Daily Majors: Adarsh Jha, Pratibh Saluja, Gurpal Singh & Mangu Bansal Rocked the Monday Flagships

Mondays are expectedly slow, and with PokerBaazi’s 1000X Series closing out on Sunday, it was back to the regular tournaments across the top poker platforms.

The turnouts were surprisingly solid; barring a few events, most crushed their advertised guarantees. PokerStars India’s Winter Series 5.0 is past the midway mark, and the series took a day-long hiatus on Monday, giving the regs a break from long hours of online grind. Starting today is IndiaPlay`s rake-free ₹15 Lakhs GTD Resolution Series, offering unmatched value across 14 tournaments.

The excitement has started to build up for India’s biggest online poker festival, Spartan Poker’s ₹43+ Crores GTD India Online Poker Championship (IOPC) (January 19 – February 15). Satellites to the 14th IOPC are running at full throttle, and the brand has started handing out free IOPC tickets to the players through their daily featured tournaments.

As for the Monday winners, Adarsh Jha was the day`s most prolific scorer with three FT finishes and ₹2.57 Lakhs in total winnings. He most notably shipped PokerBaazi`s The Big Show for ₹1.75 Lakhs after striking a heads-up deal with Bashir Ahmed Bhat (2nd for ₹1.38 Lakhs).

Rising Star Pratibh Saluja was another standout winner and shipped Spartan Poker`s The Rainmaker (Multi Entry – IOPC Bubble) for ₹2.28 Lakhs, following a heads-up deal with last week’s 1000X#8 Monday Prime champion Snehil Aggarwal (2nd for ₹2.15 Lakhs).

Naren Vulta money-bubbled The Rainmaker, receiving a free ticket to the ₹40 Lakhs GTD IOPC #38 – Monday Prime.

MTT phenom Young Gun Karan Radia opened his title scorecard for the year by taking down Adda52`s Iron Man for ₹2 Lakhs.

Gurpal Singh netted approximately ₹1.68 Lakhs last night and won PokerBaazi’s (7-Max) ₹5 Lakhs GTD SPRINT for the second time for ₹1.01 Lakhs. Akshat Sharma collected ₹76,478 in second place.

Sunday’s Winter Series-24 Polar Express champion Sanchit Anand took down PokerBaazi’s (7-Max) Daily SPRINT for at least the third time for ₹68,266. He struck a heads-up deal with Surbhit Grover (2nd for ₹63,007).

Kashish Gupta nailed Spartan Poker’s Deepstack Turbo for ₹65,491 (₹93,204 overall) following a heads-up deal with site-reg Biplob ‘hellhell’ Rana (2nd for ₹58,374).

PokerStars India user ‘classic2908′ won the site’s Monday attraction, Eliminator [8-Max], for the second time, scoring a personal-best ₹1.02 Lakhs (₹54,322 bounties). Nitin Gupta collected ₹72,352 (₹24,591 bounties) in second place.

Utkarsh Srivastava, Dinesh Kukreja, Satyam Surendra, Dayanand Prass, Nishant Pandey, and Divyansh Chandra won the other Monday marquees.

Here are the Monday highlights!

Spartan Poker

The Rainmaker (Multi Entry – IOPC Bubble) – ₹10 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – ₹3,300

Entries – 287 (178 unique)

Rebuys – 155

Prize Pool – ₹13,26,000

Places Paid – 39

It was raining money on Rising Star Pratibh ‘stickysticky’ Saluja last night for the 26-year-old came out on top of a guarantee-crushing 442-player field in Spartan Poker`s ₹10 Lakhs GTD The Rainmaker (Multi Entry – IOPC Bubble), bagging his first title in over ten weeks and ₹2.28 Lakhs in prize money.

Before taking down the Monday title, Saluja struck a heads-up deal with last week’s 1000X#8 Monday Prime winner Snehil ‘gaurav_arsh’ Aggarwal (2nd for ₹2.15 Lakhs).

Pratibh Saluja’s online stats: Lifetime Winnings: ₹2.55 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ~₹82 Lakhs | Titles Won in 2023: #1

Narendra ‘king_naren’ Vutla bubbled the event to win a FREE ticket worth ₹5,500 to the ₹40 Lakhs GTD IOPC #38 – Monday Prime scheduled for January 23, 8 PM.

