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This Week in Poker: May 15 – 21
In the PokerGuru feature ‘This Week in Poker’ we bring 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
May is nearing its end, and the poker world is waiting with bated breath for the 50th World Series of Poker (WSOP) where the largest-ever contingent of Indian players is expected to be in attendance. But before we delve into the upcoming mega-poker series, let’s take a look back at the week that just passed us by.
Pro Poker Club in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam was ablaze with round-the-clock action this entire week. Continuing its run of tournaments, the Asia Poker League (APL) Road Series Vietnam saw its VND 8 Million (~₹2.39 Crores) GTD Main Event close out the series in style. In the field of 623 entries were three Indian pros – Sahil Agarwal, Abhinav Iyer, and Sumit Sapra, and all of them made it to Day 2 in the event, with only Agarwal managing a score with a 45th finish worth VND 40,340,000 (~₹1.21 Lakhs). The event generated a record prize pool of VND 9,064,650,000 (~₹2.72 Crores), and China’s Zhu Yong took home the lion`s share of VND 1,700,440,000 (~₹51.15 Lakhs) at the event.
From Vietnam, we move over to Budva in Montenegro where the latest edition of the Triton Poker High Roller Series came to a close on May 17. Hosted at the Maestral Resort & Casino, the final events of the series crowned winners in Quek Sechariah Sheng, John Juanda, Ben Lamb, and Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates but overshadowing them all was Belarusian poker pro Mikita Badziakouski who captured his third Triton title in Event #10: HK$750K Short Deck NLHE Ante Only, pocketing HK$13.30 Million in the process.
The virtual felts were buzzing with action all week long with the intensity reaching its peak on Sunday. Last Sunday was of particular significance for PokerStars India that is currently hosting the inaugural edition of its India Summer Championship of Online Poker (INSCOOP). For the first time this year, the site’s flagship weekly tournament that was given an INSCOOP avatar – INSCOOP-45 Sunday Special – Progressive KO MAGIC Edition ₹30 Lakhs GTD – crossed the 500-entry mark, registering 512 entries (286 unique and 226 re-entries) in total. Despite the increase in guarantee, the event still had an overlay of around ₹2 Lakhs to fill and taking top honors at this event was a well-known regular Goonjan ‘gmtesting.ind’ Mall. Mall has been in sublime form lately with a consistent winning streak that saw him winning INSCOOP-31 Uppercut Progressive KO Special Edition ₹12 Lakhs GTD. He was back with his winning form this Sunday where he pierced his way through a star-studded final table, featuring poker heavyweights like Ram ‘TheLagLawyer’ Kakkar (runner-up for ₹2.28 Lakhs), Sandeep ‘effuno007’ Varma R S (3rd for ₹1.73 Lakhs), PokerGuru Team Ambassadors Ashish ‘chipcharity999’ Munot (5th for ₹1.23 Lakhs), Jayjit ‘unlucky2k’ Ray (6th for ₹1.23 Lakhs) and Parikshit ‘Zapdos123’ Dhall (8th for ₹49,290), along with Nishant ‘DoJingBULLETSS’ Sharma (9th for ₹63,508), and took home ₹5.59 Lakhs for his win. He is, therefore, our “PokerGuru Star of the Week.”
On PokerBaazi, ‘mithirandir’ topped the Baazi Super Sunday (BSS) SuperStack ₹25 Lakhs GTD defeating Young Gun Arsh ‘Button_Hai_Bro’ Grover heads-up to win ₹4.87 Lakhs in first-place prize money. Grover walked away with ₹3.41 Lakhs for his runner-up finish.
MadOverPoker announced Rajesh Shukla, Abhishek Raghav, Saurabh Ramola, Gaurav Sood, Sanjay K, and Suhas as the winners of the site’s ‘Viva Las Vegas’ promotion with each of them winning a Silver Package worth ₹1.5 Lakhs to Las Vegas.
In some disturbing news for Goa`s casino industry, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Goa president Vinay Tendulkar requested the state government to close down the coastal state’s offshore casinos just days before the Panaji by-elections were to be conducted.
