This Week in Poker: May 27 – June 2

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!

If you thought May was a massive month for online poker, June promises to be bigger! Historically June is always one of the quietest months of the year with the online action taking a back seat as the WSOP hosts its annual summer series. But that`s clearly not going to happen this year!

We have mentioned it many times before, but with the nationwide lockdown bringing live poker to a standstill, online poker had got an excellent opportunity to blossom. Online operators have answered the increased demand by doling out massive guaranteed tourneys and cash game promotions. Sunday`s were always packed with big-ticket events. But now, they are bigger than ever before.

Last Sunday was no different as the major online sites came out with amped-up guaranteed across all their flagship tourneys. The showstopper of the night was Adda52’s Full House ₹1 Crore GTD that crowned a champion in 30-year-old scriptwriter Md ‘007shakuni’ Zeeshan who outlasted Vikranth ‘borntrouble’ Varma (runner-up for ₹12.30 Lakhs) heads-up to win a mouth-watering ₹20 Lakhs payday. For his phenomenal run, Zeeshan is our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

Spartan Poker also brought back it’s popular The Millionaire X5 – 1 Million to Top 5 last Sunday. The flagship tourney awarded ₹10 Lakhs to the top five finalists, namely ‘XOXOpoker’, Ranjan ‘tripking’ Chowdhary, ‘Bluff.me.not’, ‘Trapdoor’ and ‘King.’

Over at PokerStars India, the second edition of the India Summer Championship of Online Poker (INSCOOP) culminated with The MAMMOTH ₹1 Crore GTD on Wednesday. Triumphing over a field of 1,221 entries was long-time poker player Vineet ‘TheMentalistNo1’ Kumar, who collected a career-best ₹17.15 Lakhs for his phenomenal victory!

While May was undoubtedly a blockbuster month, there is a lot to look forward to in June. Starting off we have Spartan Poker, a tournament-centric brand known for always coming up with exciting events, that has kicked off its first-ever Grand Poker Series on June 1. Offering more than ₹5 Crores in guaranteed prizes, the 40-tournament series will conclude on June 7. And that’s not all! The site has recently announced that the IOPC will be returning for a July edition from July 17 to August 2. Comprising of 113 tournaments, the 19-day long series boasts of a colossal ₹25 Crores in prize pool guarantees. Moreover, the player who wins the Millionaire Main Event ₹5 Crore GTD will receive a glorious and majestic Crown!

Not to be outdone, India most trusted online poker site, PokerBaazi, is also running a ₹50 Lakhs Cash Game Bonanza with two leaderboards for cash game players at mid-stakes and low stakes. Players will get ranked basis the Reward Points that they collect from June 1 to 20. Additionally, the PokerBaazi Monthly Value Series that promises a whopping ₹2 Crores-plus in prize pool guarantees gets rolling today and will continue till June 7. There was more news coming in from the site`s parent company Baazi Games that has roped in ace boxer and Olympic gold medalist

Vijender Singh as the brand ambassador for the company’s online rummy brand, RummyBaazi.

India’s first cryptographically secured Random Number Generator (RNG) online poker site, Pocket52, is also spicing up it’s offering for June by hosting a whopping 368 MTTs, boasting a jaw-dropping ₹2.5 Crores in prize pool guarantees between them. This includes a flagship ₹10 Lakhs GTD primetime tourney ‘Pocket Aces’ every Sunday at 8 PM.

The Bengaluru-based online poker operator has been taking significant strides in the online poker industry, having recently raised $1.75 Million (~₹13.18 Crores) in a Series A funding round from game publisher Gameskraft.

Fast-growing site Poker Dangal has also come out with its inaugural Mega Free Entry ₹5 Lakhs GTD tournament that will take place on June 21 at 5 PM. The event requires ‘No Entry Fee,’ and players can win tickets either by referring a friend or by making a minimum deposit of ₹2,500 using the code ‘FREE5LAKH.’

Moving on to the international sphere, several online poker series came to an end this past week. Among them was the first-ever 2020 GGPoker World Series of Poker (WSOP) Online Super Circuit. With 18 WSOPC rings up for grabs, it was a thrilling series. Germany’s‘schimmelgodx’ took down the Main Event $5M Gtd for $1.2 Million, while India’s ‘Igutu’ finished third for $617,164.

PokerStars’ SCOOP series became the biggest-ever online poker series as it awarded over $135 Million in prize money. Running since April 30, the series finally concluded on June 2. Poker pro Connor ‘blanconegro’ Drinan created history by winning an incredible five titles at the series.

Another series that came to a close this week was the Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) Online hosted on partypoker. The series wrapped up after Justin Bonomo clinched a record third SHRB title in the $102,000 buy-in SHRB Online for $1.77 Million.

The first-ever World Poker Tour (WPT) Online Series that was also being hosted on partypoker ended on May 31. Sweden’s Christian Jeppsson became one of the biggest winners after he shipped the $3,200 Online Championship for $924,000.

Online Railbird Report

Some of the biggest regs got down to business this week. The action went to a crescendo early, with PokerStars India’s The MAMMOTH ₹1 Crore GTD (INSCOOP) playing down to a champion last week. Outlasting a field of 1,221 contenders, it was Vineet ‘TheMentalistNo1’ Kumar who took down the event for his personal-best online score of ₹17.15 Lakhs.

The biggest winner of the week was, however, Md ‘007shakuni’ Zeeshan, who bested the 2,005-player field, including his heads-up opponent Vikranth ‘borntrouble’ Varma to win the Adda52-hosted Full House ₹1 Crore GTD for a jaw-dropping ₹20 Lakhs! Also his best online performance, Zeeshan has with the win, multiplied his overall winnings to ₹1.43 Crores and is deservedly our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!!”

