This Week in Poker: September 18 – 24

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

September has seen a phenomenal upsurge in Indian poker and how! If the first fortnight of the month was all about the live action with Team India piling on impressive performances at international stops like WPT Vietnam, German Pokerclub Championship & APT Philippines, all playing along the sidelines of the record-smashing India Poker Championship (IPC) – the action has now moved back to the digital felts.

Spartan Poker kept the poker netizens busy with its Spartan Super Series (SSS) that hit the ground running on September 16 with a week-long schedule of events. The high-stakes series played out a full 44-event schedule that saw many players banking six-figure scores. The best of it came towards the end with well-known regular Shashank ‘Jai Bajrangbali’ Desai taking down the ₹75 Lakhs GTD SSS Main Event. A former IPC champion and an accomplished online pro, Desai outlasted 746 others to win a jaw-dropping ₹12.80 Lakhs for his blistering run and is deservedly our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!!”

Sharing podium space with Desai at the SSS was Prajal Parikh who won the SSS #24 Texas High Roller ₹45 Lakhs GTD for ₹10.57 Lakhs and Anirudh ‘flash’ Reddy who took down the SSS #17 Destiny ₹30 Lakhs GTD for ₹7.09 Lakhs.

Running alongside the SSS was Poker Dangal’s ₹15 Lakhs GTD 100-Max Series – a uniquely structured tournament series catering to a very different clientele – the small and mid-stakes grinders.

Setting the virtual felts ablaze these last four days has been the PokerBaazi Premier League (PPL). Underway since September 21, and PPL has already crowned several worthy champions.

All of this pales in comparison to the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) – the richest online series in the world today. The WCOOP is a marquee offering of PokerStars (currently running on the international client). The series has raked in a record $104.73 Million in prize money across 219 tournaments, overshooting its advertised guarantee by nearly 40% to become the largest-ever WCOOP in the series’ 18-year-old history. The series is now on the edge of culmination with the Main Event final table scheduled to play out on September 25.

Keeping the live rail going last week was a small group of Indians at the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Philippines II series in Manila. Akshay Nasa, Dilip Menon, and Jaideep Sajwan headlined the Indian performance at the stop. Nasa had picked up a runner-up finish last week and went on to add two more scores this week to bring back a cumulative ₹15.96 Lakhs from the stop. Menon was the only Indian to win an APT trophy, he took down the NLHE 1 title for ₹8.40 Lakhs. Sajwan did well in both the PHP 55K Main Event and the Championships Events, his latest score coming in the latter where he finished 13th for ₹3.78 Lakhs. The event was eventually taken down by China’s Xixiang Luo.

There were some eye-popping developments internationally. The more prominent of two news stories featured Microgaming Poker Network (MPN) that announced the shutdown of its online poker operations. The other story that got the poker community in a frenzy was the sale of the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino by Caesars Entertainment to New York-based Imperial Companies for a whopping $516.3 Million. The silver lining here was that poker players won’t be immediately impacted by the sale as the WSOP continues to stay under the ownership of Caesars that will continue hosting it at the RIO convention center at least for the next two years.

Speaking of the WSOP, poker pro-Phil Ivey hasn’t taken lightly to the fact that Borgata managed to gain hold of the $124,410 he had won at the WSOP $50K PPC this summer. Ivey has legally questioned Borgata’s authority to claim the winnings and his feud with the casino hotel is about to get murkier!

Moving to what’s coming up next, the WSOP International Circuit will be coming to King’s Casino in Rozvadov (Sept 23-Oct 13) with WSOPE kicking off right afterward. There are two tournament stops coming up in London this week. The Lex Live 2 London (Sept 27-Oct 6) will play out around the same time as the WPT UK (Sept 28- Oct 6).

Online Railbird Report

The action on the virtual felts was rife with the Spartan Super Series (SSS) rolling out another smashing edition last week. The PokerBaazi Premier League (PPL) has been matching that tempo these last five days.

The biggest winner of the week was seasoned pro Shashank ‘Jai Bajrangbali’ Desai. Desai bested a field of 747 entries to take down the SSS Main Event ₹75 Lakhs GTD for ₹12.80 Lakhs and hence is our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!!”

Apart from Desai, there were some other big winners too. Prajal Parikh took down the SSS #24 Texas High Roller ₹45 Lakhs GTD for ₹10.57 Lakhs, and Anirudh ‘flash’ Reddy shipped the SSS #17 Destiny ₹30 Lakhs GTD for ₹7.09 Lakhs.

