Niharika Bindra

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Daily Majors: Niharika Bindra, Karan Radia, Rajneesh Thakur & Ram Kakkar Drive Up the Action With Top Finishes in the Friday Flagships

The 53rd annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) has been grabbing the headlines for almost a month now, and the domestic circuit has been closely following the progress of the Indian contingent in Las Vegas.

After a slow start to the week, the online MTT action has picked up the pace, and players have a big weekend ahead. The low to mid-stakes players have Pocket52’s ₹1.30 Crores GTD Pocket Poker Championship to keep them busy till Sunday, June 26.

The well-known cash game reg from New Delhi, Niharika Bindra, made the Friday headlines on the back of her terrific run in Spartan Poker’s The Elite, netting ₹7.50 Lakhs (her first title victory in over a year). She posted another deep run in Adda52’s The Ballers (9th for ₹43,429), making away with an impressive ₹7.94+ Lakhs overall.

Young Gun Karan Radia kept his beastly run going with another breakout performance last night. Hot on the heels of a firecracker performance in Spartan Poker`s Thursday flagships, the poker reg from London shipped Adda52’s The Ballers for ₹5.42 Lakhs, picking up his 19th title of the year. The reigning BPT Main Event champion Nitin Arora made away with over ₹4.48 Lakhs from four deep runs – including a runner-up finish in both the Adda52 flagships.

Rajneesh Thakur has been an absolute revelation over the past few months. The online phenom, the runaway leader in the annual TLB (points) standings, picked up his 32nd title of the year with a victory march in PokerBaazi’s The Weekly HighRoller, pocketing ₹3.91 Lakhs. He made another five ITM finishes yesterday, rounding up ₹4.12 Lakhs in Friday winnings (his best finish of the year).

Arpan Majhi finished runner-up in PokerStars India’s Uppercut for ₹74,095, losing the title to ‘imac2000’, who made away with the ₹93,033 up-top. But Majhi more than made up for it by taking down the Uppercut Mini for ₹40,607, pocketing ₹1.20 Lakhs overall.

The back-to-back Nano Main Event champion Ram Kakkar won PokerBaazi`s (7-Max) Daily SPRINT for ₹1.01 Lakhs, following a heads-up deal with Tanay Hegde (2nd for ₹98,985).

Ashutosh Kumar championed MPL Poker’s Friday headliner, Friday Supreme, for ₹94,000. And what`s even better, he did it while streaming his run in the tournament! You can watch the stream below.

Prashant Jain, Devrat Singh, Chirag Sodha, Nitin Rawat, Satyam Joon, Vaibhav Sharma, and Pratik Doshi won the other Friday marquees.

Due to server issues, all the Friday primetime tournaments on Pocket52 were canceled.

Here are the Friday highlights!

 

Spartan Poker

The Elite (6-Max) – ₹30 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – ₹11,000

Entries – 154

Re-entries – 89

Rebuys – 112

Prize Pool – ₹35,50,000

Places Paid – 31

The well-known cash game reg from New Delhi, Niharika ‘nutcracker303’ Bindra, made quite an entry into the weekend as she came out on top of a guarantee-crushing 355-entry field in Spartan Poker`s Friday headliner, ₹30 Lakhs GTD The Elite, to win ₹7.50 Lakhs, picking up her first title in over a year. The user ‘RoshuRen’ finished runner-up for ₹5.05 Lakhs.

Niharika Bindra
Niharika Bindra

 

Niharika Bindra made another deep run in Adda52’s The Ballers (9th for ₹43,429), making away with an impressive ₹7.94+ Lakhs overall.

Final Table Results

  1. Niharika ‘nutcracker303’ Bindra – ₹7,50,825
  2. RoshuRen – ₹5,05,520
  3. Guneet ‘GeeKay’ Kwatra – ₹3,56,420
  4. MagicMan13 – ₹2,88,970
  5. Puneet ‘neo888’ Dua – ₹2,28,620
  6. Pranav ‘R_U_SUAR’ Khandalkar – ₹1,73,595

 

Futuristic – ₹8.50 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – ₹880

Entries – 640 (370)

Rebuys – 367

Prize Pool – ₹8,50,000

Places Paid – 95

Spartan Poker`s Friday value offering, the multi-entry ₹8.50 Lakhs GTD Futuristic, brought in a crowded field of 1,007 entries, and the top 95 places benefitted from the ₹44,400 in overlay value filled in by the site.

The user ‘sadhubaba’ was the last player standing and won the Friday marquee for ₹1.52 Lakhs after striking a heads-up deal with ’57spades’ (2nd for ₹1.09 Lakhs).

sadhubaba’s Spartan Poker stats: Site Winnings: ₹3.37 Lakhs | Titles Won: #2 | Final Table Finishes: #5

Final Table Results

  1. sadhubaba – ₹1,52,525*
  2. 57spades – ₹1,09,785*
  3. Kaptan ‘Kaptan786’ Ali – ₹71,570
  4. Zed49 – ₹54,825
  5. Eagle mentality – ₹43,435
  6. Yohan ‘PAPITO’ Patel – ₹33,830
  7. chibhai88 – ₹24,650
  8. simba11 – ₹16,847

*denotes a heads-up deal

 

Nitin ‘NITINBAD’ Rawat (Won ₹2 Lakhs GTD Sundowner for ₹42,300), ‘Zed49’ (Won ₹1.75 Lakhs GTD Night Rider – Monster Stack for ₹45,384), ‘fizzace’ (Won ₹1 Lakh GTD Ultimate 6 Card PLO for ₹30,539), ‘Jacques’ (Won ₹80K GTD Epic for ₹21,000) ‘fizzace’ (Won ₹1 Lakh GTD Chip Up for ₹14,914), ‘saahil11’ (Won ₹50K GTD The Centurion for ₹10,575), and ‘MEHAK….143’ (Won ₹35K GTD Epic – Multi-Entry for ₹9,701) won the other Spartan Poker marquees.

