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After more than a week of festivities that began with Christmas and rolled onto new-year celebrations, the online action seems to have picked up the pace. The first day of 2021 saw healthy turnouts across most of the major domestic sites. Sagar Choudhury couldn`t have asked for a better start to the year as he won two flagship titles last night. PokerGuru Ambassadors Laksh Pal Singh and Arjanveer Singh Chadha also hogged the limelight.
Let’s take a look at the standout Friday scorers.
Spartan Poker
Spartan Poker’s Friday mainstay, ₹25 Lakhs The Elite, registered 280 entries, thereby not only meeting its posted guarantee but blowing it to smithereens by collecting a whopping ₹28 Lakhs prize pool. Topping the charts after eight hours of battle was Sagar ‘Strangeplay’ Choudhury, who chopped the top prize with PokerGuru Ambassador Laksh ‘LuckyBhai$’ Singh for ₹5.54 Lakhs.
While Choudhury has won this event before in March last year, his last title win had come on December 26, when he won the ₹10 Lakhs GTD Titan Stack for ₹2.11 Lakhs.
Choudhury was in unbeatable form yesterday as he also shipped the ₹12 Lakhs GTD The Weekly HighRoller on PokerBaazi for ₹3.64 Lakhs while placing eighth in Adda52’s The Ballers for ₹56,250. Over a stellar run that comprised of two title wins and an FT finish, Choudhury collected almost ₹9.75 Lakhs for the day`s work. Safe to say that Choudhury has started off 2021 with a bang! He now sits with over ₹5.09 Crores in recorded winnings across the major domestic sites.
Runner-up Singh padded his bankroll with ₹5.37 Lakhs, while also placing fifth in Adda52’s The Ballers for ₹1.29 Lakhs, earning ₹6.67 Lakhs from these two deep runs alone. He is another crusher with over ₹5 Crores in recorded winnings and boasts an online scorecard of ₹5.04 Crores.
PokerGuru Ambassadors registered another breakout run last night as taking up the next two spots in The Elite were Vishal ‘CrownUpJr’ Bajaj (3rd for ₹2.66 Lakhs) and Mithun ‘Intuitionnn’ Mahesh (4th for ₹2.40 Lakhs).
The TGIF also smashed its promised ₹8.50 Lakhs guarantee to collect ₹9.49 Lakhs in prize money from 633 signups. Sreeharsha ‘yUDdam’ Boneni championed the tourney to win ₹1.57 Lakhs following a three-way deal with ‘manish.89’ (runner-up for ₹1.14 Lakhs) and Vaibhav ‘Vakeel_sahab’ Arora (3rd for ₹1.13 Lakhs).
PokerStars India
PokerStars India’s Friday flagship, the ₹10 Lakhs GTD Uppercut MAGIC Edition, clocked in 204 entries on its latest run, up from the 185 entries it had registered last week. Still, there was an overlay of ₹1.84 Lakhs. After nearly seven hours of play, ‘TheLagLawyer,’ (anonymity requested) came out on top to win ₹2.09 Lakhs (₹96,976 in prize money, ₹1.12 Lakhs in bounties), denying PokerGuru Ambassador Arjanveer ‘ballistik310’ Singh Chadha the title.
For ‘TheLagLawyer,’ this is the second consecutive day crushing the online MTT`s. The player had a profitable New Year’s eve, where they shipped Adda52’s Godfather and FT-ed PokerStars India’s Highroller and Battle Royale to rake in over ₹7.50 Lakhs (cumulatively).
Chadha, who had championed the Adda52 Millions on Sunday, secured a runner-up payday of ₹1.15 Lakhs (₹96,966 in prize money, ₹18,813 in bounties). He also ran deep in the PokerBaazi-hosted The Weekly HighRoller, where he placed third for ₹1.64 Lakhs. In total, he raked in over ₹2.79 Lakhs to boost his recorded MTT scorecard to ₹5.58 Crores.
