This Week in Poker: May 6 – 12

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!

With the nation-wide lockdown still going on strong, online poker was the theme of the week once again. The biggest action was centered on the prime global sites like GGPoker Network (WSOP Super Circuit Online Series), partypoker (WPT Online) and Natural8 (APT Online Series). There was some epic action unfolding at the domestic platforms as well!

India’s first WSOP bracelet champion Aditya ‘SuperuSer’ Sushant, is no stranger to poker stardom. Sushant was seen galloping on the winning horse, as he outlasted a field of 1,076 entries to conquer the latest Millionaire edition, SSS The Millionaire ₹1 Crore on Sunday for a whopping ₹20.32 Lakhs. While the scores are just an add-on to Sushant glittering resume, the Millionaire title got him his best score on Spartan Poker to date. For this sterling feat, Sushant is our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!!”

While Sathish ‘Jaqkten’ Ananth was denied the Millionaire title, he pocketed a sizeable paycheque of ₹12.38 Lakhs for coming in second.

Falling close behind Sushant in the list of big winners was ‘grovahova’ who topped a 1,927 player field to take down Adda52`s Full House ₹1 Crore GTD for ₹20 Lakhs. The player denied seasoned reg Dhaval ‘dirtyzoso’ Mudgal the title. Mudgal pocketed an impressive seven-figure payout of ₹11.79 Lakhs himself.

Young Gun Arsh ‘BigggTymeR’ Grover (SSS#48 High Roller ₹60 Lakhs GTD for ₹15.11 Lakhs) and former Millionaire LITE champion Dhinesh ‘kendralust’ Kumar (SSS#40 Destiny ₹45 Lakhs GTD for ₹11.67 Lakhs) were the other standout performers of the week.

The Spartan Super Series (SSS) is now well in the corridor, and May is turning out to be as action-packed as predicted. The second edition of PokerStars India’s INSCOOP is already underway since May 10. There are 185 events in all, promising an unbelievable ₹8.1 Crores in prize pool guarantees! Spartan Poker has, in the meantime, three more Millionaire editions planned for this month. Opening to action on the coming Sunday will be The Millionaire United ₹1 Crore GTD, which will be followed by UVS The Millionaire Lite on May 24 and The Millionaire X5 on May 30-31.

Given the increased spike in player traffic, the virtual sites have also amped up their tournament and cash game offerings. PokerBaazi is running a cash game fest TDS Carnival that lets cash game players enjoy up to 100% tax-free withdrawals up until July 1.

Fast-growing site Poker Dangal has also revved up its Sunday offerings, with the Dangal Sunday Series (DSS) ₹4 Lakhs GTD now replaced with the Dangal Sunday Value Series (DSVS) ₹7.5 Lakhs GTD. Going live on the site on May 15 is the Cash MAYrathon rakeback promotion that assures cash game players cashback of up to ₹2.5 Lakhs for an entire month.

Now, a quick breeze-through the international online action. Six of the 18 ring events at the ongoing WSOP Online Super Circuit have crowned champions, and the most recent podium finisher was ‘JoaoValli’ who topped 3,615 entries to win Event #6 Deepstack Bounty Hunters for $51,879 and a WSOP gold circuit ring. UK’s superstar Charlie Carrel dominated the spotlight at the WPT Online Series after he won the series’ first $25,500 buy-in Super High Roller for $600K. Meanwhile, the 12-day long 2020 APT Online Series played all the way down to the wire with Alex Wei Xiang Lee taking down the Main Event for $91,350, and Denmark’s Michael Kim Falcon winning the APT Player of the Series title.

Back home, the Kerala government is drawing up plans to resume lottery sales from May 18, in a phased manner. The country lost one of its earliest gambling kingpins – Ratan Khattri. The ‘Matka King’ passed away in Mumbai last Saturday at the age of 88.

The MPL-hosted two-day long Charity Chess tournament #CheckmateCovid turned out to be quite a crowd puller. GM Ankit Rajpura emerged the winner for a cash prize of ₹1 Lakhs, and the tournament collected ₹15 Lakhs for COVID-charity.

Former Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden has signed up with Nextwave Multimedia to join leading digital cricket franchise, World Cricket Championship (WCC) as a commentator.

In international updates, the PokerStars ‘Stars CALL For Action’ Charity concluded with David Costabile of the Breaking Bad fame outrunning a host of Hollywood A-listers and sports icons to claim the bragging rights. Costabile defeated Brazilian footballer Douglas Costa in the final showdown. PokerStars has laudably donated $1 Million to the prize pool. While half of the collections were donated to Care Internationals, the other half was given away to different charities.

