India’s Biggest Online Poker Festival – Spartan Poker’s IOPC 14.0 –  is Off to a Blockbuster Start With Day 1 Registering Guarantee-Smashing Turnouts 

India`s biggest-ever online poker festival, the ₹43+ Crores GTD India Online Poker Championship (IOPC), went live on Spartan Poker on January 19. The Day 1 turnout more than lived up to the hype and excitement building around this landmark series for weeks by bringing in guarantee-crushing turnouts right off the gates.

Before we go into a more detailed account of the opening day proceedings of this massive series, here is a brief glimpse of how things panned out on Thursday:

• 33,400+ entries were registered across 11 IOPC tournaments
• ₹2.30 Crores was awarded in prize money – exceeding the advertised guarantee by over 47%
• 40 players won at least ₹1 Lakh in cash prizes
• Dhruvin Kothari banked the day’s biggest paycheque of ₹8.75 Lakhs for winning IOPC #6 Thursday High
• Siddharth Sudhir took an early lead in the ₹1.50 Crores GTD IOPC leaderboard after shipping the series-opener IOPC #1 Launch Party

With such a brilliant start, the IOPC 14.0 has set the tone for the rest of the series and sparked the hope for a thrilling 2023 for online MTT players!

Day 1 Recap

It was a busy start to the 14th IOPC edition, which had 11 tournaments on the Day 1 schedule, and eight winners were crowned, all of them winning significant cash rewards and silver badges.

Staying true to its legacy as one of the most-awaited tournament festivals of the year, the opening day of the series registered guarantee-crushing turnouts all across. Over 33,400 entries got registered in the 11 IOPC-branded tournaments yesterday, and a whopping ₹2.30 Crores in cash prizes were given away – over 47% more than the ₹1.56 Crores advertised.

Forty players walked away as Lakhptatis on Day 1 itself, with hundreds more to join this club by the time the series closes its 18-day run.

The former IOPC Millionaire Legends and Super High Roller winner Dhruvin Kothari emerged as yesterday`s top scorer after winning the ₹35 Lakhs GTD IOPC #6 Thursday High for ₹8.75 Lakhs and his fifth IOPC title. He chopped the top prize three-way with ‘KAKAROT98$’ (2nd for ₹7.12 Lakhs) and Himanshu Arora (3rd for ₹5.40 Lakhs).

The Day 1 headliner, ₹45 Lakhs GTD IOPC #5 Thursday Prime, crowned a champion in Kiran Ainala, who won the title for a site-best ₹7.62 Lakhs, following a heads-up deal with Parag Shah (2nd for a career-best ₹6.48 Lakhs).

Gopal Bajaj (Won IOPC #7 Thursday Spotlight for ₹3.67 Lakhs), Siddharth Sudhir (Won IOPC #1 Launch Party for a career-best ₹2.73 Lakhs), Young Gun Ujjwal Narwal (Won IOPC #4 Monster Stack for ₹2.15 Lakhs), Snehil Aggarwal (Won IOPC #2 for ₹2.09 Lakhs), Vikas Yadav (Won IOPC #8 All Rounder Deepstack for a site-best ₹2.04 Lakhs) and Abhishek Sonu (Won IOPC #3 for ₹1.06 Lakhs) won the other IOPC titles.

IOPC Leaderboard Standings After Day 1

Unsurprisingly, the IOPC #1 Launch Party champion, Siddharth Sudhir (2,098 points), pulled ahead into a commanding lead in the ₹1.50 Crores GTD IOPC leaderboard rankings for defeating a massive 4,354 entry-field in the 1 PM series-opener.

The IOPC #5 Thursday Prime runner-up finisher, Parag Shah (1,528 points), and the IOPC July 2021 leaderboard topper (and 2022 POY), Young Gun Anuj Yadav (1,524 points) are currently sitting at #2 and #3 in rankings, respectively.

Tournaments to Watch Out For in Week #1

While Thursday was a blockbuster, the rest of the week has several massive flagships lined up for players.

