Daily Majors: Deepesh Raka, Ankit Khattar, Gaurav Sood & Vikranth Varma Make the Thursday Headlines

With the weekend closing in, the MTT turnouts on Thursday were encouraging, and the regs dominated most of the day’s flagships!

Spartan Poker’s ‘Winter Celebration Series’ has another three days to the finish line, and the WCS#72 High Roller was the biggest guaranteed event playing down to a winner yesterday! The former The Big Deal champion Deepesh Raka shipped the High Roller for a career-best ₹11.80 Lakhs, making him the day`s top scorer. Anant Purohit placed runner-up for ₹7.99 Lakhs.

Another former The Big Deal champion Ankit Khattar won the second Spartan Poker flagship, WCS#70 Trending Thursday, for ₹4.87 Lakhs, beating Vivek Bajaj (2^nd for ₹3.09 Lakhs) in heads-up play!

The winningest player on our tracked database, Young Gun Gaurav Sood, looks all set to defend the ‘Player of the Year’ title for the second consecutive year! The 25-year-old poker phenom won an impressive 7.05 Lakhs yesterday, crossing ₹11 Crores in recorded online winnings. He most prominently took down Adda52’s Rocking Ahuja for ₹4.93 Lakhs, with Young Gun Sahil Chutani placing runner-up for 2.92 Lakhs.

Vikranth Varma busted a five-month-long title drought as he chopped PokerBaazi’s The Summit with Rising Star Ritwik Khanna (2nd for ₹3.60 Lakhs), scoring ₹3.64 Lakhs.

PokerStars India user ‘JumboJetPack’ came out on top in the site`s Highroller to win ₹2.20 Lakhs, denying Sahil Mahboobani (2nd for ₹1.71 Lakhs) a third Highroller title.

Kuldeep Kumar, Arunkumar Singh, Sumanth Kumar, Srikant Shubhankar, Gaurav Ashok Jain, and Hemang Shah won the other marquees!

Here are the Thursday highlights!

Spartan Poker

Heading into the home stretch, Spartan Poker`s Winter Celebration Series (WCS) had nine events running on Thursday, including Day 1A of the ₹1 Crore GTD WCS The Millionaire Main Event.

The WCS#72 High Roller was undoubtedly the day`s featured event. Even though the steep ₹27,500 buy-in was a deterrent for many, the regs came out in strong numbers, and a 203-entry field helped collect a massive ₹50.75 Lakhs in the prize pool. The former The Big Deal champion Deepesh ‘prince1993’ Raka cut his way across the stacked field to make away with a career-best ₹11.80 Lakhs. MTT pro Anant ‘Prometheius’ Purohit came second for ₹7.99 Lakhs, posting his second-best finish of the year!

Last night`s win fetched Deepesh Raka, his seventh title of the year – his second in December. His online stats (on PokerStars India and Spartan Poker): Lifetime Winnings: ₹1.37 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹21.32 Lakhs

One of the top-five ranked players of the year, PokerGuru Ambassador Arjanveer ‘bazzingaa’ Singh Chadha, raked in ₹5.84 Lakhs across three ITM finishes!

His ITM finishes include:

> 3^rd in Spartan Poker’s WCS#72 High Roller for ₹5,32,875

> 8^th in PokerStars India’s Highroller for ₹37,609

> 29^th in Adda52’s Rocking Ahuja for ₹13,085

Arjanveer Singh Chadha’s online stats: Lifetime Winnings: ₹8.90 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹3.14 Crores | Annual Winnings: ₹3.24 Crores | Ranked #5 in the Annual Leaderboard Standing

The second Thursday headliner, the ₹25 Lakhs GTD WCS#70 Trending Thursday, logged in 497 entries, falling three entries, i.e., ₹15,000, short of its 500-player guarantee. Another former The Big Deal champion Ankit ‘Asymptote05’ Khattar came up trumps. He won the title for ₹4.87 Lakhs and FT-ed two other events, adding ₹7.63 Lakhs collectively!

His ITM finishes include:

> 1^st in Spartan Poker’s WCS #70 Trending Thursday for ₹4,87,250

> 6th in Spartan Poker’s WCS#72 High Roller for ₹2,71,513

> 5th PokerBaazi’s Daily Morning Sprint for ₹4,179

Ankit Khattar’s online stats: Lifetime Winnings: ₹1.71 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹67.92 Lakhs | Annual Winnings: ₹1.20 Crores | Titles Won in 2021: #11

Vivek ‘Kill Ivey’ Bajaj (2nd for ₹3.09 Lakhs) and PokerGuru Ambassador Laksh ‘LuckyBhai$’ Pal Singh (3rd for ₹2.32 Lakhs) secured podium finishes in the WCS#70 Trending Thursday.

