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This Week in Poker: June 29 – 5

PG News July 5, 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

Thundering above all other action has been the 2016 World Series of Poker (WSOP), which not only grabbed the centre-stage, but has attracted every player who could make it to Las Vegas hot-footing it to Sin City. History in the making, it brought forth many surprise bracelet winners, even as a few pros picked up the gold, including Indian-origin Ankush Mandavia who won Event 48 – $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em (30-minute levels) for $548,139.

Representing our country at WSOP is one of largest-ever Indian teams present at Vegas, proving the immense growth and popularity of poker in recent times. Charged and ready to take on the best of the world, Indian players stormed a number of events, keeping up a continuous score of cashes.

Back home in India, the rains lashed the country and keeping the poker scene hot were a slew of developments, chief being the sizzling promos from Spartan Poker, India’s fastest growing poker site. For those who have yet to log on, rush now and catch the JULY SPLASH promo, which will be on only until July 10 and offers a massive 200% Deposit Bonus. What’s more, next up at Spartan Poker is the India Online Poker Championship (IOPC) with its third edition running from July 20 to 24, with a whopping INR 50 LAKHS in prizes!

For his fabulous run in Event 52 – $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em, Amit ‘bblacklegend’ Jain claims our “PokerGuru Star of the Week” title. Amit made 45th place for $11,372, amidst an entry-field of 1,125, with 169 top finishers making the money.

In keeping with the growth of poker in the country, other developments followed and last week saw two brand-player tie-ups take place, with PokerHigh.com signing Clawin D’Souza and StarPoker.in taking on Rajat Sharma as their latest Team Pros.

In Goa, political activists and NGOs kept up the pressure of criticism on the BJP government for its latest decision on placing the fifth offshore casino in an environmentally sensitive zone.

From other parts of the globe, we have the schedule announced for the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau Poker Cup (MPC) 25, a Vietnam bill for local players, and Brexit making news for highest betting on its outcome.

We also have news of the Czech Republic licensing online gaming, PokerStars withdrawing from Israel and Slovenia, with Amaya, its parent company’s future at stake, as well as the status of online poker bills in California and Pennsylvania and latest updates from GPI/GPL.

Online Railbird Report

Anmol ‘anmols’ Srivats topped the online leaderboard this week for winning the 888poker ‘The $30,000 Sunday Crocodile’ for $9,694.35.

Piyush ‘piyush16’ Gupta was not far behind and had a trailblazing week with five big cashes that collectively fetched him over $8,200. He won $1,112.14 for 4th place in the PokerStars ‘$82 NLHE [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo], $10K GTD’ and netted $1,836.00 for 2nd place in the Party Poker ‘Heavyweight: Drago – $10,000 GTD’. Piyush also won $2,705.39 for 1st place in the Party Poker ‘Heavyweight: The Weigh-in – $20,000 GTD’ and banked $1,122.06 for 4th place in the Party Poker ‘Heavyweight: Drago – $10,000 GTD’. His latest score was on PokerStars where he won $1,515.34 for 2nd place in the PokerStars ‘$27 NLHE [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo], $10K GTD’.

Other notable scores include –

Karan ‘bhai9’ Narang won $2,900 for 2nd place after a heads up deal in the PokerStars ‘Hot $33, $15K GTD’

Rohit ‘Rohitbarve’ B won $775.08 for 9th place in the PokerStars ‘Hot $109, $35K GTD’

Pulkit ‘pulkit25d’ Sharma won $638 for 8th place in the PokerStars ‘Big $22’

Spartan Poker Promotions

Spartan Poker has lined up a sizzling July for players with not one, but two exciting promotions. Already on is the ‘JULY SPLASH’, a deposit-based promo that makes it attractive to all kinds of players, as it offers 200% in locked bonus on deposits made up till July 10! Making the deal a steal is the fact that you can actually use the code multiple times during the promo period. *

Next up, Spartan Poker has announced the third edition of the IOPC, from July 20 to 24, with three featured events, including an INR 5K Main Event which promises INR 20 Lakhs in guarantees! In all INR 50 LAKHS are up for grabs, with events and a special leaderboard with INR 4 Lakhs in prizes. Satellites for the series are already underway and Spartan Poker has also lined up exclusive non-satellite ways to grab seats to the IOPC, which include ‘Early Bonus’, ‘Freerolls’ and more.