The notable scores of the week include –

Phil Ivey’s Legal Battle With Borgata Continues

The ongoing feud between iconic poker pro Phil Ivey and Borgata Hotel and Casino took a new turn last week with Ivey’s legal counsel claiming that Borgata has unlawfully secured his winnings from his eighth-place finish in the WSOP $50K Poker Players Championship (PPC).

Read the complete story here

Caesars Entertainment Sells The Rio For $516.3 Million

Caesars Entertainment has officially announced that it has sold the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino to New York-based real estate firm Imperial Companies for $516.3 Million. Caesars, however, retains ownership of the iconic World Series of Poker (WSOP) brand that will continue to run at the RIO convention center for at least the next two years.

Read the complete story here

APT Philippines II

The Asian Poker Tour (APT) Philippines II came back to the Resorts World Manila (RWM) for its second outing at the venue this year. In fact, APT has further consolidated its collaboration with RWM by signing a new exclusive agreement to ensure that at least two major APT events a year continue at the venue until the end of 2021.

The 22-event series ran from September 11 to 22. There was a small group of Indians present at the series and the team pooled in a total of six scores including a title! Akshay Nasa did most of the heavy lifting by picking up three scores at the stop. After a blistering start in the High Rollers Single Day 1 where he had finished runner-up for PHP 786,000 (~₹10.81 Lakhs), Nasa placed 10th in the High Rollers 2 for PHP 180,700 (~₹2.46 Lakhs). He closed out his trip on a winning note by finishing sixth in the Monster Stack 2 for PHP 197,500 (~₹2.69 Lakhs).

Read the complete story here

Jaideep Sajwan was another Indian who kept busy at the series and was the only one from the team to score in both the Main Event and the Championships Event. After his 49th place finish in the Main Event, he did even better in the Championships Event – finishing 13th for PHP 277,000 (~₹3.78 Lakhs).

China’s Xixiang Luo took down the Championships Event and won his career-first APT trophy, along with PHP 4,594,800 (~₹62.81 Lakhs) in prize money.

Read the complete story here

Philippines-based Dilip Menon was the only Indian who won a title. He trounced a 150-strong entry field in the No Limit Hold’em 1 to capture his second APT title, along with an impressive payday of PHP 616,000 (~₹8.40 Lakhs).

Read the complete story here

Team India Cashes at the APT Philippines II

Philippines’ Richard Nakila emerged as the APT Player of the Series. He scored in a total of five events, accumulating 1,165.51 points in the process. For his achievement, Nakila received the APT Player of the Series trophy, the APT Player of the Series Ring, an exclusive watch, and $800.

APT Philippines II Winners

The next APT stop will take place in Taiwan at Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association in Taipei City from October 9 to 20.

Richard Bai Wins WSOPC Potawatomi Main Event

Hosted at Potawatomi from September 12 to 23, the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) was headlined by the $1,700 Main Event that garnered 447 entries. In the end, Chicago’s Richard Bai lifted the trophy and walked away with $138,317.

Read the complete story here

Tadashi Takei Wins WPT Korea Main Event

The third stop of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Season XVIII played out in Korea from September 17 to 23. Taking center stage at the stop was the KRW 250 Million GTD Main Event where besting a field of 350 players, Japan’s Tadashi Takei took down the title and ₩108,170,000 ($90,582) in prize money.

Read the complete story here

Alejandro Roman Wins WPTDS Marrakech Main Event

Outlasting a record-breaking field of 545 entries, Spain’s Alejandro Roman won the World Poker Tour (WPT) DeepStacks Marrakech Main Event. Roman defeated WPTDS Portugal Main Event champion Silma Macalou heads-up to capture the winner’s cheque of MAD 1.1 Million ($113,333).

Read the complete story here

Donald Maloney Wins WPT Borgata Poker Open $3,500 Championship

Dominating a field of 1,156 entries, Arizona’s Donald Maloney came out on top in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Borgata Poker Open $3,500 Main Event. A former hockey player, Maloney won $487,874 in prize money along with a $15,000 seat into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions (TOC).

Read the complete story here

Paul Richardson Wins WSOPC Thunder Valley Main Event

The World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) made its annual halt at the Thunder Valley poker room recently. The two headline winners at the series were Bryant Miller who won the High Roller for $44,413 and Paul Richardson who championed the Main Event for $130,667.

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.