This Week in Poker: November 18 – 24

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!

As we near the end of November, the online action seems to have continued ahead in full steam. This past week, two mega online poker series concluded, and a fun fact is that both were first-time editions. Adda52’s World Poker Tour (WPT) Online India and India Poker Championship’s Final Table Series (FTS) enjoyed a successful run, and the Main Event champions of both series feature among the week`s top scorers.

The biggest guaranteed event was the WPT India Main Event, so naturally, the ultimate winner, Kumar ‘kumar69’ Sahaj, also bagged the most-massive score of the week. Sahaj topped a 2,573-entry field to bank a career-best ₹50 Lakhs! Runner-up ‘PsychG0D’ bagged an equally impressive ₹26.49 Lakhs payday. For becoming the latest WPT India champion, Sahaj is also our “PokerGuru Star of the Week”!

The FTS Main Event was the next-big guarantee event to crown a winner this week. The former Millionaire United champion Arjun ‘lol this guy’ Pasricha traversed a 653-player pool and netted a personal-best ₹40.02 Lakhs along with an IPC sponsorship worth ₹10 Lakhs! Pasricha defeated the start of final table chip leader Shivang ‘RegularPlaya’ Yadav heads-up to become the inaugural FTS Main Event winner. Yadav pocketed ₹24.91 Lakhs for his second-place finish.

Dhirendra Kumar, Aditya Sushant, Jasven Saigal, Siddhanth Kripalani, Abhinav Iyer, Arsh Grover, Siddarth Singhvi, Young Gun Kanchan Sharma, PokerGuru Ambassadors Kartik Ved, and Ankit Wadhawan, along with Tarun Goyal and Peushup Eugene, were among the other players to bank seven-figure scorers this week.

PokerStars India’s “Star of the Month” – November leaderboard race is now in its final week. Young Gun Gaurav Sood (1,111 points) topped the 25 qualifiers who made it through to the Finale, with PokerGuru Ambassador Devvrat Arya (731 points) and Abhishek Sonu (666 points) taking up the second and third spots in standings, respectively.

With the WPT Online India and FTS Series now in the books, the fun is not over yet. Picking up the pace is PokerStars India’s Diwali Rush series that commenced on November 22. Comprising of 55 tournaments, the series will run till November 29 and offers ₹2.74 Crores in prize pool guarantees.

India’s most trusted online poker site, PokerBaazi, also announced its latest promotion aimed at cash game lovers, Happy Hours. The promotion that went live on November 20 offers 1.5X the usual Reward Points and will conclude on November 30.

Parallelly, the brand will also be running its PrimeTime Depositor FreeRoll and ₹25K Depositor’s FreeRoll.

Another big announcement this week came with the return of India’s first-ever poker league, Poker Sports League (PSL). Season 3 will be hosted on the Hashtag Poker app as PSL-V and is slated to run from January 16 to February 11, followed by a 3-day finale from February 19-21. Boasting ₹1.20 Crores in prize money, the season will feature a total of eight 10-member teams.

In other news, Goa’s casinos have been on shaky grounds since they reopened this month after two dozen staffers of a prominent offshore casino tested COVID-19 positive.

Moreover, Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit recently promulgated an ordinance banning online gaming, following the state government’s decision, dealing a heavy blow to the real-money gaming industry. Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai also revealed that the state government is also considering a similar ban on real-money games in the Garden State.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has swapped the kit sponsor and merchandise partner for the Indian cricket team from Nike to MPL Sports. A three-year sponsorship contract cost MPL Sports ₹120 Crores, with BCCI to receive an additional 10% from every merchandise sold by MPL.

Online Railbird Report

What a week it was for online poker! With the inaugural WPT Online India playing out its closing week, alongside the Final Table Series (FTS) on Spartan Poker, the competition was neck-to-neck!

We have a long lineup of players who have banked whopping, seven-figure scores this week but headlining them all is Kumar ‘kumar69’ Sahaj, who trounced a 2,573-player field in the ₹2.5 Crores GTD Main Event Finale on Adda52 to take home a life-changing ₹50 Lakhs. A relatively lesser-known player, Sahaj’s achievement has spring-boarded him into the country’s top tournament champions, making him our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!!”

Former Millionaire United champion Arjun ‘lol this guy’ Pasricha added another big feather to his cap by emerging as the first-ever FTS Main Event champion. Pasricha outlasted a field of 653 contenders in the ₹2 Crores GTD FTS#19 Main Event ₹2 Crores GTD to bank a career-best ₹40.01 Lakhs. He also pocketed an 18K gold and diamond-studded medallion and a sponsorship deal worth ₹10 Lakhs from IPC.

Runner-up Shivang ‘RegularPlaya’ Yadav added an impressive ₹24.90 Lakhs to his scorecard, with Dhirendra ‘dhiru91’ Kumar (3^rd for ₹17,82,429), Young Gun Kanchan ‘Midge Maisel’ Sharma (4^th for ₹13.79 Lakhs), and Jasven ‘Ponkey’ Saigal (5^th for ₹10.86 Lakhs) also picking up seven-figure scores.

If Kumar placed third in the FTS Main Event, he had already won an FTS title on Friday in the ₹1 Crore GTD FTS#8 Big Game for ₹19.50 Lakhs. With these two mind-boggling scores, Kumar trails Sahaj and Pasricha among the biggest winners this week with a cumulative ₹38.26 Lakhs.