The GGPoker Network has added TotoGaming to its growing portfolio. On the other hand, as MPN prepares to shut down on May 18, at least nine poker skins are expected to move to iPoker Network.

As the U.S. casino sector readies up to reopen, Europe’s biggest casino, King’s Casino and Resort in Rozvadov has finally resumed limited operations.

Online Railbird Report

Another exciting week on the virtual felts saw India ‘poster boy’ for poker, Aditya ‘SuperuSer’ Sushant add yet another sought-after online title to his ever-expanding resume. Sushant triumphed over a field of 1,076 entries in Spartan Poker’s SSS The Millionaire ₹1 Crore GTD last Sunday, raking in a hefty payday of ₹20.32 Lakhs! For this stellar performance, Sushant is our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

Adda52’s Full House ₹1 Crore GTD was another marquee Sunday tourney. However, despite attracting a field of 1,927 entries across five starting flights, the tourney still suffered an overlay amounting to ₹3.65 Lakhs. Anonymous user ‘grovahova’ took down the event to win ₹20 Lakhs. Meanwhile, runner-up Dhaval ‘dirtyzoso’ Mudgal persisted with his phenomenal form and banked another impressive seven-figure score of ₹11.79 Lakhs.

Young Gun Arsh ‘BigggTymeR’ Grover and former Millionaire LITE champion Dhinesh ‘kendralust’ Kumar were also among the big scorers this past week. While Grover shipped Spartan Poker’s SSS High Roller ₹60 Lakhs GTD for ₹15.11 Lakhs on May 7, Kumar won the SSS Destiny ₹45 Lakhs GTD on May 6 for ₹11.67 Lakhs.

The other notable scores of the week include –

PokerBaazi Launches TDS Carnival

It`s literally a carnival for cash game players at PokerBaazi as the site has rolled out a new promotion ‘TDS Carnival’ offering players up to 100% tax-free withdrawals. Players are only required to play and earn Reward Points (RPs) to avail of tax-free withdrawals.

Read the complete report here

A Month-Full of Millionaire Offerings at Spartan Poker

With SSS The Millionaire ₹1 Crore GTD drawing all the attention this weekend, Spartan Poker also three more Millionaire editions lined up this month. The Millionaire United ₹1 Crore GTD is slated for May 17, followed by UVS The Millionaire Lite on May 24 and The Millionaire X5 on May 30-31.

Read the complete report here

WSOP Online Super Circuit Series

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is presently hosting the biggest-ever online series in poker history, the WSOP Online Super Circuit on GGNetwork. The series guarantees $100 million across all events and has 18 WSOP Circuit gold rings to give away. Among the prominent winners so far are, ‘274AS’ (Event #4: Monster Stack for $135,000) and ‘BlaireauEnColere‘ (Event #5: BIG $500 for $330,411).

Read the complete report here

The third WSOP ring event of the series, the Deepstack Bounty Hunters crowned Justin ‘PetitFoxx’ Zhu as the champion, handing him out a $47,528.80 paycheque. German poker pro and GGPoker Ambassador Fedor Holz shipped the $5K High Roller (non-ring event) for $95,443.

Read the complete report here

WPT Online Series

The World Poker Tour (WPT) has collaborated with partypoker and is currently running the first-time ever WPT Online Series. The biggest winners at the series so far are a follows:

Poker superstar Charlie Carrel topped Event #14: Super High Roller after defeating the formidable Ali Imsirovic heads-up to win $600K.

Read the complete report here

Canadian poker superstar Sam Greenwood won Event #11: High Roller for a whopping $257K.

One of the first featured High Roller tourneys on the schedule, Event #09 $5,200 High Roller $1M GTD, saw Pascal Hartman winning the title after striking a heads-up deal with Bulgarian icon Dimitar Danchev for $205,826

Read the complete report here

APT 2020 Online Series

Closing out a smashing 12-day run, the 2020 Asian Poker Tour (APT) Online Series finally got over on May 10. Denmark’s Michael Kim Falcon won the APT Player of the Series (POS) on the back of his winning performances in the PLO Turbo, followed by his blistering victory in the APT Championships on the closing day.

Read the complete report here

Alex Wei Xiang Lee captured the inaugural APT Online Main Event title for $91.35K.

