This Week in Poker: October 8 – 14

This Week in Poker
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  • PG News October 14, 2014
  • 6 Minutes 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

Another week is past with a lot happening in poker world. Two rocking tournaments are playing out in opposite sides of the globe – the UKIPT/EPT at London and the WSOP APAC at Melbourne in Australia! Check out all the updates and winners in this report

Though both are nearing, news of another festival comes in with PokerStars.net sponsored APPT announcing its schedule for Season 9 from Jan 2015. GPI Asia rankings is a new initiative, accompanying the APPT this time.

Poker continues to face the heat, as narrow-minded countries impose taxes, even as the Big Bear Russia eases its stand on the game.

Daniel Colman is still riding his winning streak with another win; Phil Ivey however, loses millions in the legal arena.

And, at the online felts, Young Gun Amit ‘bblacklegend’ Jain continues his winning marathon into this week and debutant Vishwajit ‘vishydonk’ Patil is our ‘PokerGuru Star of the Week’!

Read on for all details…

 

Online Railbird Report

Amit ‘bblacklegend’ Jain continues blazing a trail, taking his winning streak right into this one, after his legendary Thursday grind last week.

This week two of his significant wins stand out and these are 2nd place in the PokerStars ‘$25 NL Hold’em [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo], $10K GTD’ for $1,850.03 and a large one of $18,850.50 score in ‘The $100,000 Megadeep’ on 888 Poker.

A debutant, Vishwajit ‘vishydonk’ Patil is our ‘PokerGuru Star of the Week’ and Vishwajit has justified the position with some amazing wins this past week, which include:

$8,040 for 2nd place in the PokerStars $215 NL Hold’em [Turbo], $20K GTD.

$6,932 for 1st place in the PokerStars The Hot $33 [Turbo], $35K GTD.

$6,536 for 1st place in the PokerStars $215 NL Hold’em [Turbo], $20K GTD.

Vishwajit Patil
Vishwajit Patil

Notable Scores this Week:

Shyam ‘shyam9000’ Shahani won a total of $5,847 this week. He won $2,105.60 for 2nd place in the PokerStars ‘$77 NLHE [6-Max, Turbo], $10K GTD’, $2,373.50 for 3rd place in the PokerStars ‘$109 NL Hold’em [Turbo], $17.5K GTD’ and $1,460.06 for 4th place in the PokerStars ‘$82 NL Hold’em [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo], $15K GTD’.

Karan ‘Don Radia’ Radia won $5,758 this week. He won $2,256.75 for 2nd place in the PokerStars ‘$55 NL Hold’em, $10K GTD’, $1,471.80 for 4th place in the PokerStars ‘$8.80+R NL Hold’em, $12.5K GTD’ and $2,031.79 for 1st place in the PokerStars ‘$55 NL Hold’em, $7.5K GTD’.

Yogesh ‘Albie’ Kumar won $5,096.25 for 2nd place in the PokerStars ‘The Hot $33 [Turbo], $35K GTD’.

Jasven Saigal won $1,434.40 for 1st place in the PokerStars ‘$22 NL Hold’em [6-Max, Turbo,500 Cap], $5K GTD’ and $3,064.39 for 2nd place in the PokerStars ‘$25 NL Hold’em [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo], $15K GTD’.

Sahil ‘antilog’ Agarwal won $4,509.44 for 2nd place in the PokerStars ‘$8.80+R NL Hold’em [2x-Turbo], $24K GTD’.

Aditya ‘Intervention’ Agarwal won $2,976.00 for 2nd place in the PokerStars ‘The Hot $109 [Turbo], $10K GTD’.

Aditya ‘donkab0mber’ Sushant won $2,892.75 for 1st place in the PokerStars ‘$109 NL Hold’em, $8K GTD’.

Amit ‘bblacklegend’ Jain won $1,850.03 for 2nd place in the PokerStars ‘$25 NL Hold’em [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo], $10K GTD’.

Romit ‘d_t_avi’ Advani won $2,169.72 for 3rd place in the PokerStars ‘$27 NL Hold’em [Turbo, Progressive Super-Knockout], $30K GTD’.

Madan ‘madsysman’ won $2,078.18 for 3rd place in the PokerStars ‘The Hotter $4.40 [Turbo], $20K GTD’.

 

UKIPT and EPT London

In the northern hemisphere, the PokerStars organized UKIPT and EPT series are going strong in London.

The UKIPT Isle of Man Main Event Title went to a first-timer, young Josh Hart, who braved a field of 402 to take the prize of £57,484.

Former UKIPT winner Ludovic Geilich was popular favorite for the title, with his chip advantage, but a persevering Hart ended the day as the title winner.

The final hand saw a struggling Ciaran Heaney relegated to 2nd place, when his , ran up dry against Hart’s .

