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
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).
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 –
Player | Prize Amount | Event | Poker Site |
---|---|---|---|
Shashank 'Jai Bajrangbali' Desai | ₹12,80,090 | SSS #42 Main Event ₹75 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
Prajal '77777777' Parikh | ₹10,57,050 | SSS #24: Texas HR ₹45 Lakhs GTD ₹27, 500 (RE) | Spartan Poker |
Anirudh ‘flash’ Reddy | ₹7,09,0610 | SSS #17 Destiny ₹30 Lakhs GTD ₹5,500 RE | Spartan Poker |
Nadeem ‘SpadeHunter’ Basha | ₹6,67,890 | BSS SuperStack ₹30 Lakhs GTD (5RE) | PokerBaazi |
biglooser007 | ₹6,32,400 | SSS #31 The Elite ₹25 Lakhs GTD ₹11,000 (RE) | Spartan Poker |
Raghav ‘thatssosick’ Bansal | ₹5,99,850 | SSS #43 Sunday Super Stack ₹30 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
Deep ‘ChristopherCoke’ Patel | ₹5,33,353 | PPL #19: The Bout 8-Max ₹25 Lakhs GTD | PokerBaazi |
Ayan ‘gutshotguru1’ Ray | ₹4,97,240 | Godfather X ₹20 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
Aditya ‘A_Sushant’ Sushant | ₹4,92,458 | Mega Suits ₹25 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
Anurag ‘NormanBates’ Srivastava | ₹4,20,000 | The Ballers ₹15 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
Aditya ‘adit11’ Kulkarni | ₹4,11,187 | The Summit ₹15 Lakhs GTD | PokerBaazi |
Vaibhav ‘Nikka Zaildar’ Sharma | ₹4,10,994 | SSS #11 Mega Stack ₹18 Lakhs GTD ₹3,300 RE | Spartan Poker |
Aditya ‘I8stacks’ Sushant | ₹3,67,500 | The Joker ₹15 Lakhs GTD | 9stacks |
Olandir | ₹3,45,218 | PPL#20 8-Max ₹15 Lakhs GTD (RE) | PokerBaazi |
FLlPflops | ₹3,10,761 | Sunday Special – Progressive KO – ₹15 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
Priyank ‘Piko1432’ Kothari | ₹3,01,500 | The Endeavour ₹15 Lakhs GTD (RE) | PokerBaazi |
ashmam | ₹2,80,000 | Hitman ₹10 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
Ragesh ‘ragesh91’ Mishra | ₹2,79,792 | PPL #5 ₹10 Lakhs GTD (RE) | PokerBaazi |
chitti3.0 | ₹2,79,180 | SSS #23 Head Hunter ₹12 Lakhs GTD ₹5,500 PLO (RE) | Spartan Poker |
Yuvraj ‘ThePredator’ Singh | ₹2,65,705 | PPL #3 ₹10 Lakhs GTD (RE) | PokerBaazi |
yash1993 | ₹2,46,360 | Maverick ₹10 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
Siddharth ‘si151190’ Mehndiratta | ₹2,41,493 | Big Slick ₹15 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
Aditya ‘gangajal’ Sushant | ₹2,30,580 | The Vegas ₹10 Lakhs GTD (RE) | The Vegas ₹10 Lakhs GTD (RE) |
Ajaybs08 | ₹2,24,000 | Goa Fest ₹8 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
Deepak ‘chimpoo’ Bothra | ₹2,23,494 | SSS #30 TGIF ₹10 Lakhs GTD ₹1,650 (RE) | Spartan Poker |
Pranav ‘dak0o’ Bang | ₹2,15,266 | Highroller ₹10 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
Rajat ‘sharabikebabi’ Sharma | ₹2,03,355 | Uppercut Progressive KO (6-Max) MAGIC Edition ₹8 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
blindgame | ₹1,91,270 | ReCharge ₹12 Lakhs GTD ₹2,200 (RE) | Spartan Poker |