 

PokerBaazi

The Weekly HighRoller – ₹12 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – ₹11,000

Entries – 87

Re-entries – 65

Prize Pool – ₹15,20,000

Places Paid – 18

Rajneesh ‘msdhoni’ Thakur, who is sitting with an insurmountable lead in the annual TLB (points) standings, almost hit a new career-high last night, banking ₹4.12 Lakhs across six ITM runs. He won a whopping ₹3.91 Lakhs (his best finish of the year) after besting the 152-strong entry field in PokerBaazis biggest Friday draw, the ₹12 Lakhs GTD The Weekly HighRoller. Amit ‘quark’ Kaushik finished runner-up for ₹2.74 Lakhs.

Rajneesh Thakur
Rajneesh Thakur

 

Rajneesh Thakur’s online stats (excluding PokerStars India): Lifetime Winnings: ₹4.07 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ~₹60 Lakhs| Titles Won in 2022: #32 | Ranked #1 in the 2022 TLB (Points) Standings

The 8 PM event culminated at 3.48 AM, and the top 18 finishers dug into the ₹15.20 Lakhs prize pool.

Final Table Results

  1. Rajneesh ‘msdhoni’ Thakur – 3,91,400
  2. Amit ‘quark’ Kaushik – 2,74,056
  3. Fideroyc – 1,76,320
  4. Ankit ‘d00mtr00p3r’ Wadhawan – 1,30,568
  5. Faiz ‘AilaGaya’ Alam – 97,888
  6. Anant ‘Pro_Pro’ Purohit – 78,280

 

(7-Max) SPRINT – ₹5 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – ₹1,650

Entries – 263

Re-entries – 232

Prize Pool – ₹7,42,000

Places Paid – 63

The former NPS Bronze Medallist Prashant ‘jainprashant’ Jain proved the last player standing in PokerBaazi’s Friday edition of the SPRINT! He outran the 495-player field to collect the top prize of ₹1.44 Lakhs. The DPT April High Roller champion Aayush ‘Learnnwin’ Arya locked in the runner-up payday of ₹1.01 Lakhs.

Aayush Arya
Aayush Arya

 

Prashan Jain fell out just short of the FT in PokerBaazi’s ₹2.50 Lakhs GTD Daily Boost (9th for ₹6,608), lapping up ₹1.52 Lakhs in Friday winnings. His online stats: Lifetime Winnings: ₹15.89 Lakhs | Lifetime Profits: ₹4.05 Lakhs | Titles Won in 2022: #5

Final Table Results

  1. Prashant ‘jainprashant’ Jain – 1,44,268
  2. Aayush ‘Learnnwin’ Arya – 1,01,129
  3. Nitin ‘philhermouth’ Arora – 65,043
  4. Piyush ‘aero’ Jain – 48,114
  5. Parshuram001 – 36,086
  6. Tp212121 – 28,958
  7. Karan ‘Apocalypto’ Radia – 24,131

 

(7-Max) Daily SPRINT – ₹5 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – ₹2,200

Entries – 136

Re-entries – 107

Prize Pool – ₹5,00,000

Places Paid – 27

The back-to-back Nano Main Event champion Ram ‘mowgumotu’ Kakkar made the winning touchdown in PokerBaazi`s (7-Max) Daily SPRINT, pocketing ₹1,01,215 (at least his sixth title of the year). He chopped the top prize heads-up with Tanay ‘tannycruz’ Hegde (2nd for ₹98,985).

Ram Kakkar
Ram Kakkar

 

The 7.30 PM marquee wound up at 1.40 AM and experienced an overlay shortfall of ₹14,000.

Final Table Results

  1. Ram ‘mowgumotu’ Kakkar – 1,01,215*
  2. Tanay ‘tannycruz’ Hegde – 98,985*
  3. Ashish ‘kapz’ Kapoor – 53,100
  4. Anmolraj Singh ‘PINCIOTTI’ Chawla – 39,300
  5. Mohammed ‘IveGotTheNuts’ Arshaq – 29,500
  6. Arun ‘vazharmorghulis’ Sriram – 23,600
  7. Nitin ‘Gambler42’ Rawat – 19,600

*denotes a heads-up deal

 

skshivam43’ (Won ₹3 Lakhs GTD Holdem BOOST for ₹72,660), ‘pindapanda1’ (Won ₹2.50 Lakhs GTD Daily Boost for ₹63,157), Chirag miyagiSodha (Won ₹2.50 Lakhs GTD Afternoon BOOST for ₹55,292), ‘pingu’ (Won ₹2 Lakhs GTD Hyper Sprint for ₹43,580), ‘Raldon’ (Won ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD Daily Night SPRINT for ₹41,040), ‘bisfu1706’ (Won ₹1 Lakh GTD SPRINT for ₹33,817), Satyam joonjoonJoon (Won ₹1 Lakhs GTD PLO Boost Monster for ₹24,760), Vaibhav BeBotSharma (Won ₹1 Lakhs GTD Daily Afternoon SPRINT for ₹24,160), Maverick05’ (Won ₹1 Lakh GTD Baazi Super Value for ₹16,310), ‘tasmia’ (Won ₹75K GTD PLO-5 SPRINT for ₹15,730), and ‘vivekkurmee’ (Won ₹40K GTD PLO Daily for ₹11,630) won the other PokerBaazi marquees.

