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In the PokerGuru feature ‘This Week in Poker’ we bring to you the weekly round-up of the biggest 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 year drawing to its final quarter, railbirds would have imagined that action would slow down. Not so! The week that went by, witnessed intense action not only on the live felts but also in online tournaments. With the 2018 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) opening right after the culmination of 2018 Asian Poker Tour (APT) Vietnam, Team India has been making big splashes all through.
While Nikita Luther and Sajal Gupta stole the thunder at APT Vietnam that saw 10 Indian cashes, Rakesh Lalwani has already scored twice at the ongoing WSOPE, where Shravan Chhabria and Manish Goenka are also in the thick of action. A few more Indians are expected to reach Rozvadov in time for the Main Event.
Meanwhile the online felts were burning with excitement this week. While we saw, PokerBaazi Premier League (PPL) Autumn’18 edition flying off to a smashing start on October 15, it was our “PokerGuru Star of the Week” Shuchi ‘pescatarian8’ Chamaria who bagged big wins and deep runs across various top sites, including PokerBaazi, Adda52 and PokerStars India. At PokerBaazi, Chamaria won The Bout ₹10 Lac GTD (RE) for a whopping ₹2.12 Lakhs and scored a 21st place finish in The Endeavor ₹10 Lac GTD (RE) for ₹7,357. Her 11th place finish in Battle Royale, 2 Lac GTD at PokerStars India added another ₹5,517 to her bankroll.
The other big winners online were Kanishk ‘gooner1317’ Upreti, whowon the Baazi Super Sunday ₹15 Lakhs GTD SuperStack on PokerBaazi for ₹3.03 Lakhs and Rajat ‘sharabikebabi’ Sharma, who took down the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Special ₹15 Lakhs GTD’ for ₹2.89 Lakhs. Team PokerStars pro Aditya Agarwal’s runner-up finish for ₹2.13 Lakhs in the same event was another notable score this week.
Even as WSOPE promises to keep us busy this entire week, there were new launches, series’ schedules, and tie-ups announced that made headlines this past week. Fantasy sports rankings authority, RotoGrinder announced the launch of its RG Network for establishing a player ranking systems in all online gaming industries,while World Poker Tour (WPT) partnered with blockchain sportsbook FansUnite to enter the cryptocurrency domain. Andrew Neeme joined hands with Jason Somerville and his Twitch channel, Run It Up, while PokerStars came up with yet another interesting ‘Human Lie Detector’ promotion to give away a platinum pass.
PokerStars finally launched its online web store with co-branded merchandise from Hugo Boss, while 888 Holdings announced an upcoming overhaul of 888poker’s online poker functionality that will be launched in the avatar of a new poker client ‘Poker 8’.
We wrap up this week’s recap with tournament reports from the 2018 WSOPE, WPT DeepStacks Johannesburg, WSOPC, Moneymaker Tour, 2018 RunGood Poker Series and 2018 Big Poker Oktober.
Kanishk ‘gooner1317’ Upreti won the BSS ₹15 Lakhs GTD SuperStack on PokerBaazi for an impressive ₹3.03 Lakhs. Upreti outlasted a 164-strong entry field and defeated ‘hero1965’ heads-up to win the event, while ‘hero1965’ banked ₹2.28 Lakhs for his runner-up finish.
Other notable scores of the week are –
Rajat ‘sharabikebabi’ Sharma won ₹2.89 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Special ₹15 Lakhs GTD’.
Team PokerStars pro Aditya Agarwal won ₹2.13 Lakhs for runner-up finish in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Special ₹15 Lakhs GTD’.
Akshay ‘sherlock52’ Nasa won ₹1.42 Lakhsfor 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘Baazi Super Sunday’ (BSS) PLO ₹5 Lakhs GTD.’
Gaurav ‘Rafael13’ Arora won ₹1.35 Lakhs for 1st place in the 9stacks ‘Sunday Stacks.’
Ashish ‘Spewushhhiiiii’ Ahuja won ₹59,083 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Stars ₹2 Lakhs GTD ‘.
Satyam Shukla ‘emoboy112233’ Pandit won ₹42,3910 for 1st place in the MadOverPoker Dyamite’.
Amit ‘Stu Ungar 7694’ Kaushik won ₹40,206 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Storm ₹3 Lakhs GTD’.
