This Week in Poker: January 9 – 15

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  • Namita Ghosh January 16, 2019
  • 8 Minutes Read

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

Where 2018 was a benchmark year for Indian poker, 2019 seems to be heading towards even bigger achievements! Barely into the first two weeks of the year and Team India has already captured two major international titles. It was our Young Gun Abhinav Iyer who got the ball rolling with his incredible win at the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Vietnam Main Event. Not only was this Iyer’s first-ever live international title win but also his career-best score of ₹69.51 Lakhs. Out of the 19 Indians who made the cut for Day 2, Iyer was the only one to reach the final table. He dominated the final day action from the get-go and entered the final showdown against Daiki Hirokawa with a massive chip lead. It wasn’t long before Iyer won the battle, bringing India her first international title of the year. For this remarkable feat, Abhinav Iyer is our “PokerGuru Star of the Week”.

On the heels of this extraordinary performance was Platinum Pass winner Raman Gujral’s victory in the $1,100 NLHE at the 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA). Gujral was one of the five Indians, along with Kavin Shah, Vivek Singh, Saurabh Sindhwani and Aneesh Nair, who had qualified for the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC) through the inaugural season of the Global Poker League (GPL) India. Accompanied by Sumit Sapra, Nikhil Segel and Sharad Rao, captained by Team PokerStars pro Aditya Agarwal and joined by multiple World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Nipun Java, Team India had a total of 10 players participating in the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC). Sadly, none of the players made it past Day 2. Nonetheless, Gujral’s persistence at the series continued and he eventually opened India’s scorecard by finishing 62nd in the PCA $1,100 National Event for $2,340 (₹1.64 Lakhs). Thereafter, Gujral took down the $1,100 NLHE for an impressive ₹54.64 Lakhs payday. Fellow Platinum Pass winner Kavin Shah finished 54th for $1,840 (₹1.30 Lakhs).

While the PCA in The Bahamas and the APT Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City had captured the attention of the railbirds back home due to the large number of Indians participating, both the series are now on their final laps. Thomas Muehloecker (1,420,000) is leading the 12 hopefuls into Day 3 of the $25,000 PCA High Roller, while the controversial November Niner David ‘Chino’ Rheem is headlining the six finalists in the $10,300 PCA Main Event. Both events will come to a close later tonight. APT Vietnam will run till January 20, with the ever-popular Championships Event yet to play out.

Just as these two series are about to conclude, 2019 Aussie Millions is already off to a flying start, with the AUD$1,150 Opening Event presently underway. A big battalion of Indians are expected to turn up at the series with 9stacks sending in a large contingent of Indian qualifiers. While a large contingent of Indian players will be heading to Melbourne, our poker pioneer Aditya Agarwal will next be seen in action at the 2019 Borgata Winter Poker Open (January 15 to February 1) to be held in Atlantic City.

One of the biggest news to come out of the domestic circuit this past week was he re-branding of the popular live poker staking stable AceJack to PokerGuru. We announced this news just a few days back, and it couldn’t have come at a better time with Team PokerGuru trailblazing it`s way on the virtual felts. Jayjit Ray shipped PokerStars India’s Sunday Special for ₹3.20 Lakhs and nearly won PokerBaazi’s BSS SuperStack, but in the end had to settle for a runner-up finish for ₹3.46 Lakhs.

Ray wasn’t the only Team PokerGuru Ambassadors to enjoy success on the online felts. Faiz Alam won the BSS PLO ₹5 Lakhs GTD for ₹1.47 Lakhs on PokerBaazi and made deep runs in PokerStars India’s Sunday Special (8th for ₹32,616) and Sunday Stars (7th for ₹8,459). Kartik ‘TheInternetKid’ Ved juggernauted to the top in the Ultrasonic ₹1 Lakhs GTD on PokerStars India and won ₹23,748.

Moreover, MadOverPoker (MoP) hosted the fourth edition of its its flagship tournament ‘Rehab’ on January 13 which was taken down by Vishal ‘Vishzz’ Bajaj for ₹71,071.

