This Week in Poker: March 4 – 10

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!

There was electrifying poker action on the virtual felts last week with a barrage of high-octane tournament series. Industry leader Spartan Poker hosted yet another Spartan Value Series (SVS) bringing back another edition of the crowd-favorite Millionaire Lite. With 2,472 entries, the Spartan flagship generated a hefty ₹37.08 Lakhs prize pool. Seasoned pro Chirag ‘chilling’ Sodha was the man of the hour and came out on top to become the latest addition to the Millionaire club, pocketing a ₹10 Lakhs payday.

Sodha was in impeccable form all week long. With final table finishes in the Ultron ₹20 Lakhs GTD for ₹1.33 Lakhs, Ultimate PLO for ₹16,800 and PokerStars India`s High Roller ₹15 Lakhs GTD for ₹34,663, he takes the podium as our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

Hot on Sodha’s heels was our talented PokerGuru Ambassador, Jayjit Ray. Ray outlasted a 1,202-strong field including fellow stablemate, Rohit ‘rohit22rm’ Mishra heads-up to take down Adda52’s AOPS Mega Suits Finale ₹50 Lakhs GTD for ₹10.26 Lakhs. The tourney ran into a bit of controversy after participants received an email from the site claiming that the event was being canceled due to a technical error. The issue was, however, promptly resolved, and the event commended on schedule, eventually.

The other industry heavyweight, PokerBaazi ran another smashing edition of its online flagship PokerBaazi Premier League (PPL) giving away well over the promised ₹7.3 Crores in prize pool guarantees across its 60 events. The series culminated on Sunday, with two of its marquee tourneys – PPL#58 The MoneyMaker ₹1 Crore GTD and the PPL#43 Highroller 6-Max 50 Lakhs GTD halted at the final table. Sandeep Singh (3,332,755) and Ujjwal Narwal (3,038,213) lead the respective final tables of the events. Even though the final table at both events were to play out live onboard the PokerBaazi LIVE poker room in Goa on March 13 and 14, respectively, the Coronavirus outbreak has forced the site to move them both online.

The Coronavirus fear seems to have percolated deeper in the poker industry with global poker giant PokerStars postponing all its European events for now, except for EPT Sochi stop that is on track and scheduled from March 8 to 20. Back in Asia, the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Da Nang stop scheduled from April 7 to 18 has also been pushed back to August.

The live poker action in Goa has remained mostly unaffected by the Coronavirus epidemic so far. After a successful opening last month at the Casino Deltin Royale, the series is poised for another run starting March 26 at the Casino Deltin JAQK.

On the other hand, Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS), taking a cautious view, decided to call off its conference, GamePlan 2020, which was scheduled for March 5 in New Delhi.

In gaming developments, the Bengaluru-based mobile gaming platform Mobile Premier League (MPL) has been fast expanding its customer base. After cricketer Virat Kohli, the company now on-boarded actor Tamannaah Bhatia as its brand ambassador.

Online Railbird Report

With the three industry majors all running high-value tournaments, online players were spoilt for choice! The PokerBaazi Premier League, Spartan Poker’s Super Value Series, and the Adda52 Online Poker Series kept the action ticking all week long.

PokerGuru Ambassador Jayjit ‘pokerminator’ Ray banked the single largest score of the week, worth ₹10.26 Lakhs after shipping the AOPS Mega Suits Finale ₹50 Lakhs GTD on March 8.

Chirag ‘chilling’ Sodha was the only other player to crack the million-mark, and his claim to fame was winning Spartan Poker’s SVS The Millionaire Lite for ₹10 Lakhs last Sunday. Though a close contest for the top spot, Sodha`s consistent winning spree makes him our “PokerGuru Star of the Week.”

The other prominent winners were:

PokerBaazi Moves PPL FTs Online, PokerStars Cancels Europe Events & APT Da Nang Postponed

The W.H.O has declared the Cornoravirus a pandemic, and like all industries, the outbreak has had a significant impact on poker operators as well. The first tangible effect of the situation was for the finalists of the PokerBaazi Premier League (PPL) The MoneyMaker ₹1 Crore GTD and the PPL High Roller ₹50 Lakhs GTD, who were to resume play at the PokerBaazi LIVE poker room onboard Casino Pride 2 in Goa. However, keeping in mind the raising concerns over the Coronavirus outbreak, PokerBaazi has decided to move the FT`s online, and they will now resume on the PokerBaazi client on the scheduled dates, i.e., March 13 and 14.

Joining the fast-growing list of organizers canceling poker stops is PokerStars that has canned all its European events except for EPT Sochi (March 8 to 20).

Even the Asian Poker Tour (APT) has postponed its Da Nang edition from April to August.

Read the complete story here

Fantasy Sports Conference GamePlan 2020 Called Off

In the wake of the rapid increase in the number of reported cases of Coronavirus in India, the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) announced the postponement of the planned fantasy sports conference GamePlan 2020 citing health and safety concerns. The conference was scheduled to take place on March 5 at the Le Meridien hotel in New Delhi.

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Mobile Premier League Ropes in Tamannaah Bhatia as Brand Ambassador

Well funded Bengaluru-based mobile gaming platform Mobile Premier League (MPL) has roped in actor Tamannaah Bhatia as its latest brand ambassador. Bhatia, who joins ace-cricketer and Indian captain, Virat Kohli, as the face of the brand, has already started endorsing MPL on her social media handle.