Jeet ‘tanmay007’ Mondal won ₹34,020 for 1st place in the MadOverPoker ‘Grenade.’
Aditya ‘KesarDa’ Kesarwani won ₹22,000 for 1st place in the MadOverPoker ‘MadHouse.’
‘jugadupoker’ won ₹11,468 for 1st place in the PokerStars India ‘Sunday Warm-Up ₹1 Lakh GTD.’
Meanwhile, 9stacks made a grand start to their Anniversary month by increasing the prize pool of their flagship tournament – Sunday Stacks. Winning this week’s Sunday Stacks was Gaurav ‘Rafael13’ Arora for ₹1.35 Lakhs.
Vietnam is one of the most happening poker destinations in Asia, and for Indians, the country holds a big attraction, for its proximity and attractive run of tournament series through the year. The 2018 Asian Poker Tour (APT) Vietnam ran from October 5-11 this year. While a total of 11 events were originally part of the roster, two more were added in later.
For the Indians who were freshly off the World Poker Tour (WPT) Vietnam edition, the series offered just the right live international action to field into. Sajal Gupta’s (4th for VND 137,390,000 -₹4.37 Lakhs) deep run in the Monster Stack and World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Nikita Luther’s (11th for VND 135,160,000 – ₹4.32 Lakhs) remarkable score in the Main Event headline the 10 Indian scores posted at the series.
Another front-runner was Vivek Rughani (19th for VND 98,730,000 ~₹3.16 Lakhs) who climbed up the rankings at the Main Event to score a deep run. Amanpreet Singh (6th for VND 81,160,000 – ₹2.58 Lakhs) gave a stiff fight in the Monster Stack event and managed to reach the final table.
Read the complete story here.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Tetsuya Tsuchikawa took the Main Event down to claim his first-ever APT Championship title along with the hefty payday of VND 1,638,200,000. Tetsuya Enoki was the only player who won two titles at the series and was awarded the APT Player of the Series trophy, while the runner-up and second runner-up APT POY trophies were lifted by Go Mori and Tsuchikawa respectively.
Read the complete story here.
Team PokerStars pros Jeff Gross and Andrew Neeme who teamed up to announce their self-designed PokerStars Platinum Pass Adventure, as part of which they had invited players to submit their poker vlogs, have picked not one but two winners, Matt Keifer and Oliver Biles who were both awarded a Platinum Pass each.
Read the complete story here.
Fantasy Sports Rankings authority, RotoGrinders announced launch of the RG Network that aims to establish player ranking systems in all online gaming industries. The RG Network includes four sites, RotoGrinders, SharpSide, Fantasy Insiders, and the recently acquired PocketFives.
Read the complete story here.
Poker vlogger Andrew Neeme has entered a collaborative partnership with Jason Somerville and his highly ranked Twitch channel Run It Up. The duo announced their intention to work together in a video uploaded on Neeme’s YouTube channel.
Read the complete story here.
PokerStars has announced the ‘Human Lie Detector’ promotion, with Team pro Daniel Negreanu to play a major role. Negreanu will put up three questions before different PokerStars Team Pros and the video will be put up on Twitter and Facebook, inviting all to guess which answer is a lie.
Read the complete story here.
The Moneymaker Tour that is part of PokerStars’ schedule of stops in US to award Platinum Passes for the upcoming PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) is making an additional stop at Winstar World Casino and Resort. The special $86 buy-in event will be hosted from November 2-4 before the tour culminates at Seminole Hard Rock Poker from November 5-11.
Read the complete story here.
The World Poker Tour (WPT) has partnered with The Gardens Casino to launch the WPT Satellite Spectacular for Season XVII WPT Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Casino players will earn points for every tournament they enter till November 30, which will be considered towards $50,000 in WPT packages to be distributed to four winners on December 1.
Read the complete story here.
PokerStars has finally launched its much-awaited online web store that features luxury items and co-branded merchandise from German fashion brand, Hugo Boss. The merchandise was first made available to attendees at EPT Barcelona in August.
Read the complete story here.
Rob Yong, owner of Dusk Till Dawn (DTD) venue in Nottingham that recently hosted the 2018 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS UK has in his recent blog noted that participation numbers at this year’s series were disappointing. Yong shared details of his discussions with partypoker Live President John Duthie to make appropriate changes to the series’ format.
Read the complete story here.
