This Week in Poker: June 8 – 14

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!

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June has been a phenomenal month for poker all around. While the virtual felts witnessed high-octane action with Spartan Poker`s IOPC June 2022 and PokerBaazi`s 1100 THC Series adding significant value to the daily flagships, the Indian rail had plenty to cheer with Indians making waves at the 2022 WSOP and APT Vietnam!

With so much happening, it is no surprise that the week`s big winners were players who won or ran deep in the flagship events.

BTR Staking founder Young Gun Sahil Chutani grabs our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!” title for defending his IOPC – Legends title on Sunday! He added a jaw-dropping ₹62.46 Lakhs to his weekly tally!

The week’s other top scorers were Dhruvin Kothari, Anmol Narang, Anurag Srivastava, and Deepak Raina.

With the IOPC on its final week, things are going to sizzle up as two more marquees, including the stop’s star attraction, the whopping ₹4 Crores GTD IOPC – The Crown, that plays down to a champion on Sunday.

While the Texas Holdem Championship (THC) is on its last legs, PokerBaazi recently announced the renewal of its exclusive India partnership with the Asian Poker Tour. Sounding off the extension will be the biggest-ever APT India Online Series. The fourth edition of the series runs from July 1 to 10 and has over ₹10 Crores in the guaranteed prize pool, spread across 59 tournaments. The flagship series will hand out 10 APT Trophies and two Championship Rings through its 11-day run!

Cash game players can win from ₹1 Lakh in daily game bonuses through BLITZPOKER’s ‘Malamaal Daiy’ promotion. Running until June 29, the promotion has been curated especially for the low-stakes grinders playing from ₹1/₹2 to ₹5/₹10 stakes.

Coming to the live action, Team India is off to one of its most promising starts ever at the WSOP with Young Gun Abhinav Iyer, India’s poker pioneer Aditya Agarwal, 2020 PokerStars LIVE Red Dragon Manila High Roller champion Ankit Ahuja, and Manan Bhandari scoring in various bracelet events at the ongoing 2022 WSOP.

Moving closer to home, the APT Vietnam Hanoi series has also seen an influx of Indian participants, and the team has exerted a dominating presence at the inaugural stop. Young Gun Shardul Parthasarathi made the headlines this week after taking down the VND 5 Billion GTD APT Vietnam Hanoi Main Event, clinching his career-first live title and a mammoth VND 1,929,250,000 (~₹64.84 Lakhs). PokerGuru Ambassador Ashish Munot banked VND 1,286,190,000 for his runner-up finish, his second one within two weeks since his second-place finish in WPT Prime Vietnam. Two other players have lifted APT Trophies since with Alok Birewar taking down Event #13: NLHE 2 for VND 191.84 Million and the 2022 WPT Vietnam Main Event champion Zarvan Tumboli shipping Event #17: Hyper Deep Stack Turbo for VND 73.06 Million.

Online Railbird Report

Like the week before, this past week laid out electrifying MTT action with Spartan Poker`s IOPC and PokerBaazi`s THC heading into their final week.

Headlining the blockbuster week was the poker coach, Young Gun Sahil Chutani. On Sunday, the high-stakes cash game specialist defended his IOPC – Legends title on Spartan Poker and impressively carried two stacks to the FT, taking home a mammoth ₹47.11 Lakhs overall (a three-way deal). And if that was not enough, he championed PokerStars India’s Sunday flagship, Summer Series-65 [Super Highroller], and won another two titles, filling in a whopping ₹62.46 Lakhs across his weekly run. Chutanu`s blistering run has pushed him to #3 in the weekly charts, making him an obvious choice as our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

His top finishes include:

• 1st in Spartan Poker’s IOPC #79 – Legends (6-Max) for ₹36 Lakhs
• 1st in Adda52’s Godfather for ₹07 Lakhs
• 1st in PokerSrats India’s Summer Series-65 [Super Highroller] for ₹05 Lakhs
• 1st in Spartan Poker’s IOPC #59 – All Rounder (Monster Stack) for ₹20 Lakhs
• 8th in Spartan Poker’s IOPC #56 – Thursday Prime for ₹81,043

The CA from Gujarat, Dhruvin Kothari, chopped the IOPC #79 – Legends (6-Max) title with Sahil Chutani and Anmol Narang, netting ₹29.37 Lakhs in third place. He also took down IOPC #76 – Sunday Prime for another ₹14.74 Lakhs. Kothari comes in at #2 in the weekly rankings with ₹44.42 Lakhs in total winnings.

His top finishes include:

• 3rd in Spartan Poker’s IOPC #79 – Legends (6-Max) for ₹37 Lakhs
• 1st in Spartan Poker’s IOPC #76 – Sunday Prime for ₹74 Lakhs

The former The Millionaire and Destiny champion, Anmol Narang, takes the #3 spot in the weekly rankings. He finished runner-up in IOPC #79 – Legends (6-Max) for a personal-best ₹31.32 Lakhs (cumulatively ₹32.13 Lakhs).

The former IOC – The Millionaire Main Event champion, Anurag Srivastava, raked in ₹21.90 Lakhs this week. He made a litany of top finishes, most notably taking down the IOPC #65 – Friday Spotlight for ₹10.30 Lakhs and placed eighth in IOPC #79 – Legends (6-Max) for ₹4.33 Lakhs.