We wrap up this week’s recap with tournament reports from the 2019 APT Vietnam and PCA.

Online Railbird Report

Team PokerGuru ambassador Jayjit Ray was the biggest winner on the online felts as he scored in two high-value events. While he narrowly missed the title in PokerBaazi’s BSS SuperStack and finished runner-up for ₹3.46 Lakhs, he conquered the top spot in PokerStars India’s Sunday Special for ₹3.20 Lakhs.

Jayjit Ray
Jayjit Ray

Other notable scores of the week include –

Anurag ‘13anurag’ Shrivastava won ₹4.78 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘BaaziSuperStack (BSS) ₹25 Lakhs GTD’

Jayjit ‘unlucky2k’ Ray won ₹3.20 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Special ₹15 Lakhs GTD’

Faiz ‘AilaGaya’ Alam won ₹1.47 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘BaaziSuperStack (BSS) PLO ₹5 Lakhs GTD’

Vishal ‘Vishzz’ Bajaj won ₹71,071 for 1st place in the MadOverPoker ‘Rehab ₹5 Lakhs GTD’

Harish ‘Harishguptha’ Guptha won ₹62,500 for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘Grinders#33 Main Event ₹5 Lakhs GTD’

Goonjan ‘gmtesting.ind’ Mall won ₹40,079 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Storm ₹2 Lakhs GTD’

Chandrashekhar ‘shekharpetro’ Meena won ₹40,000 for 1st place in the MadOverPoker‘Grenade’

Arsh ‘BigggTymeR’ Grover won ₹38,595 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘The Classic ₹1.5 Lakhs GTD’

‘Ankit’ won ₹35,510 for 1st place in the MadOverPoker‘Dynamite’

‘DeadGrinder1’ won ₹33,681 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Stars ₹2 Lakhs GTD’

‘500 FOX’ won ₹28,442 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Supersonic ₹1 Lakh GTD’

‘POKERINSTINCT’ won ₹28,165 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Warm-up ₹1.5 Lakhs GTD’

Kartik ‘TheInternetKid’ Ved won ₹23,748 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Ultrasonic ₹1 Lakhs GTD’

‘Lucky204’ won ₹18,423 for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘The Sunday ₹1 Lakh GTD’

Praful ‘Naamaikyahai’ Keshavrao Bopulkar won ₹14,535 for 1st place in the MadOverPoker ‘Night Crawler’

 

partypoker Introduces Player Panel

Leading global online poker brand, partypoker has introduced a Player Panel comprising of the site`s own team of brand ambassadors and renowned poker players. The Panel will help shape partypoker’s policies, procedures for online and live events, and help bridge communication gaps with players, among other things.

partypoker
partypoker

Read the complete story here.

 

Live Poker Staking Stable AceJack Rebranded as PokerGuru Stable

India’s leading poker news website, PokerGuru has joined hands with Vikram ‘Lungi’ Kumar and Kartik Ved, in a venture to re-brand popular live poker staking stable, AceJack as PokerGuru stable. AceJack was the first-ever live poker staking setup to emerge in the growing poker environment of India and has helped budding players pursue their dreams of turning professional.

Vikram Kumar & Kartik Ved
Vikram Kumar & Kartik Ved

Read the complete story here.

 

Goa’s Draft Tourism Policy Envisages Shifting of Offshore Casinos

The state government of Goa has come out with a draft Tourism policy that envisions creating an international gaming cluster and relocation of offshore casinos inland. The policy was scheduled to be discussed in a meeting of the state MLAs.

Read the complete story here.

Deltin Poker Tournament (DPT) Announces Schedule For 1st Series of 2019

Deltin Poker Tournamnet (DPT) has announced its first series of the year i.e. DPT February Edition. Powered by Adda52, the DPT will be hosted aboard the Casino Deltin Royale in Goa from February 7 and comprise of seven events, to culminate on February 11.

Deltin Poker Tournament
Deltin Poker Tournament

Read the complete story here.

