This Week in Poker: December 5 – 11

In the PokerGuru feature ‘This Week in Poker’ we bring to you the weekly round-up of the biggest 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

The winter season has well and truly set in and it has brought with it a heap of exciting poker action.

The inaugural 2018 PokerStars LIVE Asia Jeju Red Dragon kept us entertained this past week. While a majority of the participants were from China, India too had a strong battalion of contenders in the running, namely Sumit Sapra, Young Gun Abhinav Iyer, Kalyan Chakravarthy, Adda52 Team pro Kunal Patni, MadOverPoker pro Zarvan Tumboli and Raghav Bansal. However, Sapra, Bansal and Patni were the only Indians to register scores at the series. Sapra finished 16^th in the ₩800K Megastack for ₩1,985,000 (₹1.25 Lakhs), while Bansal (20^th for ₩695,000 – ₹44,096) and Patni (24^th for ₩615,000 – ₹39,020) picked up scores in the ₩220,000 Flipout. Meanwhile, Yuechun Shi overcame the record-breaking field of 613 entries in the ₩2.2M Red Dragon Main Event and took home the title along with ₩266,060,000 in prize money.

Featuring 19 events, the 2018 Asian Poker Tour (APT) Finale Philippines was the final stop this year for the APT franchise that ran from November 27- December 6 at Resorts World Manila (RWM). Team India posted a total of five scores, headlined by World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet champion Aditya Sushant’s fourth place finish in the Championships Event (PHP 973,300 – ₹13.02 Lakhs). Amanpreet Singh was the lone Indian to win a title as he took down the NLH Single Day (Shot Clock) event (PHP 273,300 – ₹3.63 Lakhs). On the concluding day, Singh and Sushant closed out the Indian participation in style with their respective sixth and seventh place finishes in the Monster Stack event. Sushant’s continued stellar runs both on the live and online felts, retained him as our “PokerGuru Star of the Week”. The star at the series was Japan`s Kosei Ichinose, who won the Monster Stack for 696,400 and grabbed the APT Player of the Series honour.

The online felts were snowed in with massive payouts, this past week with many players bagging the big bucks including Vipul ‘ScoobyDoobie’ Tiwari (9stacks’ Sunday Stacks for ₹3.82 Lakhs) and Siddharth ‘si151190’ Mehndiratta (PokerBaazi’s BSS SuperStack for ₹2.72 Lakhs).

With the year signing off soon, premier poker site PokerBaazi has also launched its final online series under the PokerBaazi Premier League (PPL) bandwagon. Running from December 10-16, the PPL Winter ’18 Edition kicked off with the inaugural day opening to five tournaments. Most events have drawn big numbers seeing their prize pool guarantees being smashed. Aditya ‘adit11’ Kulkarni stole the show and demolished the 608-strong entry field (299 unique and 309 re-entries) of the PPL#4 The Bout ₹25 Lakhs GTD, to capture the top prize of ₹5.77 Lakhs.

The PokerStars Winter Series with a ₹1.6 Crore GTD (December 16-24) and MadOverPoker’s Rehab ₹5 Lakhs GTD, are slated to begin later in the month, and the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) 2019, Paradise Island (January 5-16) is rearing to kickoff at the start of next year, Indian players and railbirds alike will be treated to some mind-boggling poker action both on and off the felts!

The 2018 partypoker MILLIONS Online $20M Main Event was a running hit with the crowds and pulled in 4,367 entries through five starting flights. Ultimately, Manuel ‘Sheparentao’ Ruivo took down the event following a heads-up chop for a payday of $2,329,944, while runner-up Pim ‘ForMatherRussia’ de Goede wasn’t far behind with $2,309,995.

Meanwhile, the 2018 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague has kicked off and will offer exciting tournament action right till December 18. While the €10,300 No-Limit Hold’em Opening Event was won by Turkey’s Akin Tuna for €125,330, the €1,100 EPT National Event drew 2,486 players, and the field dwindled down to the final six players led by Serbia’s Danilo Velasevic (20,675,000). In the meantime, the €2,200 EPT National High Roller gathered a huge field of 954 entries, only 143 advanced to Day 2 with UK’s Ben Jones (680,000) in the chip lead.