The outlook for the weekend ahead looks bright with the ₹1 Crore GTD WCS The Millionaire Main Event getting off to a sturdy start. Day 1A of the five-flight event logged in 267 entries, and Sanish ‘Sanish21’ Chhabra (218,177) topped the 43 survivors advancing to Day 2. Pranav ‘pranavpoker’ Khandalkar (208,842), ‘chiku16’ (182,070), ‘Cost of Zero’ (164,156), and Young Gun Devang ‘THENERDGUY’ Yadav (147,383) round out the top five names on the day-end chip counts!

‘Flushed69’ (Won WCS#73 Monster Stack ₹3.50 Lakhs GTD for ₹92,441), Arunkumar ‘denoi’ Singh (Won Night Rider Deepstack ₹2 Lakhs GTD for ₹48,000), ‘Mastermind000’ (Won WCS#67 ₹2.50 Lakhs GTD for ₹31,675), ‘Sammyy’ (Won WCS#66 ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD for ₹30,075), ‘LARA LARA’ (Won WCS#68 – 4 Card PLO ₹1 Lakh GTD for ₹23,250), and Srikant ‘constantine’ Shubhankar (Won WCS#71 ₹75K GTD for ₹13,338) won the other WCS titles!

After Day 9 of the series, the ₹10 Lakhs-added WCS Feature Leaderboard has PokerGuru Ambassador Arjanveer ‘bazzingaa’ Singh Chadha (2,309 points) hanging on the #1 spot. However, the competition is fierce as both Rising Star Ritwik ‘Fisherman1997’ Khanna (2,222 points) and Young Gun Gaurav ‘mozzie17’ Sood (2,158 points) are closing in.

WCS Feature Leaderboard Standings After Day 9

PokerBaazi

PokerBaazi`s Thursday schedule featured the familiar ₹15 Lakhs GTD The Summit. The ₹8,250 buy-in event crushed its listed guarantee, with a 241-entry field collecting ₹18.08 Lakhs in the prize pool. Vikranth ‘borntrouble‘ Varma overcame them all to win the title for ₹3.64 Lakhs, ending a five-month-long title drought. He chopped the event heads-up with Rising Star Ritwik ‘ritwikkhanna‘ Khanna (2nd for ₹3.60 Lakhs).

Vikranth Varma’s online stats (excluding PokerStars India): Lifetime Winnings: ₹5.73 Crores| Lifetime Profits: ₹2.42 Crores

Ritwik Khanna seems to have been working double-time on his game, and his results speak for themself. The Summit was his 12^th FT finish this month, bringing him just ₹6 Lakhs shy of the ₹4 Crore mark in recorded online winnings.

The ₹4 Lakhs GTD SPRINT crushed its listed guarantee by ₹70,000 after 235 hopefuls signed up for ₹2,200. The online reg ‘happyfish‘ (anonymity requested) was the last player standing and won ₹1.11 Lakhs, with Veer ‘Ragnarok1892‘ Kaushal placing runner-up for ₹77,597.

‘sudmishra18‘ (Won Daily Night SPRINT ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD for ₹56,904), Kuldeep ‘don_31‘ Kumar (Won Holdem BOOST ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD for ₹54,354), Sumanth ‘sp175‘ Kumar (Won PLO5 BOOST ₹1 Lakh GTD for ₹31,360), ‘tapputhewinner‘ (Won Daily Afternoon SPRINT ₹1 Lakh GTD for ₹27,229), ‘sab55’ (Won SPRINT ₹1 Lakh GTD for ₹26,800), and ‘nbara‘ (Won Evening SPRINT ₹1 Lakh GTD for ₹22,571) won the other Thursday marquees on PokerBaazi.

PokerStars India

PokerStars India’s ₹10 Lakhs GTD Highroller took off at 8.06 PM yesterday. The ₹7,700 buy-in event drew 150 runners, generating a ₹10.50 Lakhs prize pool. It took eight hours for the dust to settle with mystery player ‘JumboJetPack’ taking down the title for ₹2.20 Lakhs.

The two-time Highroller winner, Sahil ‘inaboobham’ Mahboobani, missed winning the event for the third time and placed runner-up for ₹1.71 Lakhs. He also cashed ₹11,072 from his 44th place finish in Adda52’s Rocking Ahuja, inching closer to the “₹9 Crore Club.”