 

MPL Poker

Friday Supreme – 4 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – 1800

Entries – 134

Re-entries – 102

Prize Pool – 4,00,000

Places Paid – 37

Ashutosh ‘1111’ Kumar championed MPL Poker’s Friday Supreme and did so flamboyantly while streaming, taking home the lion’s share of the 4 Lakhs prize pool worth 94,000. You can watch the stream below.

Nikil ‘gambler0093’ Sah fell one place short of the title, banking 59,800 in second place.

Ashutosh Kumar
Ashutosh Kumar

 

Final Table Results

  1. Ashutosh ‘1111’ Kumar – 94,000
  2. Nikil ‘gambler0093’ Sah – 59,800
  3. Manish ‘any1willdo’ Kumar Barman – 40,600
  4. R Venkat ‘rockybhai1’ Sai – 32,200
  5. Shridhar ‘S21’ Baburao Komti – 21,200
  6. Rohit ‘FOLDKARYAAAAAAR’ Malhotra – 15,000
  7. Abhishek ‘grgambler’ Agarwal – 12,000
  8. Naveen ‘queen0083’ Kumar – 9,600

 

PokerStars India

Uppercut – 5 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – 2,200

Entries – 122

Re-Entries – 79

Total Prize Pool – 5,00,000

Regular Prize Pool – 2,99,000

Bounty Prize Pool – 2,01,000

Places Paid – 23

PokerStars India reg ‘imac2000’ came out on top in the site`s Friday headliner, 5 Lakhs GTD Uppercut, to collect 93,033 (41,297 in bounties). Last night`s Uppercut Mini winner Arpan ‘Vasusenaa’ Majhi secured a runner-up payday worth 74,095 (22,359 in bounties).

The 2,200 buy-in Uppercut logged in 201 entries and was made to fill in a significant 98,000 in overlays.

Final Table Results (Including Bounties)

  1. imac2000 – 93,033
  2. Arpan ‘Vasusenaa’ Majhi – 74,095
  3. Clinton ‘Clinton Tavares’ Tavares – 44,756
  4. Arjanveer ‘ballistik310’ Singh Chadha – 38,158
  5. Anmolraj ‘modi chai wala’ Singh Chawla – 21,969
  6. Sanat ‘durrsanta’ Mehrotra – 22,259
  7. knightRider012 – 20,427

 

Uppercut Mini – 1.75 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – 1,375

Entries – 75

Re-Entries – 44

Total Prize Pool – 1,75,000

Regular Prize Pool – 1,00,625

Bounty Prize Pool – 74,375

Places Paid – 11

Arpan ‘Vasusenaa’ Majhi dominated the Friday marquees on PokerStars India. He finished runner-up in the 5 Lakhs GTD Uppercut (2nd 74,095) but redeemed himself by going the distance in the 1.75 Lakhs GTD Uppercut Mini, netting 40,607 (19,761 in bounties). The user ‘vjTILTing’ collected 24,337 (3,491 in bounties) in second place.

Yesterday, Arpan Majhi cashed two events on Adda52, adding over 1.20 Lakhs in Friday winnings. His Friday finishes include:

> 2nd in PokerStars India’s Uppercut for 74,095

> 1st in PokerStars India’s Uppercut Mini for 40,607

> 31st in Adda52’s Friday Bounty for 3,825

> 26th in Adda52’s Nighttide DST Adda for 1,750

The 1,375 buy-in event attracted 119 entries, overlaying 26,250.

Final Table Results (Including Bounties)

  1. Arpan ‘Vasusenaa’ Majhi – 40,607
  2. vjTILTing – 24,337
  3. Swapnil ‘pokpom1’ Patil – 24,027
  4. yd199999 – 14,186
  5. Somesh ‘JackNotMa’ Patel – 9,956
  6. RAV1619 – 7,005
  7. rkcravi – 8,303

 

‘sssss951’ (Won 1 Lakh GTD Ultrasonic for 24,877), ‘Gamestern’ (Won 1 Lakh GTD Evening on Stars for 24,292), Pratik ‘pratspratik’ Doshi (Won 50K GTD Afternoon on Stars for 16,699), ‘Garvit01’ (Won 50K GTD Deepstack for 11,148), and ‘yuvidilwariya’ (Won 50K GTD Primetime Grind for 9,827) won the other PokerStars India marquees.

