This Week in Poker: September 4 – 10

This Week in Poker Sept 4-10
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  • Arpit Jain September 12, 2019
  • 7 Minutes Read

In the PokerGuru feature ‘This Week in Poker’ we bring you the weekly roundup of the most significant 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

This past week had abundant mind-boggling action both live and online.

Two major international stops ran simultaneously all week long. In the eastern hemisphere, the WPT took Vietnam by storm, and we had a strong Indian contingent in attendance that performed exceptionally well. Several seasoned Indian players joined the action, but the star of the show was Rubin Labroo who finished runner-up in the VND 4 Billion GTD Kickoff for ₹26.68 Lakhs, headlining a total of seven Indians who managed to cross the money line. Labroo went on to make another deep run in the VND 15 Billion GTD Main Event where he placed 17th, earning ₹6.80 Lakhs to return with a cumulative ₹33.48 Lakhs in winnings. Labroo’s blistering performance makes him our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

While Labroo drew first blood at the series, headlining Team India`s run in the Main Event was PokerStars India Team pro Aditya Agarwal. Proving once again why he is considered one of the best poker players in the country, Agarwal fielded through a strong field of 373 runners, finishing fifth to add ₹26.52 Lakhs to his bankroll. It was New Zealand’s Hamish Crawshaw who eventually came out on top to win the Main Event title and VND 3,782,723,000.

Right as the WPT Vietnam was underway, another group of Indian players was busy at one of Europe’s biggest casinos – Kings Casino, Rozvadov where the German Pokerclub Championship was playing out. At least 10 scores were posted by the Indians, eight of them coming in the Main Event alone. Spearheading Team India`s scorecard at the stop was Ankit Kapoor who ran the deepest in the Main Event, finishing 20th for ₹2.31 Lakhs. The PokerBaazi GameChanger winner Prashanth Sekar also ran exceedingly well at the series as he took down the King’s Big Thursday for his first-ever international title and a personal-best live score of ₹2.06 Lakhs. The tournament grossed 1,728 entries and crowned a champion in Germany’s Justin Frolian who took home €86,131 in prize money.

In London, the first-ever British Poker Open (BPO) is on the verge of wrapping up. After Mikita Badziakouski took down the £50,000 NLH for £486,000, all eyes are now on the series-ending £100K NLH that has whittled down to the final table. American pro Sam Soverel currently leads the BPO Leaderboard.

Coming back to home soil, we have the India Poker Championship (IPC) that is back with a BANG after a near four-year-long hiatus. The series is underway at the Big Daddy Casino in Goa and is already pulling in record numbers, with the series-opener ₹10K Freezeout drawing a record-shattering 437 entries. The numbers are possibly the biggest turnout ever seen in an opening event at Goa forcing the tournament organizers to extend the inaugural event to an additional second day!! Kavish Kukreja leads the nine-handed final table in the ₹10K Freezeout with 1.06 Million, and the tournament will crown a winner later tonight. The buzz is that multi-millionaire Instagram King Dan Bilzerian will also be making a brief appearance at the series over the weekend.

Online action was in full swing too. The biggest winner to came out of the virtual felts this week was an anonymous player called ‘hoodlincs’ who shipped The Millionaire on Spartan Poker for ₹19.49 Lakhs after defeating Anant ‘Pro’ Purohit heads-up. There is much more to look forward to with the upcoming ₹7 Crores GTD PokerBaazi Premier League (September 20 – 29) and Poker Dangal’s ‘Dangal 100 Max Series’ (September 17 – 21). For Indian`s looking to get in on international action, there is the 888poker XL Eclipse (September 12 – 22) and the ongoing partypoker’s $30M guaranteed Knockout series (September 8 – 22).

In other vital announcements, PokerHigh will be hosting a special tournament for the law fraternity named the Justice Mudgal Tournament – as a tribute to retired High Court judge Justice Mukul Mudgal. Poker streamer and partypoker pro Kevin Martin announced his retirement from poker streaming last week even as the WSOP added four more events to its schedule for the 2019 WSOPE.

