This Week in Poker: July 22 – 28

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

This edition, our Online Railbird Report features many Indian players making good scores. Vaibhav ‘kill_619’ Sharma is the ‘PokerGuru Star of the Week‘ with two wins amounting to $6,192.

It’s as if jetlag has finally caught up with most regulars, as hardly any of the WSOP goers were to be seen in action this week, except for Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal. Aditya has been busy at the online tables with three final tables making more than $4,000. It looks as if Aditya is busy honing his skills in preparation for the upcoming APPT 9 Manila series. Once again, Aditya will be leading a large Indian team, this time to APPT 9 Manila, which will unfold from July 31 to Aug 9.

Aditya Sushant, Amit Jain, Archit Khandelwal, Haresh Kukreja, Romit Advani, Shravan Chhabria, Madhav Gupta, Rohit Bhalla, and Samay Parikh are some of those expected to join the action at APPT 9 Manila.

In our other news sections, we bring you reports about the country’s first online gambling bill to be passed in Nagaland, spelling a milestone for the game in India. Then we have news of an new exciting series by Adda52 that is set to make its debut at the Rockets poker room in Bengaluru.

The international news reports covers two important stories of mergers, one successfully completed and the other still under deliberation.

Poker gets greater credibility with a free online course at the MIT. Two new brand tie-ups, the successful beginning of the WPT at Choctaw and the Main Event at the LAPT Peru are other stories that round up this week’s report…

Online Railbird Report

Vaibhav “kill_619” Sharma is our ‘PokerGuru Star of the Week‘. Vaibhav made a total of $6,192 from two third place finishes, both at PokerStars on Sunday. At the ‘$8.80 NL Hold’em [1R1A], $35K GTD’ – Sunday Edition he won $4,336.36 and at the ‘$5.50 NL Hold’em [2R1A], $12K GTD’ he made $1,856.71.

Post-WSOP Aditya ‘Adi Agarwal’ Agarwal is sure making good use of his time, utilizing it at the virtual felts. This week, he makes three final table finishes, accumulating almost $5,000 from all.

– Aditya’s cashes are all on PokerStars and scattered all through the week, with the first on last Thursday, July 23, where he made $1,956.01 from his runner up finish at the ‘$82 NL Hold’em [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo], $10K GTD’. He next made $1,246.00 for fifth place in the ‘$215 NL Hold’em [Turbo, Re-Entry], $10K GTD’ on Friday. Aditya’s third cash was on Monday, where he won $1,285.59 for third place in the ‘$82 NL Hold’em [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo], $7.5K GTD.’

Sunday proved to be a good day for Karan ‘Karan Radia’ Radia and Phanindra ‘terabyte11’ Akinna also.

– Karan Radia made a third place finish in the Party Poker ‘Sunday Major: $10,000 GTD’, collecting $1,175.18.

– Phanindra Akinna won $2,215.89 for fourth place in the PokerStars ‘MicroMillions-099: $3.30 NL Hold’em [Turbo], $40K GTD’.

– Sharad ‘keenyle’ Rao made $2,442.13 for fourth place in the PokerStars ‘$27 Saturday Eliminator [Progressive Super-Knockout], $70K GTD’.

– vineetpoker won the 888 Poker ‘$3,000 Guaranteed Turbo R&A’ for $1,170. In addition, vineetpoker started the week with a second place in the 888 Poker ‘The $5,000 Lightning 6-Max’ for $1,160.

Online railbirds seem to be having a full plate with the continuous action. The MicroMillions 11 have just finished a 11-day schedule. Canadian “Nolet20” emerged the winner of the $22 Main Event, collecting a prize of $89,854. A final five-handed deal saw Nolet20 getting far less than expected. The event drew a whopping 55,524 entries and collected a prize pool of $1,110,480.

The fun continues though, with the new “MEGA BONUS” offer at PokerStars, which has four weeks to claim random rewards with a massive $100K top cash prize. All for just a $25 minimum deposit.

In our other news section, we begin with the latest legal issue to affect the future of poker in India…

Nagaland Set To Become First State To Legalize Online Gambling

Even as different cases linger in the courts, the ruling party of Nagaland – the Nagaland People’s Front has decided to go ahead and legalize online gambling in the state. A new bill to do so has been proposed and with the majority enjoyed by the NPF, it is expected to be passed within the next few days. The Chief Minister introduced the bill and it is believed that rummy and poker would come within its gambit.

Earlier, Sikkim had issued three online “go live” licenses, but withheld operations due to amendments in its existing laws.

Thus, Nagaland’s move is set to be a historic one for poker and will positively affect the future of the game in the country.

Read the complete story here.

Adda52 LIVE To Take Flight on July 31 at Rockets Poker Room, Bengaluru

Another important news in India is the announcement of the new series by leading site Adda52. The site is known for its several promos to promote poker and now, it is launching a new live series called the Adda52 LIVE, which begins on July 31, with a INR 1 Lakh GTD event.

Adda52 has tied up with the Rockets Poker Room at Bengaluru, where the first edition will be held. In all there will be three events, with special concessions for Adda52 and Rockets poker room regulars.

Read the complete story here.

GVC Goes Independent To Win bwin.party

Moving to international news, GVC Holdings, which had initially bid for the acquisition of bwin.party along with Amaya has now ditched the latter and is now going solo.

GVC not only is bidding independently, but has now increased its offer to $1.55 Billion in a move to outbid 888 Holdings, which was close to taking over bwin.party for an amount of $1.4 Billion.

GVC announced the news and the markets immediately reacted with bwin.party shares rising.

Read the complete story here.

Ladbrokes & Coral Collaborate To Form Larger Entity

In England a different kind of merger took place, when rivals Ladbrokes PLC and Gala Coral joined hands to form a new company called Ladbrokes Coral.

The new entity would now be worth $3.4 Billion and collectively own almost 4,000 outlets, which would make it larger than the current largest William Hill, with its 2,360 licensed betting shops.

Read the complete story here.

MIT Offers Free Poker Training Course

Poker had gained a new credibility, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology starting a new course to teach students poker and its strategy.

The online course offered by MIT uses applied theory and mathematics to help students develop the skills required to play and win at poker. Finance graduate student, Kevin Desmond is the coach, along with Joel Fried, Aaron Brown, bracelet winners Bill Chen and Matt Hawrilenko. .

Read the complete story here.

Latest Brand Ambassadors

Since last year, most companies have been on a spate of breaking contracts with players. However, now comes news of two brand ambassador tie-ups, including the first such by Full Tilt.

Full Tilt has signed up its first ambassador in online grinder Marc Kennedy, who will also act as a conduit between players and the site, communicating their needs to the site and vice versa.

Sibling site PokerStars has decided to officially declare Felipe “mojave14” Ramos as its “friend”. The site has claimed Ramos to be a PokerStars fan and one who has always been around for all occasions.

Read the complete story here.

The latest edition of the WPT Choctaw has begun on a high note with a large 4,943 entry-crowd for its first event, $200K GTD No Limit Hold’em. John Westbrook emerged the winner taking home $66,999.

The highlight of the series will be the upcoming $500,000 Guaranteed Monster Stack and the $3,700 WPT Championship Main Event with its $2 Million guarantee.

Read the complete story here.

LAPT 8 Peru Main Event

The PokerStars.net sponsored Latin American Poker Tour held its Season 8 Peru Main event, which saw 366 players in attendance.

Chile’s Claudio Moya was the victor of the event, taking the title and the top prize of $135,576, after a heads up deal.

Read the complete story here.

With that we bid you adieu for this Tuesday. Keep your browsers pointed this way next week at the same time, when we return with all the latest updates from poker world.