Additionally, the €50,000 Super High Roller was also trimmed down to the nine-handed final table, out of which Patrik Antonius (9^th), Stefan Schillhabel (8^th) and Jan Schwippert (7^th) were eliminated before the money line was crossed. Charlie Carrel (6^th for €134,440) was the first player to finish in the money, followed by Luc Greenwood (5^th for €172,850), who was the last elimination of Day 2. The remaining four players, Matthias Eibinger (5,455,000), Pavel Plesuv (1,610,000), Andras Nemeth (1,445,000) and Liang Xu (1,410,000), will return to the felts later today.

The PokerStars LIVE Manila MegaStack 10 is presently underway at the Coral Wing of the Okada Manila. From India, Ankit Jajodia reached the final table of the series-opener Kickoff event which boasted of a ₱3 Million guarantee and drew in 396 entries. American pro Rex Clinkscales emerged as the eventual champion and grabbed a payday of ₱651,309. Scheduled to run till December 16, a plethora of events have already played out at the series.

Following is a list of the winners, thus far:

With the ₱10 Million guarantee Main Event slated to begin from December 14, there is a lot of nail-biting action left to look forward to.

The domestic circuit was abuzz with activity and celebrations. India’s gaming major, Delta Corp celebrated its 10^th anniversary from November 30- December 2, in special presence of Finnish poker player Patrik Antonius who also played several cash game sessions at the Adda52 LIVE poker room onboard the Casino Deltin Royale. Fantasy sports site Dream11 has contributed ₹3 Crore for the athlete support programme of the Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG).

In the Asian circuit, Nepal government has tabled news legislative provisions for regulation of casino industry and confiscating assets of defaulting casino owners.

We conclude this week’s recap with tournament reports from the 2018 APT Finale, 2018 EPT Prague, 2018 WSOPC Harrah’s Cherokee and Bicycle Casino stops, WSOP International Circuit The Star Sydney, 2018 888poker LIVE Festival London and 2018 WPT DeepStack Championship.

Online Railbird Report

India’s most trusted poker site, PokerBaazi’s latest high-value tournament series, i.e. the PokerBaazi Premier League (PPL) Winter Edition was off to a roaring start on December 10. Headlining the list of winners was Aditya ‘adit11’ Kulkarni who fielded through a gigantic player pool of 608 entries and clinched the title along with the first-place prize money of ₹5.77 Lakhs.

Notable scores of the week include –

Aditya ‘adit11’ Kulkarni won ₹5.77 Lakhs for 1^st place in the PokerBaazi ‘PPL #4 The Bout ₹5,500 NLHE ₹25 Lakhs GTD (RE)’

Vipul ‘ScoobyDoobie’ Tiwari won ₹3.82 Lakhs for 1^st place in the 9stacks ‘Sunday Stacks ₹15 Lakhs GTD’

Shadul ‘duuurrrr’ Parthasarathi won ₹3.35 Lakhs for 1^st place in the PokerBaazi ‘PPL #5 ₹4,125 NLHE ₹15 Lakhs GTD (RE)’

Siddharth ‘si151190’ Mehndiratta won ₹2.72 Lakhs for 1^st place in the PokerBaazi ‘BSS SuperStack ₹15 Lakhs GTD’

Rohan ‘RSmincer’ Soman won ₹2.70 Lakhs for 1^st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Special – Progressive KO ₹5,000 NLHE ₹15 Lakhs GTD’

‘NitCracker’ won ₹2.20 Lakhs for 1^st place in PokerStars India ‘Highroller ₹7,700 NLHE ₹10 Lakhs GTD’

‘brockLesnar95’ won ₹1.87 Lakhs for 1^st place in PokerBaazi ‘The Vegas ₹10 Lakh GTD (RE)’

Haresh ‘NARCOS’ Kukreja won ₹1.48 Lakhs for 1^st place in the PokerBaazi ‘PPL #3 ₹1,650 NLHE ₹5 Lakhs GTD (RE)’

