This Week in Poker: June 9 – 15

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!

This past week was one of the busiest we have seen all year, with the four top online poker sites all running a top-tier MTT festival at some point. While Spartan Poker’s UVS and Adda52’s DOPT closed out on Sunday, PokerStars India’s inaugural Summer Series got done on Tuesday – the last two days being entirely about the ₹1 Crore GTD Main Event. Of course, some poker players wouldn`t have minded some downtime, but the much-awaited National Poker Series has kept the MTT action running in top gear since Sunday. The debutant series has far exceeded expectations so far by logging in record turnouts for the past four days.

With so much activity all across, Sunday turned out to be particularly spectacular, at least for Manish Lakhotia, a player who has been hitting the massive scores with insane consistency. No wonder this MTT pro from Siliguri is ranked #1 on the annual leaderboard standings, and believe us – that`s no mean feat. Lakhotia notched up ₹26.37 Lakhs in weekly earnings, two-thirds of that coming from his second-place finish in the DOPT Main Event on Sunday. There was close competition from at least a few players, but Lakhotia edged past them all to accumulate the most MTT winnings and, deservingly, is our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

Snatching the DOPT Main Event title away from Manish Lakhotia was the PLO cash game reg Gagandeep Singh Malik. Experiencing a downswing in the last few months, Singh switched to MTTs only recently, and what do you know? He landed a career-defining ₹24.69 Lakhs last Sunday. His weekly total stood at ₹25.27 Lakhs.

Young Gun Arsh Grover, Vishal Tulsyan, Kunal Vohra, PokerGuru Ambassador Vishal Bajaj, bracelet winner Abhinav Iyer, Kunal Patni, Armaan Kochhar, and Anish Garg were some more names on the week`s top scorers list.

While the NPS is already off to a flying start, Spartan Poker dropped the bombshell earlier this week by releasing the dates and guarantees for the 11^th edition of the India Online Poker Championship (IOPC). The series is looking to set a new record as the biggest MTT festival in India by putting up a never-seen-before ₹30 Crores prize pool guarantee across its three-week-long run.

Now, even though the IOPC is almost a month away, the site is running an attractive ‘Go Over the Moon This June’ promotion all through June, offering better rakeback and rewards under its VIP program, with the top tier paying out up to 70% rake back (up from the previous 60%).

The week was full of significant developments, and the most celebrated one was Team India winning the 2021 IFMP Nations Cup qualifiers on Sunday. The one-day qualifier was held virtually between six teams. Team India, led by Jagdeep Singh and comprising Amit Varma, Pratibha Arya, Gaurav Kalra, Young Gun Anuj Kumar Kodam, Tanmay Bagga, and Ishaan Punjani, came out on the top of the four-session marathon. Team India booked its berth in the upcoming IFMP Nations Cup World Championships to be held in Europe around the year-end with this win.

In another news piece that was cheered on by the global poker community, WSOP released the complete schedule for the 2021 annual series scheduled to take place in Las Vegas from September 30 – November 23. With 88 bracelet events on the schedule, this holds the potential to become the largest WSOP in poker history – the pandemic not notwithstanding.

Live poker has returned to Vegas with fervor. The 2021 U.S. Poker Open closed out its 12-event run on Tuesday. The leaderboard race went all the way down to the wire, with the reigning U.S Poker Open Champion David Paters defending the title to become the first two-time USPO Champion. Peters won an incredible three titles at the series to topple the current PokerGO Tour leaderboard frontrunner Ali Imsirovic from the top. Imsirovic was further displaced to #3 after Sean Winters overtook him by winning the $50K Main Event title for $756,000.

Online Railbird Report

With all the major online sites hosting massive guaranteed events almost daily, weekend heroes are no longer cashing enough to top the weekly standings. Instead, it’s the more consistent players with multiple scores who have started topping the charts.

The one name that fits this criterion perfectly is Manish Lakhotia. The #1 ranked player of the year, Lakhotia`s standout score of the week was his runner-up finish in the ₹1.50 Crore GTD DOPT Main Event Finale. And even though he conceded the title to Gagandeep Singh Malik, a week choc-a-bloc with deep runs saw Lakhotia adding a hefty ₹26.37 Lakhs – the most on our database to bag our “PokerGuru Star of the Week” title.

His top finishes include:

– 2^nd in the DOPT Main Event Finale for ₹17.92 Lakhs

– 5^th in The Weekly Highroller ₹12 Lakhs GTD for ₹1.12 Lakhs

– 5^th in the Summer Series -123 Main Event ₹1 Crore GTD for ₹4.76 Lakhs

The two-time DPT (live) title winner Gagandeep Singh added the online Main Event title also to his name. The former business analyst outran a field of 1,507 entries in the ₹1.5 Crore GTD DOPT Main Event to win a career-best ₹24.69 Lakhs, lapping up ₹25.27 Lakhs through the week.

