IPC Kick-Off Runner Up Sameer Agarwal Gets Candid
May 20, 2022
1:45 am
When we got in touch with IPC 25K Kick-Off runner up Sameer Agarwal, he told us about his experience at IPC and much more. Talking about the four-way deal that he opted for, Agarwal said, “The stacks were around the same. I was sitting with 22 BBs while the others had around 15 BBs but the only thing I had in my mind was that anything can happen in poker. However, I made sure that irrespective of whatever happens I will walk out with the highest amount paid. Even after the 50K set aside by all four players, I still wanted to be the highest. Also, I saw that the other players were more experienced and post my discussion with Arsh Grover, I decided it was ideal to take the deal.”
Mahesh 
Sameer Agarwal bet 2,50,000 holding A
After a long and hard grind, Harsh Bubna bowed out in the 4th position. At Level 27 with blinds at 40,000/80,000, ante 80,000, Mahesh Shyamsundar bet 80,000, Bubna went all-in, Kanishka Samant called, Sameer Agarwal raised to 325,000 and Samant called again. On the flop, Agarwal bet 500,000, Samant opted for a shove and Agarwal matched. The community cards fell 7
At Level 27 with blinds at 40,000/80,000, ante 80,000, Arjanveer Singh Chadha shoved 2,60,000 preflop and Kanishka Samant matched. The community cards fell 5
At Level 26, an interesting hand unfolded. Preflop saw 
In some heavy duty preflop action Samay Singh Modi bet 120,000 and Sameer Agarwal raised to 400,000. This move resulted in Modi shoving all his tournament chips into the pot and Agarwal who had a Big Slick in his armoury spared no time in matching the former’s bet. The board ran out 8
Ashish Ahuja who had doubled up through Kanishka Samant just a few minutes ago has bid adieu to the game. Ahuja bet 1,00,000 and Mahesh Shyamsyndar jammed with 8
On the final table, at Level 22 with blinds at 15,000/25,000, ante 25,000 Ashish Ahuja and Kanishka Samant locked horns. 
At Level 24 with blinds 20,000/40,000, ante 40,000, 
Himanshu Chhikara has busted just two places short of making it to the final table at the 25K Kick-Off event. Chhikara shoved all-in holding fish hooks, and Samay Modi, with pocket rockets, also shoved all-in. The board opened to Q
Following Nikita Luther’s bust out, two more players bid goodbye to the 25K Kick-Off title, one of them being Day 2 chip leader Siddhanth Kripalani. While the action moved slowly, Mahesh Shamsundar played his cards right when he called Umer Fayaz‘s preflop shove with pocket sevens. Kripalani, who went from chip leader to short-stacked, moved all-in as well.
The only female player on the field, Nikita Luther has also walked away, but not without putting out a tough fight. Mahesh Shamsundar and the Spartan Poker pro, Luther, both shoved all-in preflop with A
Spartan Poker Pro Nikita Luther is the only female among the top 13 survivors in the IPC 25K Kick-Off event. Just a few minutes ago, she doubled up against Siddhanth Kripalani who has been the chip lead since yesterday. 
At Level 21 with blinds at 10,000/20,000, ante 20,000, Kanishka Samant bet 30K and Laksh Pal Singh shoved all his chips into the pot (280K) with Ad 5d. Two time IPC champion Samant called off Singh’s jam with his pocket kings. The board ran out J
At Level 20, with blinds at 10,000/15,000, ante 15,000, 
Tournament lives continue to be claimed at Level 20 of the event with players busting out one after the other. After a couple of players bet preflop, Mahesh Shamsundar proceeded to jam his 200,000 stack with pocket queens and was promptly challenged by Shailender Pradhay who shoved 425,000 into the pot with Hooks. The cards K
Day 2 of the 25K Kick-Off event saw another bust out and this time it was pro player Arsh Grover aka ‘BigggTymeR.’ Grover holding 7
The tournament has reached Level 20 and the bust outs continue to roll in with Sunil Chaudhary being the next to go. Preflop, Himanshu Chhikara shoved his entire stack holding pocket fives. Chaudhary being the short stack also went all-in with pocket queens. The dealer fanned out the cards and the board showed 2x 3x 4x 6x 3x which resulted in Chaudhary experiencing an unfortunate (and painful) bad beat as Chhikara defeated him with a straight on the turn. Chaudhary walked away shaking his head in 19th position for ₹66,600.
Himanshu Kataria, who was dealt A
At Level 20 with blinds at 10,000/15,000, ante 15,000, 
IOPC July 2021 Blaze of Glory winner Harshad Barve has also exited the tournament on Day 2. Barve enjoyed a fantastic run at the event on Day 1. He resumed Day 2 with 153,000 chips (around 12 BB) but seems like couldn’t hold his stack for longer. He bowed out at the 21st place and bagged a sum of ₹66,600.
At Level 19, players on Day 2 of the 25K Kick-Off event continue to bust out. Following the fast line of players exiting the tournament, Kiran Gurung was next to meet his end. 
On Table 1 with blinds at 6,000/12,000, ante 12,000, Shardul Parthasarathi bet 105K preflop and Shailendra Pradhan called. On the flop, Pradhan with his Big Slick checked and Parthasarathi decided to shove all his remaining chips into the pot and Pradhan once again matched. The community cards fell 7
Aman Mehta walked into Day 2 of the IPC 25K Kick-Off event with 15,000 chips at his disposal. Only some kind of kick-ass play would have helped this player run towards the final table. But that never happened. At Level 19 with blinds at 6,000/12,000, ante 12,000, Mehta and Arsh Grover locked horns. Preflop saw Grover betting 66,000 and Mehta reacted by shoving in all his remaining chips. The board ran out 8
The last overseas player left in the field of the IPC 25k Kick-Off Event was Makrim M but his bust means it’s now an all-Indian contingent in this tournament. We don’t have the exact details of his hand as yet but he finished in 26th place for a prize of ₹44,500. 
