This Week in Poker: June 3 – 9

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!

The first week of June was as action-packed as its predecessor, with a plethora of exciting online tournaments, lucrative promotions, and exciting news updates!

There has never been a better time to play online poker, and once again this week, the virtual felts were packed to the brim. Spartan Poker has rolled out the red carpet for poker players, offering a staggering ₹23 Crores in guaranteed tournament prizes this month. The first of its offerings, the inaugural Grand Poker Series (GPS) wound up on June 7, with the series-headliner, the ₹1 Crore GTD GPS Millionaire playing down to a winner on Sunday. It was the anonymous ‘lazylad’ who defeated the former Millionaire champion Arjun’ lol this guy’ Pasricha (runner-up for ₹11.78 Lakhs) heads-up to join the elite ‘Millionaire’s Club’ for a payday worth ₹19.08 Lakhs.

The trailblazer of the week was Sanat’ mehro2511’ Mehrotra. The 28-year-old Gurgaon-based player went on a rampage on Sunday, final-tabling two flagship events. Mehrotra’s class act came in Adda52’s ₹1 Crore GTD Full House, where he topped a field of 1,745 contenders to win his biggest online score to date – a payout of ₹25 Lakhs. Runner-up’ sanjays114’ also banked a seven-figure prize worth ₹13.30 Lakhs. He added another ₹6.01 Lakhs to his tally last night by taking down the AOPS Cowboys. With over ₹32 Lakhs in winnings this week, Mehrotra’s tally of online scores has crossed the ₹2 Crore-barrier, making him our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

Another pro who shone at the felts was Manish Gandhi. His claim to fame was taking down the ₹40 Lakhs GTD GPS The Elite on Friday for ₹8.92 Lakhs. Gandhi followed through by claiming the ₹20 Lakhs GTD GPS PLO HR title the very next day for ₹4.89 Lakhs. Over these two wins alone, Gandhi added a sizeable ₹13.81 Lakhs to his bankroll.

As the GPS got over, the Ultimate Value Series (UVS) roared to life on Spartan Poker. The series runs till June 14 and has 45 events with a combined prize pool guarantee of over ₹1 Crore. Turning up the heat will be UVS edition of The Millionaire Lite that runs with a ₹35 Lakhs GTD this Sunday. That, alongside the WKND Prime, and DLY Prime feature tournaments as well as the upcoming OFC Championship, and Freezeout Master Series, make for a very heady cocktail for tournament players!

A fall in revenue owing to the COVID-19 has sent the Turf clubs in a hurry to explore options for increasing interest in horse racing. At the behest of racing club managers, the Turf Authority of India (TAI) is reportedly working on an integrated app that can facilitate online betting on all the different horseracing events across India.

Even though most of the casinos in the U.S., including those in Nevada, have now opened, that’s not the case for Goa’s casino industry. Although the coastal state has reported very few COVID-19 positive cases, the government is certainly taking no chance. In a recent interview with the media, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant underlined that there was no likelihood of casinos being reopened anytime soon.

In the wake of the continued closure, the casino sector has suffered a significant blow. Casino Pride Director Shrinivas Naik has reached out to the state government requesting a three-year income tax holiday for the casino industry, alongside other relaxations and financial assistance.

There was some good news coming in for the offshore casinos this week. Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) appointed firm, TUV-SUD India, in its water audit, confirmed that the offshore casinos are not polluting the Mandovi river.

One of the year’s biggest announcements also came through this week, with the World Series of Poker (WSOP) announcing a full-fledged lineup of 85 bracelet events that will be hosted online starting July 1. While the brand has not discounted the possibility of a live stop in 2020 yet, the 2020 WSOP Online Series will offer enough chances for winning a coveted bracelet! Thirty-one of these bracelet events will be hosted only for players inside Nevada and New Jersey on WSOP.com, with the remaining 54 to be run on GGPoker Network July 19 onwards. The series wraps up on September 6, and the good news is, players in India can play these bracelet events on GGPoker or Natural8!

This is a continuation of WSOP’s partnership with the GGPoker Network that had earlier hosted the record-smashing WSOP Super Circuit Series in May. The series had crushed all expected numbers and eventually awarded more than $130 Million in prize money across the series. With Poker Central bringing us the tournament thrills through live-streams, highlight videos, etc., the WSOP excitement on the virtual felts promises to be bigger than ever!

The Asia-facing Natural8 that runs on the GGPoker Network had more thrilling news up its sleeve and recently announced the return of the immensely successful Asian Poker Tour (APT) Online Series on its platform. Running from June 14 to 28, the second edition promises a colossal $10 Million in guaranteed prizes!

