This Week in Poker: July 1 – 7

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!

The first week of July is in the books, and it had quite an impressive start with PokerBaazi’s most-popular tournament, The Game Changer returning for a third edition. Boasting a ₹2 Crores prize pool guarantee, the Game Changer 3.0 drew in 4,486 entries generating a colossal ₹2.24 Crores prize pool. Mumbai-based online pro Siddhanth ‘ender’ Kripalani has been a breakout winner these last few months. He hit the motherload on Sunday by winning the Game Changer 3.0 for a personal-best ₹40.02 Lakhs! For his phenomenal run, Kripalani is our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

Rising star Shardul ‘duuurrrr’ Parthasarathi came in second for ₹26.49 Lakhs.

Abhijith ‘Luckypunter’ Cheruku, Deepak’ orionn7’ Raina and Armaan ‘space ace’ Kochhar were among the other big winners of the week.

Even though the Game Changer 3.0 is now in the rear-view mirror, there is a lot more to look forward to. Starting tomorrow is Spartan Poker’s India Online Poker Championship (IOPC) July edition. The 121-event series features a never-before-seen ₹25 Crores in prize pool guarantees, making it the biggest-ever online poker series in India to date!

In addition to running mega satellites to the events, the site is offering cash game players a chance to win free entry into the five headline IOPC tourneys via its Game of Tickets promotion. The showstopper of the fest – the Millionaire Main Event – The Crown promises a mind-boggling ₹3 Crores in prizes and a real-life gold crown that will don the head of the Millionaire Main Event champion.

There are two other Millionaires on the roster alongside a High Roller and Super High Roller, both carrying a ₹1 Crore prize pool guarantee.

While tournament players have a lot to look forward to this month, cash game players need not fret as Poker Dangal will be running the Dangal Cash Bonanza July 10 onwards. The promotion features three components, inclusively guaranteeing at least ₹1 Crore in giveaways to cash game players.

While the horse racing season approaching, the COVID-19 pandemic has discounted in-person betting at racing clubs. Given the circumstances, the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) has taken the initiative to introduce online betting on its races. The BTC had applied to and received the in-principle approval by the Karnataka state government for online betting. The club is developing an app that will allow bettors to place their bets on the club’s races.

The featured news from the international poker arena is all about the 2020 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Online series that is now well underway on WSOP.com. Seven of 34 bracelets to be awarded by the site have been claimed with the latest one going to Joon “jykpoker” Kim, who championed Event #7: $800 No-Limit Hold ’em Knockout Deepstack for $103,127.

WPT has announced a $500K GTD Shooting Stars for Charity Event as part of its upcoming WPT World Online Championships (WPT WOC) series that gets underway on July 17 on partypoker. The charity event is scheduled for July 29 and should have a big group of celebrities and top poker pros in attendance. An amount of $100 from each buy-in will be donated to ‘1 Day Sooner,’ a charity working to find a cure for COVID-19 through human challenge trials.

Online Railbird Report

Mumbai-based Siddhanth ‘ender’ Kripalani had a Sunday he should remember for a very long time. The 25-year-old navigated his way past a massive 4,486 entries to capture PokerBaazi’s ₹2 Crores GTD Game Changer 3.0 title. The tournament generated a colossal ₹2.24 Crores prize pool, and Kripalani eventually locked horns with Shardul ‘duuurrrr’ Parthasarathi heads-up for the title. Commanding the chip lead at the start of the heads-up play, Kripalani relegated Parthasarathi to the second spot and claimed the glory of becoming the latest Game Changer champion! The personal-best ₹40.02 Lakhs that Kripalani earned makes him the top performer of the week, and deservedly our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

In addition to his blistering run in the Game Changer, Kripalani also finished runner-up in The Ballers ₹20 Lakhs GTD for ₹4.33 Lakhs – his winnings over these two big scores alone amounts to ₹44.35 Lakhs.

Runner-up Parthasarathi added a hefty ₹26.49 Lakhs to his bankroll.

The other top finishers, ‘Sunny3925’ (3rd for ₹17.29 Lakhs) and ‘minipoker’ (4th for ₹10.74 Lakhs), also collected seven-figure scores.

There was another new entry in the ‘Millionaire’s Club’ this week. That lucky player was Abhijith ‘Luckypunter’ Cheruku, who won the distinction after taking down Adda52’s ₹50 Lakhs GTD Mega Suits to win a personal-best ₹10 Lakhs, while Deepak’ orionn7’ Raina pocketed ₹7.14 Lakhs for coming in second.

Another name that features among the top winners of the week is Armaan ‘space ace’ Kochhar. This long-time online reg pocketed ₹9.80 Lakhs for taking down Spartan Poker’s Destiny. He also won the Ultimate PLO title on the site for ₹67,725, and final tabled three more events, most prominently finishing fifth in the AOPS Cowboys for ₹1.25 Lakhs. Just these deep runs fetched him an impressive ₹11.72 Lakhs this week!

Sagar ‘Pocket_king_K’ Raj (The Elite ₹30 Lakhs GTD for ₹8.10 Lakhs) and PokerGuru Ambassador Devvrat ‘glitch_d’ Arya (The Ballers ₹20 Lakhs GTD for ₹7.31 Lakhs) were the other prominent winners.

The notable scores of the week include –

Spartan Poker Rolls Out Game of Tickets

The biggest-ever India Online Poker Championship (IOPC) series hits the virtual felts on July 9. For cash game players looking to win free tickets to the five headline tourneys, Spartan Poker unveiled a brand-new ‘Game of Tickets’ promotion on July 1. The five tourneys are – IOPC The Millionaire United ₹1.5 Crore GTD (July 10-12), IOPC The Millionaire Legends ₹2 Crore GTD (July 18-19), Millionaire Main Event – The Crown ₹3 Crore GTD (July 20 – 26), IOPC High Roller ₹1 Crore GTD (July 16) and IOPC Super High Roller ₹1 Crore GTD (July 23).

Read the complete report here

Poker Dangal’s Dangal Cash Game Bonanza Offers ₹1 Crore in Giveaways

Poker Dangal has come out with its most ambitious cash game promotion ever, the Dangal Cash Bonanza that kicks off on July 10. The promotion features three components, inclusively guaranteeing at least ₹1 Crore in giveaways.

Read the complete report here

WSOP Online Series

On July 1, the much-awaited inaugural 2020 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Online series kicked off at WSOP.com. The series will be awarding 85 gold bracelets, of which the first 31 events are being hosted on WSOP.com – open only to players in Nevada and New Jersey.

The series has handed out seven gold bracelets so far.

Former WPT champion Jonathan ‘Art.Vandelay’ Dokler took down the series-opener, $500 No-Limit Hold’em Kickoff for $130.42K.

Read the complete report here

The biggest winner so far is Allen ‘Acnyc718’ Chang. He won his first gold bracelet in Event #5 $1,000 NLH Freezeout for $161.28K.

Read the complete report here

PLO specialist Nathan ‘surfbum’ Gamble added a second gold bracelet to his tally in Event #6: $600 PLO8 6-Handed, winning $89,424.21.

Read the complete report here

WSOP Online Series Bracelet Winners (So Far)

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.