The ₹3,300 entry buy-in The Rainmaker paid out the top 39 places a share from the ₹13.26 Lakhs prize pool.

Final Table Results

1. Pratibh ‘stickysticky’ Saluja – ₹2,27,541*
2. Snehil ‘gaurav_arsh’ Aggarwal – ₹2,15,078*
3. themistokles – ₹1,29,285
4. TheManiacInTheCircuit – ₹1,04,356
5. Rishabh ‘radda’ Gupta – ₹81,814
6. Bhothard – ₹61,924
7. SharkyFishh – ₹45,481
8. TheManiacInTheCircuit – ₹33,415

*denotes a heads-up deal

Deepstack Turbo (IOPC FT) – ₹3.50 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – ₹1,100

Entries – 176

Re-entries – 47

Rebuys – 121

Prize Pool – ₹3,50,000

Places Paid – 31

Kashish ‘Nahihorha’ Gupta (opted out of our tracking) picked up his first title of 2023 in Spartan Poker’s ₹3.50 Lakhs GTD Deepstack Turbo (IOPC FT). He decimated the 344-player field in the 9:30 PM tourney to collect ₹65,491 as the first-place prize. Biplob ‘hellhell’ Rana earned an equally impressive ₹58,374 in second place, courtesy of a heads-up deal.

Gupta made another deep run in the Monday headliner The Rainmaker (9th for ₹27,713), netting at least ₹93,204.

Biplob Rana made deep runs in two other Spartan Poker tournaments, accumulating ₹63,143 overall. His online stats (Spartan Poker and Adda52): Lifetime Winnings: ₹1.30 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹31.66 Lakhs

Over and above the FT cash prizes, the top eight finishers received a FREE ticket worth ₹550 to the ₹20 Lakhs GTD IOPC #1 Launch Party scheduled for January 19, 1 PM.

Final Table Results

1. Kashish ‘Nahihorha’ Gupta – ₹65,491*
2. Biplob ‘hellhell’ Rana – ₹58,374*
3. Gurpal ‘ToTheMoon’ Singh – ₹35,140
4. Rohan ‘lucky Fish’ Patwa – ₹28,490
5. SpartaSingh – ₹22,540
6. Suraj ‘MR.BEAST’ N Yadav – ₹17,115
7. Mastermind000 – ₹12,495
8. Harsh ‘Chiraunjilal Khosla’ Bubna – ₹9,135

*denotes a heads-up deal

‘Laxmanjhula’ (Won ₹2 Lakhs GTD Monster Stack for ₹49,652), ‘Meghnaath2105’ (Won ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD Night Rider for ₹40,896), Dayanand ‘Uriel’ Prass (Won ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD Sundowner for ₹33,225), ‘kush1968’ (Won ₹1 Lakh GTD Ultra PLO4 for ₹23,261), ‘sonju’ (Won ₹1 Lakh GTD Chip Up for ₹17,509), and ‘Sanzoo’ (Won ₹50K GTD The Centurion for ₹9,129) won the other Spartan Poker marquees.

PokerBaazi

The Big Show – ₹10 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – ₹3,300

Entries – 200

Re-entries – 169

Prize Pool – ₹11,07,000

Places Paid – 49

Adarsh ‘lazygamer007’ Jha, notorious for making runner-up finishes in marquee tournaments (seven of his ten best online scores have come from close finishes), emerged as Monday`s most prolific scorer. He made away with over ₹2.57 Lakhs last night from three FT scores, most notably shipping PokerBaazi`s ₹10 Lakhs GTD The Big Show for ₹1.76 Lakhs* (heads-up deal).

Jha`s Monday finishes include:

> 1st in PokerBaazi`s The Big Show for ₹1,75,520 (his first title in six weeks)

> 4th in Adda52`s Iron Man for ₹64,000

> 6th in PokerBaazi`s (7-Max) Daily SPRINT for ₹17,721

Adarsh Jha`s online stats: Lifetime Winnings: ₹1.68 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹64.17 Lakhs | Titles Won in 2023: #1

Bashir Ahmed ‘babloo321’ Bhat fell one place shy of winning The Big Show title for the second time, netting a runner-up payday of ₹1.38 Lakhs, courtesy of a heads-up deal.

