This Week in Poker: December 16 – 22

In the PokerGuru feature ‘This Week in Poker,’ we bring you the weekly roundup of the most significant online scores by Indian MTT players and the top stories from both the live and online poker circuit.

Here are this week’s top stories!

Less than 10 days remain for 2020 to bid us goodbye. With the COVID-19 pandemic leading to a global shutdown of casinos, live poker action was brought to an abrupt halt, inevitably leading to online poker’s rapid growth. In this penultimate ‘This Week in Poker’ feature, let us first examine what went down on the virtual felts.

The week`s action was again dominated by Spartan Poker’s ₹1 Crore GTD The Millionaire that saw the 2019 WPT India ₹25K Big Bounty winner Sriharsha Doddapaneni championing the tourney to win a cumulative ₹19.16 Lakhs. Doddapaneni had previously won a Millionaire title in ₹1.5 Crores GTD IOPC Millionaire Legends on July 19. Last Sunday, he became the second player after Manish Lakhotia to win a second Millionaire title in December. At present, Doddapaneni is the fifth player to have achieved this feat. For his phenomenal run, Doddapaneni is our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

Sunday’s Millionaire runner-up Ashish Kaushik and Young Gun Arsh Grover are the only other players to have netted seven-figure in earnings this past week.

Kunal Vohra, Azaan Ahmad, Sreekanth Narayan, Anurag Srivastava, Mohit Savargaonkar, and Srihari Bang were next on the top winner’s list.

After starting off December by winning his career-second Millionaire title, Manish Lakhotia is now eyeing PokerStars India`s ‘Star of the Month’ – December title. He emerged as the Week#3 leaderboard topper among the 25 qualifiers advancing to the Finals for December 30.

PokerStars India recently unveiled its completely revamped Rewards Stores that features some jaw-dropping products like the Range Rover Velar to Yamaha YZF R1 STD, Apple iPhone 11 Pro, and so much more. To claim these items, players simply have to play real money games on PokerStars India to earn reward points.

Adda52’s fabulous December plans have also kept users on their toes. After the Nano Poker Series (NPS), players can now look forward to the ₹10 Lakhs GTD WOWZA Freeroll scheduled to play out on December 27 alongside the massive guaranteed tourneys running daily on the site as part of the December Dash.

PokerDangal’s ₹5 Lakhs GTD GLORY promises the winner a direct entry into Poker Sports League – Season 3 (Virtual) as a Team Kolkata Kings member. It has already hosted two out of its four starting flights. Day 2 will run on December 26 at 8 PM.

Making a comeback to the domestic poker scene, PokerHigh joined the Quadnet Poker Network on December 9 and shared player liquidity with Spartan Poker and BLITZPOKER.

Natural8 also announced its latest holiday-themed promotion, “Dear Santa” Charity Flipout Tournaments, slated to run from December 25 to January 1.

In other news, the open-nomination process of the Poker Hall of Fame (PHoF) Class of 2020, completed last week with four new names, Lon McEachern, Norman Chad, Isai Scheinberg, and Patrik Antonius, joining the existing nominees from 2019.

For the majority of 2020, live poker has been dormant due to the worldwide pandemic. For the past few weeks, the live poker scene has started witnessing a gradual revival.

At the start of the week, Argentinian pro Damian Salas took down the international leg (GGPoker/Natural8) of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, the Czech Republic. He banked a mouth-watering $1,550,969 top prize. A day before, WSOP Circuit regular Joseph “kolebear” Hebert emerged as the final table chip leader of the WSOP.com leg of the Main Event. The final table will play down to a champion on December 28. This event’s winner will then face off against Salas at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on December 30 to crown a new World Champion.

Other live tournaments that successfully found winners were the inaugural WPTDeepstacks Taiwan Main Event that Huang Chyan Pu won for NT$1,317,800 (~$46,756) and the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Winter Poker Open that had Max Young shipping the Main Event title for $226,510.

Online Railbird Report

Sundays always offer the biggest guaranteed tournaments of the week. So, it comes as no surprise that the player to bag the most significant score on Sunday is also our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!” Yes, you guessed right. It’s this Sunday’s ₹1 Crore GTD The Millionaire champion Sriharsha ‘Potato Player’ Doddapaneni!

On December 20, Doddapaneni charged past a 2,272 strong-entry field to claim his career-second Millionaire title for a ₹18.76 Lakhs price tag! Having carried multiple stacks to Day 2, Doddapaneni also pocketed two more ITM finishes, 40th for ₹30,104, and 241st for ₹9,656, taking his overall Sunday score to ₹19.16 Lakhs. This blazing performance has also placed Doddapaneni at the top of our weekly rankings.

Runner-up Ashish ‘intrcptr101’ Kaushik came close to capturing his first-ever Millionaire title but ultimately had to settle for a second-place payout worth ₹10.25 Lakhs.