A total of six Gold Badges will be awarded throughout the series, and the first one will be given away on January 20 in the ₹1 Crore GTD IOPC #14 High Roller (6-Max). The ₹55,000 buy-in tourney begins at 9 PM.

The ₹2 Crores GTD IOPC Blaze that hosted its first starting flight on Thursday will award the second of the six IOPC Gold Badges on January 22. The ₹8,800 buy-in flagship locked in 406 entries (228 unique) on Day 1A, with leaderboard crusher Bhanu Prakash KC (340,558) bagging the day-end chip lead. With five more flights left, the IOPC Blaze needs a little over 2,000 entries to hit its advertised guarantee and is already off to a great start.

The ₹30 Lakhs GTD IOPC D’Lite is another multi-flight tourney that will play down to a winner this Sunday. The ₹660 buy-in tourney needs 5,000 entries to break even on its advertised guarantee. The first two starting flights brought in 827 entries (combined). With six more flights left to play, the IOPC D’Lite seems on track to become another guarantee-crushing success.

Other headliners include:

• ₹55 Lakhs GTD IOPC #13 Friday Prime (January 20 at 8 PM)
• ₹20 Lakhs GTD IOPC #15 Friday Spotlights – Triple Chance (January 20 at 9:30 PM)
• ₹11 Lakhs GTD IOPC #16 All Rounder Deepstack (January 20 at 11 PM)
• ₹35 Lakhs GTD IOPC #21 Saturday Prime (January 21 at 8 PM)
• ₹15 Lakhs GTD IOPC #22 Saturday Spotlight (January 21 at 9:30 PM)
• 9.50 Lakhs GTD IOPC #23 (January 21 at 11 PM)
• ₹65 Lakhs GTD IOPC #28 Sunday Prime (January 22 at 8 PM)
• ₹50 Lakhs GTD IOPC #29 Sunday High (January 22 at 9 PM)
• ₹25 Lakhs GTD IOPC #30 Sunday Spotlights (January 22 at 9:30 PM)
• ₹10 Lakhs GTD IOPC #33 (January 22 at 11 PM)

Biggest IOPC Headliners

The three-day long ₹2.50 Crores GTD Beast will be a precursor to the IOPC The Crown. The ₹27,500 buy-in event replaces the IOPC Legends and will run four starting flights.

• Day 1A: January 27 at 7 PM
• Day 1B: January 28 at 7 PM
• Day 1C: January 29 at 1 PM
• Day 1D: January 29 at 5 PM
• Day 2: January 29 at 10:30 PM

The ₹1.25 Crores GTD IOPC #62 Super High Roller sports the biggest prize pool guarantee among all the IOPC High Rollers this time. It also has the second-highest buy-in of the series at ₹1.05 Lakhs and starts at 9 PM on January 26.

The costliest tournament of the series, the ₹1 Crore GTD IOPC #115 Mega High Roller, sports a steep ₹2.10 Lakhs entry buy-in, making it the biggest buy-in event ever on Spartan Poker. You can be assured of seeing the best poker talents in the country in action when the event goes underway at 9 PM on February 2.

The ₹45 Lakhs GTD IOPC #131 PLO High Roller will keep the high-stakes PLO lovers entertained. The ₹22,000 entry buy-in tournament kicks off at 9 PM on February 4.

The ₹1 Crore GTD IOPC #81, though not a High Roller, is another IOPC flagship sporting an eight-figure guarantee. The ₹11,000 entry buy-in event is slated for January 29 (8 PM) and will play down to a six-player final table. This is one of the only two IOPC events that will host their final tables live at Casino Big Daddy in Goa.

The other online-live hybrid IOPC tournament is the ₹50 Lakhs GTD IOPC #139 (buy-in: ₹2,750) that begins at 9:30 PM on February 5.

The quintessential Main Event of the series, the ₹5 Crores GTD IOPC The Crown, will run eight starting flights from January 30 to February 5, with the finale beginning at 10 PM on February 5. The champion will grab the bragging right to winning the biggest-ever The Crown title and, over and above the life-changing up-top cash prize, will receive a real-life 18-carat gold crown studded with 0.6-carat diamonds!

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