This Week in Poker: June 24 – 30

In the PokerGuru feature ‘This Week in Poker,’ we bring you the weekly roundup of the most significant 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!

We are halfway through the year, and while the lockdown blues are starting to rear their ugly head for almost everyone around, it was a fun and exciting week for poker players that saw many things unfold.

The Adda52 Online Poker Series (AOPS) is on the home stretch now, and the featured tourney of the week was the ₹1 Crore GTD AOPS Full House. Rohit ‘rohitvaswani’ Vaswani traversed a vast field of 1,972 entries to claim the title and top prize of ₹21 Lakhs, becoming the top scorer of the week. Former Adda52 Team pro Kunal ‘kunalpatni’ Patni finished runner-up for ₹12.60 Lakhs.

Not to be outdone, Spartan Poker too hosted its flagship ₹1 Crore GTD The Millionaire on Sunday. The event saw site regular ‘McFly’ champion the event for ₹15.88 Lakhs after a head-up deal.

MTT crusher Sriharsha ‘Potato Player’ Doddapaneni was in splendid form this week. Not only did he chop The Millionaire for ₹14.97 Lakhs, but he also shipped PokerStars India’s ₹10 Lakhs GTD Uppercut MAGIC Edition for ₹1.75 Lakhs, winning ₹16.72 Lakhs from these two deep runs alone. With Vasvani being an unknown face (we did try and identify him) and ‘McFly’ choosing to remain anonymous, for this week, we decided to award the “PokerGuru Star of the Week!” title to Doddapaneni for his blistering performance.

Anmol Mehta, the original ‘PokerGuru’ of the country Aditya Agarwal, APL ambassador Sumit Sapra, PokerGuru Ambassador Gokul Raj and Shashank Jain were among the other standout performers of the week.

June has certainly been splendid for online poker, but July promises to be equally fabulous. Beginning with PokerBaazi’s The Game Changer 3.0, that is slated to kick off later today. There are two other marquee offerings lined up this month, the most prominent of them being Spartan Poker’s biggest-ever India Online Poker Championship (IOPC) (July 9 to 25). PokerBaazi will also be launching its brand-new Indian Micro Poker Series (IMPS) next week (July 13 – 26).

While the premier sites have been doling out the big-ticket tourneys, India’s fast-growing online poker site Khelo365 has introduced several user-friendly features and promotions to offer its players a smooth experience. These include Speed Cash Outs, up to 50% rakeback, and new game variants like Omaha 5 and Omaha 6 on its platform.

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown have brought online gaming to the fore, and the industry seems to have become a magnet for investors. The latest to join the funding bandwagon is gaming startup, Bombay Play, that successfully raised $1.5 Million in a Pre-series A round led by Leo Capital, and Ramakant Sharma, the co-founder of Livespace. The company has announced plans to use the funds for expanding its team and reach.

The biggest news coming out of the international sphere was the much-awaited schedule announcement for the first-ever 2020 WSOP Online Series slated to begin on July 1. Featuring 85 bracelet events, the series is slated to run till September 6. While 31 bracelet events will be hosted on WSOP.com and will be available to players in Nevada and New Jersey only, the remaining 54 will play out on GGPoker and Natural8. It will be accessible to a much wider audience, including players in India.

Natural8 seems to have warmed up nicely for the upcoming WSOP Online Series. The Asia-facing site ran the 15-day-long 2020 Asian Poker Tour (APT) 2nd Edition that turned out to quite profitable for several Indian players. Team India’s run was headlined by two title wins by ‘potlords420’ and ‘orionn7,’ respectively. Headlining the closing weekend at the series was Natural8 Ambassador Pete ‘TurboPete’ Chen, who won the APT Championships Event for $113.84K and the coveted APT Championship ring and trophy.

Over at partypoker, the 29-event Poker Masters Online PLO Series culminated with Eelis Parssinen winning a tight race to the Purple Jacket. Renowned pro Isaac Haxton shipped the $1.5 M GTD Main Event for $675,000.

Online Railbird Report

There were two massive tourneys running neck-to-neck this week, and awarding the biggest paycheque was the Adda52-hosted ₹1 Crore GTD AOPS Full House. Rohit ‘rohitvaswani’ Vaswani was among the 1,972 hopefuls in the field, and he eventually defeated former Adda pro Kunal ‘kunalpatni’ Patni heads-up. Vaswani’s career-best score of ₹21 Lakhs, makes him the top scorer of the week, while Patni banked a sizable payday worth ₹12.60 Lakhs.