In another event, the shy co-founder of PokerStars became an unlikely winner and as was his wont, shyly posed for the media.

Isai Scheinberg won £13,850 for 1st place at the £2,200 UKIPT High Roller. Earlier, few pictures could be found of the man, as he always let the players take the limelight.

When asked for a winner’s photo, Scheinberg was surrounded by all the staff, who came out in jubilation to celebrate his victory.

Few are aware that it was Scheinberg, who had brought PokerStars to the Isle of Man and paved the way for employment generation for many of the islanders.

The resulting picture spoke a thousand words that came from the grateful hearts of the staff, as if saying, “We were rooting for you the whole way.”

Isai Scheinberg
Isai Scheinberg

Read the complete story here.

 

UKIPT Main Event

The UKIPT Main Event title went to Brett Angell of UK, who took home £115,083. The IT player had his girlfriend Claire by his side for support, as he waded through a 1,089 player field.

Brett Angell
Brett Angell

Angell overcame his last opponent Fabrizio Fuchs in a thrilling finale that lasted for 105 minutes.

Angell had the in the final hand and Fuchs held hoping to improve his lot. But, the board had other ideas, when it gave out a on the flop and at the turn and river respectively, sealing Fuchs fate for 2nd place.

Two Indian origin players Young Gun Karan Radia and Amit Patel made it to the last day, with Amit making the money at 83rd place with £1,640.

Read the complete story here.

 

EPT London Main Event

Day 1a and Day 1b of the EPT London Main Event are over and our very own Aditya “intervention” Agarwal scraped through Day 1b to survive to Day 2.

Three Indian origin players Rohit Mariwalla (78,000), Arvin Ravindran (35,000) and Pratik Ghatge (50,000) also made it to Day 2, however none of them were able to survive the day with four Indian`s hitting the rails during the course of Day 2.

Day 1a had 224 entries; Anatoly Filatov led the pack at the end of the play with 173,900.

Day 1b saw Georgios Zisimopoulos emerge chip leader with 171,500. Team PokerStars members had a highly successful day, as all sailed through, even as a number of notables fell.

Day 2 is presently underway with just 171 players remaining.

Read the complete story here.

 

2014 WSOP APAC

Across the equator down under, the 2014 WSOP APAC steamed on, with fresh winners in a number of exciting events.

 

Event 8 AU$5,000 8-Game Mixed

George Danzer won Event 8, grabbing his 3rd WSOP bracelet and furthering his points in the POY Awards race. The pro took the title for AU$84,600 and now joins the elite ranks of 3-time Bracelet winners.

George Danzer
George Danzer

Danzer overcame an early chip handicap and beat Scott Clements in a final hand, when his was backed by a ten from the board and declared him the winner.

 

Poker Brat’s missed Bracelet Chance and Jeff Lissandro`s 6th Bracelet

“You can never be slim or rich enough” is a popular saying, though for Poker Pros the mantra would be “There can never be enough WSOP Bracelets!”

This WSOP, one poker pro failed to add to his kitty of golds, even as another satiated his desire for the trophy. We speak about Phil Hellmuth and Jeff Lissandro.

Event 7, the AU$2,200 Six-Max No-Limit Hold’em seemed to be a wonderful opportunity for Phil Hellmuth to add a 14th piece of WSOP gold to his collection. But, 13 didn’t quite prove lucky for the “Poker Brat” as he had to satisfy himself with a win of AU$38,909 at a 4th place finish.

Australian Alexander “AJ” Antonios was the one to take the elusive bracelet and AU$128,784, after his overcame Michael Tran’s in the final hand.

Read the complete story here.

In Event 3 – AU$1,650 Pot-Limit Omaha, Jeff Lissandro won his 6th bracelet, along with $44,805. Lissandro is now member of the 6-Brcelet winner club with T.J. Cloutier, Layne Flack, Ted Forrest, Jay Heimowitz and Daniel Negreanu for company.

 

Event 9 Main Event Championship – Kyle Montgomery Tops Day 2

Day 2 of the main Event is just over and Kyle Montgomery is the chip leader with 595,000. Out of the 182 players who began the day, only 70 remain now.

Kyle Montgomery
Kyle Montgomery

In total, the tournament drew 329 players and a prize pool of AU$3.125 million. Only the top 36 will make it to the money, with the winner taking AU$850,136.

Read the complete story here.

 

APPT Season 9 Schedule and GPI Asia Rankings

The schedule for the Asia-Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Season 9 has been announced for January 14 2015, where it will take flight with the 2015 Aussie Millions Poker Championship at the Crown Casino, Melbourne, Australia.

A grand finale will be held at PokerStars LIVE Macau, with the Asia Championship of Poker tentatively on Oct. 30 to Nov. 15, after a packed 11 months of events spread over 9 more stops.