Rasdeep ‘Rasdeep’ Singla won ₹1.20 Lakhs for 1^st place in the PokerBaazi ‘Grinders#33 Main Event ₹5 Lakhs GTD’

Ayush ’ KKGodfatherKK’ Abhigyan won ₹1.20 Lakhs for 1^st place in the PokerBaazi ‘BSS PLO ₹5 Lakhs GTD’

Anish ‘THENUTS’ Suri won ₹1.17 Lakhs for 1^st place in the PokerBaazi ‘PPL #1 ₹1,100 NLHE ₹5 Lakhs GTD (RE)’

Shubham ‘Shabbaking’ Singla won ₹1.12 Lakhs for 1^st place in the PokerBaazi ‘The Monster 6-Max ₹5 Lakhs GTD’

‘Cringing’ won ₹1.10 Lakhs for 1^st place in PokerStars India ‘Wednesday Stars ₹2,500 NLHE ₹5 Lakhs GTD’

‘nutscracker’ won ₹93,120 for 1^st place in the PokerBaazi ‘Grinders #14 6-Max Wednesday SuperStack ₹3 Lakhs GTD’

Aman ‘Dheettttt’ Bhadu won ₹63,061 for 1^st place in the MadOverPoker ‘IBC #8 Main Event (RE)’

Abhishek ‘TheGrinder333’ Garg won ₹49,926 for 1^st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Stars ₹2200 NLHE ₹2 Lakhs GTD’

Ashutosh ‘Ashutosh.anand7’ Anand won ₹47,355 for 1^st place in the PokerBaazi ‘PPL #2 ₹1,100 ₹2 Lakhs GTD (FO)’

‘msdhoni’ won ₹46,725 for 1^st place in PokerBaazi ‘Turbo ₹1 Lakh GTD (RE)’

‘xqwxqw’ won ₹ 37,180 for 1^st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Storm ₹2 Lakhs GTD’

Ankit ‘ThugOfPoker’ Aryan won ₹36,739 for 1^st place in the MadOverPoker ‘IBC#7 Warm-Up (RE)’

‘trapper’ won ₹35,000 for 1^st place in the PokerRaj ‘Nations Cup Qualifier ₹1 Lakh GTD’

‘axone09’ won ₹34,750 for 1^st place in the PokerStars India ‘The Classic NLHE ₹1,500, ₹1.5 Lakhs GTD’

Aman ‘Dheettttt’ Bhadu won ₹34,694 for 1^st place in the MadOverPoker ‘IBC#6 (RE)’

‘Maverick200585’ won ₹29,542 for 1^st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Supersonic ₹1,100 NLHE ₹1 Lakh GTD’

Mahesh ‘mahikalra’ Shyamsundar won ₹29, 375 for 1^st place in the MadOverPoker ‘IBC #5 (RE)’

Sunil ‘bababk’ Arora won ₹28,692 for 1^st place in the MadOverPoker ‘IBC #3 (RE)’

‘kgjadoo’ won ₹24,613 for 1^st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Warm-Up ₹1,100 NLHE ₹1.5 Lakhs GTD’

‘goldypaji’ won ₹23,858 for 1^st place in the PokerStars India ‘Battle Royale ₹2,200 NLHE (Progressive KO, 6-Max) ₹3 Lakhs GTD’

Vitsituo ‘Phantom’ Mepfhuo won ₹23,500 for 1^st place in the MadOverPoker ‘IBC #4 (6-Max RE)’

Shashank ‘badmash’ Charvey won ₹13,606 for 1^st place in the MadOverPoker ‘IBC #2 (RE)’

Ankit ‘ThugOfPoker’ Aryan won ₹13,481 for 1^st place in the MadOverPoker ‘IBC #1 (6-Max RE)’

Manuel ‘Sheparentao’ Ruivo & Pim ‘ForMatherRussia’ de Goede Chop partypoker MILLIONS Online $20M Main Event For Over $2.3 Million Each

The 2018 partypoker MILLIONS Online $20M Main Event turned out to be record-smashing online poker extravaganza, with 4,367 entrants converging from five opening flights. Eventually, Manuel ‘Sheparentao’ Ruivo captured the event, banking $2,329,944. Ruivo clashed with Pim ‘ForMatherRussia’ de Goede and both players agreed to a heads-up chop, with Goede settling for a runner-up finish for $2,309,995.