 

2019 Asian Poker Tour (APT) Vietnam

Vietnam has fast become a favoured destination for Indian poker pros and with the Asian Poker Tour (APT) kicking off the first of its international tours with the 2019 APT Vietnam at the Pro Poker Club, in Ho Chi Minh City, it was the perfect start to the new year for many Indian challengers!

The series ran right alongside the 2019 PCA and saw a strong Indian contingent storm the felts. In just two days, two events crowned winners and from Team India, Vishal Tajpuria (15th for ₹70,172), Shravan Chhabria (17th for ₹70,172) and Meherzad Munsaf (29th for ₹40,608) picked up scores in the Monster Stack.

Read the complete story here.

If Meherzad Munsaf (9th for ₹51,505) and Dhaval Mudgal (10th for ₹42,922) scored in the Dafabet Head Hunter, then three Indians Robert Feeira (7th for ₹66,908), Akash Malik (11th for ₹37,854) and Vishal Tajpuria (15th for ₹26,287) added to their tally in the NLH Single Day 1.

Meherzad Munsaf
Meherzad Munsaf

Siddhartha Kapoor posted a single score in the series, in the NLHE Single-day II (Shot Clock) (24th for ₹28,649) while the Main Event saw Eka Vedantham (45th for ₹1.68 Lakhs), Dhaval Mudgal (49th for ₹1.40 Lakhs) and Meherzad Munsaf (58th for

₹1.16 Lakhs) post scores. The best of the Indian performance came at the last, as Young Gun Abhinav Iyer took down the Main Event for his career-best ₹69.60 Lakhs.

Abhinav Iyer
Abhinav Iyer

Indian Cashes at 2019 APT Vietnam

Read the complete story here.

Fast winding towards culmination, the series also crowned winners across various events.

2019 APT Vietnam Winners

APT Winners

 

WSOP Announces Details of 13 More Events For 50th Annual Edition

After announcing dates for seven marquee events for its 50th annual outing in Las Vegas, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) released details of 13 more events for the year’s schedule.

Read the complete story here.

 

2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA)

The 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) currently underway at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas has ushered in a spunky start to the year. Right since the series took off on January 6, the series has given poker zealots sleepless nights. The biggest star attraction of the festival was the PokerStars Players NLHE Championship (PSPC) that was the first event of the series to kick off. The entire global community had eyes on the event as it played through a five day run right till culmination. Right as the PSPC culminated the second featured event i.e. the $10,300 Main Event took off with a record-breaking entry field.

Even as a number of single-day and high roller events have already crowned winners, the 2019 PCA is in its final day of run today, and the last day is choc-a-bloc with several Turbo events, running alongside the $10,300 Main Event that has whittled down to the final six players.

While we saw Indian challengers make a determined effort to score in the PSPC as well as the $10,300 Main Event, headlining the Indian performance at the series was Raman Gujral who won the $1,100 NLHE $76,760 (₹54.64 Lakhs), while Global Poker League (GPL) India mentor Kavin Shah finished 54th ($1,840 – ₹1.30 Lakhs) in the event. Earlier, Gujral posted another score 62nd place run in the $1,100 National for $2,340 (~₹1.64 Lakhs), making for a total of three Indian scores in the series till date.

2019 PCA Winners

PCA Winners

PokerStars NL Hold’em Players Championship (PSPC)

The most-anticipated tournament coming from the PokerStars brand at the 2019 PCA was the PokerStars NLHE Players Championship (PSPC). With more than 320 Platinum Passes distributed through challenges, give-aways and to event winners, PokerStars had ensured that the new and upcoming talents get an opportunity to rub shoulders with the world’s most accomplished players.

The event drew a record-breaking 1,039 entries and when the curtains fell, the last man standing was Ramon Colillas. The Spaniard had won a free Platinum Pass to enter the event and walked with the lion’s share of the mammoth $26,455,500 prize pool, i.e. $5.1 Million. Millions tuned into exciting moments from the event on live stream as many big names fell out and Colillas squared off against formidable opponents like Marc Perrault and Jason Koon to reach the heads-up battle with Frenchman Julien Martini who he dominated to capture his maiden live title.