 

Adda52

The Ballers – 20 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – 7,500

Entries – 163

Re-entries – 154

Prize Pool – 21,71,454

Places Paid – 34

After crushing Spartan Poker`s flagships the day before, Young Gun Karan ‘Reg_Slayer’ Radia continued with his online domination! And this time, he set his sights on Adda52’s 20 Lakhs GTD The Ballers, winning the Friday flagship for 5.42 Lakhs (his best finish on the site this year).

Karan Radia
Karan Radia

 

The reigning BPT Main Event champion, Nitin ‘bigbluffs’ Arora, raked in over 4.48 Lakhs across four ITM runs – including a runner-up finish in both the Adda52 flagships.

Nitin Arora
Nitin Arora

 

His Friday finishes include:

> 2nd in Adda52`s The Ballers for 3.28 Lakhs

> 3rd in PokerBaazi`s (7-Max) SPRINT for 65,043

> 2nd in Adda52`s Friday Bounty for 49,353

> 55th in Spartan Poker`s Futuristic for 4,901

Nitin Arora`s online stats: Lifetime Winnings: 5.58 Crores | Lifetime Profits: 1.24 Crores | Titles Won in 2022: #6

Final Table Results

  1. Karan ‘Reg_Slayer’ Radia – 5,42,863
  2. Nitin ‘bigbluffs’ Arora – 3,28,975
  3. Ratul ‘riverking021’ Steves – 2,38,860
  4. Siddhanth ‘Sidstack’ Kripalani – 1,81,316
  5. Ujjwal ‘fourteenk’ Narwal – 1,24,858
  6. Ankit ‘d00mtr00p3r’ Wadhawan – 81,429

 

Friday Bounty – 4 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – 2,700

Entries – 98

Re-entries – 77

Prize Pool – 4,48,000

Places Paid – 19

The former Full House Finale champion Devrat ‘Vickypune’ Singh (opted out of our tracking) outmaneuvered a 175-players field in Adda52’s ₹4 Lakhs GTD Friday Bounty winning the title for ₹95,713 (₹29,073 in bounties). This was at least his second title victory this year.

Devrat Singh
Devrat Singh

 

The Ballers runner-up finisher, Nitin ‘bigbluffs’ Arora, posting his second runner-up finish on the site, collected 49,353 in second place.

Final Table Results

  1. Devrat ‘Vickypune’ Singh – 88,447
  2. Nitin ‘bigbluffs’ Arora – 49,353
  3. Anurag ‘NormanBates’ Srivastava – 37,972
  4. Alok ‘Elusiveflame’ Kumar – 29,196
  5. dcs007 – 19,488
  6. Samimeel – 17,699
  7. Amrit ‘amrit1111’ Mishra – 23,258
  8. Amanadiel – 10,145

 

‘aishni12’ (Won 1.50 Lakhs GTD Nighttide DST for 30,059), ‘vimalbhaskar’ (Won 40K GTD Freeze-Out Adda for 15,490), ‘shavzz’ (Won 60K GTD Bounty Adda for 10,424), Mohsin ‘gongo’ Shaikh (Won 50K GTD Evening Adda for 10,020), and ‘shivam1508’ (Won 20K GTD Midnight Bash for 7,794) won the other Adda52 marquees.

 

Khelo365

Khelo365’s ₹30K GTD Prime Time PLO logged in 43 entries, and the user ‘Manoj95’ swiftly sailed past them all to win the title for ₹11,100. ‘Akolum’ collected ₹7,500 in second place.

 

Keep following PokerGuru for daily updates on the biggest winners across the major domestic networks!

IPC Megastacks: Young Gun Siddhanth Kripalani Headlines Main Event Final Table, Aditya Sushant 2nd in Chips

It’s a wrap for Day 2 of the IPC Megastacks ₹60K Main Event! The action was fast-paced, and it took about 11 hours to get to the eight-handed final table.

Young Gun Siddhanth Kripalani, once again, emerged as the runaway chip leader with a massive stack of 6,050,000. Kripalani has more than double the stack of India’s first WSOP bracelet winner Aditya Sushant who sits second in chips with 1,895,000.

Siddhanth Kripalani
Siddhanth Kripalani

 

Kripalani bagged a dominating chip lead on Day 2 of the series-opener ₹25K Kick-Off event but fell in 12th place for ₹1.16 Lakhs. While Kripalani is no stranger to final tables, having finished sixth in the 2022 DPT 65K High Roller and fourth in the 2018 WPT India Big Bounty, he now has a chance to finally get the monkey off his back by taking down the IPC Megastacks Main Event title!

Thakur Anand Mohan Singh (1,365,000), J. Raju (1,180,000), Sumit Sapra (1,025,000), Siddharth Singhvi (910,000), Niharika Bindra (595,000) and Rajasekhar P (190,000) make up the rest of the Main Event final table.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Siddhanth Kripalani – 6,050,000

2. Aditya Sushant – 1,895,000

3. Thakur Anand Mohan Singh – 1,365,000

4. J. Raju – 1,180,000

5. Sumit Sapra – 1,025,000

6. Siddharth Singhvi – 910,000

7. Niharika Bindra – 595,000

8. Rajasekhar P – 190,000

The Main Event registered 334 entries (Day 1A – 170 & Day 1B – 164), generating a guarantee-crushing ₹2,00,40,000 prize pool. Day 2 opened with 98 runners returning to the felts, with Sukhjit Singh (408,000) returning as the start-of-day chip leader.

