Day 5: Mithun Mahesh scores a trophy at the High Rollers event; Mohit Mehta, Rugal Advani, Vinay Rajpal, and Chirag Sodha win events

Day 5 at the APT Online Series India 2021 2.0 served up a menu of seven games that kept players very busy clicking throughout the night. Mithun “thepokeraja” Mahesh walked away as the biggest winner, lifting an APT Trophy for his triumph at the High Roller event. Other victorious players were Mohit “thejoker” Mehta, Rugal “Smikijoejr” Advani, Chirag “miyagi” Sodha, and Vinay “vinay09” Rajpal who became the first player to win two events in this series. He has taken over the top spot in APT Player of the Series leaderboard. Check out our recaps below.

The festival headliner Main Event also took the floor with 32 players out of 267 runners advancing to the final day. You can view the chip counts via the link provided. 

Main Event Day 1A

The series is down to its last three days at PokerBaazi.com with the final games on August 8. The festival guarantees IN₹  8 Crore (~US$ 1,075,570) across 44 tournaments. After five days of action, it has paid out over IN₹ 4.75 Crore (~US$ 640,750). More cash to be won including the last four trophies and two rings. Browse the schedule and sign up! 

APT Online Series India 2021 schedule

The APT Player of the Series race is officially underway. Players that have cashed at any of the APT events (satellites not included) received points towards the leaderboard. The player with the highest number of points accrued at the completion of the festival wins the APT POS Trophy, APT POS Ring, and a luxury watch. Top 25 players will also receive a piece of IN₹ 30 Lac (~US$ 40,35) in Real Cash Bonus (RCB) with the winner guaranteed IN₹ 6 Lac (~US$ 8,100). After five days of games, Vinay “vinay09” Rajpal has overtaken Aman “KarmaPoker” Parakh who held the lead for the first four days. Here are the top 10 in points:

Trophy Event: High Roller – Mithun “thepokeraja” Mahesh – IN₹ 16.57L (~US$ 22,300)

The High Roller event spiced up the night as many Indian pros came out to display their prowess. In the aftermath, it took over ten and a half hours to whittle down the 264 entry field to a champion. Emerging victorious was Mithun “thepokeraja” Mahesh who denied Aditya “gangajal” Sushant at heads up to claim the APT Trophy and the handsome IN₹ 16.57L first prize. This was Mahesh’s first ever APT win. 

At the fall of Arjanveer “holdbaby” Singh, the remaining 63 players were guaranteed a piece of the IN₹ 75 Lac pot. First to cash was Harsh Kumar “100crdream” Dembla, he was followed by Neel “Worm33” Joshi, Kartik “theinternetkid” Ved, Romit “tilt83” Advani, Arsh “Button_Hai_Bro” Grover, Priyank “Piko1432” Kothari, and Laksh Pal “boomtlt23” Singh who fell on a cooler to the final table bubble. Singh had pocket Queens, Abhishek “singhsaab” Goindi had him beat with pocket Kings.

The first casualty of the final table was Championship Event winner Gaurav “gaug17” Sood. After several double ups, short stacked Shravan “Fishstars” Chhabria lost it all to Goindi but four hands later, Goindi was flushed out by Aditya “ganajal” Sushant.  Sushant continued the streak, railing Ankit “d00mtr00p3r” Wadhawan with 9 9 holding against Q J that missed to bring about heads up. 

The final challenge kicked off seeing Sushant slightly ahead of Mithun “thepokeraja” Mahesh. The standings quickly switched giving Mahesh the advantage which widened to 2:1. Mahesh continued to shave down Sushant leading to the final hand. Sushant all in with K 7, Mahesh was ahead with A 3, the flop brought a seven for a pair to Sushant then a river ace for Mahesh to ship it. 