The start of Day 2 of 25K Kick-Off already saw its next bust out in Priya Rajkumar. Rajkumar made it to Day 2 with a chip stack of 24,000 and with blinds at 6,000/12,000 at Level 19 she did not last too long. 
MPL Poker Pro Dhaval Mudgal has busted early on Day 2 of the 25K Kick-Off event. Mudgal resumed Day 2 with a stack of 95,000 chips (approximately 8BB). With such a short stack and the event being a big blind ante tournament, it was natural for Mudgal to take risk, which he did. However, it didn’t prove fruitful. After Kanishka Samant bet 26,000 preflop, Mudgal shoved all-in holding suited connectors (A
What to expect with a terrible short stack? Ask Siddarth Singhvi that. With barely any chips left in his hands, Singhvi has left the IPC 25K Kick-Off tournament. Yesterday must not have been an easy day for him as towards the end of Day 1, this well-known player was walking on thin ice. Singhvi took a pay cheque of ₹39,000 for his 29th place finish.
Day 2 of the 25K Kick-Off event at the glorious 
Anil Kumar busted on the 30th position. With this Day 1 of the IPC 25K Kick-Off comes to an end. 
At Level 17 (blinds 4,000/8,000, ante 8,000), preflop saw Harsh Bubna bet 16,000 and 
Day 1 of the 25K Kick-Off is almost coming to an end with the action on the felts slowing down as the tournament approaches the money bubble. At Level 17, the preflop action saw Siddarth Singhvi bet 13,000 and Manish Lakhotia raised to 65,000 holding Q
With the end of the last break of Day 1, Level 16 of the event began with the blinds at 3,000/6,000. The action on Table 7 had Arsh Grover bet 12,000 with 9
Ashish Ahuja with his big slick bet 12,000 preflop, and Aayush Arya confidently raised to 33,000 with his pocket rockets. Ahuja shoved all-in following Arya’s raise, and Arya too pushed his remaining stack of 1,05,000 on to the table. The board fanned out 7
On Table 6 at Level 15 (blinds 2,500/5,000), preflop action saw online reg 
Gutshot team bumped into a Hyderabad-based player who happens to be a religious follower of our website. Turns out, Chaitanya Reddy decided to make a trip to Nepal, to attend the India Poker Championship Megastacks May 2022 event after finding out about it from Gutshot’s posts. 
If there is anyone who can chip up from a short stack, it’s the one and only Kunal Patni. At Level 15 with blinds at 2,500/5,000, Patni on Table 6 shoved his 6BB stack with 5
The 25K Kick-Off event has reached Level 15 with blinds at 2,500/5,000, players have begun to feel the pressure of the tournament with many of them being forced to go all-in. One among these was Gutshot pro Dhirendra Kumar who was forced into the hand from the small blind with a short stack of 1.5 BB. Abhilash Kumar and Harshad Barve called and the flop opened to Q
Less than an hour ago, we had posted that Kumar Vatsal was leading while Siddhanth Kripalani was the shortest stack, but tables have turned. Kripalani is now the chip lead with a stack of 520,000. 
Siddhanth Kripalani bet 8,000 preflop with his royal couple (K
Final Table Series (FTS) 3.0 High Roller winner 
We’ve reached Level 14 of the 25K Kick-Off event and the crowd of poker players seems to be dwindling down. On Table 5 we had another bust out when Saransh Garg went all-in with 22,000 holding A
On Table 6 at Level 12 (blinds 1,500/2,500, ante 2,500), World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Aditya Sushant shoved all his chips into the pot and Mahesh Shyamsundar also made the all-in bet. The board ran out A
Table 5 saw an interesting hand, where Umer Fayaz tripled up against pro players Zarvan Tumboli and Arjanveer Singh Chadha. Tumboli and Chadha both held big slicks; the former bet 5,000 preflop, while the latter raised to 16,000. Fayaz, who held queens, shoved all-in with his stack of 72,000. Tumboli and Chadha called. The board opened to 7
Although all of the poker players look super classy, we’re all heart eyes for Harshad Barve! He has been channelling Godfather vibes and is surely making heads turn. Our photographer could not stop but go ‘click-click’ as soon as he spotted Barve. 
Gutshot Pro Anant Purohit busted at the hands of Kanishka Samant. In a brutal turn card, Purohit lost most of his chip stack. Leading on the flop with his Q6 two pairs, Samant also flopped two pairs with the 9 on the turn leaving Purohit behind with just 4 BB eventually. 
In the eleventh hour of the 25K Kick-Off event, blinds have reached 1,000/2,000 at Level 11 and the ante is 2,000. Vineet Kumar with A
Among the male dominated field, we saw several female players in the IPC events hosted yesterday and today. The female contingent includes 
It is the end of Level 9 and the late registration period has ended. There are 226 entries in total in this IPC 25K Kick-Off event. Kumar Vatsal, who won the silver package satellite on 
Celebrity poker player and Gutshot’s June 2021 e-magazine cover star Siddhant Kapoor made a gutsy move which proved to be fruitful for him. Kapoor on the big blind, with T