Read the complete story here.

Delta Corp Hosts Patrik Antonius For 10th Anniversary Celebrations

India’s only BSE-listed casino and gaming company Delta Corp celebrated its 10^th anniversary celebrations across various Delta properties in Goa. The events were marked by gaming events, Bollywood and musical performances and special presence of Finnish poker pro Patrik Antonius who played cash game sessions at the Adda52 LIVE poker room onboard Casino Deltin Royale.

Read the complete story here.

Fantasy Sports Site Dream11 Donates ₹3 Crores to IFSG Athelete Support Programme

Indian fantasy sports site, Dream11 has pledged ₹3 Crores for the athlete support programme of the Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG). Representatives from Dream11 Foundation handed the cheque for the amount to IFSG president, John Loffhagen in IFSG’s ‘Stars of Tomorrow’ function hosted at Mumbai on December 5.

Read the complete story here.

Nepal Proposes New Law to Seize Assets of Fugitive Casino Owners

The government in Nepal has included a fresh palate of legislative provisions for regulation of its casino industry. Part of the new Federal Tourism Bill, the draft Casino Bill includes provisions that will empower the government to confiscate assets of casino owners who have gone rogue.

Read the complete story here.

Norwegian Poker Pro Thor Hansen Passes Away

Norwegian poker legend and “The Godfather of Norwegian Poker”, Thor Hansen passed away on December 5. Hansen, who had won his maiden WSOP bracelet in the late 80’s had been battling with cancer.

Read the complete story here.

James “Minneapolis Jim” Meehan Passes Away

World Series of Bracelet (WSOP) winner James Michael Meehan aka ‘Minneapolis Jim’ has passed away at the age of 66. Meehan practiced law for nearly two decades before turning to poker.

Read the complete story here.

Justin Bonomo & Daniel Negreanu to Attend Super High Roller Bowl V

The upcoming $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl V (SHRBV) has already registered 34 entries till now and among the illustrious attendees will be superstars like Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth and Justin Bonomo.

Read the complete story here.

Jeju Red Dragon 2018

The 20-event long 2018 PokerStars LIVE Asia Jeju Red Dragon, which made its debut in South Korea, concluded on December 9 amongst much fanfare. The Jeju Shinhwa World – Landing Casino that hosted the series saw record-breaking participation in the ₩2.2M Red Dragon Main Event, registering 613 entries and breaking the record for the largest Main Event field in the country.

While several different nationalities were seen gunning in the series, China dominated the representation. Team India too saw representation from a select group of pros. Sumit Sapra, Young Gun Abhinav Iyer, Kalyan Chakravarthy, Adda52 Team pro Kunal Patni and MadOverPoker pro Zarvan Tumboli were seen in action from the very first event, while Raghav Bansal joined the battalion midway through the series.

Sumit Sapra, Kunal Patni and Raghav Bansal were the only Indian challengers who managed to post scores. Sapra opened the Indian scorecard with a 16^th place finish in the ₩800K Megastack for ₩1,985,000 (₹1.25 Lakhs).

Read the complete story here.

Patni and Bansal cashed in the ₩220,000 Flipout where Bansal finished 20^th for ₩695,000 (₹44,096), while Patni placed 24^th for ₩615,000 (₹39,020).

Read the complete story here.

Indian Cashes at the Series

The marquee event, i.e. the Main Event, collected a prize pool of ₩1,226,000,000, China’s Yuechun Shi outlasted the massive field to take down the inaugural Jeju Red Dragon Main Event title. The 47-year-old logistics manager became the 11^th Chinese Red Dragon Champion and banked a career-best score of ₩266,060,000.

Read the complete story here.

Complete List of 2018 Jeju Red Dragon Winners

APT Finale Philippines 2018

Hosted at Resorts World Manila (RWM) from November 26 to December 6, the 2018 Asian Poker Tour (APT) Finale Philippines saw a total of 19 events play out. A number of accomplished faces from the Asian circuit and several Indian challengers were spotted gunning through the tournaments.

