IPC Megastacks: Siddhanth Kripalani emerges as latest Main Event champion; Mahesh Shyamsundar, Alok Birewar, and Vivek Singh take down side events

Standing as the longest-running live tournament brand in India, this month’s India Poker Championship (IPC) Megastacks boasted IN₹ 3.5 Crores (~US$ 456,373) in guaranteed prizes across its four-event lineup. Three guaranteed tournaments completed the schedule with the highlighting ₹60K Main Event featuring a whopping IN₹ 2 Crores (~US$ 260,807) prize pool. The six-day festival which ran from May 17-22, 2022 in Casino Vegas by Big Daddy, Nepal crowned rising star Siddhanth Kripalani as this year’s Main Event champion and recorded local players Mahesh Shyamsundar, Alok Birewar, and Vivek Singh among its latest winners.

IPC Megastacks Main Event: Siddhanth Kripalani – ₹39,72,700 (~US$ 51,223)

The eye-catching Main Event kicked off on the 20th and ran two starting flights to see a total of 334 entrants gunning for the top payout. While the popular brand posted an ambitious guarantee of IN₹ 2 Crores (~US$ 260,807), its attracted draw out was certainly enough to meet the posted prize pool and recorded ₹2,00,40,000 in prizes to be awarded amongst its winners.

Eventual champion Siddhanth Kripalani locked in a massive lead upon entering the final table sitting with roughly 6 million in chips with second in the running Aditya Sushant just over 1.8 million. It didn’t take long for short stack Rajasekhar Puttamsetty to bust out in 8th as the first casualty of the day. Following shortly behind was Sumit Sapra whose pocket kings failed to hold against Kripalani’s when an Ace showed up right on the flop. India’s first bracelet winner Sushant then sent Niharika Bindra packing as he shoved on Sushant’s big blind. Having flopped trip kings, Bindra was instantly close to drawing dead and was left to settle for a 6th place finish.

Preflop play continued with Siddarth Singhvi’s succumbing to Anand Thakur’s when the run out revealed a Jack-high board. J Raju’s run came to an end as well as his big blind vs button aggression deemed a wrong timing with Kripalani holding a premium hand. As Kripalani racked up eliminations, Sushant followingly took a stab and knocked out Thakur in third with a better ace and no help coming on the board. The heads up battle was set with Kripalani sitting with a 4:1 chip lead against his decorated opponent and a battle for the IPC Megastacks trophy.

After nearly six hours of final table play, the remaining duo finally agreed to a deal leaving Sushant with a slightly lower payout of ₹33,50,000. In the end, it was Mumbai’s Siddhanth Kripalani who emerged victorious to lock in the 2022 IPC title and his career-best cash of ₹39,72,3700.

₹60K Main Event
Dates: May 20 to 22, 2022
Buy in: IN₹ 60,000 (~US$ 782)
Guarantee: IN₹ 2 Crores (~US$ 260,807)
Prize pool: ₹2,00,40,000

Final Table Results
1st: Siddhanth Kripalani – ₹39,72,3700*
2nd: Aditya Sushant – ₹33,50,000*
3rd: Anand Thakur – ₹19,40,300
4th: J Raju – ₹12,43,500
5th: Siddarth Singhvi – ₹9,58,900
6th: Niharika Bindra – ₹7,93,600
7th: Sumit Sapra – ₹6,66,300
8th: Rajasekhar Puttamsetty – ₹5,47,100
*Denotes deal was made

Mahesh Shyamsundar, Alok Birewar, and Vivek Singh take down side events

Opening the festival was the ₹25K Kick-Off event with an exciting guaranteed prize pool of IN₹ 50 Lakhs to welcome the players back on the felt. The two-day tournament ran better than expected as its 226-entry field quickly smashed the guarantee, generating a ₹56.50 Lakhs prize pool split amongst the top 29 places. The money bubble busted on the first day with Siddhanth Kripalani leading the pack heading to the final day with nearly double of the second-biggest stack. All day 2 qualifiers were guaranteed a minimum payout of ₹39,000 with the top prize posted at ₹13,31,200 for the initial champion.

