This Week in Poker: September 23 – 29

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!

The last week of September was full to the brim with online action as per the usual. Headlining the week`s scoreboard was Young Gun Kanchan Sharma! The up-and-coming poker pro championed one of the biggest flagships this week, Spartan Poker’s Destiny, where she traversed a field of 490 entries to collect a mouth-watering ₹6.62 Lakhs. Sharma even placed third in PokerBaazi’s The Pride on the same day for ₹99,700. Sharma only recently revealed that she plays under the moniker ‘Midge Maisel’ on Spartan Poker, so this valuable information went unreported in our previous reports. With ₹13.36 Lakhs in recorded earnings through the week, she is our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

The other big mover and shaker was Siddartha Khandelwal, who shipped two flagship titles on Adda52 since our last weekly report. He won the Godfather on Thursday for ₹5.61 Lakhs, while taking down The Mint yesterday for ₹3.72 Lakhs. His weekly tally stood tall at ₹11.37 Lakhs.

Kunal Patni, Abhishek Goindi, and Vinayak Bajaj were among the other top scorers of the week.

It was an action-packed week as always on Spartan Poker. The Freezeout Master Series (FMS) was the star attraction of the platform leading up to the grand ₹50 Lakhs GTD FMS Main Event. One of the top poker talents of India, Sriharsha ‘Potato Player’ Doddapaneni, won the distinction of becoming the first-ever FMS Main Event champion on Sunday, banking ₹8.12 Lakhs in the process!

The week ahead promises more fireworks with Spartan Poker announcing the return of its popular Grand Poker Series (GPS). The fourth edition of this series is slated to run October 2 to 8, promising ₹7 Crores in guaranteed prizes.

Following the success of September’s ‘Ship-It’ series, Pocket52 has lined up a sequel, ‘Ship-It Again’ series in October. This month-long series boasts of ₹3.5 Crores in prize pool guarantees across 2,000+ tourneys and ₹14 Lakhs in leaderboard prizes.

With the 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL) now well underway, cricketers continue to be in demand for brand endorsements. The captain of the IPL team, Kolkata Knight Riders, Dinesh Karthik, has been roped in by Dan Bilzerian’s official poker room, BLITZPOKER, for the site’s ongoing Blitz Premier League (BPL). Simultaneously, the fantasy sports portal Howzat has appointed Kumar Sangakkara, Keiron Pollard, and Irfan Pathan as its brand ambassadors.

In other reports, the BJP-ruled Goa government has granted the six offshore casinos another six-month extension to remain anchored on River Mandovi, effective from October 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021.

On the international front, PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg, who was one of the 11 people indicted in the Black Friday saga, was let go with a sentence of time served and a $30,000 fine by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in the Southern District of New York on September 23.

Online Railbird Report

The star performer this was the super talented and our Young Kanchan Sharma. Sharma came out on the top of a 490-entry field in Spartan Poker’s Wednesday flagship ₹25 Lakhs GTD Destiny to pocket her best-recorded score on the site, a paycheque worth ₹6.62 Lakhs. If Sharma also posted a third-place score in PokerBaazi’s ₹10 Lakhs GTD The Pride for ₹99,700 the same night, she was in smashing form through the week. The 26-year old budding poker talent raked in a third-place finish in the ₹18 Lakhs GTD Ultron worth ₹1.77 Lakhs. One of her best performances through the week came on Sunday when Sharma finished runner-up in the ₹30 Lakhs GTD Mega Suits on Adda52 for another hefty ₹3.97 Lakhs bankroll boost. Over this long tally of weeklong accolades, Sharma added a whopping ₹13.36 Lakhs to her scorecard to make it as our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!!”

Hot on Sharma’s heels on the week`s scorecard is Siddartha Khandelwal, courtesy his two winning runs on Adda52. Sharma championed the Adda52-hosted ₹30 Lakhs GTD Godfather for ₹5.61 Lakhs and went on to ship the ₹15 Lakhs GTD The Mint for ₹3.72 Lakhs. With a third-place finish in PokerBaazi’s The Endeavour for ₹1.41 Lakhs and an eighth-place score in Adda52 Millions for ₹62,500 thrown in, Khandelwal raked in ₹11.37 Lakhs through the week.

The banker-turned poker pro Kunal ‘kunalpatni’ Patni was another top finisher on this week`s scoreboard. In addition to winning the Adda52 Millions for ₹5.02 Lakhs, Patni placed third in the ₹20 Lakhs GTD FMS #9 HighRoller for ₹2.43 Lakhs, and fifth in the ₹25 Lakhs GTD BSS SuperStack for ₹1.21 Lakhs. Alongside two more deep runs, Patni ended up a little short of a seven-figure haul with ₹9.85 Lakhs in recorded earnings.

Lighting up the weekend was Spartan Poker’s Freezeout Master Series. The series came to a smashing close on Sunday with the ₹50 Lakhs GTD FMS Main Event naming seasoned pro Sriharsha ‘Potato Player’ Doddapaneni as the champion. Doddapaneni collected a ₹8.12 Lakhs payout following a heads-up deal with ‘$ura13 (runner-up for ₹7.65 Lakhs). Doddapaneni, currently ranked #4 on the annual leaderboard, FT-ed PokerStars India’s Sunday Highroller. Overall, Doddapaneni’s week’s earnings crossed ₹9 Lakhs through these scores.

Abhishek ‘MambaMentality’ Goindi (Sunday SuperStack ₹35 Lakhs GTD for ₹6.92 Lakhs) and Vinayak ‘bhai_on_mary_jane’ Bajaj (The Ballers ₹22.5 Lakhs GTD for ₹5.02 Lakhs) were the other prominent winners this week.

The notable scores of the week include –

Spartan Poker’ Grand Poker Series 4.0 Promises ₹7 Crores in Cash Prizes

The fourth edition of Spartan Poker`s Grand Poker Series (GPS) returns from October 2 to 11, offering a massive ₹7 Crores in guaranteed prizes. The 10-day long schedule will be headlined by two Millionaire editions, the GPS The Millionaire United and GPS The Millionaire, both featuring a ₹1 Crore prize pool guarantee. Additionally, the GPS Leaderboard will dish out ₹10 Lakhs in prizes to the top 10-ranked players on the leaderboard.

Read the complete report here

Pocket52 Announces ‘Ship-It Again’ For October

Online poker site Pocket52 has announced the ‘Ship-It Again’ series for October featuring ₹3.5 Crores in guaranteed prizes across a month-long schedule of tournaments. The series also includes two leaderboards promising a total of ₹14 Lakhs in giveaways.

Read the complete report here

Dinesh Karthik Joins BLITZPOKER For Blitz Premier League

Dan Bilzerian’s official poker room, BLITZPOKER, has joined hands with renowned Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik for the site`s ongoing Blitz Premier League (BPL).

Read the complete report here

Howzat Onboards Cricketers Kumar Sangakkara, Keiron Pollard & Irfan Pathan as Brand Ambassadors

With the IPL 2020 in full swing, fantasy sports platform Howzat has onboarded three iconic cricketers, Kumar Sangakkara, Keiron Pollard, and Irfan Pathan, as its brand ambassadors.

Read the complete report here

Goa’s Offshore Casinos Granted 6 Months Extension

The Pramod Sawant-led Goa government has granted another six-month extension to the six offshore casinos moored on the River Mandovi, effective till March 31, 2021.

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.