In another exciting announcement, PokerStars LIVE has announced the return of the Red Dragon series that will once again be held in JEJU from November 9 – 15.

 

Online Railbird Report

The most prominent tournament this week was Spartan Poker’s The Millionaire ₹1 Crore GTD. The event registered a massive 1,362 entries across three starting flights, collecting a whopping ₹1.36 Crores in prize money. Winning such a tournament would result in instant stardom in the ordinary course of things, but the winner this time went unreported as an unknown online moniker ‘hoodlincs’ decimated the field, eventually defeating veteran pro Anant ‘Pro’ Purohit heads-up to win the ₹19.49 Lakhs up top. Purohit walked away with ₹18.51 Lakhs for his runner-up finish.

Anant Purohit
Anant Purohit

Other notable scores include:

‘CrownUpJr’ won 6.57 Lakhs for 1st place in the Spartan Poker ‘Destiny 11.0 – 25 Lakhs GTD’

Anil ‘spewtard’ Adiani won 6.06 Lakhs for 1st place in the Adda52 ‘Mega Suits 25 Lakhs GTD’

Vishal ‘Vishallb22’ Bajaj won 5.91 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘BSS SuperStack 25 Lakhs GTD’

‘GHOSTF@CE won 5.82 Lakhs for 1st place in the Spartan Poker ‘Sunday SuperStack 30 Lakh GTD’

‘Bhavitarora97’ won 5 Lakhs for 1st place in the Adda52 ‘Godfather X 20 Lakhs GTD’

Aditya ‘i8stacks’ Sushant won 4.80 Lakhs for 1st place in the 9stacks ‘The Joker 20 Lakhs GTD’

‘ddege001’ won 4.80 Lakhs for 1st place in the Spartan Poker ‘The Elite 20 Lakhs GTD’

‘vrakesh1507’ won 4.23 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘The Summit 15 Lakhs GTD’

Rajat ‘OshoSwami’ Sharma won 4.17 Lakhs for 1st place in the Adda52 ‘The Whale – 6 Max 15 Lakhs GTD’

‘GRINDER1104’ won 3.55 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Special – Progressive KO 15 Lakhs GTD’

Rony ‘bisadip176’ Chowdhury won 3.01 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘The Endeavour 15 Lakhs GTD’

Laksh Pal ‘LuckyBhai$’ Singh won 2.39 Lakhs for 1st place in the Spartan Poker ‘Mega Stack 15 Lakhs GTD’

Pranav ‘mithrandir16’ Anand won 2.43 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘The Vegas 10 Lakhs GTD’

‘Pokerroller’ won 2.35 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘The Bout 10 Lakhs GTD’

Kunal ‘cvc’ Sharma won 2.33 Lakhs for 1st place in the Spartan Poker ‘ReCharge 12 Lakhs GTD’

‘Jaqten’ won 2.32 Lakhs for 1st place in the Spartan Poker ‘Head-Hunter 10 Lakh GTD’

Anurag ‘13anurag’ Shrivastava won 2.20 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘FRI-YAY 10 Lakhs GTD’

‘saker’ won 2.10 Lakhs for 1st place in the Adda52 ‘Big Slick 15 Lakhs GTD’

Gaurav ‘3betPanda’ Sood won 2.08 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Highroller 10 Lakhs GTD’

Shravan ‘D.Trump04’ Chhabria won 1.94 Lakhs for 1st place in the Spartan Poker ‘TGIF 10 Lakhs GTD’

Deepak ‘spot_fixing’ Singh won 1.87 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Special (L) 10 Lakhs GTD’

‘RateDocter’ won 1.65 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Uppercut – Progressive KO 8 Lakhs GTD’

Maria ‘MariaKirloskar’ Kirloskar won 1.50 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘Thursday MonsterStack 5 Lakhs GTD’