Varma collected a seven-figure score of ₹12.30 Lakhs for finishing runner-up.

Over at The Millionaire X5 – 1 Million to Top 5 on Spartan Poker, ‘XOXOpoker’, Ranjan ‘tripking’ Chowdhary, ‘Bluff.me.not’, ‘Trapdoor’ and ‘King’ entered the ‘Millionaire`s Club,’ taking away ₹10 Lakhs each for rising atop a 1,625-strong field.

The notable scores of the week include –

Grand Poker Series Currently Underway on Spartan Poker

Leading online tournament site Spartan Poker launched a brand-new Grand Poker Series this month guaranteeing ₹5 Crores-plus in prize money, including ₹10 Lakhs in leaderboard prizes. The ongoing series comprises of 40 tournaments with buy-ins ranging from ₹550 to ₹27,500. The showstopper event at the series is the GPS The Millionaire Main Event ₹1 Crore GTD that is coming up on June 7.

Read the complete report here

PokerBaazi Announces ₹50 Lakhs Cash Game Bonanza For June

As part of its eclectic palette of offerings for June, PokerBaazi has rolled out a ₹50 Lakhs Cash Game Bonanza comprising two leaderboards for cash game players at mid-stakes and low stakes. Players have to collect Reward Points from June 1 to 20 to get ranked on the leaderboard. ₹50 Lakhs in Real Cash Bonus (RCB) is up for the take as part of the promotion.

Read the complete report here

Pocket52 Announces ₹2.5 Crores in Guaranteed Prize Money For June

Fast-growing poker network Pocket52 has announced an attractive and comprehensive lineup of 368 MTTs in June, guaranteeing ₹2.5 Crores in prize money, in addition to ₹9 Lakhs in Leaderboard rewards. The June offerings include a flagship ₹10 Lakhs GTD primetime tourney “Pocket Aces” every Sunday at 8 PM.

Read the complete report here

Poker Dangal Announces Mega Free Entry ₹5 Lakhs GTD Tournament

Poker Dangal has announced its first-ever Mega Free Entry ₹5 Lakhs GTD tournament that will run on June 21. The tourney can be entered by winning free tickets through specified ways that include referring a friend, or by making a minimum deposit of ₹2,500 using the code ‘FREE5LAKH.’

Read the complete report here

Natural8 Announces $2 Million in June Promo Giveaways

Asia-centric online poker brand, Natural8 has rolled out exciting new promos for June like the Rush and Cash Daily $33,000 Leaderboard, Spin & Gold Weekly $100,000 Race, All-In Or Fold Daily $10,000 Flipout and the Short Deck $5,000 Daily Leaderboard. All of this amounts to a total of $2 Million in giveaways.

Read the complete report here

Ukraine Wins IFMP Nation’s Cup World Championship, India Finishes 4th

The International Federation of Match Poker (IFMP) Nation’s Cup was hosted online on CISCO’s Webex digital platform over two days on May 30 and 31, with 120 players from 12 countries coming together to battle for the prestigious title.

Team India that had won the IFMP Asian Nation’s Cup to find its way to the World Championship was captained by Gaurav Gala and had eight other members namely, Tanmay Bagga, Rishab Jain, Aditya ‘Bitti’ Agarwal, Krina Gala, Zubin Panthaki, Vidur Singhal, Anujkumar Kodam and Kalyan Chakravarthy. Despite a good show, the team finished fourth with 1,270 points.

Sailing to the top spot were reigning champions, Team Ukraine, who collected 1,837 points to defend the title successfully.

Read the complete report here

WSOP Online Super Circuit

The inaugural 2020 GGPoker World Series of Poker (WSOP) Online Super Circuit concluded with its biggest draw, Event #17: Main Event $5M Gtd crowning a champion in Germany’s ‘schimmelgodx’ who beat out a 9,779-player field to bank $1.2 Million for his win.

Indian player ‘thehulk’ bubbled the final table, finishing 10th for $49,208 while his fellow compatriot ‘Igutu’ placed third to win $617,164 in the event.

The Event #16: PLO Main Event $1M Gtd was championed by Canada’s ‘rubbherducky’ for $362,619, where India’s ‘agentwinner’ finished 11th for $18,623.

Read the complete report here

PokerStars SCOOP

PokerStars’ biggest-ever Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) culminated on May 31 after a month-long run. The series carried a prize pool guarantee of $135 Million. While there were many stellar runs, poker phenom Connor ‘blanconegro’ Drinan scripted history by winning an incredible five titles at the series.

Read the complete report here

Headlining the final day were Barbados native ‘b@d0s’ (Event #121-H: $1,050 NLHE Progressive KO 8-Max for $271K) and Clark ‘snake8484’ Hamagami (Event #121-M: $109 NLHE Progressive KO 8-Max Sunday Million SE for $197K).

Read the complete report here

SHRB Online

The high-octane, high-stakes Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) Online brought on its shares of nerve-wracking high-roller action on partypoker. Bringing the series to a close was the $102,000 buy-in SHRB Online where Justin Bonomo outlasted 50 entrants, including Michael Addamo heads-up, to win the event. Alongside a $1.77 Million in prize money, Bonomo created history by becoming the first player to have won three SHRB titles!

Another standout performer was Viktor ‘Isildur’ Blom, who captured three High Roller titles at the series.

Read the complete report here

WPT Online Series

The first-ever World Poker Tour (WPT) Online Series closed out on May 31 on partypoker. While Sweden’s Christian Jeppsson was one of the biggest winners of the series for taking down the $3,200 Online Championship for $924K, headlining the list of podium finishers towards the end was Brazil’s Rodrigo ‘selouan1991’ Selouan who won Event #55: $1,050 Weekender $500K GTD for a career-best $151,725.

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.