 

GPI Asia-Pacific Rankings – Launch of Special Trophy!

This 9th season of the APPT will see the launch of the GPI Asia-Pacific Rankings, with players getting points, as per the Global Formula at the Global Poker Index.

The player with the highest ranking will receive a specially designed Trophy at the end of the tournament.

The rankings will be applicable to all events listed at www.appt.com, except for promotional or restricted-entry events.

 

Global Tax Reforms and Online Gaming Regulations

The past few months have seen poker face trying times at the hands of various government regulations, even as certain countries sought to ease online gaming norms.

Singapore, a highly progressive tourist destination displayed an intolerant attitude towards poker with its newly passed Remote Gambling Bill.

Spearheaded by S Iswaran, Second Minister for Home Affairs, the bill seeks to restrain all gambling activities coming under the gambit of mobiles, internet or digital communication and provides authorities to come down on them.

A number of MPs amongst the 10 who debated the passing of the bill, spoke out against the “exemptions” and demanded that the bill be scrutinized by a “Select Committee”.

Iswaran countered that a Select Committee was not required, as the bill had already undergone public consultation. He added that the bill was in keeping with the country’s attitude towards prohibition.

Pressing the need for awareness towards the ambiguous nature of the internet, Iswaran said, “What may be benign today may appear more sinister tomorrow.”

Chan Chun Sing, Minister for Social and Family Development agreed with Iswaran and said that his ministry would step up public education and awareness of the same.

In northeastern Europe, three countries displayed similar narrow-minded thinking towards online gaming, with Belgium, Sweden and Russia unleashing a number of tax regulations and gaming reforms on players.

Belgium, already a nation with strict attitudes towards gambling, let loose another canon on players by imposing an unmatched 75% tax on their earnings. It was added that this tax would be applicable for players who earned above a “certain” level.

Additionally, the Belgian Gambling Commission is now proposing to ban free poker apps.

Sweden, another strict country had strict rules about players revealing all earnings and playing in specially licensed casinos. The Swedish tax agency Skatteverket has now announced that they have identified 50 players, who have totaled 250 million Kronor ($34.6 million) in undisclosed winnings. The agency has decided to aggressively go after these players and penalize them.

On the other hand, Russia has thawed to the idea of online gaming, softening its stand since 2009, when poker had been banned. The Russian Finance Ministry is seeking to regulate poker and by coming spring, a law to legalize the game would be in place.

The country is planning to impose a tax of 20% on operators and 13% on player’s profits.

The US, where poker is perhaps the most proliferous, only the states of New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada are currently open for regulated and legalized poker.

Indian laws on gambling still remain in a state of fugue, with archaic regulations, leftover from the British Raj. A 30% TDS on winnings over INR 10,000, as per Section 194B of the Income Tax Act, 1961, fails to take into consideration expenses or losses.

Read the complete story here.

 

Daniel Colman Wins WPT Alpha8 London Super High Roller

The Man with the ‘Midas Touch’, Daniel Colman refuses to be denied his wins, as he claimed another victory, this time at the £60,000 WPT Alpha8 London Super High Roller Event for £600,000 ($961,723).

Daniel Colman
Daniel Colman

With this win, Colman takes his earnings to more than 22 million in this year alone, two months more notwithstanding.

Colman already had the chip advantage, when Altergott made a fatal error of moving all in with . Sensing the bluff, Colman called and received from the board, to take his to victory.

Altergott took £350,000 ($559,780) for a 2nd place finish.

Read the complete story here.

 

Phil Ivey Loses Edge Sorting Case Against Casino Crockfords

WSOP legend Phil Ivey is once again in the eye of a maelstrom, as he lost a lengthy legal battle to Casino Crockfords in a case of “edge sorting.”

Ivey had played at the casino in 2012, notching up wins of £7.3m ($12.1 million), which the casino refused to pay him, accusing him of using cheating tactics to make the money.

Ivey retaliated with a lawsuit, but unfortunately, High Court Judge John Mitting ruled in favor of the Genting Bhd. (GENT) owned casino and upheld their argument that Ivey had cheated. The court stated that Crockfords did not have to pay the player, though the Judge declared that Ivey was an “honest witness” and probably unaware, that he was cheating.

This ruling is expected to negatively affect Ivey, in another cheating case, this time filed by the Borgata Casino of New Jersey. In 2012, Ivey was paid $9.6 million, for winning at mini-baccarat, but later the casino alleged that he had won the money fraudulently and was seeking it back. The casino made the same allegations of “edge sorting” as the Crockfords against Ivey.

Edge Sorting is a cheating technique that allows players to recognize cards by design flaws on their backs.

Read the complete story here.

That’s it for this week, folks. We will return same time next week with all the important news from the poker world.

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