Starting two hours after the Uppercut MAGIC Edition was the ₹2 Lakhs GTD The Classic PKO. The event attracted 138 entries, surpassing its posted guarantee by ₹7,000. Ajit ‘ace_bob_here’ Singh Arora dominated the field to win ₹45,823 (₹22,227 in prize money, ₹23,596 bounties), with Akshay ‘ak7208’ Panwar placing runner-up for ₹36,355 (₹22,227 in prize money, ₹14,127 bounties).
Arora’s online scorecard has crossed ₹1.46 Crores.
Like the Uppercut, the ₹1 Lakhs GTD Bigstack Turbo also awarded TLB points towards PokerStars India’s ‘Star of the Month’ January race. ‘GOODFATHER999’ outran a field of 79 entries and bested Swapnil ‘pokpom1’ Patil (runner-up for ₹18,582) heads-up to win ₹25,157.
Adda52
The ₹22.5 Lakhs GTD The Ballers was the Friday night attraction on Adda52. The ₹7,500 entry buy-in tourney gathered 321 participants to register an overlay of ₹51,150. The dust settled at 4.14 AM with mystery player ‘pokraj’ outlasting the competition to win ₹5.62 Lakhs. Vidyasagar ‘darubhai’ Darapu finished runner-up for ₹3.40 Lakhs.
Noted MTT reg Sahil ‘ImHighIshove’ Mahboobani placed fourth for ₹1.87 Lakhs, while PokerGuru Ambassador Laksh Pal ‘BoomYilt23’ Singh took fifth-place for ₹1.29 Lakhs.
The ₹5.5 Lakhs GTD Running Hot pulled in 311 entrants, enough to collect a guarantee-smashing ₹6.22 Lakhs prize pool. Yash ‘Babyshark21’ Chitre proved the last player standing and added ₹1.28 Lakhs to his bankroll. He struck a heads-up deal with ‘rg912’ (runner-up for ₹1.21 Lakhs).
PokerBaazi
Friday night unfolded some intense Highroller action on PokerBaazi with the site`s ₹12 Lakhs GTD The Weekly HighRoller starting out 8 PM onwards. A total of 136 signups generated a guarantee-crushing ₹13.6 Lakhs, and toppling the reg-infested field was none other than The Elite champion, Sagar ‘sagarpupul’ Choudhury. The online reg defeated ‘acessorted’ (anonymity requested) heads-up to win ₹3.64 Lakhs.
‘acessorted’, who had championed PokerStars India’s ₹8 Lakhs GTD The Big Show for ₹1.93 Lakhs on Monday, helped themself to a runner-up score of ₹2.55 Lakhs.
The Uppercut MAGIC Edition runner-up finisher, PokerGuru Ambassador Arjanveer ‘holdbaby’ Singh Chadha, finished third for ₹1.64 Lakhs.
The ₹1.5 Lakhs GTD Turbo was championed by ‘sidharth1,’ who pocketed ₹42,230 after outrunning the 94-player field. Mukesh ‘Mukeshahuja’ Ahuja finished runner-up for ₹29,570.
Another flight of the ₹2 Lakhs GTD PBBS#24 Main Event ran the course last night. Flight 5 drew 135 players, a number that whittled down to only 13 survivors by the end of the play. Bagging the top three stacks of the day were ‘fzlhaq’ (195,000), ‘saurav0073’ (192,000), and Tejas ‘kood’ Kadam (189,000).
