Flashback: Tracing the Highlights of Indian Poker in 2014 (Part 1) – The Top 5 Online Scores

2014 is winding up and it has been a momentous year for poker in India. New alliances, takeovers and new tournaments have given hope for a livelier poker scene in the country. The year has seen several notables reach greater heights and the spurt of new talent that promises to raise India’s global poker presence. While, a few stray regulatory incidents may have dampened spirits, in all poker has begun to boom, especially with new poker destinations emerging, such as Bangalore. Clearly, 2015 appears as a potentially rich new year, for poker players in India, with both, poker entrepreneurship and poker players increasing, as evidenced this past year.

As, the countdown to the New Year begins; we present a new 3-part series featuring the special moments of poker in India, this 2014. The first will bring to you the Top 5 highest online scores, the second will cover the Top 5 highest live scores and our concluding article will focus on the Top 5 important poker developments in India.

Top 5 Highest Online Scores

Indian players have been amazingly active at the virtual felts, since past many years. Known pros have continued to increase their scores and several unknowns have created a stir with impressive earnings online. Here, we highlight the Top 5 highest individual online scores by our Indian players, in 2014.

1. Danish ‘danish7’ Shaikh: 2^nd Place in TCOOP Main Event for $245,835

The first quarter of 2014, clearly belonged to Young Gun Danish Shaikh, who recorded a humungous score that remains unchallenged till date.

The Goa-based Danish began playing poker at Zynga on Facebook and is one of the few players, who straddled the other side of poker – business operations, in order to learn and understand the game better. After working for a poker organization in Pune, his break came from Rajat Agarwal of PokerGuru and he represented the organization, as their reporting face in Goa. He was one of the early ones to receive mentoring and training from one of India’s finest, Aditya ‘Intervention’ Agarwal. Danish subsequently went on to participate in many poker tournaments successfully.

$245,835 is the amount that remains the highest online earnings, ever taken by any Indian player this year and it was Danish who managed this feat in February. Danish pulled this off at the PokerStars Turbo Online Championship of Poker (TCOOP) 2014, Main Event.

The $700 TCOOP Main Event saw an expanded prize pool of $3,059,000, caused by the massive 4,600-player field. Only 585 made the money, with $480,263 reserved for the winner. Numerous heavyweights, such as Aditya ‘intervention’ Agarwal, Amit ‘bblacklegend’ Jain, Sahil ‘antilog’ Agarwal and Aditya ‘donkab0mber’ Sushant and international pros Jonathan Duhamel, Joe Cada, Liv Boeree, Nacho Barbero, Victor Ramdin, Johnny Lodden, Lex Veldhuis, and Jake Cody were all participating.

In a highly interesting final table, the last 6 players struck an unusual deal and when they were down to three, it was Danish left with the smallest stack. The Goan player persisted, eliminated “blaeesh“, who ended up with the largest payday of $337,108, thanks to the earlier deal.

In heads up play, Danish pushed all in with his and fell to ultimate winner ‘Riverlan_88’s , who took home $277,526.55.

Danish’s record cash of $245,835 stands uncontested this year so far, and is unlikely to beaten unless an Indian makes a deep finish at the massive $5 Million guaranteed Sunday Million on PokerStars tomorrow.

2. ‘Kingplayer19’: 2^nd Place in the PokerStars Sunday Million for $128,261.40

The PokerStars Sunday Million is one of the most popular and coveted series amongst online players around the world.

The second highest score of 2014 was the $128,261.40 claimed by the still unknown ‘kingplayer19’ in the $215 No-Limit Hold’em Sunday Million in October.

The event attracted 7,142 runners, with 1,080 places paid, leading up to a prize pool of $1,428,400!

The final four players entered a chip-chop deal, with the winner getting an additional $20,000.

‘Kingplayer19’ caused the elimination of ‘Thomas198713’ at 4^th place, while ultimate winner ‘smak777’ busted ‘Chew_on_This’ at 3^rd position.

Heads up play began between ‘Kingplayer1’9 and Russia’s ‘smak777’, who was now sitting on a huge stack. The final hand saw ‘smak777’opening for 2.8 million and kingplayer19 re-raising to 5.6 million. ‘smak777’ pushed all in, ‘kingplayer19’ responded by calling for 14,552,140.

‘kingplayer19’ held and the flop rolled out . The turn of and the river with were no further help and ‘smak777’ with took the title with a pay of $137,435.03.

Kingplayer19’s win of $128,261.40 is not only the second highest online score this year, but he also holds the distinction of being the second Indian player to make an impressive finish at the Sunday Million.

