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In the PokerGuru feature ‘This Week in Poker,’ we bring you the weekly roundup of the most significant online scores by Indian MTT players along with the top stories from both the live and online poker circuit.
Here are this week’s top stories!
2019 has been a phenomenal year for poker! Several big scores, progress in the legal field, the revival of the live poker scene, and much more. In fact, if you are interested in knowing more, you can read up on our ‘Top 5 Developments of 2019’ series. But before, we jump into what a fabulous year it was, let us do a quick recap of how the last week of 2019 fared.
With a slowing down of the live action towards the end of the year, the virtual felts were full to the brim with fireworks. Spartan Poker has been dominating the online scene after having turned its monthly Millionaire tournament into an almost weekly feature. This past week saw the last edition of The Millionaire X5 Edition (₹10 Lakhs GTD To Top 5) of the year play out from December 27 to 29. The tournament logged in 1,875 entries, and as per the format of the game, played down to the final five runners. The five champions, PokerGuru Ambassadors Ashish ‘Donkey07’ Munot and Mithun’ Intuitionnn’ Mahesh, along with ‘piscean’, ‘Zenos’ and Sriharsha’ Fish2050’ Doddapaneni, all banked a ₹10 Lakhs top prize each. However, Munot managed to edge past the rest following his win in PokerBaazi’s The Bout ₹10 Lakhs GTD for ₹2.41 Lakhs, taking his week’s cumulative winning to ₹12.41 Lakhs. For this, Munot is our ‘PokerGuru Star of the Week.’
The lack of live action in the domestic circuit these past months is just the calm before the storm. Now that we have entered the new year, it’s going to go berserk as both the Baazi Poker Tour (BPT) and India Poker Championship (IPC) will be making a comeback! BPT’s online run kicks off today and will continue till January 5. The BPT live edition will run from January 8 to 14 onboard the luxurious Casino Pride 2 in Goa. On the heels of the BPT will be the IPC Awards, honoring the best live and online performances of the year. Running alongside the glamorous event will be the IPC January Edition. Hosted aboard the Casino Big Daddy, the series is slated to run till January 19. PokerGuru is the media partner for both these stops, and our dedicated coverage team will be on ground zero to bring you all the exciting action from Goa!
Where the domestic circuit will be busy with high-octane action, the international felts won’t be lacking either. The Red Dragon Manila will be taking off from January 4 at the PokerStars Live at Okada Manila. The series will conclude on January 11, and just a day before, on January 10, the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Kick-Off Vietnam will commence at the Pro Poker Club in Ho Chi Minh and will run all the way through January 21. In the southern hemisphere, Aussie Millions Poker Championship will also begin from January 4 and continue till January 24.
Though the number of Indians traveling to international tournament series has increased considerably since last year, but with the BPT and IPC taking place in Goa, the Indian participation in these international tournaments is expected to be significantly lower this time around.
The biggest story to break out last week was poker icon Aditya Agarwal’s departure from PokerStars India’s pro team. The five-year-long collaboration came to an end on December 28 and was announced by Agarwal on Twitter. Nevertheless, Agarwal’s relationship with the poker conglomerate had restricted the latter to playing only on the company’s online platform. Now, the poker maestro will be able to join in the action of the other premier online poker sites and will undoubtedly become a more prominent fixture in our Daily Majors features!
On the political front, Chief Minister of Puducherry V Narayanasamy has proposed plans of legalizing casinos in the Union territory to boost the tourism industry. However, Lieutenant Governor (LG) Kiran Bedi and the opposition party AIADMK have raised objections to the plan stating that the introduction of casinos may cause social problems.
This past week was choc-a-block with thrilling online action. Tournament-centric brand Spartan Poker hosted the last edition of its most popular tourney, The Millionaire X5 Edition (₹10 Lakhs GTD To Top 5). The event brought in 1,875 entries through four starting flights and posted a massive prize pool of ₹93.25 Lakhs. Following several hours of intense play on December 29, the five finalists who banked the ₹10 Lakhs top prize were PokerGuru Ambassadors Ashish ‘Donkey07’ Munot and Mithun’ Intuitionnn’ Mahesh, along with ‘piscean,’ ‘Zenos’ and Sriharsha ‘Fish2050’ Doddapaneni.