Action kept the felts heated even as the series neared conclusion. While Amanpreet Singh finished sixth in the Monster Stack event (PHP 138,800 – ₹1.86 Lakhs), Aditya Sushant finished seventh (PHP 111,800 -₹1.49 Lakhs). For a second consecutive week, Sushant’s brilliant performance has landed him the title of our “PokerGuru Star of the Week”.

Meanwhile, Kosei Ichinose pulled the carpet off Mike Takayama’s feet on the closing day. Takayama was the hot favorite for winning the APT Player of the Series award and was top in the rankings with 928.3 points. However, after Ichinose won the Monster Stack for PHP 693,400, he garnered 1,001.85 points to take the lead. Along with the APT Player of the Series award, Ichinose also bagged $800, a customized ring and watch. Lim Yohwan finished runner-up with 962.33 points and Takayama finished third.

Read the complete story here

Earlier, Sushant took the fight deep into the Championships Event where he reached the final table with a short stack of 188,000, but played up well to eventually finish in fourth place for PHP 973,300 (₹13.02 Lakhs). Indian challenger Madhav Gupta also made it to Day 2 in the event but that is where his deep run ended

Read the complete story here

Along with the title win in the NLH Single Day (Shot Clock) by Amanpreet Singh (PHP 273,300 – ₹3.63 Lakhs), and an 18^th place finish by Madhav Gupta in the NLH Single Day (PHP 24,700 – ₹33,079), the series saw a total of five scores posted by Indians.

Indian Cashes at 2018 APT Finale Philippines

The series also crowned some big winners including Japan’s Mikiya Kudo, who took down the PHP 10 Million Main Event for PHP 2,844,500, and Iori Yogo, who won the Monster Stack for PHP 2,872,800.

2018 APT Finale Philippines Winners

PokerStars EPT Prague 2018: Akin Tuna Wins €10,300 No-Limit Hold’em Opening Event

The series opener at the 2018 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague i.e. the €10,300 No-Limit Hold’em Opening Event registered 38 entries. Turkey’s Akin Tuna won the event for €125,330. Additionally, €1,100 buy-in EPT National Event drew in a record-breaking 2,486 players across three starting flights, and only 373 advanced to Day 2, with Canada’s Harpeet Padda (994,500) topping the leaderboard.

Read the complete story here.

Matt Wakeman Wins the 2018 WSOPC The Star Sydney $5,000 Challenge

The $5,000 Challenge at the 2018 World Series of Poker (WSOP) International Circuit The Star Sydney ran through two days of action and was taken down by Matt Wakeman, who claimed his maiden WSOPC title and a career-best score of A$255,311.

Read the complete story here.

Ben Wilinofsky Wins WPTDS Championship Main Event

Overcoming 529 entries, Ben Wilinofsky took down the 2018 World Poker Tour (WPT) DeepStacks Championships Main Event hosted at the Grey Eagle Resort and Casino in Calgary. Wilinofsky won C$223,359 for his efforts.

Read the complete story here.

Jake Bazeley Wins WSOP Circuit Harrah’s Cherokee Main Event

The four-day World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Harrah’s Cherokee Main Event saw 1,127 entrants coming in through two starting flights. Outlasting the field, Jake Bazeley won the event for $311,616.

Read the complete story here.

James Williams Wins 2018 888poker LIVE Festival London Main Event

The 2018 888poker LIVE Festival London £1,100 Main Event attracted 656 runners from five starting flights. Cash games specialist James Williams took down the event for £121,000, after defeating recreational player Derek Lawless heads-up.

Read the complete story here.

Brian Snell Wins $400 NLHE at WSOPC Bicycle Casino

The $400 NLHE at World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPE) Bicycle Casino pulled in 91 entries and it was Brian Snell who claimed his career’s first gold ring, along with $9,010 in prize money.

Read the complete story here.

And with this, we conclude this week’s round up of the latest news updates and developments from the world of poker. We will return again next week with our weekly report, stay tuned.