Ramon Colillas
Ramon Colillas

Representing India in the poker mega tournament was a batch of 10 players including PSPC Platinum Pass winners Sumit Sapra, Nikhil Segel, Kavin Shah, Raman Gujral, Young Gun Sharad Rao, Vivek Singh, Saurabh Sindhwani and Aneesh Nair, and also Team PokerStars pro Aditya Agarwal and World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Nipun Java. Rao took the largest stack to Day 2 with 125,600, and was accompanied by four others i.e. Segel (90,200), Agarwal (80,600), Gujral (69,600) and Sindhwani (65,500). However, Team India’s run came to an end on Day 2 all the five players fell out before the money line.

Read the complete story here.

Raman Gujral Wins $1,100 NLHE

Platinum Pass winner Raman Gujral’s took down the 1,100 NLHE in style, claiming for himself not only his first international title but also the coveted PokerStars spade along with $76,760 (₹54.64 Lakhs). Mentor of Global Poker League (GPL) India Kavin Shah who entered the PSPC through a Platinum Pass also scored a 54th place ($1,840 – ₹1.30 Lakhs) finish in the event.

Raman Gujral & Kavin Shah
Raman Gujral & Kavin Shah

Read the complete story here.

Rainer Kempe Wins $50K Single-Day High Roller For $908,100

The $50,000 Single-Day High Roller at the 2019 PCA saw a total of 64 entries (includes 29 re-entries) and Rainer Kempe triumphed the field to claim the top prize of $908,100.

Rainer Kemper

Read the complete story here.

Sean Winter Wins $25K Single-Day High Roller

The first $25K buy-in Single-Day High Roller at the 2019 PCA saw 75 entries (includes 25 re-entries) and outrunning the field was Sean Winter who claimed $495,210, after reaching the heads-up where he defeated David Peters.

Sean Winter
Sean Winter

Read the complete story here.

Ole Schemion Wins $1,100 National Event

German high roller specialist Ole Schemion topped an 812-strong entry field at the $1,100 PCA National to win his career’s 17th live title for $148,220. Indian pro Raman Gujral posted a 62nd place run for $2,340 (~₹1.64 Lakhs). Indian-origin Harpreet Padda from Canada finished 34th for $3,120 (~₹2.19 Lakhs).

Ole Schemion PCA 2019 National Champion
Ole Schemion

Read the complete story here.

Timothy Adams Wins $50K Single-Day High Roller

Timothy Adams defeated Stephen Chidwick heads-up to taken down the $50K Single-Day High Roller for $372,508.

Timothy Adams
Timothy Adams

Read the complete story here.

Sam Greenwood Takes Down $100K Super High Roller

One of the world’s most renowned NLHE players, Canada’s Sam Greenwood outran a field of 61 entries (includes 13 re-entries) claimed the $100K Super High Roller for $1,775,460.

Sam Greenwood
Sam Greenwood

Read the complete story here.

Justin Bonomo Wins $25K Single Day High Roller II

Justin Bonomo won the $25K Single-Day High Roller II for $383,650. The event ran parallel to the Main Event and was action-packed, with 47 entries creating a $1,128,470 prize pool.

Justin Bonomo
Justin Bonomo

Read the complete story here.

$10,300 Main Event

Featuring a $10,300 buy-in the Main Event at the 2019 PCA saw a mammoth 865 entries (623 unique entries and 242 re-entries) coming in via three starting flights, including two Indian pros, Team PokerStars pro Aditya Agarwal and Kavin Shah. While Shah failed to make it to day 2, Agarwal’s run ended on Day 2.

After a full four days of action, only the top 6 finalists remain in the field, with David ‘Chino’ Rheem leading the pack with a massive stack of 7,550,000. Canadian online qualifier Scott Wellenbach (6,015,000) and seasoned pro Brian Altman (4,995,000) round up the top three stacks and the final day kicks off soon with all the six finalists eyeing the hefty prize of $1,567,000.

David ‘Chino’ Rheem
David ‘Chino’ Rheem

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.

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