The other notable Friday winners were –
Player | Prize Amount | Event | Poker Site |
---|---|---|---|
Kaushal33 | ₹1 Lakh | Grand Slam ₹4 Lakhs GTD | Khelo365 |
Ajit 'ace_bob_here' Singh Arora | ₹45,823 | The Classic PKO ₹2 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
sidarth1 | ₹42,225 | Turbo ₹1.5 Lakhs GTD | PokerBaazi |
calyx666 | ₹38,445 | Ultrasonic ₹1.5 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
goMUCKurself | ₹30,000 | PLO Boost Monster ₹1 Lakh GTD | PokerBaazi |
uhhhhlala | ₹30,000 | 6-Max Holdem Boost ₹1 Lakh GTD | PokerBaazi |
Bhuvan ‘se7en2’ Arora | ₹27,060 | PBBS#25 7-Max Highroller ₹1.5 Lakhs GTD | PokerBaazi |
GOODFATHER999 | ₹25,157 | Bigstack Turbo ₹1 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
Viking12345 | ₹23,000 | Hercules ₹1 Lakh GTD | Pocket52 |
crazyass93 | ₹16,524 | Afternoon on Stars ₹1 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
Rickdiculous | ₹12,144 | Unravel ₹50K GTD | Pocket52 |
wsopwinner | ₹9,300 | Insomnia ₹30K GTD | PokerDangal |
kkiol | ₹8,000 | Grinder 2.0 ₹20K GTD | Khelo365 |
Pokerking123 | ₹2,400 | Dangal Dinner ₹10K GTD | PokerDangal |
The Elite ₹25 Lakhs GTD – Spartan Poker
Buy-in – ₹11,000
Entries – 114
Re-entries – 64
Re-buys – 102
Prize Pool – ₹28,00,000
Places Paid – 23
The Friday signature tourney on Spartan Poker was The Elite featuring a ₹30 Lakhs guarantee. Running from 9:30 PM to 5:37 AM, the ₹11,000 buy-in tourney attracted 280 participants to collect a guarantee-crushing ₹28 Lakhs in prize money.
The top two contenders for the title Sagar ‘Strangeplay’ Choudhury and PokerGuru Ambassador Laksh ‘LuckyBhai$’ Pal Singh decided on a heads-up chop that saw Choudhury clinch the title for ₹5.55 Lakhs.
This was the second-time that Choudhury had won the event. Earlier in March 2020, he had won the event for ₹6.27 Lakhs. He had more reasons to celebrate since he also won PokerBaazi’s The Weekly HighRoller for ₹3.64 Lakhs. Additionally, Choudhury also posted a deep run in Adda52’s Ballers, placing eighth for ₹56,250, earning over ₹9.75 Lakhs yesterday. His lifetime earnings were boosted to ₹5.09 Crores.
Runner-up Singh took home a ₹5.37 Lakhs payout. Singh also placed 5th in Adda52’s Ballers for ₹1.29 Lakhs, adding over ₹6.67 Lakhs to his lifetime scorecards that now stands at ₹5.04 Crores.
The final table featured the likes of PokerGuru Ambassadors Vishal ‘CrownUpJr’ Bajaj (3rd for ₹2.94 Lakhs), Mithun ‘Intuitionnn’ Mahesh (4th for ₹2.41 Lakhs), Young Gun Gaurav ‘mozzie17’ Sood (5th for ₹1.93 Lakhs), Ankur ‘Crimemastergogo’ Sehgal (6th for ₹1.5 Lakhs), Raghav ‘thatssosick’ Bansal (7th for ₹1.11 Lakhs), and Ramesh ‘Dabidi_Dibide’ Pathipati (8th for ₹81,480).
Final Table Results
*denotes a heads-up deal
The Ballers ₹22.5 Lakhs GTD – Adda52
Buy-in – ₹7,500
Entries – 150
Re-entries – 171
Prize Pool – ₹22,50,000
Places Paid – 34
The biggest event on Adda52 yesterday was the ₹22.5 Lakhs GTD The Ballers. The 8PM tourney pulled in 321 contenders, leading to a shortfall of ₹51,150.
Following eight hours and fourteen minutes of intense play, mystery player ‘pokraj’ championed the event for ₹5.63 Lakhs, with Vidyasagar ‘darubhai’ Darapu coming in second for ₹3.41 Lakhs.
The champion ‘pokraj’ presently has over ₹71.35 Lakhs in site-cashes (₹33.50 Lakhs in site-profits).
Sahil ‘imhighishove’ Mahboobani (4th for ₹1.88 Lakhs), Spartan Poker’s Elite runner-up Laksh ‘boomtilt23’ Pal Singh (5th for ₹1.29 Lakhs), and Sandeep ‘homelite’ Rajora (6th for ₹84,375) were the notable final table scorers.