With the 2019 WSOP just about a week away, all the attention will be on the mega-series that will the hit the floor running on May 28 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino; however, there will be other live poker tournaments taking place around the same time. While DPT Xpress (June 6-9) will be coming to Goa for the very first time in June, there is also the European Poker Tour (EPT) Open Madrid (June 22-30), and WPTDeepStacks Germany, Rozvadov (July 11-22) to look forward to.
Online Railbird Report
It was an action-packed slugfest on the virtual felts this entire week with online sites working overtime to outdo each other – much to the delight of the players. PokerStars India set the mood last week with the launch of its inaugural India Summer Championship of Online Poker (INSCOOP) that got underway on May 12. The Sunday Special PKO has been the flagship weekly tournament at PS for some time now and this Sunday it came with an INSCOOP avatar – much like all the weekly featured tournaments on the platform. INSCOOP- 45 Sunday Special – Progressive KO MAGIC Edition saw the prize pool bumped up to ₹30 Lakhs and the bold move seems to have paid off as for the first time ever, the event crossed the 500-entry mark, drawing in a total of 512 entries (286 unique and 226 re-entries). Topping this field was a familiar name in Goonjan ‘gmtesting.ind’ Mall who decimated his competition on the way to the title, including his heads-up opponent Ram ‘TheLagLawyer’ Kakkar whom he defeated to capture the winner’s cheque of ₹5.59 Lakhs. Mall’s outstanding win makes him our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!’
Other notable scores of the week include –
‘mithirandir’ won ₹4.87 Lakhs for 1st place in PokerBaazi ‘BSS SuperStack ₹25 Lakhs GTD’
Kartavya ‘Mazamasti’ Batra won ₹2.52 Lakhs for 1st place in the UMA Poker ‘Sunday Hangover ₹12 Lakhs GTD’
Goonjan ‘gmtesting.ind’ Mall won ₹2.40 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘INSCOOP-31 Uppercut Progressive KO Special Edition ₹12 Lakhs GTD’
‘Apocalypto’ won ₹1.40 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘BSS PLO ₹5 Lakh GTD’
‘kingsas’ won ₹1.35 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘BSS Megastack ₹5 Lakhs GTD’
Akash ‘nikita69QQ’ Shekhar won ₹1.24 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘The Monster 6-Max ₹5 Lakhs GTD’
Ashish ‘evergeek’ Singh won ₹93,139 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘INSCOOP-43 Sunday Warm-Up SE ₹4 Lakhs GTD’
‘ideatheater11’ won ₹76,850 for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘Weekly Super ₹5 Lakh GTD’
‘Donkaexplode’ won ₹62,100 for 1st place in the Khelo 365 ‘Big Bang ₹1 Lakh GTD’
‘UTG???Seriously’ won ₹59,373 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘INSCOOP-47 Deep Hyper – 4 Max ₹3 Lakhs GTD’
‘praveenmac’ won ₹31,507 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘INSCOOP-48 Supersonic ₹1.25 Lakhs GTD’
‘khukon$$00’ won ₹27,432 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘INSCOOP-44 Strom SE ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD’
‘vaibhavgupta86’ won ₹20,490 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘INSCOOP-46 Bigstack Turbo ₹1 Lakh GTD’
‘Naga3Ivey’ won ₹18,100 for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘Sunday ₹1 Lakh GTD’
‘bhardwaj316’ won ₹18,060 for 1st place in the Khelo 365 ‘Deep Stack ₹40K GTD’
Read the complete story here
Rajesh Shukla, Abhishek Raghav, Saurabh Ramola, Gaurav Sood, Sanjay K & Suhas Win Las Vegas Packages on MadOverPoker
Rajesh Shukla, Abhishek Raghav, Saurabh Ramola, Gaurav Sood, Sanjay K, and Suhas have all won packages worth ₹1.5 Lakhs to visit Sin City through MadOverPoker’s (MOP) ‘Viva Las Vegas’ promotion.