Sam ‘thereallokimon’ Anand | ₹1,79,481 | PPL#14 BSS MegaStack ₹7 Lakhs GTD (3RE) | PokerBaazi |
ONmyMAC | ₹1,55,400 | SSS #18 Hi-Fi ₹6 Lakhs GTD ₹1,650 RE | Spartan Poker |
Akash ‘bruce.lee0247’ Gupta | ₹1,52,761 | Sunday Special (L) – ₹10 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
Avijit ‘tyler2643’ Jaiswal | ₹1,42,600 | SSS #32 Hi-Fi ₹8 Lakhs GTD ₹2,200 (RE) | Spartan Poker |
Mukesh ‘Guruuu’ Surana | ₹1,38,827 | PPL #12 BSS PLO ₹5 Lakhs GTD (RE) | PokerBaazi |
Debashish ‘Alln’ Bal | ₹1,28,750 | PPL#17 7-Max ₹5 Lakhs GTD (FO) | PokerBaazi |
Sandeep ‘shreister’ Sreedhar | ₹1,28,299 | SSS #25 Hi-Fi ₹6 Lakhs GTD ₹1,650 (RE) | Spartan Poker |
Devashish ‘debumathur’ Mathur | ₹1,26,900 | SSS #44 Big Daddy ₹6 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
Shravan ‘FishStars’ Chhabria | ₹1,23,769 | Thursday MonsterStack ₹5 Lakhs GTD | PokerBaazi |
Pranav ‘dak0o’ Bang | ₹1,19,504 | Sixth Sense ₹2,750 NLHE ₹6 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
munish bhalla | ₹1,06,843 | Night on Stars ₹2,200 NLHE ₹5 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
Aayush ‘aces55’ Kawar | ₹1,16,802 | PPL #1 ₹5 Lakhs GTD | PokerBaazi |
Zilean99 | ₹1,06,667 | Monday Hustle ₹6 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
Akshay ‘sherlock52’ Nasa | ₹95,000 | PPL #4 BPT PKG Tourney (7 Max) | PokerBaazi |
dybalamask | ₹90,804 | 6-Max Wednesday SuperStack ₹3 Lakhs GTD (5RE) | PokerBaazi |
Guneet ‘guntz’ Kwatra | ₹90,029 | Tuesday MonsterStack ₹3 Lakhs GTD (5RE) | PokerBaazi |
som22asopa | ₹85,500 | Sunday Hexagram ₹3 Lakhs | Adda52 |
deepesh2727 | ₹74,038 | Hexagram ₹2 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
ChupaRustam2901 | ₹70,758 | Hexagram ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
Samir ‘samir108’ Hossen | ₹65,000 | StackUp@ 8 PM ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD | 9stacks |
Amresh ‘Termi’ Kumar | ₹65,000 | StackUp @8 PM ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD | 9stacks |
Raj ‘Fireman’ Kumar Gahlot | ₹65,000 | StackUp @8 PM Hold’em No Limit ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD | 9stacks |
Twilight | ₹65,000 | StackUp @8PM ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD | 9stacks |
Vibhu ‘Vibsi’ Agarwal | ₹65,000 | StackUp @8PM ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD | 9stacks |
Aman ‘alwaysriver’ Kejriwal | ₹63,000 | PPL #2 ₹3 Lakhs GTD (RE) | PokerBaazi |
Yuvraj ‘madnutscrazy’ Singh | ₹62,016 | Ultimate PLO ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
GPDK | ₹60,000 | Dangal – 100 Max Event #15 ₹3 Lakhs GTD | Poker Dangal |
Akshay ‘vibaks’ Nasa | ₹59,897 | Hexagram ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
kindoa | ₹54,363 | Progressive KO – 4 Max ₹2 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
MojoJojo2193 | ₹52,254 | Zoom 3-Max Progressive KO ₹1,650 ₹2 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
sathyaesan | ₹46,000 | Big Bang ₹1 Lakh GTD NLHE (Max 5 Rebuys) | Khelo365 |