Dhiraj ‘supernuts’ Lakhotia added ₹1.09 Lakhs across two ITM finishers, which include:

> 3rd in PokerBaazi’s The Big Show for ₹97,195

> 11th in Adda52’s Iron Man for ₹12,000

Dhitaj Lakhotia’s online stats: Lifetime Winnings: ₹2.76 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹76.12 Lakhs

The 369-player field generated a guarantee-crushing ₹11.07 Lakhs prize pool, with the top 49 finishers getting paid.

Final Table Results

1. Adarsh ‘lazygamer007’ Jha – ₹1,75,520*
2. Bashir Ahmed ‘babloo321’ Bhat – ₹1,38,094*
3. Dhiraj ‘supernuts’ Lakhotia – ₹97,195
4. Bhanu Prakash ‘Chennaino1’ KC – ₹76,937
5. Ritwik ‘Ritwikkhanna’ Khanna – ₹63,985
6. Gaurav ‘gauravgoru’ Bhutra – ₹52,250
7. Gurjeet ‘bigfish12’ Singh – ₹41,402
8. gdgdg – ₹31,550

*denotes a heads-up deal

Daily Value Boost – ₹10 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – ₹1,650

Entries – 414

Re-entries – 314

Prize Pool – ₹10,92,000

Places Paid – 119

The Midnight SPRINT champion from October, Mangu ‘mangubansal’ Bansal, fired three bullets in PokerBaazi’s 7:30 PM flagship, ₹10 Lakhs GTD Daily Value Boost, before shattering the 728-strong field to win a career-best ₹1.31 Lakhs (three-way deal) – breaking a four-month-long dry spell.

Satish ‘daredevilcalls’ Mohan (2nd for ₹1.22 Lakhs) and ‘BigFudge7’ (3rd for ₹1.10 Lakhs) lapped up profitable payouts for rounding out the podium, courtesy of the three-way FT deal.

Mangu Bansal’s PokerBaazi stats: Site Winnings: ₹5.60 Lakhs | Site Profits: ₹4,628 | Titles Won in 2023: #1

The 7:30 PM flagship added ₹92,000 on top of the advertised guarantee, and the top 119 finishers received payouts.

Final Table Results

1. Mangu ‘mangubansal’ Bansal – ₹1,30,841*
2. Satish ‘daredevilcalls’ Mohan – ₹1,22,082*
3. BigFudge7 – ₹1,09,949*
4. Heisenbergj – ₹61,698
5. harshk – ₹41,496
6. eagle027 – ₹28,392
7. Sarthakdangra – ₹21,185
8. Siddhanth ‘Bullzeye’ Kapoor – ₹16,489

*denotes a three-way deal

(7-Max) SPRINT – ₹5 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – ₹1,650

Entries – 270

Re-entries – 182

Prize Pool – ₹6,78,000

Places Paid – 83

The old-timer Gurpal ‘roothless’ Singh fired up a busy Monday session, cashing eight events for almost ₹1.68 Lakhs. Singh most prominently traversed a 455-player field in PokerBaazi’s (7-Max) ₹5 Lakhs GTD SPRINT, winning the 9 PM marquee for the second time for ₹1.01 Lakh.

Gurpal Singh`s top Monday finishes include:

> 1st in PokerBaazi’s (7-Max) #SPRINT for ₹1,00,886 (his second time winning the event)

> 3rd in Spartan Poker’s Deepstack Turbo for ₹35,140

Gurpal Singh’s online stats: Lifetime Winnings: ₹2.34 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹64.88 Lakhs | Titles Won in 2023: #1

Akshat ‘takingcuntrol’ Sharma received ₹76,478 in second place and pocketed ₹84,647 in Monday’s winnings. His online stats: Lifetime Winnings: ₹3.93 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹1.22 Crores

Sushil ‘qazxsw2’ Kumar (3rd for ₹58,308) and Akhilesh ‘Ikka5’ Chauhan (5th for ₹29,561) were others who FT-ed the ₹5 Lakhs GTD (7-Max) SPRINT.

