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This Week in Poker: June 1 – 7

PG News June 7, 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

Amidst the heat and hope for strong rains to ease the sweat, we are back again with another edition of our weekly news round up. It’s that time of the year when, in the world of poker nothing else holds relevance except the most anticipated tournament series, the World Series of Poker. The extravagant tournament kicked started its 47^th annual series on May 31^st and we will fill these spaces with daily updates the next two months, right till the Main Event final table on Tuesday July 18, 2016. This year too, a large Indian contingent is expected to stake their claim in this international mega series.

The series so far has seen three bracelet winners in Events 1, 3 and 4 with four more events running simultaneously. Among the Indians, the first one to cash at the series was Samay Parikh. Parikh took 631^st place in Event 2: $565 Colossus II No-Limit Hold’em for $2,837. Two more of our Indian challengers – Sumit Sapra and Raghav Bansal have made Day 2 in Event 6: $1,500 No-Limit Hold`em and with the money bubble just 18 eliminations away, it will be safe to assume that the cashes list will grow even further.

Among other news this week we have our usual online report that has Sharad ‘keenyle’ Rao emerging as the “PokerGuru Star of the Week” for the fourth time this year.

International news includes tournaments reports from around the world, developments to legalize online poker in New York including some positive news for the brick and mortar casinos in New Jersey. In addition we have a documentary released on Daniel Negreanu and brand endorsement break up between Eugene Katchalov and PokerStars.

Online Railbird Report:

Young Gun Sharad ‘Keenyle’ Rao has had a breakout year so far and is one name that has consistently featured in this section all through this year. Sharad has already claimed the ‘PokerGuru Star of the Week’ title three times this year and once again tops the cashes list this week for his 5th place finish in the PokerStars ‘$109 Sunday Kickoff +, $100K GTD’ for $6,134.80.

Other notable scores of the week –

– Phanindra ‘terabyte11’ Akkina won $3,783.96 for 7th place in the PokerStars ‘$215 Sunday Supersonic [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo], $175K GTD’

– Uttam ‘shakuni8492’ K Reddy won $1,434.48 for 1st place including bounties in the PokerStars ‘Bounty Builder $22 $8K GTD’

– Piyush16 won $1,327.70 for 3rd place in the PokerStars $82 NLHE [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo], $6K Gtd.

– Anmol ‘anmols’ Srivats won $1,184.07 for 1st place in the 888 Poker ‘The $5,000 Turbo Swordfish’.

– Arvindhan ’tiltalert86′ Lakshminarayan won $822.62 for 1st place in the PokerStars ‘$55 NL Hold’em [6-max, Hyper-Turbo] $2.5K GTD’.

Both PokerStars and 888poker are currently running some exciting promos for online players. PokerStars has come out with a brand new exciting challenge – The Pyramid! These daily poker puzzles will reward players up to $5,000 each day for solving them. Read more here.

In another enticing offer, the hugely popular $1M GTD Spin & Go`s make a return on the worlds largest online site –PokerStars. Read more here.

Keeping up with the ongoing WSOP 2016, 888poker, the official brand partner of the WSOP, has floated an exclusive promo titled the “Supersize ME” Qualifiers. The promo gives players a chance to win an all expenses paid package to the 2016 WSOP Main Event and if they go on to win it, they get an additional $5 million bonus. Read more here.

2016 WSOP

The 47th WSOP took off on May 31 and is now into its 8th event. A number of our Indian players will be making WSOP this year and among those already present include, Aditya Agarwal, Samay Parikh, Aditya Sushant, Raghav Bansal, Madan Kumar, Phani Ramineni, Sumit Sapra, Jagdeep Singh and Satchit Kapur. Of these, Samay Parikh has become the first Indian to cash this series with a 631st place finish for $2,837 with two more Indians – Sumit Sapra and Raghav Bansal just 18 places away from the money in Event 6.

Event #1: $565 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em

The opening event of the series, Event #1: $565 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em kicked off on June 1^st and 45-year old former DJ, Christopher J Sands, an employee at Caesars Palace, took down the event and made himself a cool $75,157.

Christopher J Sands

Read the complete report here.

Event #2: $565 Colossus II No-Limit Hold’em

However, it was Event #2: $565 Colossus II No-Limit Hold’em that garnered the most attention with two entry flights each day (total of six) and a changed structure to make it fast-paced. In 2015, the Colossus drew 22,374 entries creating a furore. This year the event attracted a tad less, with 21,613 entries, generating a prize pool of $10,806,500, which easily surpassed the $7 million guarantee though, with the top 3,425 players making the money bus.