Buy in: IN₹ 27.5K
Guarantee: IN₹ 75 Lac
Entries: 264 (151 uniques, 113 re-entries)
Prize pool: IN₹ 75 Lac
ITM: 36 places
Running time: 10 hours and 37 minutes

Final table payouts

1st Mithun “thepokeraja” Mahesh – IN₹ 16.57L
2nd Aditya “gangajal” Sushant – IN₹ 11.63L
3rd Ankit “d00mtr00p3r” Wadhawan – IN₹ 7.48L
4th Abhishek “singhsaab” Goindi – IN₹ 5.54L
5th Shravan “Fishstars” Chhabria – IN₹ 4.16L
6th Gaurav “gaug17” Sood – IN₹ 3.32L

APT #26: Hyper Turbo 4-Max – Mohit “thejoker” Mehta – IN₹ 85.7K (~US$ 1,155)

Another speedy event with the Hyper Turbo 4-Max clocking in at just under three and a half hours. The final three players reached a deal with chip leader Mohit “thejoker” Mehta guaranteed the largest ICM payout of IN₹ 85.7K. Mehta went on to win it, railing both “rohin01″ and Shashank “indianrat” Desai. The final showdown was Desai K Q, Mehta A 10, the board favored the better hand as it ran A 5 9 A 2

Buy in: IN₹ 1,100 (~US$ 15)
Guarantee: IN₹ 5 Lac 
Entries: 473 (216 uniques, 257 re-entries)
Prize pool: IN₹ 5 Lac 
ITM: 54 places 
Running time: 3 hours and 21 minutes

Final table payouts

1st Mohit “thejoker” Mehta – IN₹ 85.7K (three-way deal)
2nd Shashank “indianrat” Desai – IN₹ 76.66K (three-way deal)
3rd “rohin01” – IN₹ 53.89K (three-way deal)
4th Vivekk “Vivek25” Dube – IN₹ 33.5K 

APT #27: Monster Stack – Rugal “Smikijoejr” Advani – IN₹ 2.1L (~US$ 2,830)

Rugal “Smikijoejr” Advani tore through a field of 379 entries at the Monster Stack event to claim his first APT win and the IN₹ 2.1L first prize. The event concluded in just under six and a half hours. During the final table, Advani outkicked and kicked out “naza114” with Q J over J 10 on a board 8 7 J 4 6. Advani collected more chips by knocking out  Shubham “ShUbh1995” Nirban with pocket Twos straight. After “yamaying” cleaned out “benjr” in 3rd place, it was heads up with Advani ahead well over 3:1. The first minute hadn’t even passed and the deed was done. Advani closed it out with 10 10 straight besting  A 9  top pair on a board J 2 Q A K.

Buy in: IN₹ 2,750
Guarantee: IN₹ 10 Lac
Entries: 379 (195 uniques, 184 re-entries)
Prize pool: IN₹ 10 Lac
ITM: 45 places
Running time: 6 hours and 21 minutes

Final table payouts

1st Rugal “Smikijoejr” Advani – IN₹ 2.1L
2nd “yamaying” – IN₹ 1.47L
3rd benjr – IN₹ 94.5K
4th Shubham “ShUbh1995” Nirban – IN₹ 70K
5th Aditya “konstantin” Singh – IN₹ 52.5K
6th “naza114” – IN₹ 42K
7th “ishan1993” – IN₹ 35K
8th Shravan “FishStars” Chhabria – IN₹ 28K

APT #28: Megastack –  Vinay “vinay09” Rajpal – IN₹ 98.11K (~US$ 1,322)

Vinay “vinay09” Rajpal became the first player to win two events after taking down Day 5’s Megastack. Rajpal’s first win was in Day 2 where he shipped the Pot Limit Omaha event for IN₹ 1.94L. He now holds the top spot in the series leaderboard.

Rajpal’s road to his second victory was not without difficulty. He bought in a total of six times, the most out of everyone at the final table. He delivered the first final table casualty to player “Insanium” who entered with the biggest stack but bumped heads with the second big stack Gurupasad “fish_calling” Gupta and plummeted. After several more eliminations, Rajpal cleaned out player “Mayuri007” to bring about three-handed with everyone fairly close in stacks. A deal was reached awarding Rajpal the highest pay for his chip lead. Rajpal proceeded to rail Gupta (3rd) to carry the larger stack into heads up against Mayank “Newsolidcash” Maruka. Maruka went to work quick, picking up pots to steal the lead. Then in one fell swoop, Maruka’s stack plunged to 6 bb on a failed bluff. With progressive bets to the river, Rajpal checked, Maruka jammed, Rajpal called with a winning 10 10 over 4 6 on a board 2 7 K 8 J. Rajpal went on to finish Maruka to claim his second title in this series. (Hand pictured above)

