This Week in Poker: August 26 – 1

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 seems to be vibrant season for poker, with several live and online opportunities lined up. If the last week was dominated by EPT 12 Barcelona, its now the turn of the Macau Poker Cup 23! Macau is currently the epicenter of poker activity, as players from all over Asia throng to make the series. A strong Indian contingent is gearing up in pursuit of the elusive Red Dragon trophy.

Already on, the MPC 23 took off on a high note, with a record-353 entry crowd at its Baby Dragon Event. Indian players have already thrown the gauntlet, with three final table finishes in as many days. Not surprisingly, it`s once again Kunal Patni who is trailblazing the way at his favorite destination, with a 6<sup>th</sup> place finish in Event 1 for HK $24,120 and another, a 7<sup>th</sup> place in Event 3 – HK $2,500 KO Bounty for HK $14,690. It`s been five final table finishes for this ex-banker from Mumbai since his 2014 ACOP Spadie win in Oct last year, but despite the consistency, he has been unable to close the job for a follow-up title. However, there are many more events to go and considering Patni’s current form; we can certainly look for many more exploits from him in the coming days.

The other big headliner was Macau regular and Hong Kong-based Indian origin player Shashank Rathi. Rathi too, has already taken two cashes at MPC 23. He first made a 15^th place finish in the opening event for HK $7,240 and followed it up with a 6^th place finish in the Baby Dragon for HK $78,600.

The two above, will soon be joined by several more Indian players, which include Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal, Team Thrill Pros Jasven Saigal, Haresh “Kavish” Kukreja, Danish Shaikh, Dhaval Mudgal and Shravan Chhabria. Amit Jain and Aditya Sushant are also expected to join them in time for the Red Dragon Main Event.

On the domestic front, the excitement has already begun for the IPC Oct edition, the schedule for which has been announced. Satellites have started on Spartan Poker, the series’ title Sponsors. With buy-ins starting as low as ₹25, you can now take a shot for a chance to win possibly several Lakhs at the big stage in Goa come October!

In our Online Railbird section, there are several huge scores that saw a number of notables raking in the moolah. Shashank ‘felter1989’ Jain is our ‘PokerGuru Star of the Week‘. Jain collected a five figure payout of $29,231.20 on the PokerStars ‘$215 Sunday 2nd Chance, $175K GTD’. It was Jain’s first five-figure score after his win at ‘The Big $109’ on PokerStars in June this year.

Online players can also look forward to a block-buster of a promotion – Spartan Bankroll Challenge that has been launched by PokerGuru and Spartan Poker.

In live tournaments, the EPT 12 Barcelona wound down to a close, with a dry run for the small Indian team of Samay Parikh, Raghav Bansal and Ankit Ahuja. However, top international pros made a killing at the series. John Juanda won the Main Event, with Mustapha Kanit taking down the High Roller and Martin Finger triumphed in the $25,000 High Roller.

We also have news from Goa, where the off-shore casinos have been given a new deadline for shifting. In other news, PokerStars released a monster PCA schedule. Jason Somerville signed up with DraftKings and Asia can look forward to a new series with the IPO.

There is also the news of Google launching YouTube Gaming to combat Twitch TV. Finally, WSOP Circuit includes the Czech Republic in its 2015-2016 tour with a stop at King’s Casino, Rozvadev.

Online Railbird Report

It was a super-Sunday for Indian players, with numerous big scores. The most notable win this week was by Shashank ‘felter1989’ Jain, who won the PokerStars ‘$215 Sunday 2nd Chance, $175K GTD’ for $29,231.20, making him our “PokerGuru Star of the Week.”

– Close on his heels is Amit ‘bblacklegend’ Jain with a total of three scores amounting to $23,640 in total, all at PokerStars. Jain won $1,567.20 for 18^th place in the ‘$109+R Sunday Rebuy, $175K GTD’. He also made $14,639.04 for a runner-up finish in the ‘The Hotter $75 [Turbo], $100K GTD’ the same day. On Saturday, Jain won $5,487.30 for 4^th place in the ‘The Big $162, $60K GTD’.

– Sunday saw Jasven ‘jasven06’ Saigal collecting $6,197.70 in ‘The Big $109, $65K GTD’ from his 4^th place finish at PokerStars.

– Arsh ‘bigggTymeR’ Grover had two scores at PokerStars, first for a 66^th place finish in the ‘$215 Sunday Million, $1M GTD’ for $1,629.00. He also made $2,702.70 for 7th place in ‘The Big $109, $65K GTD’.

– ‘Rajesh_asi’ won $1,695.0 for 1^st place in the PokerStars ‘$2.70 NL Hold’em [Turbo, Knockout], $10K GTD’.

In other big news from the virtual felts, online players now get a unique opportunity from Spartan Poker. The site has launched a once-in-a-lifetime Bankroll Challenge, where upto 30 lucky players will get a starting bankroll of ₹25,000 on the site to play cash games and battle it out to emerge as one of the top three winners! The three winners will get one-on-one coaching by Team Spartan Pro Rohit Bhalla along with a staking deal on Spartan Poker.

Besides that, there is also a new event at 888poker. The Octopus, a $215 High Roller has been inducted by the site for Saturdays. The largest of events to date, it will carry a guarantee of $25,000.

The whopper though, will be the PokerStars WCOOP which begins on Sept 6 and features a $10 Million GTD Main Event, besides a new Super High Roller Hold’em tournament, with a $51,000 buy-in and optional re-entries. The series features a massive $45 Million in guarantees and special prizes for the top finishers on the ‘Player of the Series’ Leaderboard. Satellites to the series have begun on PokerStars and are available from as little as $0.11, or just 1 FPP.