With the top 42 places assured payouts, the race to the money line was accelerated. The ₹25K Kick-Off champion Mahesh Shyamsundar money bubbled the Main Event, walking out in 43rd place. Soon after that, PokerGuru Ambassador Mithun Mahesh became the first player to finish in the money (42nd for ₹1.03 Lakhs).

With 34 eliminations needed till the final table to be formed, some notables who fell out of the Main Event race included the start-of-day chip leader Sukhjit Singh (16th for ₹2.57 Lakhs), poker coach Kanishka Samant (17th for ₹2.57 Lakhs), Young Gun Kanchan Sharma (18th for ₹2.57 Lakhs), celebrity poker player Minissha Lamba (19th for ₹2.11 Lakhs), Deepak Bothra (20th for ₹2.11 Lakhs), BPT Highroller champion Zarvan Tumboli (21st for ₹2.11 Lakhs), Shashank Jain (24th for ₹1.72 Lakhs), Raghav Bansal (28th for ₹1.26 Lakhs), PokerGuru Ambassador Deepankur Gupta (30th for ₹1.26 Lakhs), and MPL Poker Pro Dhaval Mudgal (33rd for ₹1.26 Lakhs).

Awakash Rai was the last player to fall in ninth place for ₹4.30 Lakhs.

 

Main Event Payouts

PositionPlayer NamePrize Money
1₹43,05,300
2₹30,17,400
3₹19,40,300
4₹12,43,500
5₹9,58,900
6₹7,93,600
7₹6,66,300
8₹5,47,100
9₹4,30,500
10₹3,62,700
11₹3,62,700
12₹3,62,700
13₹3,08,600
14Abhijeet Kumar₹3,08,600
15Rishabh Sharma₹3,08,600
16Sukhjit Singh₹2,56,500
17Kanishka Samant₹2,56,500
18Kanchan Sharma₹2,56,500
19Minissha Lamba₹2,11,400
20Deepak Bothra₹2,11,400
21Zarvan Tumboli₹2,11,400
22Makrim M₹1,72,300
23Saransh Garg₹1,72,300
24Shashank Jain₹1,72,300
25Allwyn Saldanha₹1,49,300
26Vishal Ohja₹1,49,300
27Aseem Jain₹1,49,300
28Raghav Bansal₹1,26,300
29Vishnu Karan₹1,26,300
30Deepankur Gupta₹1,26,300
31Kumar Vatsal₹1,26,300
32Archit Khandelwal₹1,26,300
33Dhaval Mudgal₹1,26,300
34Sunil Chaudhary₹1,26,300
35Nimit Patel₹1,26,300
36Anant Purohit₹1,26,300
37Shreyabha Pandey₹1,03,000
38Himanshu Chhikara₹1,03,000
39Arjanveer Singh Chadha₹1,03,000
40Anil Kumar₹1,03,000
41Sanat Mehrotra₹1,03,000
42Mithun Mahesh₹1,03,000

 

The eight finalists will return at 1 PM on May 23 to contend for the grand IPC Megastacks Phygital trophy and the ₹43.05 Lakhs up-top! All the action will be live-streamed (on delay) on several social media platforms, including our Facebook Page.

 

Stay tuned to PokerGuru for all the latest updates from IPC Megastacks!

Kolkata Kings Win Season 4 of Poker Sports League For ₹72 Lakhs!

Season 4 of the Poker Sports League wrapped up on Saturday, with Kolkata Kings, led by captain Shardul Parthasarathi lifting the trophy and winning ₹72 Lakhs and an additional success fee awarded to the players. The defending champions Deccan Aces came second, collecting ₹48 Lakhs in prize money.

The five-week-long season was the first time the league was held in the ‘Phygital’ format and ended on April 23, with the Grand Finale taking place onboard Casino Deltin Royale in Goa. All the action was live-streamed on the OTT platform VOOT.

 

This is the first time Kolkata Kings have won the PSL title. The team finished runner-up in Season 1 (then known as Kolkata Royal) and came third in Season 3.

After the Grand Finals, Pranav Bagai, CEO and Founder of the Poker Sports League, said, “We are thrilled to have witnessed and hosted such a remarkable season. We want to thank our partners, Fairplay News, Adda 52, and Deltin Royale, for extending their support and making this season a grand success. We are grateful to all the team owners and the players who displayed inspiring gameplays and gave their 100%. The season was truly a testament to India’s burgeoning poker industry as it was packed with surprises, vigor, and inspiring gameplay. We congratulate the winners and hope that the players had an immersive and a stimulating experience overall.”

Pranav Bagai
Pranav Bagai

 

PSL Season 4 was powered by Fairplay News, with Adda52 being the online partner, while Deltin Royale was the league’s venue partner.

Kolkata Kings, owned by PokerDangal co-founders Kunal Gupta, Karan Gandhi, and Varun Puri, featured Team Captain Shardul Parthasarathi, Team Pro Ashish Ahuja, and PokerGuru Ambassador Ankit Wadhawan, Niharika Bindra, Vinayak Bajaj, along with six qualifiers namely, Mohit Bohra, Rishit Kumar, Payal Sharma, Shane Oswald Hodges, and Ashish Mudgil. Pulkit Pandey was the substitute player, and Priya Agarwal was the Wild Card.