For players in Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey, WSOP is currently hosting the WSOP.com Online Finale Circuit series and has already handed out six of the 12 Circuit gold rings on the schedule.

Online Railbird Report

Another hectic week reached a crescendo on Sunday night as Adda52’s ₹1 Crore GTD Full House Finale played down to a winner. Topping a field of 1,745 contenders was Sanat’ mehro2511’ Mehrotra, who defeated ‘sanjays114′ heads-up to win a whopping ₹25 Lakhs. Runner-up’ sanjays114’ pocketed a sum of ₹13.30 Lakhs. While Mehrotra has picked his best online performance, he is also the top performer of the week with over ₹32 Lakhs in winnings, making him our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

Over at Spartan Poker, the Grand Poker Series (GPS) went down the history lane with its most anticipated tourney, ₹1 Crore GTD GPS The Millionaire crowning a champion in ‘lazylad’. The site regular defeated former Millionaire champion Arjun’ lol this guy’ Pasricha to pad his bankroll by ₹19.08 Lakhs. Pasricha also took home a seven-figure score of ₹11.78 Lakhs for his second-place finish.

Anish Suri also won over ₹13 Lakhs this week, with his best performance coming in the GPS Sunday SuperStack that he won for ₹7.90 Lakhs, alongside the PMVS 3 LAC GTD KO title for ₹78,002. He FT-ed five more tourneys headlined by a fifth-place finish in AOPS Cowboys for ₹1.30 Lakhs.

Another standout performer of the week was Manish Gandhi, who won two GPS titles – The Elite for ₹8.92 Lakhs and the PLO HR for ₹4.89 Lakhs – netting a cumulative ₹13.81 Lakhs!

The notable scores of the week include –

Spartan Poker is Offering ₹23 Crores in Prize Pool GTDs in Fortune June

Spartan Poker has mapped out a super intense June with a host of massive guarantee tournaments and promotional offerings. While the brand’s Grand Poker Series (GPS) has concluded, the Ultimate Value Series (UVS) has since taken flight. The site is also hosting the Freeze-out Master Series (FMS) towards the month-end. Alongside the series will be four Millionaire events as well as the usual roster of WKND Prime events and DLY Prime events. In all, there’s a jaw-dropping ₹23 Crores in guaranteed prizes to be won at the site this month.

Read the complete report here

APT Announces 2nd Edition Online Series

After the roaring success of the inaugural Asian Poker Tour (APT) Online Series on Natural8, the brand has lined up the second edition of the series that’s coming up from June 14 to 28 with $10 Million in prize pool GTD`s.

Part of the attractions are six feature events, all awarding an exclusive APT trophy, with the top three finishers in the overall leaderboard to compete for the APT Players of the Series ring and cash prizes.

Additionally, Natural8 will be running a standalone leaderboard for the series with $10,000 in cash prizes to be won.

Read the complete report here

WSOP Announces 2020 WSOP Online Series With 85 Online Bracelets

Hot on the heels of the record-breaking Super Circuit Online Series, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) has announced that 85 bracelet events will be hosted across WSOP.com and GGPoker Network from July 1. While 31 of these bracelet events will be held on the site itself and limited to players geo-located in Nevada and New Jersey, the remaining 54 bracelet events will take place on the GGPoker Network from July 19.

Poker Central remains the brand’s production partner and will spring up regular live-streams, highlights, pilot episodes, and interviews during the series.

Read the complete report here

WSOP Super Circuit 2020 Proves a Smashing Success

May was the busiest month for online poker in years, and headlining the international action was the inaugural WSOP Super Circuit Series 2020 that promised $100 Million in guaranteed prize pools across tournaments from May 3 to May 31. The series was hosted on GGPoker Network and surpassed all expectations to award more than $130 Million in prize pools, along with 18 WSOP Circuit ring events.

Read the complete report here

WSOP.com Online Finale Circuit

The WSOP.com Online Finale Circuit series currently underway on WSOP.com is open to players in Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey. The series began on June 3 with 12 ring events on the schedule and has already awarded six gold rings. Joining the elite list of Circuit ring winners was former bracelet champion Alan’ mossadshark’ Sternberg, who topped a field of 663 entries to win Event #5: $200,000 GTD Online Finale Circuit Monster Stack for $81,217.

‘iwant2win’ (Event #4 $150K GTD Online Finale Big 500 for $52,224) and Indian-origin pro Soheb’ tommyconway6’ Porbandarwala (Event #2: $100,000 GTD NLH Online Finale Circuit for $46,125) were the other prominent ring winners this week.

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.