In spite of his massive lead, Kripalani’s chance of the title ran slim as he fell short of the final table in 12th place. The star-studded final table kicked off with top ranking Ashish Ahuja as the first player to go with his four big blind stack unable to get a crucial double up. Local players Samay Singh Modi, Kumar Vatsal, and Arjanveer Singh Chadha followed in similar fashion exiting in 7th, 6th, and 5th place respectively before an ICM deal broke out. With four finalists left in the game, Sameer Agarwal locked in the biggest payout in the agreement, securing an impressive ₹9,87,442 in prizes while leaving the title and an additional ₹2 Lakhs in play for the champion. Coming down to the final two, Bengaluru’s Mahesh Shyamsundar shipped his career-first live title and ₹8,15,579 in winnings after beating Agarwal in heads up play.

₹25K Kick-Off
Dates: May 18 to 19, 2022
Buy in IN₹ 25,000 (~US$ 326)
Guarantee: IN₹ 50 Lakhs (~US$ 65,200)
Prize pool: ₹56.50 Lakhs (~US$ 72,858)

Final Table Results
1st: Mahesh Shyamsundar – ₹8,15,579*
2nd: Sameer Agarwal – ₹9,87,442*
3rd: Kanishka Samant – ₹6,74,788*
4th: Harsh Bubna – ₹7,19,791*
5th: Arjanveer Singh Chadha – ₹2,72,000
6th: Kumar Vatsal – ₹2,25,400
7th: Samay Singh Modi – ₹1,92,100
8th: Ashish Ahuja – ₹1,63,900
*Denotes deal was made

Collecting a much heftier buy-in, the ₹100K High Roller side event recorded 163 entries with only 21 players making the money. The two-day tournament saw its bout of regular tournament crushers battle it out on the field falling swiftly into the hands of champion Alok Birewar’s overwhelming chip lead throughout. Birewar entered the final table sitting with nearly 40% of the total chips in play and proceeded to eliminate six of his seven opponents. Second in chips and last to remain in contention was #2 ranked online MTT player Arsh Grover who struck a deal to secure a ₹31,00,000 payout. With Birewar’s run unstoppable, his striking chip lead led him to clinch his first IPC title and career-best ₹40.71 Lakhs just shortly after.

₹100K High Roller
Dates: May 19 to 20, 2022
Buy in: IN₹ 100,000 (~US$ 1,304)
Guarantee: IN₹ 1 Crore (~US$ 130,403)

Final Table Results
1st: Alok Birewar – ₹40,71,000*
2nd: Arsh Grover – ₹31,00,000*
3rd: Faiz Alam – ₹16,72,400
4th: Siddhanth Kapoor – ₹10,17,900
5th: Nikita Luther – ₹7,85,700
6th: Anuj Yadav – ₹6,51,200
7th: Aly Goni – ₹5,64,000
8th: Abhinav Iyer – ₹4,97,200
*Denotes deal was made

A first of its kind, the single day ₹15K Mystery Bounty event saw 105 entries and only the top 14 players cashing in on the ₹24,700 minimum payout. Similarly, Pokerguru ambassador Vivek Singh dominated the final table, not once losing his chip lead throughout the end game. By heads up play, Vivek Singh held a 5:1 chip advantage against Yuvraj Singh and carried on to lock in the ₹3.14 Lakhs payday (excluding bounties) and his second live tournament title.

₹15K Mystery Bounty
Dates: May 22, 2022
Buy in: IN₹ 15,000 (~US$ 193)

Final Table Results
1st: Vivek Singh – ₹3,14,900
2nd: Yuvraj Singh – ₹1,94,300
3rd: Avijit Jaiswal – ₹1,16,600
4th: Abhishek Jain – ₹76,100
5th: Sarala Ramakrishnan – ₹58,800
6th: Faiz Alam – ₹48,300
7th: Harshad Barve – ₹41,000
8th: Vikaash Shah – ₹35,700