Final Table Results
The Weekly HighRoller ₹12 Lakhs GTD – PokerBaazi
Buy-in – ₹11,000
Entries – 86
Re-entries – 50
Prize Pool – ₹13,60,000
Places Paid – 15
New Year’s Friday brought another edition of PokerBaazi`s ₹12 Lakhs GTD, The Weekly HighRoller. Registering a field of 136 entrants, the ₹11,000 entry buy-in primetime tourney smashed the listed guarantee by ₹1.60 Lakhs, and the top 15 places earned a payday.
Play concluded in the wee hours of Saturday morning, with MTT crusher Sagar ‘sagarpupul’ Choudhury emerging champion to net a hefty ₹3.64 Lakhs. This past Monday’s The Big Show winner ‘acessorted’ (anonymity requested) finished runner-up for ₹2.55 Lakhs.
Choudhury had been on fire last night and started the New Year with a bang by also shipping Spartan Poker’s The Elite for ₹5.55 Lakhs. Last night’s winnings helped him cross the “₹5 Crores” mark in lifetime online earnings.
PokerGuru Ambassador and last night’s Uppercut MAGIC Edition third-place finisher on PokerStars India Arjanveer Singh ‘holdbaby’ Chadha came in third for ₹1.64 Lakhs, and seasoned pro Goonjan ‘gmtesting’ Mall fifth for ₹91,120.
Final Table Results
Uppercut MAGIC Edition ₹10 Lakhs GTD – PokerStars India
Buy-in – ₹4,400
Entries – 108
Re-entries – 96
Total Prize Pool – ₹10,00,000
Regular Prize Pool – ₹5,92,000
Bounty Prize Pool – ₹4,08,000
Places Paid – 35
Headlining the PokerStars India’s Friday roster was the ₹10 Lakhs GTD Uppercut MAGIC Edition that dragged in 204 entries, leading to a deficit of ₹1.84 Lakhs.
After nearly seven hours of intense play ‘TheLagLawyer’ (anonymity requested) championed the event for ₹2.09 Lakhs (₹96,976 in prize money, ₹1.12 Lakhs in bounties). PokerGuru Ambassador Arjanveer ‘ballistik310’ Singh Chadha finished runner-up for ₹1.15 Lakhs (₹96,966 in prize money, ₹18,813 in bounties).
The champion has been in stellar form since New Year’s Eve when he not only shipped Adda52’s ₹25 Lakhs GTD Godfather, but also final tabled PokerStars India’s ₹10 Lakhs GTD Highroller and ₹5 Lakhs GTD Battle Royale, for a cumulative score of ₹7.50 Lakhs!
Chadha, who had won the ₹25 Lakhs GTD Adda52 Millions on December 27, is now sitting atop ₹5.58 Crores in recorded online cashes.
Final Table Results (Includes Bounties)
TGIF ₹8.5 Lakhs GTD – Spartan Poker
Buy-in – ₹1,650
Entries – 302
Re-entries – 85
Re-buys – 246
Prize Pool – ₹9,49,000
Places Paid – 55
The other Friday mainstay at Spartan Poker, the TGIF gathered 633 hopefuls. Reducing the guarantee to ₹8.5 Lakhs worked well, since the event generated a guarantee-smashing ₹9.49 Lakhs prize pool.
Sreeharsha ‘yUDdam’ Boneni who had placed runner-up in PokerStars India’s Battle Royale a day ago juggernaut his way through the field to win the top prize of ₹1.58 Lakhs. A three-way deal saw ‘manish.89’ pocket a runner-up payout worth ₹1.14 Lakhs and Vaibhav ‘Vakeel_sahab’ Arora third for ₹1.13 Lakhs.
Boneni currently boasts ₹1.26 Crores in recorded online earnings.
Sandeep ‘hawes’ Bhatnagar placed eighth for ₹22,408.
Final Table Results
*denotes three-way deal
Running Hot ₹5.5 Lakhs GTD – Adda52
Buy-in – ₹2,200
Entries – 172
Re-entries – 139
Prize Pool – ₹6,22,000
Places Paid – 34
The second marquee event yesterday on Adda52 was the ₹5.5 Lakhs GTD Running Hot. The 9.30 PM tourney registered 311 entrants to post a guarantee-surpassing ₹6.22 Lakhs prize pool. Racing past the field was Yash ‘Babyshark21’ Chitre who agreed to a heads-up chop with ‘rg912’ (runner-up for ₹1.21 Lakhs) to win the event for ₹1.28 Lakhs.