Kolkata Kings topped the PSL Season 4 charts with 65,800 points. Young Gun Shardul Parthasarathi, who captained the team to victory, talking about his team’s effort, said, “We never really considered our team to be weak, honestly. I think we had a decently good team on paper. I think there were 2-3 guys I didn’t know about during the auction, but the rest were all players I knew of. We had sessions taken by Ashish (Ahuja), Ankit (Wadhawan), and myself, which really helped the team, especially the qualifiers. Everyone on the team did their bit and more! I didn’t have to motivate anyone as everyone was self-motivated. We had a commanding lead in the virtual format and came second in the live one, and Ashish did a splendid job closing it out in the finale for us!”

Shardul Parthasarathi
Shardul Parthasarathi

 

Kolkata Kings Team Pro, PokerGuru Ambassador Ashish Ahuja, who won the Grand Finale for the team, added, “I would like to give credit to the entire team as everyone scored points in the virtual and live format, which gave us a healthy chip advantage over all the teams in the grand finale.”

Ashish Ahuja
Ashish Ahuja

 

Elaborating on the heads-up against Deccan Aces, Ahuja added, “The heads-up with Deccan Aces was pretty exciting. We had a healthy 2.5:1 chip lead over Deccan when the heads-up began. We utilized our chip lead, put max pressure, and eventually took it down.”

 

PSL Season 4 Recap

Season 4 commenced on March 29 with the same six teams as last season, namely Kolkata Kings, Gujarat Falcons, Delhi Czars, Deccan Aces, Mumbai Anchors, and Goan Nuts. Not only did this season mark the comeback of the PSL to the live felts, but it was also the first time the league was held in a ‘Phygital’ format with a mix of online and live matches. All six teams were competing for a share of the ₹2 Crores prize payouts.

Mind Sports League, the parent company of the PSL, had announced Season 4 last October. While the season was initially slated to take off in February, a fresh outburst of COVID-19 cases across the country forced them to postpone the dates. Following the quarter-finals in February (15,17,19), 36 of the 180 Online Qualifiers were given a seat in the six PSL teams at the Selection Ceremony on March 5.

While the online qualifiers and Virtual League matches for Season 4 were hosted on the Hashtag Poker App, the Final Qualifiers were held on Adda52.

The Phygital league began with the Virtual League Matches on Adda52, live-streamed on VOOT.

A total of 18 matches were played across three weeks in different categories, namely, Qualifiers, Women, Pros, Wildcard, Captains, Owners, and six Multi-Table tournaments. The action played down to the Grand Finale in Goa from April 20 to 23.

 

Kolkata King’s Ride to Victory

Here is a quick look at the team’s headline moments through PSL – Season 4:

> Ashish Ahuja ranked second in the Pro Match 1 held on March 29, which was won by Gujarat Falcons’ Shashank Jain

> Vinayak Bajaj ranked second in the Leaderboard MTT (A) held on April 2. Deccan Aces’ Ishita Arora topped the Leaderboard standings.

> Ashish Mudgil won the 36-Player Deepstack MTT (B) on April 2

> Rishit Kumar won the Qualifier Match 4 on April 6

> Mohit Bohra won the Qualifier Match 5 on April 7

> Niharika Bindra won the Female Match on April 8, topping the PSL – Season 4 Female Leaderboard

> Vinayak Bajaj won the Qualifier Match 6 on April 11

> Shardul Parthasarathi won the Captain’s Match on April 12

> By April 12, Kolkata Kings had climbed to the top of the Team Leaderboard standings with 33,200 points

> Karan Gandhi won the Owners Match Main Event MTT-A on April 16

> Mohit Bohra won the SNG 2 live in Goa on April 21

 

Kolkata Kings started as chip leaders in the Grand Finale, with a starting stack of 1,00,000, followed by Deccan Aces (55,000) and Mumbai Anchors (55,0000).

Ahuja eliminated Romit Advani of Gujarat Falcons’ in sixth place, knocking the team out of contention.

Mumbai Anchors eliminated Delhi Czars in fifth place, and Kolkata Kings’ Ashish Ahuja busted Mumbai Anchors’ member and his PokerGuru Staking stablemate, Laksh Pal Singh, in fourth place to take over a 5-to-1 chip lead. Soon, the Goan Nuts were sent out of contention in third place, setting up the heads-up match between the Kolkata Kings and Deccan Aces.

In the final hand of the tournament, Ahuja was all-in with against Deccan Aces’ Vaibhav Sharma’s . The board ran , and just like that, Kolkata Kings won the PSL Finale.

While Kolkata Kings were declared the PSL Season 4 champions, Goan Nuts’ Arjun Singh (18,575 points) was felicitated as the Player of the Series (POS), and Deccan Aces’ Ishita Arora (10,925 points) was named the Woman of the Series.

 

Talking about the team’s win, the Kolkata Kings team co-owner Karan Gandhi said, “It’s a wonderful feeling that the team has taken it down. The team took a lot of effort, and as Kunal Patni pointed out, there are a lot of newcomers, and I am happy that each of them performed well.”

Karan Gandhi
Karan Gandhi

Kunal Patni, Team Captain of the runner-up Deccan Aces, congratulating the winning team, underlined how the Kolkata Kings were considered the weakest among the six competing teams, but they proved everyone wrong. “To be very frank, from the time teams were selected, everyone believed Kolkata Kings to be the weakest team on paper. But they played consistently well, both online and live, throughout the league. They deserve every bit of the victory.”