‘Aarchit’ won 1.47 Lakhs for 1st place in the Adda52 ‘GO GOA’

Abhinav ‘griezmann’ Iyer won 1.39 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘The Monster 6-Max 5 Lakhs GTD’

‘TRIPPINonACID’ won 1.23 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘Grinders #33 Main Event 5 Lakhs GTD’

Anuj ‘brockLesnar95’ Yadav won 1.21 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Monday Hustle 6 Lakhs GTD’

Sameer ‘Falcon_Prince’ Paranjape won 1.19 Lakhs for 1st place in the Spartan Poker ‘Big Daddy 5 Lakhs GTD’

Bunty ‘3streakbluff’ Choudhary won 99,498 for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘Grinders #14 6-Max Wednesday SuperStack 3 Lakhs GTD’

Parikshit ‘Zapdos123’ Dhall won 99,026 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Night on Stars 5 Lakhs GTD’

Rajneesh ‘msdhoni’ Thakur won 99,015 for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘Grinders Friday SuperStack 3 Lakhs GTD’

‘prawnpickle’ won 98,511 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sixth Sense 6 Lakhs GTD’

Ram ‘mowgumotu’ Kakkar won 97,566 for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘Tuesday MonsterStack 3 Lakhs GTD’

‘Youngwolf009’ won 80,000 for 1st place in the Khelo365 ‘Twister 2 Lakhs GTD Deepstack NLHE’

‘Rvjn91’ won 88,200 for 1st place in the Spartan Poker ‘Ultimate PLO 2.5 Lakhs GTD’

Arjanveer ‘holdbaby’ Singh Chadha won 77,250 for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘Monday MegaStack 3 Lakhs GTD’

Suresh ‘insanium’ Kolli won 72,540 for 1st place in the 9stacks ‘StackUp @ 8PM 2.50 Lakhs GTD’

Mihir ‘AUTOPILOT’ Ganatra won 65,000 for 1st place in the 9stacks ‘StackUp @ 8PM 2.50 Lakhs GTD’

Sagar ‘Dont3betme’ Choudhury won 65,000 for 1st place in the 9stacks ‘StackUp @ 8PM 2.50 Lakhs GTD’

‘Sabir’ won 65,000 for 1st place in the 9stacks ‘StackUp @ 8PM 2.50 Lakhs GTD’

‘samir108’ won 65,000 for 1st place in the 9stacks ‘StackUp @ 8PM 2.50 Lakhs GTD’

Deepak ‘deepakdcdc’ Choudhary won 52,226 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘The Classic 2 Lakhs GTD’

‘momstacos’ won 59,010 for 1st place in the Spartan Poker ‘3 Lakhs GTD DST’

Shekhar ‘shakyshark’ Singh won 56,300 for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘BSS PLO 2 Lakhs GTD’

Vishal ‘mdigurgaon’ Tulsyan won 53,981 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday PLO 2 Lakhs GTD’

‘The Annihilator’ won 50,413 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Zoom 3-Max Progressive KO 2 Lakhs GTD’

‘daiwik’ won 43,200 for 1st place in the Khelo365 ‘Big Bang 1 Lakh GTD NLHE’

Paras ‘AAKKQQJJ’ Jain won 43,192 for 1st place in the Spartan Poker ‘Ultimate PLO 2.5 Lakhs GTD’

‘Redjohn’ won 43,000 for 1st place in the Khelo365 ‘Mega Splash 1 Lakh GTD NLHE’

Dhinesh ‘you3betl4bet’ Kumar won 42,295 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘6 – Max NLHE 2 Lakhs GTD’

‘rdx1111’ won 32,154 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Warm-Up 1.5 Lakhs GTD’

‘Prokiller’ won 29,769 for 1st place in the Poker Dangal ‘1 Lakh GTD Sunday Bonanza’

‘chunky20’ won 16,000 for 1st place in the Khelo365 ‘Deep Stack 40K GTD NLHE’

Read the complete story here

 

Poker Dangal’s ‘Dangal 100 Max Series’ Starts Next Week

Online poker site, Poker Dangal last week revealed a unique tournament series, catering to low-to-mid-stakes players. The series will run from September 17 – 21 offering ₹15 Lakhs in guarantees in 17 events. All events of the series are capped off at 100 unique entries and only the top 10 players will make it in the money.