sudha1 | ₹43,000 | Mega Splash ₹1 Lakhs GTD NLHE (Max 5 Rebuys) | Khelo365 |
Rsd1207 | ₹42,952 | The Classic ₹1,650 ₹2 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
spew_monkey | ₹40,000 | 100 Max Event #11 – ₹2 Lakhs GTD | Poker Dangal |
sheldon11cooper | ₹39,134 | 6 – Max NLHE ₹2 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
Sam ‘Lokimon’ Anand | ₹31,800 | 100 – Max Event #7 ₹1.5 Lakhs GTD | Poker Dangal |
Ravi ‘DJBravo’ Yadav | ₹28,150 | Sunday Bonanza (RE) ₹1 Lakh GTD | Poker Dangal |
Sam ‘Lokimon’ Anand | ₹26,600 | 100 Max Event #3 – ₹100K GTD | Poker Dangal |
Somenn ‘Prokiller’ Singh | ₹24,000 | ₹1 Lakhs GTD – Monday Texas | Poker Dangal |
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 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
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
Player | Event | Finish | Prize Money |
---|---|---|---|
Akshay Nasa | High Rollers 1 Single Day | 2nd | PHP 786,000 - ₹10.81 Lakhs |
Dilip Menon | No Limit Hold’em 1 | 1st | PHP 616,000 - ₹8.40 Lakhs |
Jaideep Sajwan | Championships Event | 13th | PHP 277,000 - ₹3.78 Lakhs |
Akshay Nasa | Monster Stack 2 | 6th | PHP 197,500 - ₹2.69 Lakhs |
Akshay Nasa | High Rollers 2 | 10th | PHP 180,700 - ₹2.46 Lakhs |
Jaideep Sajwan | Main Event | 49th | PHP 104,700 - ₹1.43 Lakhs |
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.
Player | Event | Prize Money |
---|---|---|
Yohn Paredes | Main Event | PHP 4,369,400 |
Xixiang Luo | Championships Event | PHP 4,594,800 |
Jinho Hong | Monster Stack #1 | PHP 753,400 |
Chi Chung Ho | Head Hunter 4,000 Bounty | PHP 385,500 |
Kota Nakano | Pot Limit Omaha Hi-lo Split | PHP 163,700 |
Masato Yokosawa | High Rollers Single Day 1 | PHP 1,178,900 |
Linh Nguyen Dieu Phuong | NLH Single Day Event 1 | PHP 432,000 |
Dilip Menon | No Limit Hold'em 1 | PHP 616,000 |
Yin Momo | High Rollers 2 | PHP 2,081,400 |
Seongsu Kong | Short Deck | PHP 263,100 |
Kota Nakano | Pot Limit Omaha | PHP 352,800 |
Martin Stausholm | High Rollers Single Day 2 | PHP 1,259,400 |
Kenichi Takarabe | NLH Single Day Event 2 | PHP 402,800 |
Seiji Morimoto | Super Deep Stack Turbo | PHP 385,500 |
Renato Villanueva | Welovesport Deep Stack Hyper Turbo | PHP 146,300 |
Lee Wang Yong | No Limit Hold'em 2 | PHP 461,200 |
Ferlyn Cabaling | Megasportsworld Deep Stack Turbo | PHP 233,000 |
Steve Yea | High Rollers #3 | PHP 948,900 |
Joshua Chargualaf | Monster Stack 2 | PHP 1,022,000 |
Elmer Kalaquian | Deep Stack Turbo | PHP 117,200 |
Lei Yu | High Rollers Single Day 3 | PHP 1,093,400 |
Yik Yin Chiu | Deep Stack Hyper Turbo | PHP 135,300 |
The next APT stop will take place in Taiwan at Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association in Taipei City from October 9 to 20.
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
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
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
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
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.