Spartan Poker’s ₹1 Crore GTD The Millionaire was another exciting big-ticket tourney to play out. ‘McFly’ ran past a reg-infested field of 895 entries and struck a heads-up deal with Sriharsha ‘Potato Player’ Doddapaneni to join the ‘Millionaire’s Club’ for ₹15.88 Lakhs.

Doddanapeni missed out on the title, but he finished a close second to pocket a seven-figure score of ₹14.97 Lakhs. The online phenom also won the ₹10 Lakhs GTD Uppercut MAGIC Edition for ₹1.75 Lakhs. He banked ₹16.72 Lakhs from these two deep runs alone. Since Vasvani is an unknown face and ‘McFly’ has requested anonymity, Doddapaneni is credited as the “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

Seasoned reg Anmol ‘Anzzzzz’ Mehta (3^rd for ₹8.42 Lakhs) and India’s poker veteran, Aditya ‘Yennefer’ Agarwal (4^th for ₹6.45 Lakhs) also picked up hefty scores in The Millionaire.

APL ambassador Sumit Sapra was in sublime form and conquered no less than three titles for a cumulative score of ₹10.74 Lakhs. Most of Sapra’s winnings came in ₹20 Lakhs GTD The Ultron that he won for ₹4.66 Lakhs. He won ₹3.87 Lakhs in the ₹20 Lakhs GTD Mega Stack & ₹2.21 Lakhs in the ₹10 Lakhs GTD The Ridge.

PokerGuru Ambassador Gokul ‘Super Kings’ Raj and Shashank Jain were the other two standout performers this week. Raj won the ₹30 Lakhs GTD Elite for a whopping ₹8.04 Lakhs.

On the other hand, Jain took down the popular ₹30 Lakhs GTD AOPS Godfather for ₹7.61 Lakhs.

The notable scores of the week include –

Khelo365 Introduces New Features & Promotions

In addition to its Daily Payback Rewards, online poker site Khelo365 has introduced several customer-centric promotions like Speed Cash Outs, up to 50% rakeback, and new game variants like Omaha 5 and Omaha 6.

Read the complete report here

GGPoker Releases 2020 WSOP Online Series Schedule

GGPoker finally released the much-awaited schedule for the 2020 WSOP Online Series. The network unveiled the complete schedule, as part of which there are 85 bracelet events to be hosted between July 1 to September 6. The series gets underway today on WSOP.com with 31 bracelets for grabs for players in Nevada and New Jersey. The remaining 54 bracelets will be given away on GGPoker and the network`s Asia-facing site Natural8.

Read the complete report here

APT Online Series 2^nd Edition

The 15-day-long 2020 Asian Poker Tour (APT) hosted as many as 234 events on GGPoker Network’s Asia-facing site Natural8.com from June 14 to 28. There were several Indians in the mix, and ‘potlords420’ came out on top in Event #178: $12.5K GTD PLO to get Team India its first title at the series and $2.71K in prize money.

Read the complete report here

Adding another title win to the country’s tally, India’s ‘orionn7’ went on to win Event #189 Progressive Bounty for $6.46K.

In side event action, another Indian pro ‘sagarpupul’ finished third in Event #221 Progressive Bounty $50K GTD for $ 4,391 (includes $1,556 in bounties).

Read the complete report here

Bringing the curtains down on the series on Sunday was the $1 Million guaranteed APT Championships Event. Natural8 Ambassador and Taiwan’s poker icon Pete Chen aka ‘TurboPete’ raced past a giant field of 1,352 entries to emerge as the champion. In addition to a $113.84K payout, Chen also walked away with the APT Championship trophy and ring.

Read the complete report here

Complete APTO Winners

Poker Masters Online PLO Series

Poker Central’s Poker Masters Online PLO Series ran from June 21 to 29 on partypoker. There were 29 featured events on the schedule that ran alongside a slew of mini-version tourneys.

Both Andras Nemeth and Finnish PLO sensation Jens Kyllonen bagged three titles each at the series. In a fiercely contested leaderboard race, it was the Super High Roller champion Eelis Parssinen who accrued 625 points and ran past Nemeth (624 points) and Kyllonen (612 points) to win the coveted Purple Jacket. Parssinen won a free entry into the Main Event but was unable to cash in on the opportunity.

American pro Isaac Haxton overtook a 29-player field in the $1.5 M GTD Main Event to win $675,000.

Read the complete report here

Poker Masters Online PLO Series Winners

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.