PokerBaazi’s PPL Winter ’18 Edition Makes a Smashing Opening, Akash ‘akash_durr’ Gupta Tops PPL #9 Endeavour ₹30 Lakhs GTD For ₹6.75 Lakhs

PPL Winter'18 Edition Cover
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  • Namita Ghosh December 12, 2018
  • 5 Minutes Read

The PokerBaazi Premier League (PPL) is the marquee tournament series at India’s most trusted site, PokerBaazi. With each passing edition, the PPL series has only grown in popularity, a fact evident with the jump in participation numbers from one series to another. And now, as 2018 steadily moves past its final three weeks, the ongoing PPL Winter ’18 Edition keeps online poker enthusiasts glued to the felts.

The PPL Winter ’18 Edition may be the final chapter for the PPL series this year, but it certainly hasn’t lacked in terms of numbers joining the action. The series got off to a flying start on December 10 and since then, two days of hectic online action has already crowned 10 champions!

Topping the charts across 10 PPL tournaments that have concluded over the last two days is Akash ‘akash_durr’ Gupta. Gupta who is based in Mumbai and works in the banking sector, entered PPL #9 ₹5,500 NLHE Endeavour ₹30 Lakhs GTD on December 11 and sailed past 421 entries to reach the finale where he found a worthy heads-up opponent in Jayjit england’ Ray, a protégé of Team PokerStars India pro Aditya Agarwal.

Akash Gupta

“I have won several other online tournaments earlier but this is my biggest winning till date! It feels very good, particularly since I won an event that is a part of PPL which makes it more interesting,” an excited Gupta said, while talking to PokerGuru.

Gupta is a recreational player and plays poker on different websites whenever he can. “Yesterday I decided to play Endeavour on PokerBaazi. At first, my focus was to get into the money, and then the challenge was to get into the final table. So I decided to play pretty solid poker and not give up my stack easily,” Gupta said.

Talking about the heads-up play he added, “The heads-up was a very challenging affair and a closely fought contest, since we both started the heads-up with nearly the same amount of chips. Then at one points I reached about 60 Bigs and he had around 20 Bigs, then I caught a double-up and we were at the same point where we had started.”

“In the final hand, my opponent had king-jack suited on the blind and open-jammed on me. I held ace-eight on the button so I did not hold back and made the call. The board ran and there was no help for him and I won,” Gupta recalled. Gupta banked ₹6.75 Lakhs for his win, while Ray pocketed ₹4.96 Lakhs.

PPL Winter ’18 Edition Day 1 & 2 Winners

PPL Winners Cashes

PPL Winter ’18 Edition: Day 1 & 2 Recap

The PPL #9 ₹5,500 NLHE Endeavour ₹30 Lakhs GTD saw a total of 421 entries and 329 re-entries. The ₹30 Lakhs prize pool guarantee was easily surpassed to reach ₹37.5 Lakhs and claiming the top seat was Akash ‘akash_durr’ Gupta, who won ₹6.75 Lakhs after defeating Jayjit england’ Ray heads-up. Ray banked ₹4.96 Lakhs for his runner-up finish.

Another big winner at the series, Aditya ‘adit11’ Kulkarni bested 299 entries and defeated ‘rohit22m’ heads-up in PPL #4 The Bout ₹5,500 NLHE ₹25 Lakhs GTD (RE) to win the top prize of ₹5.77 Lakhs. Kulkarni is the second highest scorer at the ongoing PPL Winter ’18 Edition till now. The top 47 spots made the money and a prize pool of ₹30.40 Lakhs was generated. Other notables who scored were Varun ‘VnutG’ Gupta (3rd for ₹3.19 Lakhs) and Mayank ‘alwaystiltAA’ Jaggi (5th for ₹1.67 Lakhs).

Aditya Kulkarni
Aditya Kulkarni

Shubham ‘Shabbaking’ Singla entered a heads-up deal with Shravan FishStars’ Chhabria to win PPL #8 – 6-Max DST ₹5 Lakhs GTD (RE) for ₹3.41 Lakhs, while the latter banked ₹2.53 Lakhs for his runner-up finish.

Shubham Singla
Shubham Singla

At PPL #5 ₹4,125 NLHE ₹15 Lakhs GTD (RE), a total of 241 runners converged to the field, and there were 224 re-entries. The ₹17.43 Lakhs prize pool was divided among the top 39 players. Shadul ‘duuurrrr’ Parthasarathi emerged winner to claim a payday of ₹3.35 Lakhs.

Haresh ‘NARCOS’ Kukreja outlasted a 255-strong entry field in PPL #3 ₹1,650 NLHE ₹5 Lakhs GTD (RE) to pocket the top payday of ₹1.48 Lakhs.

Haresh Kukreja
Haresh Kukreja

The PPL #10 ₹1,375 PLO ₹5 Lakhs GTD (5RE) attracted a total of 246 entries and 290 re-entries. End of play, Nishanth ‘shanni’ Shanmughasundaram reached a heads-up deal with ‘matpoker’ to win the event for ₹1.28 Lakhs in prize money, while ‘matpoker’ won ₹95,475.

Sameer ‘killersam’ Tavanandi took down PPL #6₹1,100 NLHE Superstack ₹5 Lakhs GTD for ₹1.30 Lakhs. We also saw Paawan ‘ukissmyace’ Bansal finish fifth for ₹38,390. A total of 53 players took home a piece of the ₹6.98 Lakhs prize pool.

Sameer Tavanandi
Sameer Tavanandi

Anish ‘THENUTS’ Suri bested 296 runners in PPL #1 ₹1,100 NLHE ₹5 Lakhs GTD (RE) to win ₹1.17 Lakhs. The event saw seasoned players like Ujjwal ‘Mr_Robot’Narwal (3rd for ₹64,680) and Sameer ‘Killersam’ Tavanandi (5th for ₹33,880) making deep runs.

Aditya ‘Gangajal’ Sushant outran 158 other opponents including his heads-up opponent Ramlakhan ‘Hitler’ Meena to win the PPL #7 ₹2,200 NLHE Timebomb ₹2 Lakhs GTD for ₹54,505 in prize money. Shanmughasundram posted another score in the tournament, finishing third for ₹33,008.

Aditya Sushant
Aditya Sushant

With 246 entries and 391 re-entries, PPL #2 ₹1,100 ₹2 Lakhs GTD (FO) saw an action-packed run. Eventually, Ashutosh ‘Ashutosh.anand7’ Anand took down the event for ₹47,355.

It has been a strong start for the series but there is much more to come with The Vegas ₹30 Lakhs GTD on tap today. Keeping the action going will be other featured events like the High Roller 6-Max ₹50 Lakh GTD (5RE) and Main Event Warm UP ₹20 Lakh GTD (5RE). The biggest attraction is undoubtedly The MoneyMaker ₹1 Crore GTD that will play out on December 16 as the PPL Winter ’18 edition caps off.

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