Final Table Results

1. Gurpal ‘roothless’ Singh – ₹1,00,886
2. Akshat ‘takingcuntrol’ Sharma – ₹76,478
3. Sushil ‘qazxsw2’ Kumar – ₹58,308
4. Illuminatedeye – ₹42,104
5. Akhilesh ‘Ikka5’ Chauhan – ₹29,561
6. AK10JQ – ₹20,815
7. sirji09 – ₹16,611

(7-Max) Daily SPRINT – ₹5 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – ₹2,200

Entries – 150

Re-entries – 101

Prize Pool – ₹5,02,000

Places Paid – 47

Sanchit ‘devilsanchit’ Anand (opted out of tracking) has made a habit of winning PokerBaazi’s (7-Max) Daily SPRINT. He shipped the 7:15 PM marquee twice last year back-to-back, on October 31 and November 1. Fresh off winning the Winter Series-24 Polar Express the day before, he overcame the 251-player field to win the Daily SPRINT title for the third time for ₹68,266 following a heads-up deal with Surbhit ‘grovahova’ Grover (2nd for ₹63,007).

Pranav ‘MeenakshiSundareshwar’ Khandalkar (3rd for ₹44,025), Samyak ‘stonedurrr’ Sethi (4th for ₹33,433), Kamal ‘bagdadi345’ Joshi (5th for ₹24,849), and Adarsh ‘lazygamer007’ Jha (6th for ₹17,721) were others who FT-ed the ₹5 Lakhs GTD (7-Max) Daily SPRINT.

Final Table Results

1. Sanchit ‘devilsanchit’ Anand – ₹68,266*
2. Surbhit ‘grovahova’ Grover – ₹63,007*
3. Pranav ‘MeenakshiSundareshwar’ Khandalkar – ₹44,025
4. Samyak ‘stonedurrr’ Sethi – ₹33,433
5. Kamal ‘bagdadi345’ Joshi – ₹24,849
6. Adarsh ‘lazygamer007’ Jha – ₹17,721
7. Spades9 – ₹14,608

*denotes a heads-up deal

Utkarsh ‘Sam20542’ Srivastava (Won ₹2.50 Lakhs GTD Daily Boost for ₹50,810), Dinesh ‘htc170209’ Kukreja (Won ₹2.50 Lakhs GTD (7-Max) Midnight SPRINT for ₹44,910), Satyam ‘queenilicious’ Surendra (Won ₹1 Lakh GTD (7-Max) SPRINT for ₹35,900), ‘ajaymaurya2912’ (Won ₹2 Lakh GTD PLO-5 BOOST for ₹30,620), ‘pokerdonk99’ (Won ₹1 Lakh GTD Daily Afternoon SPRINT for ₹29,800), ‘swaggstar234’ (Won ₹1 Lakh GTD Evening SPRINT for ₹26,270), ‘Badshah05’ (Won ₹1 Lakh GTD PLO-6 BOOST for ₹24,990), and ‘ProBusterxXx’ (Won ₹50K GTD (5-Max) Daily for ₹5,830) also won the other PokerBaazi marquees.

MPL Poker

Monday Money Mania – ₹1 Lakh GTD

Buy-in – ₹275

Entries – 409

Prize Pool – ₹1,00,000

Places Paid – 100

MPL Poker user ‘timedrank182702’ bested a 409-entry field in the site’s ₹1 Lakh GTD Monday Money Mania, taking home the title and ₹20,449 in first-place prize money. Rohit ‘rohit5260319’ Rathor finished second for ₹11,758.

Final Table Results

1. timedrank182702 – ₹20,449
2. Rohit ‘rohit5260319’ Rathor – ₹11,758
3. Sonu ‘kireck55’ Meena – ₹6,339
4. Rita ‘socialpawn86930’ Patra – ₹5,112
5. Ruba ‘hashtp420’ Das – ₹4,090
6. Yash ‘inscrutable_21’ Kanawade – ₹3,067
7. Sandeep ‘lady5141738’ Gupta – ₹2,556
8. Lalit ‘lalo412mohan’ Mohan – ₹2,147

Pocket52

Pocket Jacks – ₹4 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – ₹1,650

Entries – 138

Re-entries – 71

Prize Pool – ₹4,00,000

Places Paid – 34

The user ‘wolfmagic_r9ispgDLNk’ outclassed the 209-entry field in Pocket52’s Monday primetime offering, ₹4 Lakhs GTD Pocket Jacks, collecting ₹76,400 for the win.

One of the standout winners in the Pocket Poker Championship last month, Mayank ‘MasterDevil’ Shekhar, succumbed one place short of victory, banking ₹56,000 as the runner-up.

