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This Week in Poker: April 20 – 26

PG News April 26, 2016
8 mins Read

In the PokerGuru feature ‘This Week in Poker’ we bring to you the weekly round up of the biggest online scores by Indian MTT players along with the top stories from both the live and online poker circuit.

Here are this week`s top stories

It was another eventful week, but one with significant good news for poker in India. A collective sigh of relief welcomed the judgment by the Delhi High Court on April 21, when it disposed the Adda52 ‘Poker for Stakes’ case, Gaussian Network Pvt Ltd v. Monica Lakhanpal & National Capital Territory of Delhi.

Players across India will experience an upbeat poker environment with the inaugural New World of Sports Club (NWOS) poker festival kicking off the poker scene in Pune. In Kolkata, there will be a new tournament, with the Greed Championship at the newly revamped Aquarium 7 poker room, even as a Bounty event concluded at the Turn N Riva poker room.

Online has its own share of action lined up with two exclusive promotions with the Knockout Challenges ($120K GTD Weekly) at PokerStars and 888poker’s Super XL Series ($3 Million GTD). And, of course, the action continues at Spartan Poker with the Bad Beat Jackpot that still has INR 5.50 lakhs up for grabs.

The online felts were pretty dry this week, with few scores to show. Of these Dhananjaya ‘DannySharma’ Sharma takes our “PokerGuru Star of the Week” title for two cashes amounting to more than $7,000.

The past week saw the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Philippines 2016 conclude with Shravan Chabbria and Srinivas Polyshetty making the most cashes, while Dhaval Mudgal made the deepest run in the Main Event.

The Asian Championship of Poker (ACOP Platinum Series XIII) was another series that ended, after running from April 19 to 24. The HK$5,500 Main Event was won by China’s Zhi Lin for HK$258,810.

Besides the above, we also bring you news about the online legal poker status in America and the GPL reaching out to Chinese fans via television.

In our tournament round-up, we have reports from several World Poker Tour (WPT) events at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown (SHRPS) stop, as well as from the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit stop at Harrah’s Cherokee.

Online Railbird Report

Dhananjaya ‘DannySharma’ Sharma made two scores the past week, totaling a little more than $7K. He made a third place finish in PokerStars ‘The $55, $70K GTD’ for $6,762 and also an eighth place in the PokerStars ‘$109 NLH’ for $469. For this, Sharma tops the weekly cashes list to debut as our “PokerGuru Star of the Week”.

Dhananjaya Sharma

Other notable scores include –

Romit ‘full_83_tilt’ Advani cashed $1,865.49 for 58^th place in the PokerStars ‘$215 Sunday Million, $1M GTD’.

Arsh ‘BigggTymeR’ Grover won the PokerStars ‘$11 NL Hold’em [1R1A], $6K GTD’ for $1,461.04

‘pinkyboy12’ scored a seventh place finish for $1,403.63 in the PokerStars ‘The Hot $55 [Turbo], $50K GTD’.

Online enthusiasts will have a lot going for them the coming days with several enticing offers at domestic and international sites.

Spartan Poker – BBJ & NWOS Satellites

Once again, Spartan Poker, India’s fastest growing site has launched another exciting promo – Crack The Bad Beat Jackpot (BBJ). With over 11 lakhs in the BBJ jackpot, Spartan Poker reduced the BBJ criteria from Quad deuces to Aces full across all three pools – bronze, silver and gold. While the silver and bronze jackpots have been cracked, the gold jackpot amounting to INR 5.50 Lakhs is still in play. Rush now to shield yourself from a bad beat and make a windfall in the bargain.

Additionally, online satellites to the upcoming NWOS poker festival, which will run from April 29 to May 1 will be available on Spartan Poker. Players can choose from a Mega Satellite or Step Satellites.

Alternately, players can also buy-in directly to the NWOS event and get an exclusive INR 5K bonus from Spartan Poker.

Read the complete promotion here.

PokerStars – Knockout Poker Challenges & Enticing New MTT Schedule

An all-new promo is up at PokerStars, running from April 22 to May 12 for the toughest fighters with the Knockout Poker Challenges! Stiff a player and stand to collect rewards from a guaranteed $120,000 a week! Read more here.