2016 WSOP

Excitement rose to unbelievable heights, as Indian players ventured not only WSOP events, but at peripheral venues as well, making cashes and deep runs. Here we bring you a round-up of Indian cashes, event wise –

Event 46 – $1,500 BOUNTY

Akash Malik, was the sole Indian to make Day 2, but got unlucky in a crucial hand and hit the rails at 112nd place for $2,136.

Akash Malik

Event 48 – $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em

Yudhishter Jaswal cashed the event at 13th place for $22,119.

Yudhishter Jaswal

Event 50 – $1500 Shootout No-Limit Hold’em

Apoorva Goel made Day 3 of the event and finally exited at 117th place for $4,955. Vineet Bailur took 25th place in the event for the same cashout of $4,955.

Apoorva Goel

Event 52 – $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em

Amit Jain made an impressive 45th place finish for $11,372 in this event. Rahul Byrraju was the other Indian player to cash in the event and collected $4,723 for his 130th place finish.

Amit Jain

Event 54 – $888 Crazy Eights 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

Raghav Bansal was the only Indian player to cash on the first entry-flight Day 1A at 48th place for $3,346. Apoorva Goel cashed $1,332 at 325th place and Shashank Jain made a 332nd place finish for $1,332 on Day 1D.

Raghav Bansal

Event 56 – $1500 No-Limit Hold’em

Three Indians cashed in this event. Shashank Jain made a 47^th place finish for $7,209, Raghav Bansal finished at 53^rdplace for $7,209 and Aditya Agarwal made a 276^th place finish for $2,253.

Indian-origin player Nipun Java cashed at 31^st place for $10,514.

Shashank Jain

Side Events

Antony Pereira won the $135 buy-in Daily Deepstack at the Rio collecting $4,606 in prize money.

Kunal Patni finished 13^th in the Planet Hollywood Phamous Poker Series – Event 83 Goliath $600 NLH $600K GTD. He also took 26^th place in the Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza III – $1,100 $500K GTD event.

Kunal Patni

Here is a list of the latest bracelet winners –

Sr. No	Winner Name	WSOP Event	Prize
1	Mitchell Towner	Event #41: $1500 MONSTER Stack No-Limit Hold’em	$1,120,196
2	Steven Wolansky	Event #44: $1000 No-Limit Hold’em	$298,849
3	Loren Klein	Event #45: $1500 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha	$241,427
4	Kristin Bicknell	Event #46: $1500 BOUNTY No-Limit Hold’em	$290,768
5	Johnny Hennigan	Event #47: $10,000 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) Championship	$320,103
6	Ankush Mandavia	Event #48: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em (30-minute levels)	$548,139
7	Shaun Deeb	Event #49: $1500 Seven Card Stud	$111,101
8	Safiya Umerova	Event #50: $1500 Shootout No-Limit Hold’em	$264,046
9	Brandon Shack-Harris	Event #51: $10,000 8-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha Championship	$894,300
10	Andrew Lichtenberger	Event #52: $3000 No-Limit Hold’em	$569.158
11	Allan Le	Event #53: $1500 Mixed PLO/8; Omaha 8/8; and Big O	$189,223
12	Hung Le	Event #54: $888 Crazy Eights 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em	$888,888

New Brand-Pro Tie-Ups in India

With poker flourishing within the country, brand-player tie-ups have also seen a rise. The latest to be inked were Clawin ‘Durrminator’ D’Souza and Rajat Sharma.

Clawin has been signed on by PokerHigh.com and Rajat is now a part of StarPoker.in’s roster of Team pros.