2020 leaderboard topper and Young Gun Gaurav ‘gauravarod’ Sood was eliminated in ninth place for ₹12,440 to set the eight-handed FT.
Anirban ‘ajgar5’ D Das (3rd for ₹68,420), Abhishek ‘dx23’ Rathod (4th for ₹51,937), PokerGuru Ambassador Kartik ‘Pegasus1505’ Ved (5th for ₹18,660), and Anuj ‘chocha’ Manocha (6th for ₹15,550)
Final Table Results
Grand Slam ₹4 Lakhs GTD – Khelo365
Buy-in –₹3,300
Entries – 89
Re-entries – 22
Prize Pool – ₹4,00,000
Places Paid – 20
Khelo365’s flagship ₹4 Lakhs GTD Grand Slam suffered an overlay of ₹67,000 on the back of 111 participants who ponied up the ₹3,300 buy-in.
The event paid out the top 20 finishers, and capturing the title along with the up top cash prize worth ₹1 Lakhs was ‘Kaushal33’ who defeated ‘DKDS’ (runner-up for ₹72,000) in the heads-up match.
PBBS #24 ₹2 Lakhs GTD Main Event Flight 5 – PokerBaazi
Buy-in – ₹220
Entries – 74
Re-entries – 61
Survivors – 13
The fifth starting flight of the ₹2 Lakhs GTD PBBS#24 Main Event took off at its scheduled 8 PM and ran until 10:44 PM. A total of 135 registered for the battle, and only 13 players made it across to Day 2.
Anonymous user ‘fzlhaq’ bagged the chip lead (195,000), with ‘saurav0073’ (192,000) and Tejas ‘kood’ Kadam (189,000) a very distant second and third in chips.
Online reg Anirban D ‘pottysingh’ Das (184,000), Vivek ‘viveksnmc10’ Pal (159,000), and last night’s Turbo eighth-place finisher Aditya ‘konstantin’ Singh (158,000) also made it to Day 2.
The total registrations now stands at 588, post completion of five starting flights. The final and sixth flight will take off today at 8 PM.
Top 10 Chip Counts at the End of Flight 5
The Classic PKO ₹2 Lakhs GTD – PokerStars India
Buy-in – ₹1,650
Entries – 86
Re-entries – 52
Total Prize Pool – ₹2,07,000
Regular Prize Pool – ₹1,03,500
Bounty Prize Pool – ₹1,03,500
Places Paid – 14
Unlike the Uppercut MAGIC Edition, The Classic PKO on PokerStars India managed to surpass its ₹2 Lakhs guarantee by ₹7,000 on the back of 138 entries.
The 9:30 PM tourney culminated at 2:01 AM after Ajit ‘ace_bob_here’ Singh Arora was the last player standing. He banked a winner’s paycheque worth ₹45,823 (₹22,227 prize money, ₹23,596 bounties), just as Akshay ‘ak7208’ Panwar came ins second for ₹36,355 (₹22,227 prize money, ₹14,127 bounties). Singh now has ₹1.46 Crores in lifetime online winnings.
Swapnil ‘pokpom1’ Patil (3rd for ₹18,868), Piyush ‘noname3006’ Nanda (5th for ₹10,565) and Pranav ‘pkpok13’ Khandalkar (7th for ₹8,127), also cashed the final table.
Anonymous user ‘crazyass93’, who finished fourth for ₹17,182, also won the ₹1 Lakhs GTD Afternoon on Stars for ₹16,524 yesterday.
Turbo ₹1.5 Lakhs GTD – PokerBaazi
Buy-in – ₹1,650
Entries – 56
Re-entries – 38
Prize Pool – ₹1,50,000
Places Paid – 12
PokerBaazi’s ₹1.5 Lakhs GTD midnight special Turbo fell just six entries short of its break even, after registering 94 players.
Anonymous player ‘sidarth1’ took home the title and ₹42,225 in prize money, after besting Pokerbaazi regular Mukesh ‘Mukeshahuja’ Ahuja (runner-up for ₹29,565) heads-up.
