this direction and will be the Premier Indian Poker Tournament Brand.”
The next “India Poker Open” is planned during August 2011 and details of the event will follow.

The Shark, a pioneer in the Indian Poker industry has announced a Guaranteed Prize Pool of INR 30,00,000 for the 100k buy-in Main Event at their “India Poker Legend” tourney to be held at Casino Royale, Goa, India on 20th August 2011.
The four-day poker festival from 18th – 21st August 2011 has the following events:
- Aug 18th (Thu) - 5k Re-buy
- Aug 19th (Fri) - 10k Freeze-out
- Aug 20th (Sat) - 100k Freeze-out (Main Event)
- Aug 21st (Sun) - 12k Bounty + Re-buy

Satellites for the Main Event (100k buy-in) will be held at Casino Royale, Goa as follows:
- 8th Aug @ 8pm
- 14th Aug @ 8pm
- 17th Aug @ 8pm
- 20th Aug @ 7pm

Satellites for other events will be held on the same day before the start of the tourney:
- Aug 18th (Thu): 5K Re-buy
8:00 pm INR 500 One Hand Satellites
7:00 pm INR 500 Turbo Satellites - ONE SEAT GUARANTEED

- Aug 19th (Fri): 10K Freezeout
8:00 pm 1K One Hand Satellites
7:00 pm 1K Turbo Satellites - ONE SEAT GUARANTEED

- Aug 21st (Sun): 12K Bounty + Re-buy
8:00 pm 1.2K One Hand Satellites
7:00 pm 1.2K Turbo Satellites - ONE SEAT GUARANTEED

Players who complete their buy-in for the main event before August 10th will be offered two nights complimentary accommodation at Taj Vivanta, Panjai, Goa.

For further details and to register log onto www.theshark.in.