Poker Dangal announces 100 Max Series
Poker Dangal announces 100 Max Series

Read the complete story here

 

PokerHigh to Host Justice Mudgal Tournament

PokerHigh recently came out with a special ‘Justice Mudgal Championship’ exclusively for lawyers, law students, in-house counsels, and interns. The ₹2 Lakhs guaranteed tournament pays obeisance to the former Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court – Justice Mukul Mudgal and will be hosted on September 15 at 5 pm.

Justice Mudgal
Justice Mukul Mudgal

Read the complete story here

 

Longest Online Poker Cash Table Session on Pocket52

Online poker start-up Pocket52 recently made headlines for running the most extended continuous online poker cash table session in the country that lasted an incredible 71 hours. The record-breaking session took place on their Pot of Gold 5-card PLO ₹25/₹50 cash table that was to award the last active player of the table wins an additional bonus.

After 71 hours of continuous action, users ‘Jungleman’ and ‘cooldude’ opted to sit out of the table at the same time and chopped the PoG pot worth ₹22,569 each.

Pocket52

Read the complete story here

 

Dan Bilzerian Rumored to Appear at IPC

Multi-millionaire playboy Dan Bilzerian recently announced that he would be coming to Mumbai following his association with the sports-tech venture, LivePools. According to sources, Bilzerian is likely to make an appearance at the India Poker Championship (IPC) as a special guest. Bilzerian is expected to play a private high stakes cash game and possibly even hand out trophies at the series.

Dan Bilzerian
Dan Bilzerian

Read the complete story here

 

World Poker Tour (WPT) Vietnam

A favored tournament stop for Indian players, WPT Vietnam, played out its second edition of the year from September 3 to 11 at the Pro Poker Club. The largest-ever contingent of Indian players turned up for the action, and as always there were a lot of accolades won by our challengers.

The scores started pouring in with the VND 4 Billion GTD Kickoff itself as a total of seven Indian cashes were registered. The most prominent of them all was the runner-up finish of Rubin Labroo for ₹26.68 Lakhs. He managed another deep run in the VND 15 Billion GTD Main Event, finishing 17th for ₹6.80 Lakhs. In total, Labroo collected a cumulative ₹33.48 Lakhs at the stop, for which he is deservedly our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

Rubin Labroo
Rubin Labroo

Another Indian who went all guns blazing at the stop was PokerStars India Team Pro Aditya Agarwal. The poker veteran was among the 20 Indians who made it to Day 2 of the Main Event and advanced to Day 3 alongside two other Indian survivors. Agarwal was the only Indian who could secure a berth in the final table, where he finished fifth for VND 861,108,000 (₹26.52 Lakhs).

Aditya Agarwal - WPT Vietnam Main Event
Aditya Agarwal

 