Read the complete report here

APT Online Series Winners

Matthew Hayden Joins World Cricket Championship Game

Former Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden has been roped in by Nextwave Multimedia to lend his voice for virtual cricket on the company`s leading digital cricket franchise, the World Cricket Championship (WCC).

Read the complete report here

Coronavirus Pandemic – Gaming Sector Updates

Kerala Looking to Resume Lottery Sales

The Kerala government plans to resume the sale of lottery tickets from May 18. State Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac has informed that the government will be resuming the sale in a phased manner.

Read the complete report here

MPL’s #CheckmateCovid Raises ₹15 Lakhs

Mobile Premier League (MPL), in collaboration with the Karnataka government and the United Karnataka Chess Association hosted a charity Chess tournament called ‘Checkmate COVID’ on May 2 & 3. The efforts paid off as the tournament was able to raise ₹15 Lakhs that was donated to the Chief Minister Relief Fund. GM Ankit Rajpura won the first prize worth ₹1 Lakh in the tournament.

Read the complete report here

David Costabile Wins PokerStars ‘Stars CALL For Action’ Charity Tournament

Breaking Bad star David Costabile won the PokerStars hosted ‘Stars CALL for Action’ Charity Tournament organized at the initiative of comedian and poker player Hank Azaria and screenwriter Andy Bellin.

Read the complete report here

Casino Industry Gears Up to Reopen

Most casinos across the U.S. are preparing to reopen soon. The Coeur d’Alene Casino in Idaho was among the first on-land casinos in the country to resume operations after the extended lockdown. While no timeline has been officially communicated on the reopening of casinos in Nevada, Nevada Gaming Control board has issued specific guidelines that the casinos will need to follow at the time of reopening.

Read the complete report here

Wynn Resorts Ltd. has opened an on-site COVID-19 testing facility for the employees at its casino properties.

Read the complete report here

Europe’s largest casino, the King’s Resort has reopened after two-months. The casino had pulled down its shutters on March 13 in the wake of the alarming rise of COVID-19 cases in Europe.

Read the complete report here

Vietnam’s Corona Resort and Casino is another major gambling venue that has resumed operations on May 8 following social distancing measures and increased health safety measures in place.

Read the complete report here

Grand Korea Leisure Co Ltd (GKL), resumed its gaming operations on May 6 after a 43-day shutdown.

Read the complete report here

‘Matka King’ Ratan Khatri Passes Away

Ratan Khatri, aka the ‘Matka King,’ breathed his last at his central Mumbai home last Saturday at the age of 88. Khatri was known for running a gambling network for more than three decades.

Read the complete report here

Nine Online Poker Rooms to Transition From MPN to iPoker

With the Microgaming Poker Network (MPN) preparing to shut down on May 19, various operators like Red Star Poker, OlyBet, Betsson Group’s Betsson Poker, betsafe, NordicBet, Coolbet, GiG, Paf, and PCF Poker will be making the switch to the iPoker Network.

Read the complete report here

GGNetwork Adds TotoGaming

GGNetwork recently partnered with TotoGaming, operated by a well-known platform provider Digitain. TotoGaming is the latest addition to GGNetwork`s fast-growing portfolio of sites.

Read the complete report here

Denmark Blocks 16 Illicit Gambling Portals

Denmark’s gambling regulator Spillemyndigheden recently blacklisted 16 illegal gambling sites. The 16 sites include two sports betting sites, seven online casinos, and seven eSports betting domains.

Read the complete report here

Louisiana Senate Committee Approves 2 Sports Betting Bills

The Louisiana Senate Committee has approved two sports betting bills, namely Bill 378 and 130 recently. Both bills allow electronic wagering, but only from the premises of a casino.

Read the complete report here

Hong Kong Police Busts Gambling Syndicate

Hong Kong police recently busted a gambling syndicate of 17 people that had reportedly profited HK$133 million (US$17.2 million) in just 14 months of operations. The gang allowed locals to play online casino games like baccarat, slots, poker, blackjack and dice games on a foreign gambling site.

Read the complete report here

Buenos Aires Casino Owners Oppose Online Gambling Licensing

Casino operators in Buenos Aires (Argentina) are protesting the government’s move to permit licensed online gambling. Federal Judge Enrique Lavié Pico approved the request filed by the two casino operators and has given directions for further study of the case.

Read the complete report here

West Virginia Lottery Commission Okays Online Gambling

The West Virginia Lottery Commission recently approved a set of emergency rules for online gambling in the state that could result in the state opening up legalized online gambling soon.

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.