Young Gun Arsh ‘bigggtymer’ Grover, who is ranked #2 on the annual leaderboard, was in stellar form as well on Sunday. He shipped two titles, namely the ₹25 Lakhs GTD Adda52 Millions for ₹7.12 Lakhs and PokerStars India’s ₹15 Lakhs GTD Sunday Highroller for ₹2.92 Lakhs. He banked a whopping ₹10.04 Lakhs in total.

Spartan Poker’s signature Sunday tourney, the ₹35 Lakhs GTD Sunday Superstack, witnessed Kunal ‘kvohra’ Vohra wade through a 668-player pool to capture the title and top prize of ₹5.53 Lakhs.

While Sundays are predictably electrifying, other days of the week also offering equally attractive tourneys that dole out impressive paydays.

Spartan Poker’s signature Wednesday flagship, the ₹25 Lakhs GTD Destiny, logged in 547 entries and was won by Azaan ‘papertiger’ Ahmad for ₹5.96 Lakhs.

Former Millionaire LITE champion Sreekanth ‘n0thing’ Narayan bagged the ₹25 Lakhs GTD Godfather on Adda52 for ₹6.12 Lakhs on Thursday.

Anurag ‘NormanBates’ Srivastava, who had at one point dominated the yearly rankings, padded his bankroll with a cool ₹5.44 Lakhs paycheque after he took down Adda52’s ₹35 Lakhs GTD Nano Main Event Finale.

Last Friday’s ₹30 Lakhs GTD The Elite drew in 300 contestants and eventually crowned a champion in Mohit ‘baked_babua’ Savargaonkar for ₹6.35 Lakhs.

Adda52’s ₹22.5 Lakhs GTD The Ballers saw online phenom Srihari ‘zombieballs’ Bang emerge victorious, banking a cool ₹5.62 Lakhs.

The notable winners of the week include –

Manish Lakhotia Leads 25 Week #3 Qualifiers in PokerStars India’s ‘Star of the Month’ December Edition

PokerStars India’s ‘Star of the Month’ December leaderboard race has found its third batch of qualifiers. Two-time Millionaire champion Manish Lakhotia grabbed the pole position and will be headlining 25 qualifiers to the December Finale that starts at 9 PM on December 30.

Read the complete report here

PokerStars India Reveals Revamped Rewards Store

PokerStars India has revolutionized its Rewards Store with a fantastic new line-up of new and attractive products ranging from a spanking new Range Rover Velar to superbike Yamaha YZF R1 STD, Apple iPhone 11 Pro, and much more.

Read the complete report here

Adda52’s December Dash Offers ₹11 Crores in Prize Pool GTDs

India’s leading online poker site, Adda52, has quite a lot planned for December. While the brand’s ₹1 Crore GTD Nano Poker Series (NPS) is in the books, the ₹10 Lakhs GTD WOWZA Freeroll is scheduled to take place on December 27. All in all, the site has been and will continue to dish out ₹11 Crores in MTT guarantees till December 31 through its December Dash promotion.

Read the complete report here

PokerDangal’s ₹5 Lakhs GTD GLORY Offers Players a Chance to be a Part of PSL-V (Season 3) Team Kolkata Kings

PokerDangal’s ₹5 Lakhs GTD GLORY got underway on December 21. The eventual winner of this event will get the opportunity to represent the Team Kolkata Kings at the upcoming Poker Sports League – Season 3 (Virtual), and this over and above the first-place prize money that is expected to run into six-figures. Two starting flights of the GLORY have already played out, with 171 entries (Day 1A- 90 and Day 1B – 81) signing up to play. Two more starting flights are left to go, with Day 2 slated to run on December 26 at 8 PM.

Read the complete report here

PokerHigh Becomes the Latest Brand to Join the Quadnet Poker Network

PokerHigh has made quite a dramatic comeback by becoming the latest online poker operator to join India’s largest poker network, the Quadnet Poker Network, on December 9. With this move, PokerHigh is now sharing the abundant player pool liquidity with established brands like Spartan Poker and BLITZPOKER.

Read the complete report here

Natural8 Announced the “Dear Santa” Charity Flipout Tournaments From December 25 to January 1

Natural8 will be rolling out its Christmas-themed “Dear Santa” Charity Flipout Tournaments from December 25 to January 1. Running daily, the tournaments will have a $1 buy-in, and players have a chance to win some fantastic prizes, including a Surface Pro 7, iPhone 12 Mini, and much more.

Read the complete report here

McEachern, Chad, Scheinberg & Antonius Join the 2019 Nominees For the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2020

On December 16, the open-nomination process of the Poker Hall of Fame (PHoF) Class of 2020 came to an end. Joining the 2019 nominees were four new names, namely World Series of Poker (WSOP) commentators Lon McEachern and Norman Chad, PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg, and high-stakes player Patrik Antonius. Only one individual will be inducted into the PHoF this year, and their name will be announced on December 30, in Las Vegas, during the WSOP Main Event heads-up finale.

Read the complete report here

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. Stay tuned.