PokerBaazi’s The Game Changer 2.0 Crowns a Champion in Shagun Jain (₹40.78 Lakhs)

The BIGGEST online poker tournament in the history of Indian poker, The Game Changer 2.0, has finally crowned a champion and walking away with the prestigious title was none other than online phenom Shagun ‘sogani22’ Jain! Triumphing over a gargantuan field of 4,796 entries, Jain banked a whopping ₹40.78 Lakhs in first-place prize money from a massive prize pool of approximately ₹2.63 Crores.

By far the most successful tournament on PokerBaazi to-date, The Game Changer has created back-to-back records in registering the most massive turnout ever for an online tournament in the country. The Game Changer 1.0 was the first tournament ever to pull in a field as large as 3,777 entries across three starting flights. Its successor, The Game Changer 2.0, had quite a tough task to accomplish. Not only did the second edition need to surpass the 3,777-entry mark, but it had to do so with a reduced buy-in of ₹5,500. While it was a daunting record to break, in the end, the target was not only easily achieved, but the previous record was eclipsed by a sizeable margin of 1,019 entries!

The champion of The Game Changer 2.0, Shagun ‘sogani22’ Jain, is possibly one of the most recognizable names on the online felts. He is a consistent winner in PokerBaazi’s flagship weekly tournament, the BSS Super Stack ₹25 Lakhs GTD, with his most recent scores coming in August (20^th for ₹21,750), June (16^th for ₹25,950) and May (6^th for ₹98,670). He also claimed the BSS MegaStack ₹5 Lakhs GTD title in April for ₹1.20 Lakhs. This latest win is possibly Jain’s biggest online score to date!

This epic tournament saw several PokerGuru Ambassadors in the fray, with Vishal ‘Vishallb22’ Bajaj (4^th for ₹10.04 Lakhs) and Ratul ‘luna’ Steves (6^th for ₹5.56 Lakhs) posting final table finishes, while Shuchi ‘pescatarian8’ Chamaria (24^th for ₹67,144), Nadeem ‘SpadeHunter’ Basha (25^th for ₹67,144), Gokul ‘Nygma’ Raj (27^th for ₹67,144), Ashish ‘rocky3705’ Ahuja (77^th for ₹47,960), Ashutosh ‘senojwod’ Balodhi (149^th for ₹28,776), Kartik ‘TheInternetKid’ Ved (291^st for ₹16,786), Arjanveer Singh ‘holdbaby’ Chadha (323^rd for ₹16,786), Jayjit ‘england’ Ray (349^th for ₹14,388) and Devvrat ‘flopCheck’ Arya (371^st for ₹14,388), finished ITM.

Day 2 Recap

A total of 431 runners from all four starting flights reconvened on August 25 at 6 PM. The battle lasted till nearly 2 AM on August 26. With all the players who had made it to Day 2 assured a min-cash of ₹11,990, the first player to finish in the money was ‘CopyNinja’ in 431^st place.

Another 404 eliminations took place before the nine-handed final table was convened and among the players who were eliminated were well known names like Vinod ‘figureitout’ Megalmani (16^th for ₹1.10 Lakhs), Utsav ‘ranny006’ Taneja (19^th for ₹88,726), Day 1B chip leader Prakash ‘pinnug’ Gupta (47^th for ₹55,154), Siddharth ‘si151190’ Mehndiratta (49^th for ₹55,154), Sriharsha ‘ivey2’ Doddapaneni (50^th for ₹55,154), Nishant ‘nishant177’ Sharma (66^th for ₹47,960), Sajjan ‘TheTeacher’ Barnwal (76^th for ₹47,960), Akshay ‘sherlock52’ Nasa (81^st for ₹40,766), Zarvan ‘MomSaid5Bet’ Tumboli (88^th for ₹40,766), Ramesh Rao ‘EXECUTIONRR’ Thotapalli (99^th for ₹40,766), Chirag ‘miyagi’ Sodha (105^th for ₹40,766), and Rajat ‘LungFakeer’ Sharma (115^th for ₹33,572).