While all five finalists deserve to named our ‘PokerGuru Star of the Week,’ Munot’s victory in PokerBaazi’s The Bout ₹10 Lakhs GTD for ₹2.41 Lakhs, gives him a slight edge over the other four, getting him rights to this week’s title.
The notable scores of the week include –
Player | Prize Money | Event | Poker Site |
---|---|---|---|
Ashish ‘Donkey07’ Munot | ₹10.00 Lakhs | The Millionaire X5 Edition (₹10 Lakhs GTD To Top 5) Day 2 | Spartan Poker |
Mithun ‘Intuitionnn’ Mahesh | ₹10.00 Lakhs | The Millionaire X5 Edition (₹10 Lakhs GTD To Top 5) Day 2 | Spartan Poker |
piscean | ₹10.00 Lakhs | The Millionaire X5 Edition (₹10 Lakhs GTD To Top 5) Day 2 | Spartan Poker |
Zenos | ₹10.00 Lakhs | The Millionaire X5 Edition (₹10 Lakhs GTD To Top 5) Day 2 | Spartan Poker |
Sriharsha ‘Fish2050’ Doddapaneni | ₹10.00 Lakhs | The Millionaire X5 Edition (₹10 Lakhs GTD To Top 5) Day 2 | Spartan Poker |
Anirudh ‘flash’ Reddy | ₹7.74 Lakhs | Sunday SuperStack ₹40 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
Tonkaa | ₹6.31 Lakhs | Destiny 12.0 ₹30 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
Vikas ‘Vikas267’ Yadav | ₹6.12 Lakhs | Mega Suits ₹25 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
Anuj ‘anuj25395’ Yadav | ₹4.96 Lakhs | Godfather ₹20 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
Kuldeep ‘Bacchapro’ Jorwal | ₹4.85 Lakhs | BSS SuperStack ₹25 Lakhs GTD | PokerBaazi |
Harshad ‘omglukbox’ Barve | ₹4.70 Lakhs | The Elite ₹25 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
Alok ‘TheProfessional’ Birewar | ₹4.21 Lakhs | The Summit₹15 Lakhs GTD | PokerBaazi |
Harshit ‘hashstack’ Chopra | ₹4.17 Lakhs | The Ballers ₹15 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
Anmol ‘Anzzzzz’ Mehta | ₹4.01 Lakhs | Ultron ₹20 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
rajaRancho | ₹3.80 Lakhs | G.O.A ₹20 Lakhs GTD | PokerBaazi |
Charu '7freeman' Vikram Kaushik | ₹3.17 Lakhs | Mega Stack 15 Lac Gtd | Spartan Poker |
Dhappa | ₹2.90 Lakhs | The Dragon ₹10 Lakhs GTD | 9stacks |
Hitesh ‘hiteshbhai999’ Batra | ₹2.86 Lakhs | Sunday Special Progressive KO ₹15 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
Saket ‘saker’ Kumar | ₹2.49 Lakhs | Big Slick ₹15 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
Sagar ‘alwaysnutz’ Choudhury | ₹2.48 Lakhs | Maverick ₹10 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
Laksh ‘B00MTilt23’ Pal Singh | ₹2.42 Lakhs | Highroller₹12 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
Ashish ‘OMG_spew’ Munot | ₹2.41 Lakhs | The Bout ₹10 Lakhs GTD | PokerBaazi |
jason911 | ₹2.24 Lakhs | Goa Fest ₹8 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
Ram 'mowgumotu' Kakkar | ₹2.10 Lakhs | Hitman | Adda52 |
Goonjan ‘gmtesting.ind’ Mall | ₹1.90 Lakhs | Uppercut – Progressive KO 6-Max MAGIC Edition ₹10 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
ONmyMAC | ₹1.68 Lakhs | Recharge ₹12 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
space ace | ₹1.60 Lakhs | TGIF ₹10 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
Arjanveer ‘holdbaby’ Singh Chadha | ₹1.44 Lakhs | The Monster 6-Max ₹5 Lakhs GTD | PokerBaazi |
Vishal ‘GTOcrusher’ Madan | ₹1.41 Lakhs | Thunder @7:30 PM ₹5 Lakhs GTD | 9stacks |
Sahil ‘HomelessOnWiFi’ Mahboobani | ₹1.38 Lakhs | Hi-Fi ₹6 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
Sailor431 | ₹1.36 Lakhs | Sunday Special (L) ₹7.5 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
kendralust | ₹1.29 Lakhs | Electric Big Daddy ₹6 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
Arsh ‘Button_Hai_Bro’ Grover | ₹1.28 Lakhs | BSS MegaStack ₹5 Lakhs GTD | PokerBaazi |