Young Gun Arsh Grover would have become a two-time The Millionaire champion on Sunday had he not been denied the title by Kunal Vohra in heads-up play. The #2 ranked player last year is already in the top 10 list this year. He won the Mega Stack on Tuesday – in all, raking in ₹18.89 Lakhs this past week.

His top finishes include:

-2^nd in The Millionaire ₹1 Crore GTD for ₹9.75 Lakhs

– 1^st in Mega Stack – Millionaire Bubble ₹20 Lakhs GTD for ₹3.48 Lakhs

– 4^th in DOPT 6-Max Showdown for ₹2.37 Lakhs

– 8^th in Summer Series-93 [Super Highroller] ₹40 Lakhs GTD for ₹1.43 Lakhs

The former AOPS Main Event Finale and Two of a Kind champion Vishal Tulsyan added another flagship title to his name by becoming the first-ever Summer Series Main Event champion. Tulsyan outlasted the 912-strong field on PokerStars India this week to win ₹16.48 Lakhs.

Kunal Vohra had just one recorded score to his name all week, but he made it count. Vohra pulled ahead of the 2,057-strong field in Spartan Poker`s ₹1 Crore GTD The Millionaire on Sunday to collect a personal-best ₹17.34 Lakhs. Along with another 272^nd place score in the event, he cashed for ₹17.44 Lakhs!

Another former Millionaire champion, PokerGuru Ambassador Vishal Bajaj, placed third in the DOPT Main Event Finale, working up over ₹16.06 Lakhs in total winnings through the week.

India’s first solo WSOP bracelet winner, Young Gun Abhinav Iyer, bagged the Sunday Superstack title on Spartan Poker to win ₹8.14 Lakhs. This formed the bulk of the ₹13.43 Lakhs he won all week.

His top finishes include:

– 1^st in the Sunday Superstack ₹40 Lakhs GTD for ₹8.14 Lakhs

– 2^nd in the Trending Thursday ₹25 Lakhs GTD for ₹3.10 Lakhs

– 26^th in The Millionaire ₹1 Crore GTD for ₹79,297

In addition to winning the final tournament in the Destiny 19.0 series, former banker Kunal Patni exerted consistent pressure on the felts, adding ₹13.04 Lakhs to his poker bankroll.

His top finishes include:

– 1^st in the Destiny ₹28 Lakhs GTD for ₹6.38 Lakhs

– 4^th in The Weekly Highroller ₹12 Lakhs GTD for ₹1.49 Lakhs

– 4^th in The Summit ₹15 Lakhs GTD for ₹1.46 Lakhs

The other top scorers of the week were:

> DOPT PLO Special winner Armaan Kochhar (Collective winnings – ₹11.90 Lakhs)

> DOPT Main Event Finale fourth-place finisher Anish Garg (Collective winnings: ₹10.10 Lakhs),

>DOPT Thursday Feature champion Yohan Patel (Collective winnings: ₹9.82 Lakhs)

> The Big Deal champion, PokerGuru Ambassador Ashish Munot (Collective winnings – ₹9.64 Lakhs)

> Night on Stars winners and DOPT Main Event finalist Sahil Mahboobani (Collective winnings: ₹9.42 Lakhs)

> NPS #4 Sunday Marathon runner-up, PokerGuru Ambassador Kartik Ved (Collective winnings: ₹9.25 Lakhs)

> Summer Series Super Highroller champion Shagun Jain (Collective winnings: ₹8.54 Lakhs

> DOPT 6-Max Showdown champion Rohit Behal (Collective winnings: ₹8.43 Lakhs)

> Karan Radia (Won The Elite ₹35 Lakhs GTD for ₹7.40 Lakhs)

Notable Winners of the Week

Spartan Poker Announces ‘Go Over the Moon This June’ Promotion, Offering 70% Rakeback at the Top-Tier!

Spartan Poker has revamped its player loyalty program for the remainder of June and is offering significantly better rewards almost across all its VIP levels. The site`s new ‘Go Over the Moon This June’ promotion, offers players up to 70% rakeback at the top Elite VIP tier.

Read the complete report here

Team India Wins 2021 Nations Cup Qualifiers

Team India became one of the first teams to qualify for the 2021 Nations Cup World Championships in Europe later this year. Captained by Jagdeep Singh, the team comprised other Match IPL veterans like Amit Varma, Pratibha Arya, Gaurav Kalra, Young Gun Anuj Kumar Kodam, Tanmay Bagga, and Ishaan Punjani.

India topped a six-team Nations Cup 2021 qualifier on Sunday, winning the tournament from the Asian region.

Read the complete report here

WSOP Releases Complete Schedule For 2021 Annual Series in Las Vegas, 88 Bracelets Up For Grabs

The complete schedule for the 2021 WSOP is finally out. The biggest – most extravagant, and longest-running tournament series in the world will be emerging after an almost 26-month-long hiatus from September 30 to November 23 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Vegas.

There are 88 bracelet events on the schedule, with several new additions.

Read the complete report here

And 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.