Buy in: IN₹ 1,375
Guarantee: IN₹ 6 Lac
Entries: 533 (260 uniques, 273 re-entries)
Prize pool: IN₹ 6.66 Lac
ITM: 63 places
Running time: 7 hours and 37 minutes

Final table payouts

1st Vinay “vinay09” Rajpal – IN₹ 98.11K (three way deal)
2nd Mayank “Newsolidcash” Maruka – IN₹ 90.87K (three way deal)
3rd Gurupasad “fish_calling” Gupta – IN₹ 89.57K (three way deal)
4th “Mayuri007” – IN₹ 43.17K
5th Rafiq “Mrkhan” Khan – IN₹ 32.38K
6th “SharkTav95” – IN₹ 25.98K
7th “oidcmq55her” – IN₹ 21.65K
8th “Insanium” – IN₹ 17.26K

APT #30: Deepstack – Nitin “philhermouth” Arora – IN₹ 3.19L (~US$ 4,300)

265  players jumped in the Deepstack event with 282 re-entering for 547 total entries and a prize pool of IN₹ 16.41 Lac (~US$ 22,100).  Among the top 63 players that cashed, Nitin “philhermouth” Arora walked away with the thickest wad worth  IN₹ 3.19L (~US$ 4,300) for his victory. 

The Deepstack event ran for nine hours with roughly two hours spent at the final table. Initial action was commanded by Akshat “takingcuntrol” Sharma who knocked out the first two players. Next to go was Ashit “nexus010” Sharma then Manish “thekid” Lakhotia fell to Arora. What followed was a very long four handed match. Arora outdrew Suyog “Suyoggaikwad” Gaikwad to end the round but three handed was just as grueling with the lead moving around the virtual felt. Arora got the better of Sharma to face Sekar at heads up. Ahead over 2:1, Arora went on to close it out on the fifth hand. His Q J won the flip against Sekar’s {6s 6 on a board of A J J A 7

Buy in: IN₹ 3,300
Guarantee: IN₹ 15 Lac
Entries: 547 (265 uniques, 282 re-entries)
Prize pool: IN₹ 16.41 Lac
ITM: 63 places
Running time: 9 hours 

Final table payouts

1st Nitin “philhermouth” Arora – IN₹ 3.19L
2nd Prashanth “Iveyleague” Sekar – IN₹ 2.24L
3rd Akshat “takingcuntrol” Sharma – IN₹ 1.44L
4th Suyog “Suyoggaikwad” Gaikwad – IN₹ 1.06L
5th Ashit “nexus010” Sharma – IN₹ 79.75K
6th Manish “thekid” Lakhotia – IN₹ 64K
7th Ranjeet “Rj147” Negi – IN₹ 53.33K
8th Mr.XOXO – IN₹ 42.5K

APT #32: Turbo 6-Max – Chirag “miyagi” Sodha – IN₹ 1.68L – (~US$ 2,260)

After four previous final tables, Chirag “miyagi” Sodha finally bagged it on his fifth visit. Sodha topped the 592 entry field of the Turbo 6-Max, crushing Vinay “Vinstill” B at heads up, to earn the win and the IN₹ 1.68L first prize. He also earned points towards the APT Player of the Series leaderboard where he is currently ranked 3rd. 

Buy in: IN₹ 1,650
Guarantee: IN₹ 8L
Entries: 592 (316 uniques, 276 re-entries)
Prize pool: IN₹ 8.88L
ITM: 72 places
Running time: 5 hours and 30 minutes

Final table payouts

1st Chirag “miyagi” Sodha – IN₹ 1.68L
2nd Vinay “Vinstill” B – IN₹ 1.18L
3rd “TheTamizhDurrr” – IN₹ 75.66K
4th “Steelbala” – IN₹56.03K
5th Aayush “Goyal0279” Goyal – IN₹42K
6th Neeraj “SelfClaimedPro” Kumar – IN₹33.66K