In addition to a fifth-place score at the FTS Main Event, Saigal also came third in the ₹65 lakhs GTD WPT India Super High Roller for ₹8.97 Lakhs, bringing his cumulative tally to over ₹19.83 Lakhs.

Former bracelet champion Aditya ‘SuperuSer’ Sushant entered the final table of the ₹1 Crore GTD FTS #11 Highroller third in chips but drove up the momentum at the FT on Saturday, where he netted a seven-figure payout of ₹20.97 Lakhs.

PokerGuru Ambassador Kartik ‘TheInternetKid’ Ved finished runner-up to Kumar in the Big Game for ₹12.40 Lakhs. He also placed eighth in the ₹15 Lakhs GTD The Weekly HighRoller for ₹53,508 and cashed the FTS Main Event with a 60^th place finish worth ₹73,136 – earning over ₹13.66 Lakhs from these scores alone.

Finishing one spot behind Ved in the Big Game was Sagar ‘strangeplay’ Choudhury, who banked ₹9.18 Lakhs. But that’s not all. Choudhury banked over ₹13 Lakhs in a week’s hard work that included three other FT finishes.

Former Game Changer champion Siddhanth ‘Sidstack’ Kripalani claimed the ₹65 Lakhs GTD WPT India Super High Roller title on Thursday after he beat out a 137-player field to capture his second-best career score of ₹19.37 Lakhs.

India’s first solo bracelet champion Abhinav ‘checkshove’ Iyer, dominated the Friday headlines after capturing the ₹50 Lakhs GTD WPT India High Roller for ₹17.55 Lakhs.

Young Gun Arsh ‘BigggTymeR’ Grover earned more than ₹16.24 Lakhs over an intense week that saw him win three titles and make deep runs in four more events. Grover ran up the podium first on Wednesday when he took down the ₹40 Lakhs GTD FTS#2 Kick-Off for ₹7.67 Lakhs. He also won the ₹10 Lakhs GTD FTS#10 (₹1.60 Lakhs) and the PokerStars India’s ₹6 Lakhs GTD Battle Royale (₹1.34 Lakhs).

Siddarth ‘PeterPunter’ Singhvi pocketed over ₹15 Lakhs this week – the most prominent of them was his winning run in the ₹70 Lakhs GTD FTS#5 Monster Stack (₹11.55 Lakhs) and a sixth-place finish in the ₹65 Lakhs GTD WPT India Super High Roller (₹3.58 Lakhs).

PokerGuru Ambassador Ankit ‘Shippament’ Wadhawan won three titles – FTS#6 ₹20 Lakhs GTD (₹4.65 Lakhs), WPT 2500 ₹20 Lakhs GTD (₹5.31 Lakhs) and (Highroller ₹12 Lakhs GTD (₹2.49 Lakhs) in addition to another FT score, collecting 12.98 Lakhs.

Adda52 Team Pro Tarun ‘aggtarun’ Goyal (runner-up in WPT India Super High Roller for ₹12.19 Lakhs), Peushup ‘peushup’ Eugene (runner-up in ₹50 Lakhs GTD WPT India High Roller for ₹10.46 Lakhs), Hemant ‘hemper’ Padamwar (WPT India – Mike Sexton Tribute ₹30 Lakhs GTD for ₹9.79 Lakhs) and Raghav ‘BaLuGaWhAlE’ Bansal (WPT Thursday Feature for ₹30 Lakhs GTD for ₹8 Lakhs) were the other standout winners this past week.

The notable winners of the week include –

Gaurav Sood Headlines 25 Qualifiers in PokerStars India`s “Star of the Month” Week #3 November Race

Young Gun Gaurav ‘3betPanda’ Sood headlined the 25 Week #3 qualifiers in the PokerStars India “Star of the Month” leaderboard race for November. Sood collected an impressive 1,111 TLB points to claim the week’s top ranking. All the 100 qualifiers from November will be converging for the Finale at 9 PM on December 2.

Read the complete report here

PokerBaazi Announces Value Bomb, Happy Hours, Depositor FreeRolls & 9 PM Specials For November

If PokerBaazi’s November offerings were headlined by the ₹50 Lakhs GTD Value Bomb for MTT players, the site is offering Happy Hours for cash game players, offering them the chance to earn 1.5X times the Reward Points between November 20-30.

Alongside its daily 8 PM PrimeTime Depositor FreeRoll, 9 PM ₹25K Depositor FreeRoll, PokerBaazi has also brought back its 9 PM Daily Specials for tournament players. There are also the Free-Entry Tournaments (FET) running on the site that have ₹33 Lakhs in Real Cash Bonus (RCB) on offer every month.

Read the complete report here

PSL Season 3 Starts Soon

The country’s first-ever poker league, Poker Sports League (PSL), is now coming up with Season 3 on its Hashtag Poker app as PSL-V. The near-month-long league will run from January 16 to February 11, followed by a 3-day finale from February 19-21.

While this is the first time that the league has gone virtual, two more teams have been added, making for a total of eight 10-member teams that will compete for a prize pool of ₹1.20 Crores. The winning team will take home ₹60 Lakhs. The teams will be announced at the Selection Ceremony on December 7.

Read the complete report here

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.