Team India Cashes at WPT Vietnam

EventPlayerFinishPrize Money
VND 4 Billion GTD KickoffRubin Labroo 2nd VND 862,923,000 - ₹26.68 Lakhs
VND 15 Billion GTD Main EventAditya Agarwal5thVND 861,108,000 - ₹26.52 Lakhs
VND 4 Billion GTD KickoffJaideep Sajwan4thVND 369,267,000 - ₹11.41 Lakhs
VND 15 Billion GTD Main EventJaideep Sajwan13thVND 267,739,000 - ₹8.30 Lakhs
VND 4 Billion GTD KickoffLaksh Pal Singh6thVND 235,288,000 - ₹7.27 Lakhs
VND 15 Billion GTD Main EventRubin Labroo17thVND 219,438,000 – ₹6.80 Lakhs
VND 15 Billion GTD Main EventAlok Birewar18thVND 219,438,000 – ₹6.80 Lakhs
VND 4 Billion GTD KickoffAkshay Nasa8thVND 160,356,000 - ₹4.95 Lakhs
VND 15 Billion GTD Main EventSumit Sapra22ndVND 150,151,000 – ₹4.65 Lakhs
VND 6.3 Million NLH BountyRonak Vyas 3rd₹4.63 Lakhs
VND 4 Billion GTD KickoffAkash Chandrashekhar10thVND 103,707,000 - ₹3.20 Lakhs
VND 4 Billion GTD KickoffAshish Munot17thVND 71,336,000 - ₹2.20 Lakhs
VND 6.3 Million NLH BountyVaibhav Sharma 5th₹1.31 Lakhs
VND 4 Billion GTD KickoffJayjit Ray51stVND 26,616,000 - ₹82,302

It was New Zealand’s Hamish Crawshaw who eventually won the Main Event for VND 3,782,723,000.

Hamish Crawshaw
Hamish Crawshaw

Read the complete story here

 

German Pokerclub Championship

The German Pokerclub Championship (GPC) ran from September 2-9 at one of Europe’s largest casinos – King’s Casino in Rozvadov with a total of 10 events in the schedule. Headlining the stop was the GPC Main Event that began on September 5 and logged a total of 1,728 entries (1,394 unique entries and 334 re-entries), creating a slight overlay to meet its advertised €500,000 (₹3.95 Crores) guarantee. Germany’s Justin Frolian took the event down for his career-first live title and the €86,131 top prize.

Justin Frolian Wins GPC Main Event
Justin Frolian

A small group of Indian poker players was in attendance at the series, and at least 10 cashes were posted by Team India. Headlining the Indian performance was Ankit Kapoor (20th for €2,916 ₹2.31 Lakhs) who was also the top Indian performer among the eight Indians who finished ITM in the Main Event.

Ankit Kapoor - GPC Main Event Day 2
Ankit Kapoor

Another Indian who hogged the limelight was the PokerBaazi The Game Changer 1.0 winner Prashanth Sekar. Sekar bested a field of 91 entries in the King’s Big Thursday to win his first international live title for €2,611 (₹2.06 Lakhs).

 

Team India Cashes At 2019 GPC

EventPlayer FinishPrize Money
GPC Main Event Ankit Kapoor 20th€2,916 - ₹2.31 Lakhs
€115 NLHE Saturday Night Turbo Vinayak Bajaj 4th€2,634 - ₹2.08 Lakhs
King's Big Thursday Prashanth Sekar1st€2,611 - ₹2.06 Lakhs
GPC Main EventGaurav Rohtas Gupta36th€1,532 - ₹1.21 Lakhs
GPC Main EventNehal Kumar Agarwal57th€1,079 - ₹85,539
GPC Main EventTanveer Singh Kohli78th€906 - ₹71,824
GPC Main EventPranav Khandalkar88th€906 - ₹71,824
GPC Main EventManish Goenka89th€906 - ₹71,824
GPC Main EventVinay Rajpal114th€817 - ₹64,769
GPC Main EventVinayak Bajaj124th€728 - ₹57,713

Read the complete story here

 

Four More Events Added to WSOPE Schedule

The 2019 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), slated to run between October 13 – November 2 at the King’s Casino in Rozvadov will now have four more events on offer including a €250,000 Super High Roller, a $2,500 Short Deck event and two 8-game events.

WSOPE 2019

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Red Dragon Returns to Jeju

The Shinhwa World Resort – Landing Casino in the South Korean island of Jeju will once again play host to the famous Red Dragon JEJU that is returning from November 9 – 15 with a packed schedule of 18 high-value events. The series will be headlined by the KRW 2.5 Million buy-in Main Event (November 10 to 13) which boasts of a KRW 1 Billion guarantee.