Read the complete story here
Calling Station’s Gravity VIP Race
Fast-growing online poker site Calling Station turned 1 this month and announced a mega-month of promotions to celebrate the occasion. Among the slew of promotions running on the site is the Gravity VIP Race that was launched by the site on May 17. The cash game promotion encourages players to collect VIP points by playing ring-games on the platform with daily giveaways of ₹1 Lakh up for grabs. The prizes are distributed in five stake-wise tiers with a mega bonus that assures the top 8 Leaderboard winners amazing automobiles like Honda Civic, Skoda Rapid, Baleno, etc. along with unlimited gadgets!
Read the complete story here
Fantasy Cricket Platform My11Circle Ropes Sourav Ganguly as Brand Ambassador
Online fantasy cricket platform My11Circle run by PlayGames 24×7 Pvt. Ltd., the parent company of the popular RummyCircle, has signed up former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly as its brand ambassador. Ganguly aka ‘Dada’ will be representing the brand across its endorsements and offerings.
Read the complete story here
BJP`s Vinay Tendulkar Asks Govt to Shut Down Offshore Casinos
Signaling fresh political opposition to Goa’s casino industry just days ahead of the Panaji by-elections in Goa, president of the coastal state’s chief political party, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Goa branch Vinay Tendulkar asked the government to shut down offshore casinos.
Read the complete story here
PokerStars Ropes in Dmitry Guberniev as Ambassador to Promote EPT Sochi
Online poker giant, PokerStars has announced Russian TV and sports presenter Dmitry Guberniev as its ambassador for promoting the European Poker Tour (EPT) Open Sochi stop. Guberniev will lead the company’s national marketing campaign ‘Win a Trip to Sochi’.
Read the complete story here
Borgata Casino Launches Own Sports Betting Platform
Located in New-Jersey, the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa has launched its own mobile and online sports betting platform. The casino came out with details of its new sports book, BorgataSports.com that is now live on desktop and accessible on iOS and Android devices.
Read the complete story here
Iowa Legalizes Sports Betting
In a significant development, Iowa has become the Xth U.S. state to legalize sports betting. Kim Reynolds, Governor of Iowa, has signed his approval on SF 617, the legislation that opens doors to legal sports betting in Iowa, allowing its existing 19 casinos to apply for a legal permit for the same.
Read the complete story here
WSOP to Host ‘First Fifty Honors’
WSOP last week announced a special event ‘First Fifty Honors’ that will be held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino on June 29. Apart from a special dinner evening for all WSOP bracelet winners and other VIP guests, WSOP will honor select individuals who have played an essential role in the brand’s growth.
Read the complete story here
ESPN & Caesars Entertainment Forge Partnership For Sports Betting
With the U.S. Supreme Court throwing open the prospects for legalized sports betting in the country, it was only a matter of time before gaming giants stood up and took notice. Caesars Entertainment is the latest player to throw its hat in the ring, and it has done so by forging a strong alliance with TV major ESPN for creating sports betting content. As part of the deal, an ESPN-branded studio will be set-up at the LINQ Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Moreover, Caesars will be ESPN’s official odds data supplier across TV and digital media.
Read the complete story here
New York Senate Committee Approves Online Sports Betting Bill
Opening the road for legal sports betting in New York, the U.S. state’s Senate Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee has okayed an online sports betting bill. The legislation will now move to the Senate Finance Committee for discussion and approval.
Read the complete story here
2019 APL Road Series Vietnam
The Asia Poker League (APL) Road Series Vietnam returned to the Pro Poker Club at Ho Chi Minh City for its third edition in the country on May 5. With 18 events on the schedule, the series ran till May 20.
Vietnam has traditionally been a strong bastion for Indian poker players, and this time around, there were three Indian pros in attendance at the stop. 2019 APT Vietnam Main Event champion Abhinav Iyer was the first Indian to enter the flagship VND 16,500,000 (~₹49,623) Main Event VND 8 Million (~₹2.39 Crores) GTD. Iyer registered for Day 1C and managed to advance with 83,500 to Day 2. Day 1D saw Sahil Agarwal and Sumit Sapra enter the field, and both progressed, with 298,000 and 68,000 in chips respectively. Only Agarwal was able to make the deep run count with a 45th place finish for (VND 40,340,000 ~₹1.21 Lakhs).