Sahil Mahboobani’s online stats: Lifetime Winnings: ₹8.97 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹3.15 Crores | Annual Winnings: ₹2.58 Crores | Ranked #16 in the Annual Leaderboard Standings

The ₹1.75 Lakhs GTD Deepstack drew 137 hopefuls, filling in a marginal ₹3,750 overlay shortfall. The event ran from 9.30 PM to 1.56 AM, and the user ‘robert_ford9′ walked away with the title and a ₹41,324 payday (includes ₹24,570 in bounties). PokerStars India reg ‘RAV1619′ came second for ₹20,855 (includes ₹4,102 in bounties).

‘robert_ford9’`s PokerStars India stats: Site Winnings: ₹20.49 Lakhs | Site Profits: ₹4.49 Lakhs

‘guns4655’ (Won Ultrasonic ₹1.25 Lakhs GTD for ₹26,474), ‘nikhilchaudhary’ (Won Afternoon on Stars ₹60K GTD for ₹17,640), ‘Arif Dar’ (Won Deepstack ₹50K GTD for ₹10,559), ‘Aqsa12’ (Won Primetime Grind ₹50K GTD for ₹9,884), and Hemang ‘Grandmaster786’ Shah (Won Bounty Builder PKO ₹15K GTD for ₹3,731) bagged the other marquee titles on PokerStars India.

Adda52

Thursday marked Day 4 of Adda52’s ‘Series of Legends,’ and the ₹20 Lakhs GTD Rocking Ahuja – named after PokerGuru Ambassador Ashish Ahuja – grabbed most of the attention. The ₹4,800 buy-in event locked in 466 entries, posting a ₹20.13 Lakhs prize pool. The heads-up turned out to be a battle between the Young Guns with Gaurav ‘gauravarod’ Sood and Sahil ‘bluffme19’ Chutani going head-to-head. In the end, the winningest player on our tracked database, Gaurav Sood, prevailed and won ₹4.93 Lakhs (his 24^th title this year)!

The annual leaderboard topper scored in another two events, adding ₹7.05 Lakhs in Thursday winnings. Sood`s explosive run last night got him past another career milestone – crossing ₹11 Crores in recorded online winnings. Not just that, he also won the ₹5,000 bounty on Ashish Ahuja in Rocking Ahuja.

His ITM finishes include:

> 1st in Adda52’s Rocking Ahuja for ₹4,93,214

> 3rd in PokerStars India’s Highroller for ₹1,32,985

> 14th in Spartan Poker’s WCS #72 – High Roller for ₹78,663

Gaurav Sood’s online stats – Lifetime Winnings: ₹11.04 Crores| Lifetime Profit: ₹5.71 Crores | Annual Winnings: ₹4.33 Crores | Annual Profit: ₹2.15 Crores | Ranked #1 in Annual Winnings and Net Profits

Sahil Chutani’s runner-up finish in Rocking Ahuja garnered him a ₹2.92 Lakhs payout. It turned out to be an eventful Thursday grind for the Young Gun, who lapped up ₹4 Lakhs across three deep runs.

His ITM finishes include:

> 2nd in Adda52’s Rocking Ahuja for ₹2,91,902

> 13th in Spartan Poker’s WCS #72 – High Roller for ₹86,275

> 17th in PokerBaazi’s The Summit for ₹21,690

Sahil Chutani’s online stats: Lifetime Winnings: ₹3.57 Crores | Lifetime Profit: ₹1.67 Crores | Annual Winnings: ₹1.71 Crores | Annual Profits: ₹81.59 Lakhs

PokerGuru Ambassador Ashish Ahuja, after whom the Rocking Ahuja was named, made a deep run in the event, finishing 10th for ₹25,164.

The ₹1 Crore GTD Patni Millionaire hosted Day 1D last evening, with 245 runners joining the action, expanding the field size to 712 entries. Only 27 players survived the day’s onslaught, with Vinayak ‘bhai_on_mary_jane’ Bajaj (269,140) bagging the end-of-day chip lead. Young Gun’s Gaurav ‘gauravarod’ Sood (248,774) and Devang ‘spark123’ Yadav (219,137) carried forward the other top stacks.

‘BilluBhayankar’ (Won Afternoon Adda ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD for ₹37,154), ‘Borntogamble’ (Won Win The Button 330 ₹15K GTD for ₹7,186), and Gaurav ‘NutsandGuts’ Ashok Jain (Won Classic 200 ₹20K GTD for ₹5,800) shipped the other Thursday marquees on Adda52.

Khelo365

Khelo365’s ₹30K GTD Hitman PLO saw ‘chinna9553’ topping the 39-entry field to win ₹12,000. ‘darkhorse94’ came second for ₹7,500.

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