Macau Poker Cup (MPC) 23

The MPC 23 started with Indians making a splash. The series will have one of the strongest ever Indian contingents in attendance and if these initial scores are anything to go by, we can expect major fireworks, once the rest of the crew reaches Macau.

Event 1 – HK $2,000 Deepstack NLH

Maurice Tan won the Deepstack event for HK $125,970, after beating 307 players. The event had a prize pool of $536,022. Kunal Patni made a 6^th place finish for HK $24,120.

Event 2 – HK $6000 ,Baby Dragon

The HK $1 Million GTD Baby Dragon broke records with 353 entries that lead to a prize pool of HK $1,849,014. Xiang Rong was the ultimate winner, collecting HK $430,014.

Two Indians made the money. Shashank Rathi final-tabled making HK $78,600 for 6^th place and Pratik Ramesh Mehta from Australia cashed HK $24,000 in 15th place.

Event 3 – HK $2,500 KO Bounty

194 players lined up for the Bounty event and finally, it was Chun-Hung Chen who took the title and the major share of HK $81,600 from the prize pool of HK $326,405. Kunal Patni made his way to the final table, where he finished 7^th for HK $14,690.

India Poker Championship Releases October Edition Schedule

Players can rejoice, as the schedule for the IPC Oct has been announced. Organizers have gone back to the shorter 5-day version and this time the series will run from Oct 7 – 11. The 60K High Roller Event introduced in August has been dropped this time around and the 8K Greed Knockout Event has been changed to a bounty event,

Spartan Poker are once again the title sponsors for the IPC Oct series and online satellites are already underway on the site.

Read the complete story here.

EPT 12 Barcelona

India had three players at the EPT 12, but not much luck was in evidence. The series did however, break records in several events.

John Juanda Wins Record-Breaking Main Event

It was a record-breaking Main Event with 1,694 entries and it was John Juanda who won it for a smashing €1,022,593 payday. A three-handed deal was struck and though Steve Warbuton got the largest piece, he ended runner-up with Juanda eventually taking the top prize and the title.

Read the complete story here.

Mustapha Kanit Takes Down €10,300 High Roller

Mustapha Kanit claimed the €10,300 High Roller for €738,759, catapulting to the top of Italy’s All-Time money list. The win came after a three-way deal and runner-up was Indian-origin player Kuljinder Sidhu who took home €640,000.

Read the complete story here

Martin Finger Wins €25,000 High Roller

The €25,000 High Roller was extended into a 2-day event, due to the huge entry-field and the slow play on Day 1. On Day 2, Martin Finger persevered to take the title and the trophy, along with the €865,900 first prize.

Read the complete story here.

EPT Side Events

A number of side events took place at the EPT 12 Barcelona. PokerStars Supernova Elite Javier “MuckeDBoY” Tazon won the €2,000 Estrellas High Roller, after a four-way deal that got him €202,630.

In the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha, it was Pedro Zagalo who took the title for €98,700. Andrey Zhigalov won two events, the €5,000 Razz for €25,925, as well as the €5,000 HORSE for €40,332.

Sebastian Pauli was the winner of the €500 Limit Razz for €6,930.

The €1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo saw a winner in Jack Salter, who collected €44,910.

Goa Casino Reprieve

The off-shore casinos, which were supposed to shift by year-end, got a reprieve from the govt, which extended the deadline to March 2016. The casinos had a two-year agreement and the first deadline was for Deltin JAQK which had its expiry on Aug 29.

Read the complete story here.

PokerStars PCA Schedule

The 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure has been released and promises to be a monster one, with 104 events scheduled between Jan 6 to 14, 2016.

In a first, PokerStars have reduced the Main Event buy-in to half. The schedule will feature popular events, as well as unique format events and several high rollers to appease all appetites.

Acquisitions and Mergers

Poker Asia Pacific Sold

Australian poker news site Poker Asia Pacific has been bought up by pro Luke Barbin’s company Plus EV Pty Ltd for an undisclosed amount.

Read the complete story here.

Paddy Power and Betfair Discuss Merger Deal

In another news, sports betting giants Paddy Power and Betfair are looking at merging their entities to form the largest ever online and betting company, with both having more than €1.5 billion in revenue this year.

Jason Somerville Signs Up With DraftKings

A new partnership has been inked with Jason Somerville and the daily sports fantasy giant site DraftKings for two years. Somerville is expected to promote the site on his popular Twitch TV show, Run it UP. In return, DraftKings will host satellites to Somerville’s recently announced live event, ‘Run it UP Reno’.

Read the complete story here.

New Tournament Series For Asia

Asia is set to get a new poker tournament series in the International Poker Open (IPO). The Maryland-based company’s brand already held its first event in South Korea and is now looking to expand all across Asia. It has also tied up with the Genting Group to utilize their resources.

Read the complete story here.

YouTube To Compete With Twitch

Google has just launched a new broadcast option for poker streaming with YouTube Gaming. This initiative is set to compete with Twitch TV, which Google had failed to acquire last year. The new launch has several drawbacks, but promises to hold potential for the future.

WSOP Circuit Stop At Rozvadov In Czech Republic

The WSOP Circuit has chosen Rozvadov in Czech Republic as one of its stops for its 2015-16 season. The King’s Casino will host the series with 13 ring events. The highlight will be a €1,650 buy-in Main Event, with a huge €1,000,000 guarantee.

Read the complete story here.

That wraps up this week’s report. We will return same time next week, with all updates from poker world, so stay with us.