With the final field growing 623-strong across the four starting flights, a huge prize pool of VND 9,064,650,000 (~₹2.72 Crores) quickly smashed the advertised guarantee. China’s Zhu Yong was the last player standing in the event, and he went home VND 1,700,440,000 (~₹51.15 Lakhs) richer.
Read the complete story here
2019 APL Road Series Vietnam List of Winners
Event Name | Player Name | Prize Money |
---|---|---|
Kickoff | Jack En Ching Wu | VND 522,350,000 |
NLHE Turbo 1 | Lu Zheng Hao | VND 116,400,000 |
Deep Stack Turbo 1 | Julien Tran | VND 73,330,000 |
KO Bounty | Nguyen Hai Trieu | VND 121,980,000 |
NLHE | Duy Ho | VND 168,530,000 |
Deepstack Event | Chun Kong Kwok | VND 181,750,000 |
Hyper Turbo | Zhang Lijun | VND 48,500,000 |
Main Event | Zhu Yong | VND 1,700,440,000 |
2019 Triton Poker Montenegro
There was world-class poker action at display at the Maestral Resort & Casino where the Triton Poker High Roller Series Montenegro was underway till May 17. With around 1,000 entries and a combined prize pool of US$42 Million, the series was a runaway success.
There were five winners declared at the stop this week, and chief among them was Mikita Badziakouski who took down Event #10: HK$750K Short Deck NLHE Ante Only, netting a colossal payday of HK$13.30 Million (US$1.69M). This was the third Triton title for the Belarusian superstar!
Read the complete story here
Triton Poker High Roller Series Montenegro List of Winners
Event | Player | Prize Money (HKD) |
---|---|---|
Event #7: HK$200K Short Deck NLHE Ante Only Turbo | Quek Sechariah Sheng | HK$3,700,000 |
Event #6: HK$250K Short Deck NLHE Ante Only | John Juanda | HK$4,720,000 |
Event #10: HK$750K Short Deck NLHE Ante Only | Mikita Badziakouski | HK$13,300,000 |
Event #9: HK$500K Short Deck NLHE Ante Only | Ben Lamb | HK$7,650,000 |
Event #13: HK$300K Short Deck/NLHE Mix | Dan Cates | HK$3,930,000 |
APT Announces Dates For 2019 APT Korea Seoul
Asian Poker Tour (APT) has announced the schedule for its upcoming APT Korea Seoul stop. With 24 tournaments, the series will run from May 29 to June 9 at the Grand Walkerhill Paradise Casino. APT has also entered a multi-event partnership with Asian online betting site Dafabet that will sponsor several APT events this year.
Read the complete story here
WPT Gardens Poker Festival to be the 1st Event on WPT Season XVIII Main Tour
Online poker brand World Poker Tour (WPT) has announced that the WPT Gardens Poker Festival will be the first stop on the WPT Main Tour of Season XVIII. The $5,500 buy-in event will play out from July 20-25 at The Gardens Casino in California.
Read the complete story here
Guillermo Reyes Wins 2019 Seminole Hard Rock May Deep Stack
The first event at the 2019 Seminole Hard Rock May Deep Stack Power Series, i.e., $350 DeepStack NLH attracted 767 entries from three starting flights, and Florida native Guillermo Reyes topped them all to win $41,412.
Read the complete story here
Chris Moon Wins HPT Ameristar East Chicago Main Event
Outrunning a field of 570 entries, Michigan’s Chris Moon took down the $1,650 Main Event at Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) Ameristar East Chicago. Moon pocketed $183,899 for his win.
Read the complete story here
And with this, we conclude this week’s roundup of the latest news updates and developments from the world of poker. We will return again next week with our weekly report, stay tuned.