Kunal Patni
Kunal Patni

 

He explained further, “We all thought their qualifiers were the weakest, but obviously, we were proven wrong.”

It was a fantastic season for the PSL, and the poker community now eagerly awaits the announcement for the next season.

Top Videos of the Week: June 6 – 12

In this weekly feature, we take a look at the most trending videos from the poker world. From the craziest to the funniest – from the interesting to the bizarre – you’ll find it all here every week!

Chhota Machhi Live-Streams Khelo365’s ₹2 Lakhs GTD ReRaise

PokerGuru’s Arpit Jain, a.k.a. Chhota Machhi, high on josh, took a second shot live-streaming Khelo365`s ₹2 Lakhs GTD ReRaise on Saturday. The extra energy saw him posting a 10th place finish – missing the money by three places.

 

Women In Poker Ft. Avanie Joshi

Making a splash in our weekly Women In Poker series was the vivacious and free-spirited Avanie Joshi. The multi-talented Joshi is a singer-songwriter, composer, DJ & aspiring poker pro who burst onto the poker scene when she participated in PokerHigh’s ‘The Player Hunt.’ Check out her poker story in the video below.

 

Throwback Thursday – All India Gaming Federation Ft. Roland Landers

We canvassed India’s foremost regulatory body for the gaming industry, the All India Gaming Federation, aka the AIGF, in our Throwback Thursday feature earlier in the week! To shed pertinent insights into the AIGF charter, we sat down with the CEO of AIGF, Roland Landers, to understand more about the federation’s work over the years, the recent initiatives undertaken, and where he sees gaming headed in India.

 

PokerGuru Daily Majors Recap With Saumya Paithankar

PokerGuru’s Daily Majors Recap with Saumya Paithankar gave us another week of MTT highlights, winner bytes, other top stories, and promotions.

The Tuesday (June 8) highlights included a video byte by Anmol Narang, who shared his poker story in a quick chat with Saumya after winning Spartan Poker’s Megastack – Millionaire Bubble.

 

 

Wednesday’s (June 9) Destiny champion Kunal Patni is perhaps one of the best-known players in the country today. The primarily live MTT player has transformed into an online phenom. In this candid interview with Saumya on Thursday – he bared it all, starting from his early misconceptions as a full-time poker pro to the role the IPP stable and his mentor Danish Shaikh has had on his game and immediate plans.

 

Nikhil Segel Streams For Natural8

Not missing his weekly stream, Nikhil Segel live-streamed twice this week.

On Monday, he played Natural8’s $400 GTD Omaholic Bounty Turbo.

 

He streamed Natural8`s $125 GTD NLHE PKO on Wednesday.

 

Aryan Chauhan, Shobhit Bhargava, Sumit Navlani, Deepanjan Das, Nitin Rawat Stream For PokerStars India

Twitch streamer Aryan Chauhan, a.k.a. PainProvider returned, with a Friday night stream of his cash game session on PokerStars India. He ended the session in the green for ₹32,747.

 

Shobhit Bhargava, a.k.a. 569poker, had a Sunday stream going, playing PokerStars India’s ₹5 Lakhs Summer Series – Sunday Warm-Up and ₹1 Lakh Summer Series – Deepstack.

 

Monster Poker Club’s Sumit Navlani streamed the Fight of Monster Home Game on PokerStars India.

 

Deepanjan Das streamed the ₹20 Lakhs Summer Series – Sunday Special.

 

Nitin Rawat was live-streaming PokerStars India’s ₹40K Summer Series – Bounty Builder on Friday on Monster Poker Club’s YouTube channel.

 

Shobhit Bhargava, Ritwik Khanna & Gautam Rohilla Stream For PokerBaazi

Poker streamer Shobhit Bhargava has been putting in a lot of time and effort on his streams, and he got to realize the ultimate reward this week – winning a tournament on the live stream. Bhargava took down PokerBaazi`s Turbo ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD on Thursday for ₹48,240.

 

Rising Star Ritwik Khanna fired up a Monday stream, playing one of the “Road to NPS” satty series events.

 

Fitness freak & poker streamer Gautam Rohilla streamed his run in the “Road to NPS” satty events on Tuesday.

 

Nitin Rawat Streams For PokerDangal

Nitin Rawat streamed PokerDangal`s ₹10 Lakhs GTD DGS Main Event on Tuesday.

 

Shobit Bhargava`s (569Poker) SpadesCall With Sharad Rao

Shobhit Bhargava put up a new episode of his podcast series, ‘SpadesCall,’ after a long break. And his guest was none other than PokerStars India`s former streaming ambassador Sharad Rao.

 

Funny Poker Usernames – Donna Amo

Gutshot Magazine’s content writer Donna Amo left audiences in splits by enacting some funny poker usernames of Indian poker pros.

 

IOPC July 2021 Teaser – Spartan Poker

Whenever you hear IOPC – massive guarantees and record-breaking player fields are the first things that comes to mind. Well, guess what?! Another edition of the IOPC is coming next month. Check out the teaser for hints of a refreshing new “Treasure Hunt” theme.