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Dream11 Fined By Haryana Consumer Forum Court

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum of Kaithal in Haryana has imposed damages of over ₹2 Lakhs on the online fantasy sports website Dream11 for failing to make proper payment to a contest winner.

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DPT Xpress Ready to Visit Casino Deltin JAQK in March

The fifth edition of the Deltin Poker Tournament Xpress series is set to take place at the Casino Deltin JAQK in Goa from March 26-29 with the organizers keeping the scheduled unchanged since the last edition.

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Indian-Origin Balakrishna Patur Leads the WPT L.A. Poker Classic Final Table

The Season XVIII WPT L.A. Poker Classic kicked off on February 29 and attracted 490 entries. It took five days of intense play to get to the six-handed final table, and guess what?! Headlining the pack is the Indian-origin player Balakrishna Patur. The finalists will resume play on April 2 at the HyperX Esports Arena in Las Vegas!

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Second Annual Global Poker Awards

The second annual Global Poker Awards ceremony took place last week at the PokerGO studio at the Aria in Las Vegas. PokerGO had a free stream up for the awards ceremony. Hosted by Maria Ho and Drea Renee, a total of 25 awards in as many categories were given away. The prominent winners at the awards ceremony were Johnny Chan (Poker ICON of the year), Kristen Bicknell (GPI Female Player of the Year), Alex Foxen (GPI Player of the Year), and Lex Veldhuis (Streamer of the year).

Joey Ingram was the only one to receive two awards in the Journalist of the Year and Media Content of the Year, categories!

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WPT Announces 3 Stops in Australia

The World Poker Tour (WPT) has announced three stops in Australia, and playing host to them will be the popular The Star Gold Coast.

Kicking off the calendar will be the WPTDeepStacks Gold Coast that will run through April 24- May 4, featuring 10 high-value events, including the AU$1,500 Main Event (April 30 – May 4). The other two stops include WPT Australia (September 24 – October 5) and Season XIX’s WPTDeepStacks Gold Coast (April 23 – May 3, 2021).

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Wildhorse Resort Oregon Closes Temporarily

In another Coronavirus related incident, an employee of the Wildhorse Resort in Oregon was detected with the Covid-19 virus and has been hospitalized in Walla Walla, Washington. As a precautionary measure, the casino has closed its doors temporarily, making it the first casino in the US to shut operations. All hotel reservations and community events have also been canceled.

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Golden Poker Million Marrakech Cancelled Due to Coronavirus Scare

The Golden Poker Million Marrakech that was slated to be held at the Casino de Marrakech from March 13 – 22 has been called off after a few Coronavirus cases were identified in the country. On the other hand, the Battle of Malta that is scheduled to take place at the same venue in October, remains on track.

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APT Taiwan

The Asian Poker Tour (APT) Taiwan is well across the halfway mark with close to 13 events from its 26-event schedule done and dusted. Among them was the biggest draw at the series, the TW$33,000 buy-in Main Event that drew 82 runners across two starting flights. New Zealander Hamish Crawshaw emerged as the champion in the event and won his first-ever APT Main Event title along with TW$725,200 in prize money.

Read the complete story here

Leading the APT Player of the Series (POS) race at the moment is Hong Kong’s Chan Lok Ming, who has won two titles already and has cashed in an impressive four other events.

APT Taiwan Winners

Kevin Buck Wins Wynn Spring Classic $1 Million GTD

Outrunning a field of 687 entries, Kevin Buck took down the Wynn Spring Classic $1,600 buy-in NLH $1 Million GTD for $166,837.

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Tony Tran Wins WPT Rolling Thunder, Shankar Pillai 6th

Despite entering the World Poker Tour (WPT) Rolling Thunder Main Event as the shortest stack, Tony Tran staged an epic comeback to win the title and $279,270 in cash prize. Tran also won a seat worth $15,000 in the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions presented by Baccarat Crystal.

Indian-origin pro and two-time WSOP champion Shankar Pillai finished sixth for $45,390.

Read the complete story here.

Zack Mullennix Wins WSOPC Ameristar St. Charles Main Event

28-year-old Zack Mullennix from Florida took down his third World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) gold ring after winning the WSOPC Ameristar St. Charles $1,700 Main Event. Mullennix bested a strong field of 281 entries to walk away with a career-best $92,886 and a seat into the $1 Million Global Casino Championship.

Read the complete story here.

William Stanford Wins RGPS Tunica Main Event

The RunGood Poker Series (RGPS) Main Event hosted at Horseshoe Tunica attracted 523 entrants. Topping them all was William “Cody” Stanford, who walked away with $41,724 following a five-way ICM deal. Stanford also won an All-Star ring and a seat into the season-ending All-Star event in Las Vegas.

Read the complete story here.

Lawrence Cullen Wins Unibet UK Poker Tour London

Lawrence Cullen triumphed at the 2020 Unibet UK Poker Tour London’s £220 Main Event hosted at the Aspers Casino after besting a record-breaking 714-entry field. Cullen picked up his career-best score of £25,500 after defeating Callum Pooles heads-up!

Read the complete story 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.