Red Dragon to make a comeback to Jeju

Read the complete story here

 

Poker Streamer Kevin Martin Announces Retirement

This past week, renowned twitch streamer Kevin Martin announced his retirement from Twitch and also exited partypoker Team Online. Martin, however, clarified that he is not quitting poker altogether as he intends to continue playing recreationally.

Kevin Martin
Kevin Martin

Read the complete story here

 

Chinese Court Seizes Boyaa Interactive’s Funds

Last week, Hong Kong-based Boyaa Interactive International Limited’s cash reserves worth US$88.6 Million were seized by a Chinese court. The money could be confiscated if it can be proved that the funds are in any way linked to the misconduct of the company co-founder Zhang Wei.

Chinese Court Seizes Boyaa Interactive's funds

Read the complete story here

 

DraftKings Debuts in West Virginia

Daily fantasy sports company DraftKings made its debut in the West Virginia market earlier this week with the launch of its iOS and Android app. The move is well-timed with the upcoming opening kickoffs of the NFL and college football seasons.

DraftKings debuts in West Virginia

Read the complete story here

 

British Poker Open

The British Poker Open (BPO) a contemporary of Poker Central’s prestigious series U.S. Poker Open (USPO) made its debut at the Aspers Casino in London last week. The 10-event series kicked off on September 2 and is now on the home stretch with nine tournaments done and dusted.

While it is Mikita Badziakouski, who has become the series’ biggest payout earner after he took down the £50,000 NLH for £486,000, leading the series Leaderboard presently is Sam Soverel. The American pro has enjoyed a breakout series that saw him final-table two events before taking down two £25K NLH events. Soverel now commands 780 points and is a good 360 points ahead of his closest competitor Stephen Chidwick. The series-ending £100K NLH is down to its four-handed final table and is scheduled to play down to a champion on Thursday.

Sam Soverel wins BPO £25K NLH
Sam Soverel

 

2019 BPO Winners

EventPlayer Prize Money
£50,000 NLH Mikita Badziakouski£486,000
£25,000 NLHSam Soverel£322,000
£25,000 NLHSam Soverel£280,000
£25,000 NLHSergi Reixach£253,000
£25,000 PLOStephen Chidwick£202,500
£10,000 NLHPaul Newey£156,400
£10,000 PLOGeorge Wolff£120,000
£10,000 NLHELuc Greenwood£119,600
£10,000 Short DeckSam Greenwood£110,400

Read the complete story here

 

Scott Hall Wins WSOPC St. Charles Ameristar Main Event

The fourth stop of the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) at St. Charles Ameristar culminated with the $1,700 Main Event crowning a champion in Scott Hall. He overcame a field of 414 entries and former gold ring winner Andros Ioakimides heads-up to win the title for $130,667.

Scott Hall wins WSOPC St. Charles Ameristar Main Event
Scott Hall

Read the complete story here

 

Aaron Van Blarcum Wins Season XVIII WPT Legends of Poker Main Event

The Season XVIII World Poker Tour (WPT) Legends of Poker $5,000 Main Event crowned a winner in 43-year-old Aaron Van Blarcum who won $474,390 (including a $15,000 seat into the WPT Tournament of Champions). The event attracted 520 entries to create a mammoth prize pool of almost $2.4 Million, and the top 65 places got paid.

Aaron Van Blarcum
Aaron Van Blarcum

Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Nipun Java finished 27th for $14,100 (₹10.10 Lakhs).

Nipun Java
Nipun Java

Read the complete story here

 

Eric Bunch Wins WinStar Labor Day River Poker Series Main Event

Eric Bunch came out on top of a field of 1,242 entries at the recently concluded 2019 WinStar Labor Day River Poker Series $1,500 Main Event and took away $260,000 in prize money following a heads-up deal with Spencer Champlin.

Eric Bunch Winstar Inside Image
Eric Bunch

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.

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