Rishabh Jhunjhunwala 
Day 1B of the APT Asian Series Goa Main Event saw its field surpass that of Day 1A to combine for a total of 131 entries in the tournament. Rising above today’s players was Rishabh Jhunjhunwalla who bagged up 73,500 to hold the chip lead. Last year’s runner-up Sameer Rattonsey is hot on his heels with 65,000, no doubt hoping to go one place better in the coming days. He is joined by visiting Italian player Francesco Albenetti who also sits on 65,000.
Jhunjhunwalla was a surprise chip leader after shooting to glory only in the latter stages of the tournament. He doubled up his 30,000 stack in a race holding 10♥ 10♣ against Himanshu Laul’s A♣ K♥. The all-in preflop contest delivered a low board of 4♦ 4♣ 8♠ 8♥ 9♦ and stacked up Jhunjhunwalla while giving Laul his marching orders.
But the first person to reach the plus-70,000 mark was, in fact, Niharika Bindra back in Level 8. She is one of only two female players to join the event and is now the last woman standing after holding the chip lead previously. Coincidentally seated next to her partner Pranav Bagai for much of the night, Bindra gained a big portion of her chips in a pot against Rakesh Sharma.
In position on the button, Bindra called Sharma’s three-bet from the big blind and, after a checked flop, the two got all their money in on a board of 2♥ 7♦ 3♥ Q♣. Sharma’s A♠ Q♦ top pair had Bindra’s Q♥ 10♥ outkicked but one of her flush outs landed on the river 9♥ to cruelly rail Sharma. After Bindra was moved tables she lost a chunk of her stack to Rahul Byraju but still managed to finish among the chip leaders on a 49,000 stack.
Sangeeth Mohan’s exit from Day 1B meant his campaign for a back-to-back APT Main Event title in Goa had officially ended. He never really got anything going today and his demise came when Sweden’s Fredrik Hallen flopped a full house with 10♣ 8♣ and Mohan didn’t have enough in his stack to get away from the hand holding A♠ K♠ after betting a flush draw on the turn.
Another big name exit came in the second last level of the day when Abhishek Goindi called the excitable Ravi Goel’s shove. Goindi’s Q♥ Q♣ was well ahead of Goel’s A♦ Q♦ but a board of 7♦ 3♦ K♥ A♥ K♦ had ‘bad beat’ written all over it, giving the executioner of Goel yet another hand to wildly celebrate.
Day 1B Top 10 Chip Stacks
1. Rishabu Jhunjhunwala 73,500
2. Sameer Rattonsey 65,000
3. Francesco Albenetti 65,000
4. Ravi Goel 57,100
5. Rahul Byrraju 56,800
6. Pulkit Kalia 51,800
7. Niharika Bindra 49,000
8. Martin Cardno 46,300
9. Apoorva Goel 44,300
10. Olli Virkkunen 41,100
A field of 48 players will enter tomorrow’s Day 2 at Casino Royale starting at 4pm. They will play down to the final table of 10 players and all be chasing the whopping INR 1,942,000 in prize money set for first place.
APT Asian Series Goa news is provided by Indian poker news site Fundoo Poker. Head to their Day 1B Live Updates to see all the hand highlights plus all the chip counts of the remaining players.
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