Other FT scorers were Kapil ‘kapsa92’ Kumar Vasita (3rd for ₹19,005), Niraj ‘ooltus’ Yadav (4th for ₹14,085), Siddharth ‘si151190’ Mehndiratta (6th for ₹8,445), Siddharth ‘schemer’ Karia (7th for ₹7,035), and Aditya ‘konstantin’ Singh (8th for ₹5,625).
Bigstack Turbo ₹1 Lakhs GTD – PokerStars India
Buy-in – ₹1,100
Entries – 57
Re-entries – 22
Prize Pool – ₹1,00,000
Places Paid – 13
The ₹1 Lakhs GTD Bigstack Turbo was the other tourney besides the Uppercut that awarded TLB points towards PokerStars India’s ‘Star of the Month’ leaderboard race for January. The fast-paced tournament kicked off at 10:30 PM and over by 1:41 AM. Gathering 79 entries, the event posted an overlay of ₹21,000.
Mystery user ‘GOODFATHER999’ took down the event for ₹25,157, after besting Swapnil ‘pokpom1’ Patil (runner-up for ₹18,582) heads-up. This was Patil second FT score of the night, following his third place in The Classic PKO, taking his cumulative score to ₹37,450.
Akash ‘fisheater0510’ Gupta (5th for ₹7,489) was the only other known name on the final table.
Hercules ₹1 Lakh GTD – Pocket52
Buy-in – ₹770
Entries – 88
Re-entries – 27
Prize Pool – ₹1,00,000
Places Paid – 17
Pocket52’s Friday marquee, ₹1 Lakh GTD Hercules attracted 115 entrants who bought in for ₹770 and the top 17 places benefitted from the ₹19,500 overlay.
Topping them all was ‘Viking12345’ who netted ₹23,000 in prize money after beating Lalit ‘Msdhoni07’ Devpal (runner-up for ₹16,500) in the heads-up match.
Unravel ₹50K GTD – Pocket52
Buy-in – ₹440
Entries – 72
Re-entries – 60
Prize Pool – ₹52,800
Places Paid – 19
Pocket52’s ₹50K GTD Unravel pulled in 132 hopefuls to generate the ₹52,800 prize pool and the top 19 places boarded the money bus.
The winner emerged in an unknown player ‘Rickdiculous’ who outduelled ‘n_a_v’ (runner-up for ₹8,712) in the heads-up match and took away ₹12,144 in cash prize.
Mohit ‘Mthorm’ Mishra (4th for ₹4,752) and Jeet ‘Tanmay007’ Mondal (6th for ₹2,640) also posted FT scores.
Insomnia ₹30K GTD – PokerDangal
Buy-in – ₹550
Entries – 36
Re-entries – 19
Prize Pool – ₹30,000
Places Paid – 8
‘wsopwinner’ ran past a field of 55 players to win PokerDangal’s ₹30K GTD Insomnia for ₹9,300. ‘fakeer’ came in second, adding ₹6,300 to their bankroll.
Grinder 2.0 ₹20K GTD – Khelo365
Buy-in – ₹275
Entries – 41
Re-entries – 13
Prize Pool – ₹20,000
Places Paid – 6
Khelo365’s 20K GTD Grinder 2.0 suffered an overlay of ₹6,500 on the back of 54 participants and the top six places finished ITM.
The last player standing at the event was ‘kkiol’ who earned ₹8,000 in prize money after defeating ‘REDFORT72’ (runner-up for ₹4,200) in the heads-up match.
More details of all the major tournaments across the domestic networks on Friday will be updated here shortly, so stay tuned!
Dangal Dinner ₹10K GTD – PokerDangal
Buy-in – ₹110
Entries – 38
Re-entries – 54
Prize Pool – ₹10,000
Places Paid – 15
PokerDangal’s ₹10K GTD Dangal Dinner pulled in 92 participants, falling eight entries or ₹800 short of the advertised guarantee.
Anonymous user ‘Pokerking123’ came out on top for ₹2,400 and ‘pokergodkills’ runner-up for ₹1,750.
This report was updated at 4 PM on 2.01.2021.
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