In 2013, Aditya ‘donkab0mber’ Sushant became the first Indian player to make 2^nd place at the Sunday Million, collecting a purse of $168,157, after beating a player field of 6,733.

On 21 Dec, Armaan ‘armaan007’ Kocchar became the third Indian to make an impressive finish of 4^th place, earning $70,816 at the Sunday Million.

Even as more players are making impressive runs, India still awaits its Sunday Million Title Champion and perhaps, 2015 is the year to herald one.

3. Armaan ‘armaan007’ Kocchar: 4^th Place in the PokerStars Double Vision – Sunday Million for $70,816

If Danish ruled the first quarter of 2014, the last one surely belonged to Armaan ‘armaan007’ Kocchar. The young pro rose from the ranks, trailblazing score after score the past couple of months and reached a pinnacle last Sunday, Dec 21, to make 4^th place and collect $70,816 at the PokerStars December Festival – Double Vision Sunday Million.

The tournament witnessed 7,420 players entering, with 1,044 paid places and a blown up prize pool of $1,484,000.00. ‘Rhyno2008’ Nerro took the title and largest share of $217,717.64.

The hand that busted Armaan, saw him holding and ‘apestyles’ with . The flop with swung in favor of ‘apestyles’, though the turn gave Armaan hope with its . However, the river was no help with it’s and Armaan was out at 4^thwith $70,816.

This figure is this year’s third largest online score by an Indian. However, it did not end there for Armaan and it must be mentioned that just two days later, he went on to make 6^th place at the Super Tuesday for $22,567.50. In the last 5 weeks, Armaan has been‘PokerGuru Star of the Week’ thrice, besides numerous other impressive cashes, and his will be a name to watch out for in 2015.

4. Danish ‘danish7’ Shaikh: 3^rd Place in the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up for $70,039

Danish re-enters our Top 5 on account his phenomenal run, as mentioned, early this year. He gets the credit of the fourth highest score of earning $70,039, which also was his career’s second best cash.

The PokerStars $215 Sunday Warm-Up, $500K GTD was the platform that gave Danish this finish. 3,532 runners were in the fray and it took a solid 11-hour grind for the winner to emerge.

The last three players chopped a deal and Danish had the smallest stack of 5 million. The hand that eliminated Danish found him facing Honduras player ‘FU_15’, with a two ace in his hand. A quirky queen on the turn favored ‘FU_15’, who had seven ace and Danish was out at 3^rd place with $70,039.

5. Amit ‘bblacklegend’ Jain: 4^th Place in the PokerStars Super Tuesday for $46,816

Amit ‘bblacklegend’ Jain made the 5^th highest online score, though that cannot quantify the amazing number of impressive finishes he has accumulated this year.

$46,816 was the amount Amit took home for 4^th place in the $1,050 Super Tuesday in February this year. The event had a gathering of 608 players, with 72 paid, vying for the $608,000 prize pool.

Ten hours into the play, Amit was leading in chips on the final table with 1 million, but came across a bad beat a little while later.

On Amit`s last hand of the tournament, ‘I Visor I’ held and the board ran out . The turn of and the river with did nothing to help Amit’s . Amit was out for 4^th place with $46,816, fifth highest score of 2014.

Besides the above earnings, this was not the only instant Amit created waves. In Oct, he went on a heater of finishes, making 6 final tables in major events and pocketing a cumulative kitty of $24,000, as well as making many other notable finishes over many months throughout the year.

While the above make the Top 5 highest online cashes for 2014, we cannot end the feature without the mention of two players, who almost made it to this list and have their own impressive scores nevertheless i.e. Young Gun`s Raahil Bhatia and Aditya Sushant.

Young Gun Raahil ‘rbhatia3’ Bhatia made two very significant finishes this year. One a 2nd place finish at PokerStars ‘The Bigger $109, $200K GTD’ for $36,989 on Nov 23. Another, a 2nd place finish in WCOOP Event 12 for $29,386 on Oct 10, as well as many more impressive scores.

Young Gun Aditya ‘donkab0mber’ Sushant claimed the title at PokerStars ‘The Big $162, $75K GTD’, taking home $28,816 on Mar. 28 for 1^st place and many other consistent scores.

That folks, wraps up the most impressive moments at the virtual felts this 2014. Even as regulars move into accelerated mode and many young players reveal their latent talents, 2015 seems packed to be an exciting arena for the brave and the courageous. It will certainly be a battle to enjoy, both for those participating and for those watching.

We will continue this series, with the Top 5 Highest Live scores next, so do stay logged on to catch the most momentous poker moments of the Indian poker scene, as 2014 breathes its last.