His top finishes include:

• 1st in Spartan Poker’s IOPC #65 – Friday Spotlight for ₹30 Lakhs
• 8th in Spartan Poker’s IOPC #79 – Legends (6-Max) for ₹33 Lakhs
• 2nd in Adda52’s The Mint for ₹23 Lakhs
• 4th in Spartan Poker’s IOPC #82 for ₹56,980

The 2020 DPTX ₹15K Main Event champion, Deepak Raina, pocketed a whopping ₹20.65 Lakhs (three-way deal) after taking down Spartan Poker`s IOPC #57 – High Roller and cumulatively added ₹21.15 Lakhs throughout the week.

Notable Winners of the Week

PokerBaazi to Host Biggest-Ever ₹10+ Crores GTD APT India Online Series from July 1 –10

India’s most trusted online poker site, PokerBaazi, has extended its exclusive partnership with the premiere live tournament brand Asian Poker Tour for two more years. And the poker operator is kicking off this extended collaboration by hosting the biggest-ever APT India Online Series next month.

Returning for its fourth edition, the series will run from July 1 to 10 and boasts over ₹10 Crores in guaranteed prize money, spread across 59 tournaments! There are 10 APT Trophies and two APT Championship Rings to be won in the upcoming series.

Read the complete report here

BLITZPOKER’s Malamaal Daily Promotion Offers ₹1 Lakh in Game Bonus Daily (June 9-29)

In an exciting new promotion exclusively for the low-stakes grinders (playing on the ₹1/₹2 to ₹5/₹10 cash tables), BLITZPOKER is running a Malamaal Daily Promotion until June 29. The leaderboard-centric promotion has ₹1 Lakh in prizes (game bonus) up for grabs daily, making for a total giveaway value of ₹21 Lakhs.

Read the complete report here

2022 WSOP Updates

The 53rd annual World Series Of Poker (WSOP) is off to a record start! Multiple events registered record-shattering entry fields, and a slew of both first-time and repeat winners walked away with the gold bracelet.

Headlining Team India`s run in Las Vegas this week was the country`s first solo bracelet winner, Young Gun Abhinav Iyer, who made an FT run in Event #25: $800 NLHE Deepstack. The Young Gun banked $56,388 (~₹43.99 Lakhs) in seventh place, posting his 32nd WSOP cash.

Rob Wazwaz captured his first-ever gold bracelet in the event for a personal-best $358,346.

Read the complete report here

Aditya Agarwal (18th for $38,231 ~₹29.82 Lakhs) and Ankit Ahuja (33rd for $31,033 ~₹24.21 Lakhs) crossed the money line in Event #21: $1,500 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold’em. Mike Jukich championed the event, taking home his career-first bracelet and a jaw-dropping $966,577 payday.

Read the complete report here

Manan Bhandari was another player who added to India’s tally of WSOP cashes with his 32nd place finish in Event #30: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed for $6,585 (~₹5.13 Lakhs).

Daniel Weinman took down his career-first bracelet in the event for $255,359.

Christopher Chatman, Jeremy Ausmus, Adam Friedman, Denis Nesterenko, Stefan Lehner, Bryan Schultz, Ben Diebold, Jake Schindler, Michael Moncek, Daniel Zack, Dominick Sarle, and Leo Soma were other notable bracelet winners.

2022 WSOP Bracelet Winners of the Week

2022 APT Vietnam Hanoi Updates

While the world’s richest and most prestigious poker festival, the 2022 WSOP, is underway in Las Vegas, the 2022 Asian Poker Tour Vietnam Hanoi is witnessing an insane summer rush by Team India.

Young Gun Shardul Parthasarathi made his way into the history books after taking down the series’ headliner, VND 5 Billion GTD APT Vietnam Hanoi Main Event, for a massive VND 1,929,250,000 (~₹64.84 Lakhs), along with the APT Trophy and APT Championship Ring.

Two weeks after placing runner-up in the WPT Prime Vietnam Main Event, PokerGuru Ambassador Ashish Munot again came second, banking an admirable VND 1,286,190,000.

Read the complete report here

Adding to India’s number of title wins in the series, the IPC Megastacks ₹100K High Roller champion Alok Birewar shipped Event #13 NLHE 2 for VND 191.84 Million. Meanwhile, the 2022 BPT ₹100K Highroller winner Zarvan Tumboli won the Hyper Deep Stack Turbo for VND 71 Million.

Huy Quang Nguyen championed the 293-player field in the VND 1 Billion GTD Mystery Bounty to collect VND 325.60 Million (~₹10.93 Lakhs).

Vaibhav Sharma FT-ed the event, finishing seventh for VND 49.96 Million (VND 40.70 Million in bounties), netting VND 90.66 Million (~₹3.04 Lakhs) overall.

Read the complete report here

Circuit regular Jasven Saigal FT-ed the two-day Head Hunter, placing fifth for VND 29.96 Million (~₹1.01 Lakhs), while Ankit Jajodia took fifth in the VND 11 Million buy-in PLO Event for VND 17.16 Million (~₹57,844).

Read the complete report here

Terry Nguyen, Nguyen Manh Tuan, Pham Tien Dung, Phachara Wongwichit, Kajornnut Prirunrueng, and Hung Manh Dinh won the other APT Trophies this week.

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