This Week in Poker: December 22 – 28

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!

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Happy holidays to you all! With Christmas past us and 2022 just days away, it’s that time of the year when we take stock of the year gone by. If you haven’t been checking our updates regularly, do breeze through our year-end special features that offer a quick and concise wrap-up of the different trends and developments of the year.

2021 indubitably belonged to online poker, and the final week was no different. While the Christmas and holiday vibes did affect turnouts, poker sites were busy doling out Christmas and New Year promotional freebies. Adda52 is hosting the ₹1.68 Crore GTD New Year Carnival (Dec 26 – Jan 2) offering six Goa packages. There’s regular tournament action on Spartan Poker, but the brand’s announcement of the ₹30 Crore GTD India Online Poker Championship (IOPC) did give us a fresh burst of excitement! The 12th IOPC is slated to run from January 20 to February 6, 2022, and features 116 events.

PokerStars India is also taking a strong headstart to 2022 with its ₹1.60 Crores GTD Winter Series to run from January 11 to 16, with 46 events on the schedule.

Coming to the tournament highlights, it was the long-time circuit regular Kanishka Samant claiming the bragging rights of becoming the year’s final “PokerGuru Star of the Week.”

Samant was the only player who earned over “₹10 Lakhs” this week, collected on the back of an incredible 10 final table finishes. His best score came on Sunday when he almost won The Weekly HighRoller but finished runner-up eventually for ₹2.64 Lakhs. Bharat Vasan, PokerGuru Ambassador Arjanveer Singh Chadha, Ayush Garg, Jasven Saigal and Young Gun Sanat Mehrotra were the other top scorers of the week.

In a major development, the Karnataka High Court conducted the final hearing on the petitions filed against the state government’s recently notified law banning all forms of online gaming, on December 22. The court has now reserved its judgement and is expected to come out with the same after the court reopens on January 1, 2022.

Moving to the international sphere, the first season of the PokerGo Tour concluded on December 21. Taking down the final event of the series was Slovenian poker pro Rok Gostisa, who won the $50,000 buy-in PokerGO Tour Championship for a career-best $689,100. While high-stakes MTT phenom Ali Imsirovic was crowned the 2021 PokerGO Tour presented by Guaranteed Rate Player of the Year (POY) and was awarded $200,000 in prize money!

The 2021 Wynn Winter Classic showstopper, Wynn Winter Classic Championship, saw Massachusetts native Eli Berg championing the event for $626,499 and the Wynn Trophy.

Online Railbird Report

The Christmas and New Year celebrations are in full swing forcing virtual action to slow down towards the end of the year. The final week of December had no big series’ running on the virtual felts, and thus the regular marquee tournaments were the only options available for players.

MTT pro Kanishka Samant was the only player to cross the “₹10 Lakhs” mark in weekly scores this week. He banked a collective ₹10.85 Lakhs, including an incredible ten FT finishes. For his blistering run, Samant is our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

His top finishes include:

> 2^nd in The Weekly HighRoller for ₹2,63,686

> 3^rd in The Summit for ₹1,70,554

> 7^th in Sunday Superstack (IOPC Bubble) for ₹1,17,810

> 2^nd in PKO (IOPC Bubble) for ₹93,802

> 4^th in Blockbuster for ₹83,257

> 4^th in Bounty Builder HR for ₹79,099

> 3^rd in Battle Royale 7-Max for ₹51,491

> 4^th in Holdem Boost for ₹37,461

> 2^nd in Dinner PLO Adda for ₹24,333

> 2^nd in Evening Sprint for ₹21,348

The two-time Sunday Superstack champion Bharat Vasan was another who featured among the week’s standout winners. He earned close to ₹8.30 Lakhs through the week, including a title win in PokerBaazi’s The Weekly HighRoller for ₹3.12 Lakhs.

His top finishes include:

> Won The Weekly HighRoller for ₹3,11,634

> 3^rd in Sunday Highroller for ₹1,83,734

> 5^th in The Summit for ₹94,834

> 3^rd in Night on Stars for ₹58,573

> 3^rd in La Luna for ₹48,720

The ranked #5 player of the year, PokerGuru Ambassador Arjanveer Singh Chadha, also made the top winners list. The Chandigarh-based pro captured Spartan Poker’s Wednesday flagship, the Destiny, for ₹5.03 Lakhs. He hogged the limelight again on Sunday when he placed 4^th in Adda52’s Roller Coaster for ₹1.93 Lakhs, all in all, adding ₹7.93 Lakhs to his week’s tally.

The former The Millionaire champion Ayush Garg championed Adda52’s Godfather Thursday for ₹5.50 Lakhs. The next day, he made two 6^th place finishes in The Elite (IOPC Bubble) for ₹1.12 Lakhs and The Ballers for ₹85,000, lapping a collective ₹7.53 Lakhs in weekly scores.

MTT pro Jasven Saigal FT-ed three flagship tournaments, including two runner-up finishes, which comprised the significant chunk of the ₹7.39 Lakhs he earned over the week.

His top finishes include:

> 2^nd in The Ballers for ₹4,11,865

> 2^nd in Carousel for ₹2,70,665

> 6^th in Mechanical Bull for ₹45,806

Young Gun Sanat Mehrotra, the four-time Destiny winner Nitin Arora, PokerGuru Ambassador Laksh Pal Singh, Shagun Jain, and PokerGuru Ambassador Mithun Mahesh were the other top scorers of the week.

Notable Winners of the Week

Spartan Poker’s ₹30 Crores GTD IOPC Returns For Its 12th Edition

India’s most extensive bi-annual series, Spartan Poker’s India Online Poker Championship (IOPC), returns for its 12th edition in January 2022. The 18-day series will run from January 20 to February 6, 2022, and guarantees ₹30 Crores across 116 events.

Read the complete report here

PokerStars India to Host ₹1.60 Crores GTD Winter Series

PokerStars India’s Winter Series returns this January with a massive ₹1.60 Crores in guaranteed cash prizes to win across 46 value-laden events running from January 11 to 16.

Read the complete report here

Karnataka High Court Reserves Judgment in Online Gaming Ban Case After Final Hearing

The Karnataka High Court heard the parties’ final submissions and directed the remaining petitioners to submit written rejoinders. A final decision is awaited in the Online Gaming ban case after the court reopens after the winter break on January 1, 2022.

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.