 

National Poker Series – Niharika Bindra, Siddhanth Kripalani, & Romit Advani

The much-awaited National Poker Series (NPS) is finally underway on PokerBaazi.

This week, PokerBaazi posted up-close and personal player interviews of Niharika Bindra, Siddhanth Kripalani, and Romit Advani.

 

 

 

 

National Poker Series – Know Your Players

In the lead-up to the mega-series, PokerBaazi launched a new ‘Know Your Players’ series, where they asked several poker players a question and then compiled their answers in a short video. The questions this week were:

“If poker was a part of the olympics, which player, in your opinion, should represent India?”

 

“If the name poker has to be replaced with a Bollywood movie, which one would it be?”

 

Heads Up Battle – Landon Tice vs. Bill Perkins – Day 4, 5 & 6

The Heads Up Battle between rising poker star Landon Tice and entrepreneur-cum-poker enthusiast Bill Perkins completed three more sessions this week. After six sessions, Tice sits with an overall lead of $16,003 or about 40 big blinds after 2,407 hands. The duo will play 20,000 hands at $200/$400 stakes. Check out the Round 4 & 5 below:

Day 4

On Day 4, the duo played 334 hands with Perkins winning $44,262.71.

Day 5

Tice made a comeback on Day 5, winning $29,922 over 366 hands. He extended his overall lead to $83,702 over 2,045 hands.

 

Day 6

Perkins made a strong dash, bagging a $67,699 profit over 362 hands. He still trails Tice by $16,003, or about 40 big blinds, but is effectively leading after factoring in the 9 BBs/100 hands handicap.

 

Poker After Dark Season 12 Episode 3 & 4

The Poker After Dark is an hour-long poker television program featuring some of the biggest names in the business playing high-stakes poker. Season 12 was filmed inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort and Casino.

The show is now available on GGPoker`s YouTube channel and published episodes 3 & 4 from Season 12 this week.

 

 

 

Cards-up Replay of GGPoker’s Sunday High Roller Main Event Final Table

GGPoker is currently playing host to the High Rollers Week. The site put up the cards-up FT replay from the $1 Million GTD Event #3: Sunday High Rollers Main Event with expert commentary from Kevin ‘Rotterdam’ van der Kooi and Randy ‘nanonoko’ Lew.

‘OPPikachu’ outlasted the 957-entry field to win $170,705.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIN20qP4Sr4&ab_channel=GGPoker

 

Cards-up Coverage of US Poker Open 2021 Final Tables

With live poker back in full swing in the US, most of the high-stakes MTT crowd is presently in Las Vegas for the 2021 US Poker Open. All the featured final tables are being streamed on PokerGO – available only to paid subscribers. However, the OTT platform has been uploading the first-60 minutes of the cards-up final table live coverage on its YouTube channel. Check them out below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old School vs. New School Poker Analysis Ep 7 – Daniel Negreanu

The GGPoker Ambassador & six-time WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu released a new episode in his Old School vs. New School Poker Analysis series on Monday. Negreanu dissects a hand where Doug Polk makes a big lay down against Phil Hellmuth on High Stakes Poker.

 

Poker Life Podcast Ft. Phil Ivey

Joe Ingram fired up his Poker Life Podcast this week. The guest on the show was the one and only Phil Ivey. The duo discussed what Ivey has been up to, how his life has changed over the years, his poker plans in the coming months, and much more.

 

Raise Your Edge Podcast With Froste

Poker coach and RYE founder ‘Bencb’ invited Twitch streamer Froste as the guest on this week`s Raise Your Edge (RYE) podcast. The duo discussed what it is about poker that resonates with Froste’s confident streaming personality & much more!

 

Tips To Crush Live Poker Tournaments – Live Webinar – Faraz Zaka

PokerCoaching.com coach and professional poker player, Faraz Zaka, shares three tips to help you crush live poker tournaments in this webinar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzyrMHOcjU4

 

The Poker Brat’s Greatest Poker Moments PokerStars

PokerStars uploaded some of the best poker moments ever recorded of 15-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth a.k.a. ‘The Poker Brat.’

 

Top 5 Set vs. Flush Draw Flops – partypoker

In this partypoker Top 5 list, we see some tense times when the beautiful-looking flopped sets transform into knife-edge decisions as a flush draw rears its ugly head.

 

Cash Game Action – Live at The Bike

As always, Live at the Bike released another featured video with high-octane cash game action underway.

 

Keep following PokerGuru for a compilation of the top poker videos each week!

Online Rankings

i Top Ranked Poker Players in India
Member Won
Member Won
Member Won
₹1,29,29,197
₹1,25,88,313
₹1,20,69,627
₹1,15,22,676
5.Vinay B Vinay B
₹1,14,52,995
6.M L M L
₹1,14,40,871
₹1,09,13,473
₹1,05,24,690
₹99,60,672
₹99,49,327
Member Profit
Member Profit
Member Profit
₹55,77,649
₹50,59,154
₹47,48,174
₹46,54,932
₹44,93,503
₹43,84,994
₹43,56,316
₹42,00,183
₹41,14,429
₹40,97,624
Member Points
Member Points
Member Points
42,268
35,945
28,827
4.N K N K
28,311
25,814
25,649
24,477
24,446
9.M L M L
23,604
22,922

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