Final Table Results

1. wolfmagic_r9ispgDLNk – ₹76,400
2. Mayank ‘MasterDevil’ Shekhar – ₹56,000
3. Mixon – ₹36,000
4. GodG – ₹28,000
5. Zalimlonda – ₹20,000
6. Kalli420 – ₹16,000

PokerStars India

Eliminator [8-Max] – ₹5 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – ₹2,500

Entries – 107

Re-entries – 95

Total Prize Pool – ₹5,00,000

Regular Prize Pool – ₹2,70,124

Bounty Prize Pool – ₹2,29,876

Places Paid – 20

PokerStars India’s Winter Series 5.0 took a gap day on January 9, with the site running the regularly scheduled Monday marquees instead. The user ‘classic2908′ shipped the Monday headliner, ₹5 Lakhs GTD Eliminator [8-Max], for a personal-best ₹1.02 Lakhs (₹54,322 bounties) – their second title on the site. Nitin ‘Mickyn34’ Gupta finished runner-up for ₹72,352 (₹24,591 bounties).

The notorious multi-scorer Siddharth ‘siddonuts’ Pandey accumulated ₹61,209 through five ITM finishes (and one bounty), touching ₹5 Crores in tracked online winnings. His deepest run was in the Eliminator (4th for ₹38,613).

Siddharth Pandey`s online stats: Lifetime Winnings: ₹5 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹39.38 Lakhs

The 8 PM tourney registered 202 entries, falling ₹40,248 short of its listed guarantee. The top 20 places got paid.

Final Table Results (Including Bounties)

1. classic2908 – ₹1,02,083
2. Nitin ‘Mickyn34’ Gupta – ₹72,352
3. rax490 – ₹47,686
4. Siddharth ‘siddonuts’ Pandey – ₹38,613
5. Anmol ‘freak_weird0’ Agarwal – ₹21,081
6. Pratik ‘pm2404’ Manjrekar – ₹16,285
7. Areyann ‘paisenikalbc’ Gurbaxani – ₹23,769
8. cowboysinplay – ₹9,817

‘susheelprem’ (Won ₹1 Lakh GTD Ultrasonic for ₹27,654), ‘AKKA113131’ (Won ₹50K Bounty Adrenaline [6-Max] for ₹14,162), and ‘wildshark100’ (Won ₹50K GTD Super Stack PKO 8-Max for ₹11,247) shipped the other PokerStars India marquees.

Adda52

Iron Man – ₹8 Lakhs GTD

Buy-in – ₹2,400

Entries – 183

Re-entries – 165

Prize Pool – ₹8,00,000

Places Paid – 38

Seasoned MTT pro Karan ‘Reg_Slayer’ Radia is back at doing what he does best – shipping titles! With over 50 online titles under his belt last year, Radia picked up things right where he left them by bagging his first title of 2023 last night, shipping Adda52`s ₹8 Lakhs GTD Iron Man for ₹2 Lakhs! The two-time La Luna champion ‘Murti8’ pocketed ₹1.21 Lakhs as the runner-up.

The ₹2,400 entry buy-in Iron Main clocked a starting field of 348 entrants, filling in ₹34,400 in overlays, and the top 38 places boarded the money bus.

Final Table Results

1. Karan ‘Reg_Slayer’ Radia – ₹2,00,000
2. Murti8 – ₹1,21,200
3. Anant ‘pro_baba’ Purohit – ₹88,000
4. Adarsh ‘storm007’ Jha – ₹64,000
5. Md ‘Asraf786786’ Asraf Ali – ₹43,200
6. Sushant ‘Tryndamere’ Singh – ₹30,000

Ambika ‘Frontline’ Chowdhury (Won ₹2.50 Lakhs GTD Voyager for ₹71,680), ‘amanpoker27’ (Won ₹2 Lakhs GTD Nano DST Adda for ₹52,000), Nishant ‘stockfull’ Pandey (Won ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD Nano Inception for ₹27,192), ‘bhaagbc’ (Won ₹1 Lakh GTD Nano Daily Adda for ₹21,994), Divyansh ‘divyansh2906’ Chandra (Won ₹70K GTD Nano Crack Jack for ₹14,841), and ‘Teaconnect’ (Won ₹30K GTD Nano Battleship for ₹8,979) won the other Adda52 marquees and Nano Poker Series titles on Monday.

Khelo365

Khelo365 regular ‘SALMANBABA’ bested ‘KALIYUG’ (2nd for ₹2,100) heads-up to win the ₹10K GTD Sun Downer for ₹3,100.

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