The event is presently underway with Jiri Horak leading the nine-handed final table. Samay Parikh was the sole Indian to cash at 631st place, making $2,837.

Samay Parikh

Read the complete report here.

Event #3: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship

For the third year running Robert Mizrachi has picked up a WSOP bracelet. Mizrachi outlasted a field of 87 runners to win his fourth bracelet in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship. He took down the $1,500 Omaha Eight-or-Better event last year and the $1,500 Dealer`s Choice Event the year before that.

Robert Mizrachi

Read the complete report here.

Event #4: $1000 Top Up Turbo No-Limit Hold’em

The turbo tournament with a twist drew 667 entries and 29-year-old poker pro Kyle Julius from Naperville, IL took it down for $142,972 in prize money. This was Julius’ first tournament victory and comes four years after his runner-up finish in a bracelet event.

Kyle Julius

Read the complete report here.

Event #6: $1,500 No-Limit Hold`em

After ten levels of play the 2,016 player strong entry field was whittled down to just 321 runners who will now resume play on Day 2. Roman Rogovskyi bagged the overnight chip lead and came out on top late in the day when he eliminated none other than 14-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth.

Team India`s Sumit Sapra and Raghav Bansal were among the 321 survivors who will come back to play Day 2 in a few hours.

Sumit Sapra Raghav Bansal

Read the complete report here.

Events 7 – $1,500 2-7 Draw Lowball (No-Limit) is presently underway with 52 players remaining and Event 8 – $1,500 H.O.R.S.E has just started. Stay tuned on PokerGuru for all the scoop from WSOP 2016.

Online Poker Bills in USA:

Online Poker in New York and Live Casinos in New Jersey

While, New York is finally taking positive steps to completely approve a bill to regulate and legalize online poker, New Jersey has decided to use its prevalent bill on the same to help the brick-and-mortar casinos in the state, which are facing a threat from new ones.

The S5320B bill proposed by State Senator John Bonacic was finally approved for consideration by the Senate Finance Committee, which voted 20 to 8 in favor of it on Thursday, June 8.

Read the complete report here.

Online Poker Bill for Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Assembly is looking at another vote for passing the bill on June 6 barely 10 days after rejecting it.

Read the complete report here.

TeamViewer Hacked?

It is believed that TeamViewer, one of the most popular softwares that allows remote sharing and control of another person’s compute has been hacked. Online poker players were warned to uninstall the TeamViewer software and re-install it, while maintaining a thorough password check.

Read the complete report here.

Documentary on Daniel Negreanu

The documentary “KidPoker” on pro Daniel Negreanu is finally available for viewing on Netflix. Sponsored by PokerStars, the film, that features the life story of the pro had been in the making last year and is now accessible to all viewers in UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Read the complete report here.

Eugene Katchalov Part Ways With PokerStars Pro Team

Ukrainian pro Eugene Katchalov tweeted last week that he is parting ways with PokerStars as of June 1, after a five-year long brand alliance, which will not be renewed.

Eugene Katchalov

Read the complete report here.

Rainer Kempe Takes Down The 2016 Super High Roller Bowl

The prestigious $300K buy-in Super High Roller Bowl saw two Germans vie for the title at heads up and finally it was Rainer Kempe who collected the title for $5,000,000 and the championship ring, while Fedor Holz settled for a second place finish with $3,500,000.

Rainer Kempe

Read the complete report here.

Bruno Lopes Wins 2016 Winamax SISMIX Main Event

French player Bruno Lopes took down the 2016 Winamax SISMIX Main Event for 850,000 MAD (€78,341) after a final table battle that lasted almost six hours on Sunday, May 29. 901 entrants lined up for the 6,000 MAD (€550) buy-in event, which had three entry flights and ran at the Casino de Marrakech, Morocco.

Bruno Lopes

Read the complete report here.

Martin Soukup Wins 2016 Unibet Open Malta Main Event

Martin Soukup collected the first Unibet title for Czechoslovakia, when he won the Unibet Open Malta €1,100 Main Event for a sum of €65,000, which was also his largest live score to date. Hosted at Casino Malta the four-day Main Event drew 292 entries generating a prize pool of €292,000. The top 36 places made the money with the min-cash being €2,000.

Martin Soukup

Read the complete report here.

Blake Vincent Takes Down 2016 Run It Up Reno Main Event

The 2016 Run It Up Reno $565 Main Event unfolded at the Peppermill Reno Resort Spa Casino and the last man standing was Blake Vincent who walked away with the top prize of $46,410. The event attracted 391 hopefuls, creating a prize pool of $195,500.