Rajesh Shukla, Abhishek Raghav, Saurabh Ramola, Gaurav Sood, Sanjay K & Suhas Win Vegas Packages Through MadOverPoker’s ‘Viva Las Vegas’ Promotion
With the 50th World Series of Poker (WSOP) less than two weeks away, preparations to be a part of the ‘World’s Biggest Poker Festival’ has been ongoing for quite some time now. The largest-ever contingent of Indian players is expected to attend the series this year and joining the Team India battalion will be Rajesh Shukla, Abhishek Raghav, Saurabh Ramola, Gaurav Sood, Sanjay K, and Suhas – all winners of MadOverPoker’s (MOP) ‘Viva Las Vegas’promotion.
MOP’s Viva Las Vegas Promotion
In March, MadOverPoker had announced its ‘Viva Las Vegas’ promotion, which offered lucrative expenses-paid packages to Las Vegas for WSOP 2019. Running on the site since March 8, the series had something for everyone, whether cash game lovers and tournament enthusiasts, or established pros and recreational players.
Headlining the promotion was the Vegas Series which comprised of 15 tournaments and ran from April 15-18. With buy-ins ranging from ₹200 to ₹1,600, the series offered ₹18.75 Lakhs in total prize pool guarantees, along with ₹3 Lakhs in tournament leaderboard prizes.
The MOP Vegas Package Winners
With the promotion now over, MOP has announced the names of the Vegas package winners – Rajesh ‘Sankibuddha’ Shukla, Abhishek ‘AAJJ’ Raghav, Saurabh ‘Saurabh90’ Ramola, Gaurav ‘MoZzie17’ Sood, Sanjay ‘Zeus’ K and Suhas aka ‘Skullkiker.’
PokerGuru caught up with the winners who talked about their experience of playing on the MOP platform and excitement about winning the series and going to Las Vegas.
The biggest winner of the Vegas Series, Rajesh Shukla, who topped the Vegas Series leaderboard with an impressive eight final table finishes including four titles for a total of 2,291 points, bagged the WSOP Silver package worth ₹1.5 Lakhs!
“This is the second time when I have shipped the Vegas package via tournament and guess what? It was from a free ticket given by MOP this time. I enjoyed playing the whole tournament and am very happy to close on a positive note. I would like to thank MOP for organizing such amazing games with low buy-ins. It provides a lot of a low/mid stake grinders with a great opportunity to go to Vegas and make their dreams come true,” said Shukla.
Abhishek Raghav won his Silver package by generating 15,000 MOP Elite points playing ring games. Talking about his experience, he said, “It’s been a great fun and experience to play poker on MadOverPoker lots of up and down and chances to develop my poker skills also I am planning for the fly to Vietnam contest and hoping to win big from leaderboard as well as from cash tables.”
Saurabh Ramola, Sanjay K. and Gaurav Sood were others who won the Las Vegas Silver package on MOP by generating 15,000 MOP Elite points playing ring games during the ‘Viva Las Vegas’ promotion, while Suhas shipped the Mega Flight to win the Silver package.
Ramola and Suhas both expressed delight at winning their respective packages and praised the platform for hosting such promotions.
“Thanks to MOP for bringing up a cash promotion like Viva Las Vegas! It was worth playing, and I hope MOP introduces more promotions like this,” said Ramola.
Suhas stated, “Thank you MOP for giving me an opportunity to be a part of Vegas Series. The Vegas mega flight was an amazing tournament, it was wonderful to take part in the Vegas mega flight with the elite list of players. I have always had a great time playing on MOP and it was an amazing feeling to win the Vegas package. I look forward to going to Vegas and participating in the WSOP and other tournaments there. Thank you for organising such wonderful tournaments and giving us an opportunity to win our way to Vegas.”
Sanjay K too heaped praises on the platform saying, “Having been a poker player for the past 10 years and an online player for 5 years, I can say with conviction that MadOverPoker is one of the best poker sites in India right now. Light and easy software coupled with awesome promotions makes it a no brainer for anybody!”
Though MOP’s Vegas-facing promotions have concluded, the site is currently hosting the ‘Summer Madness – Fly to Vietnam’ promotion that got underway on May 3 and will continue till June 15. In case you missed the opportunity to go to Sin City, you could win yourself free packages to Vietnam, ranging in value from ₹63,000 to ₹2.15 Lakhs!