The 2018 Eurasian Poker Tour (EAPT) is slated to open on October 19 at Casino Sochi in Russia. Tour sponsor, partypoker has doled out several attractive offers for the series.
Read the complete story here.
The law enforcement agencies in Macau continued their drive against illegal money exchange with a number of raids on the downtown casinos. Police took 12 people in for questioning and detained two of them over possible involvement with illicit money exchange services.
Read the complete story here.
Schedule for US Poker Open, slated to be hosted at the PokerGO studio in the Aria Resort and Casino, Las Vegas has been announced. The 10-event series will run from February 13-23, 2019.
Read the complete story here.
The schedule for the biggest event on the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC)’s international roster, the WSOPC Sydney has been announced. The series will be hosted at The Star Poker Room from November 27 to December 17.
Read the complete story here.
World Poker Tour (WPT) has partnered with blockchain sportsbook, FansUnite Entertainment Inc., to take its first step in the domain of crypto-currencies. The deal includes integration of FansUnite in Season XV broadcasts in Europe, ‘Plays of the Week’ showcased on Super Channel in Canada as well as several on-site promotions at WPT events in Europe and Asia.
Read the complete story here.
888 Holdings have announced the rollout of its new poker client, Poker 8 to bring a total overhaul of 888poker’s online poker functionality.
Read the complete story here.
The World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) opened with a bang at King’s Casino in the rustic Rozvadov, Czech Republic on October 9. The €550 COLOSSUS No-Limit Hold’em was the opening event that ran through eight exciting starting flights to reach its finale on Monday.
Fielding through the 2,991 entries, it was eventually Israel’s Tamir Segal who won the event for €203,820. Two Indian challengers, Rakesh Lalwani and Shravan Chhabria were among the attendees at the event and Lalwani was the lone Indian who added to his scorecard, while Chhabria fell out empty-handed. In fact, Lalwani scored twice in the event, once on Day 1D (23rd for €802 – ₹68,541), followed by a 188th (€2,227- ₹1.90 Lakhs) place finish on Day 2. Lalwani earned a cumulative €3,019 (~₹258139) in the event.
Read the complete story here.
With the first event in the books, the clock is fast ticking at the €1,650 NLHE 6-Handed Deepstack where Asi Moshe (2,095,000) tops the final six players. The third event, i.e. the €550 Pot-Limit Omaha has concluded with its first starting flight where Dor Tal (643,000) leads the 21 Day 1A survivors.
Lalwani entered the flight but failed to make it further, even as another Indian, Manish Goenka (98,000) made the cut for Day 2.
Read the complete story here.
American pro Maria Ho bested a field of 387 entries in the R13,500 NLHE Main Event hosted as part of the 2018 WPT DeepStacks Johannesburg, to win the lion’s share of the R4,640,800 prize pool and bank an impressive payday of R1,000,000 (US$70,000). This is Ho’s third live tournament title.
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The RunGood Poker Series Main Event at Horseshoe Council Bluffs stop drew a total of 330 entries crushing its $100,000 guarantee by an additional $68,300. Drew Woodke emerged victorious among the runners, after a five-way chop at the final table, to grab the title and a payday of $25,197.
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Read the complete story here.
The $86 NLHE event at Live! Baltimore stop, that was part of the PokerStars Moneymaker Tour culminated with a five-way chop that saw third-place finisher Nitis Udornpim walk away with $5,792 and the Platinum Pass, while Othniel Joseph won the top prize of $12,804.
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Read the complete story here.
Gunning through the $500,000 GTD NLHE Kickoff event at the 2018 Big Poker Oktober series organized by Card Player Poker Tour (CPPT) at Bicycle Hotel & Casino, Triet Nguyen won the top prize of $78,222.
Read the complete story here.
The 2018 RunGood Poker Series made its second stop at Bossier City and Gary Burks outlasted a tough field of 378 entrants in the $575 Main Event to win the top prize of $41,519.
Read the complete story here.
Heather Alcornbested the 389-strong field to claim her maiden WSOPC gold ring in the $1,700 Main Event at 2018 World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Horseshoe Southern Indiana. Alcorn won $129,654 and a seat into the WSOP Global Casino Championship (GCC).
Read the complete story here.
And with this, we conclude this week’s round up of the latest news updates and developments from the world of poker. We will return again next week with our weekly report, stay tuned.