SumitS | ₹1.24 Lakhs | Thursday MonsterStack₹5 Lakhs GTD | PokerBaazi |
Infic11 | ₹1.09 Lakhs | Monday Hustle ₹6 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
Neeraj ‘ns11pathak’ Sharma | ₹99,480 | Fri-YAY ₹4 Lakhs GTD | PokerBaazi |
Vishalb22 | ₹92,045 | Night on Stars ₹5 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
furiosa | ₹80,400 | Friday SuperStack ₹3 Lakhs GTD | PokerBaazi |
Anmol ‘anzzzzz’ Mehta | ₹77,250 | 6-Max Wednesday SuperStack ₹3 Lakhs GTD | PokerBaazi |
Piko | ₹73,750 | Afternoon Hi-Fi ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
jason911 | ₹72,500 | Hexagram ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
TRAP_ – | ₹71,250 | Hexagram ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
Krifard | ₹70,625 | Hexagram ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
blacklollipop | ₹68,263 | Ultimate PLO ₹2 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
noiretulip | ₹64,319 | Hexagram ₹2 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
Nikhil ‘nickel0992’ Chaudhary | ₹63,087 | Hexagram ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD | Adda52 |
Badri ‘Dontwantbadbeat’ Narayan | ₹59,258 | Afternoon Hi-Fi ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
Naren ‘IMUNAGI’ Purohit | ₹58,300 | Ultimate PLO ₹2 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
Dheeraj ‘Sarkar12345’ Bisht | ₹56,300 | BSS PLO ₹2 Lakhs GTD | PokerBaazi |
Devashish ‘debumathur’ Mathur | ₹54,726 | Ultimate PLO ₹2 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
Sumit 2121 | ₹53,877 | Ultimate PLO ₹2 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
shaandaarsingh | ₹53,570 | Progressive KO 4-Max ₹2 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
unruhmlich | ₹53,071 | Ultimate PLO ₹2 Lakhs GTD | Spartan Poker |
Apratim ‘HUSTLER.0081’ Chatterjee | ₹51,192 | The Classic ₹2 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
Arjanveer ‘ballistik310’ Singh Chadha | ₹39,860 | 6-Max NLHE ₹2 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
Anuj ‘brockLesnar95’ Yadav | ₹38,251 | Sunday Stars ₹2 Lakhs GTD | PokerStars India |
bigbluffaces | ₹31,500 | Warrior Arena ₹1.5 Lakhs GTD | Poker Dangal |
diven | ₹24,000 | Monday Texas ₹1 Lakhs GTD | Poker Dangal |
Manavgoel | ₹24,000 | Dangal Friday ₹1 Lakh GTD | Poker Dangal |
pavbhaji | ₹21,609 | Sunday Bonanza ₹1 Lakh GTD | Poker Dangal |
apeman | ₹18,000 | Wow Wednesday ₹75K GTD | Poker Dangal |
On December 28, India poker pioneer Aditya Agarwal tweeted the end of the five-year-long collaboration with online poker conglomerate PokerStars India. In his farewell message, Agarwal wrote about his cherished memories with the brand and expressed gratitude towards his former fellow team ambassadors. While it was sad to see the poker icon part ways with the Red Spade, it will also be an exciting beginning for Agarwal, who told PokerGuru that he is looking forward to playing on the other domestic sites.
Read the complete report here.
Following in the footsteps of Goa and Sikkim, the Union Territory of Puducherry is looking to become India’s latest casino hub. However, objections raised by Lieutenant Governor (LG) Kiran Bedi and the opposition party AIADMK, has put some roadblocks in the proposal pitched by Chief Minister V Narayanasamy’s government. While the CM claimed the final decision will be taken by the legislative assembly, whether the state administration will be able to legalize casinos is yet to be seen.
Read the complete report here.
And with this, we conclude this week’s roundup of the latest news updates and developments from the world of poker. We will return again next week with our weekly report and some surprises, so stay tuned.