A smart new MTT schedule has been arranged at PokerStars, starting April 25. Players will get better access to major tournaments, ease of timings, hourly tournaments and a varied menu of events with this new schedule. Read more here.

888poker Tie-Up

In other news, 888poker has inked a two-year deal with the Swedish Poker Federation. This move has been made as part of 888poker’s business plans and will see it host online aspects of Swedish Poker Championships.

Read the complete story here.

Adda 52 Legal Case Disposed By Delhi Court

In another sign of poker increasingly becoming accepted within the country, the Delhi High Court set aside the earlier ‘online poker for stakes illegal’ ruling by the District Court. In the hearing for the Gaussian Network Pvt Ltd v. Monica Lakhanpal & National Capital Territory of Delhi, the judge also allowed the petition to be withdrawn, disposing the case!

Read the complete story here.

Kolkata News

Mayank Agarwal Wins Turn N Riva Bounty Event

Local player, Mayank Agarwal won the INR 10K Bounty event held at the Turn N Riva poker room in Kolkata. A heads up deal saw the winner getting a tad less than the runner-up, with INR 80K as the top prize.

Mayank Agarwal

Read the complete story here.

Debut Greed Championship At Aquarium 7

The newly re-branded Aquarium 7 poker room is all set to host its first poker tournament, the Greed Championship on May 1, 2016. The event will have a buy-in of INR 50K and a huge INR 10 Lakhs guaranteed.

Legality Of Online Poker in USA

Michigan

Michigan became the latest state to seek the legalization of online poker, with the proposal of a bill in the assembly. The bill addresses the setting up of a regulated online poker market and may even allow shared liquidity.

Read the complete story here.

California

Simultaneously, the long-pending California online poker bill saw positive movement this week. Days before its scheduled hearing on April 27, the bill which had been re-introduced with a $60 million compensation to the horseracing industry saw further amendments. These involved the prickling matter of the ‘bad actor’ clause and were subsequently met with approval by the horseracing federations.

Read the complete story here.

APT Philippines 2016

The APT Philippines 2016 concluded last week, with Korean Seung Soo Jeon winning the Main Event for $116,100.

Seung Soo Jeon

The star of the Indian contingent was Shravan Chhabria who cashed in three events – he first scored a 12^th place in the Opening Event, with a ninth place in the Event 4 – Ante Up Charity Event. Finally, Chhabria made a fourth place in Event 18 – $220 6-Max Turbo with Ante.

Srinivas Polishetty made two runner-up finishes in Event 4 and in Event 19 respectively. Indian-origin Piyush Gupta cashed in Event 13 for third place.

Read the complete story here.

GPL Sina Sports Alliance

The Global Poker League will now be available to fans even in China, with a strategic tie-up. The ambitious poker brand will have China’s leading digital sports media company Sina Sports as its television partner. There will be an exclusive poker channel, focusing on GPL matches and educative poker content.

Read the complete story here.

Chino Rheem Claims Historic Third WPT Title

Chino Rheem won the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $10,000 Finale for $705,885. He now joins an elite club of four players with three WPT titles. The win also netted him an entry to the first-ever WPT Tournament of Champions.

Chino Rheem

Read the complete story here.

WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown (SHRPS) 2016 Winners

Beating the 1,222 entries at the WPT SHRPS event was and defeating them all Justin Young, who took home the lion’s share of $669,161.

Justin Young

At the same stop, David Malka emerged the winner of the SHRPS High Roller for $658,000, which was almost double his live tournament earnings till date.

David Malka

Read the complete story here.

Farid Yachau Takes Down WPT Tournament of Champions

Overcoming his fear of flying, Farid Yachau finally made it to America and went on to become the first ever WPT Tournament of Champions winner. He collected a bundle of goodies, including a 2016 Corvette.

Farid Yachau

Read the complete story here.

Stan Weiss Claims First WSOPC Ring at Harrah’s Cherokee

At 69, Stan Weiss came back from a bad few years and proved his mettle by collecting his first WSOP Circuit ring at Harrah’s Cherokee for $158,768, and what’s more, the veteran did it by riding just one bullet.