Team PokerGuru had several Ambassadors who had advanced to Day 2. While Vishal ‘Vishallb22’ Bajaj and Ratul ‘luna’ Steves made it through to the final table, many other finished in the money with Shuchi ‘pescatarian8’ Chamaria (24^th for ₹67,144) becoming the last Ambassador to fall before the final table was convened.

The other PokerGuru Ambassadors who also picked up scores included Nadeem ‘SpadeHunter’ Basha (25^th for ₹67,144), Gokul ‘Nygma’ Raj (27^th for ₹67,144), Ashish ‘rocky3705’ Ahuja (77^th for ₹47,960), Ashutosh ‘senojwod’ Balodhi (149^th for ₹28,776), Kartik ‘TheInternetKid’ Ved (291^st for ₹16,786), Arjanveer Singh ‘holdbaby’ Chadha (323^rd for ₹16,786), Jayjit ‘england’ Ray (349^th for ₹14,388), and Devvrat ‘flopCheck’ Arya (371^st for ₹14,388).

PokerGuru Staking’s Vikram ‘VikramKumar’ Kumar (227^th for ₹19,184) also made a deep run.

Among the notable finishes were finalists from the inaugural edition. The Game Changer 1.0 runner-up Sikander ‘advanced_basic’ Rajwade finished 11^th for ₹1.91 Lakhs in this edition, while last edition’s champion, Prashanth ‘Iveyleague’ Sekar, placed 12^th for ₹1.41 Lakhs.

Following Siddarth ‘KingKongDingDong’ Singhvi’s 10^th place elimination, the nine-player final table was set up.

Final Table Recap

‘dhineshrocky007’ was the first player to be eliminated on the final table, finishing in ninth place.

Day 1C chip leader ‘Pokerroller’ was the next player to depart in eighth place and Naren ‘IMUNAGI’ Purohit joined him at the rail in seventh place.

PokerGuru Ambassador Ratul ‘luna’ Steves has been in top form lately and has posted numerous deep runs on the virtual felts these past few months. While he notably won the BSS Megastack ₹5 Lakhs GTD in July for ₹1.20 Lakhs, his most significant achievement recently was winning the ₹1 Crore GTD ValueBomb in June for ₹16.20 Lakhs. He made his deep run in the second edition of The Game Changer count by making it all the way to the final table, ultimately finishing in sixth place.

Down to five-handed play, ‘spiboy314’ ended his run in fifth place.

Vishal ‘Vishallb22’ Bajaj was the last PokerGuru Ambassador to fall and played exceptionally well to crack the top five of this record-breaking event. Bajaj too has been busy raking up scores and expanding his poker resume. His most recent deep run was in The Vegas ₹10 Lakhs GTD in March which he won for ₹2.20 Lakhs. In The Game Changer 2.0, Bajaj’s stellar run came to an end in fourth place.

After the dismissal of ‘rabbithunter’ in third place, the heads-up play between Shagun ‘sogani22’ Jain and Vivek ‘lazyguru’ Singh* began.

In the end, it was Jain who prevailed and walked away with the bragging rights of besting the biggest online field in the country for a life-altering ₹40.78 Lakhs!

Final Table Results

1. Shagun ‘sogani22’ Jain – ₹40,78,998

2. Vivek ‘lazyguru’ Singh – ₹25,03,512

3. rabbithunter – ₹15,87,476

4. Vishal ‘Vishallb22’ Bajaj – ₹10,04,762

5. spiboy314 – ₹7,12,206

6. Ratul ‘luna’ Steves – ₹5,56,336

7. Naren ‘IMUNAGI’ Purohit – ₹4,46,028

8. Pokerroller – ₹3,40,516

9. dhineshrocky007 – ₹2,58,984

*Note: The real name of the runner-up finisher, ‘lazyguru’, was erroneously reported as Ishan Sharma, instead of Vivek Singh. The mistake has been rectified on August 26 at 3PM.

Content & Image Courtesy: PokerBaazi