This Week in Poker: September 28 – October 4

This Week in Poker
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  • PG News October 4, 2016
  • 6 Minutes Read

In the PokerGuru feature ‘This Week in Poker’ we bring to you the weekly roundup 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

It was a week headlined by online action, with nothing much happening on the live front. The week started on a great note for India, with BIG winners at the WCOOP and the Mini-WCOOP on PokerStars. Shravan ‘shravanc13’ Chhabria is our “PokerGuru Star of the Week” for making an impressive fourth place in the PokerStars Mini-WCOOP-78: $50 NL Hold’em Main Event, $200K GTD. Not far behind was Karan Radia at seventh place in the same event for $13,829.63. Amit ‘bblacklegend’ Jain and Raghav ‘Rossoneri23’ Bansal also cashed at WCOOP events, besides other players who scored online.

The WCOOP Main Event was ultimately won by Jonas ‘llJaYJaYll’ Lauck $1,517,541. Indian-origin pro Shyam ‘G’s zee’ Srinivasan made a splash as the WCOOP ended by winning his second title in Event 80 for $102,747.

Online aficionados will find the going better than ever with numerous developments. New Jersey players can look forward to the largest-ever PokerStars “COOP” series scheduled to run from October 15 to 31. Additionally, PokerStars has now begun to include its ‘Win The Button’ Format to Online Tournaments, even as Partypoker has made further changes to benefit recreational players.

Amidst the few live tournaments in the Far-East, the first Asian Poker Tour (APT) Poker Cruise 2016 saw UK pro Sam Razavi pick up his second APT Main Event title, making a record as the third player to do so.

Several other developments took place in the country, starting with Delta Corp, which is said to be in an advanced stage of talks to acquire Ace2Three, the largest rummy site in India. Other reports include news of two pros parting ways from their brand sponsors, the HiFi Tour announcing its 2016 anniversary bash at Kolkata, with cash games, tournaments and even a literary performance of Gulzar’s play.

Goa continues to be a battlefield between the pro-casino BJP and warring factions, such as local social activists and the newly entered Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). However, opposing Congress seems to be back-tracking on the casino issue now, by saying that the “public will decide”.

And then, from the international world of poker we have reports of PokerStars becoming the lead sponsors for the Global Poker League (GPL), the schedule for the Monte Carlo One Drop being released, RedKings shifting to the lucrative Microgaming (MPN) platform as Ongame prepares to shut down its online poker rooms.

In tournament reports we have news from the Coco Poker Open Championship, where Indian-origin Kunal Patel was runner-up after a deal with Ian O’Hara, the World Poker Tour (WPT) DeepStacks Arizona, the PMU.fr WPT National Marrakech Main Event and High Roller, as well as the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT 9) Uruguay.

 

Online Railbird Report

The past two years have seen an increasing Indian presence at big online events and this year at the WCOOP, we also had several Indian players make great scores, starting with Aditya Agarwal who made a deep run for the second year running in the WCOOP Main Event at 16th place for $61.475.37.

The Mini-WCOOP was a new addition this year and two of players reached the final table making an impact. Shravan Chhabria scored the highest in the Mini-WCOOP 78: $50 NL Hold’em Main Event, $200,000 Guaranteed’, making $46,000 for a fourth place finish and for this he claims our “PokerGuru Star of the Week” title.

Shravan Chhabria
Shravan Chhabria

Karan Radia who was one of the lowest stacks at the final table managed to finish at seventh place, collecting $13,829.63 for his efforts.

Others to score at the series were – Amit ‘bblacklegend’ Jain, who made a 34th place in the ‘WCOOP-80: $700 NL Hold’em [1R1A], $300,000 Guaranteed’ for $4,019.84.

Raghav ‘Rossoneri23’ Bansal also cashed. He made a 46th place for $1,895.00 in the PokerStars ‘WCOOP-81: $320 PL 5-Card Omaha [6-Max], $100,000 Guaranteed’.

Other notable online scores include –

Abhishek ‘abhi147’ Rathod , who made two cashes. He first won $2,968.01 for 2nd place in the 888 Poker ‘$20,000 Thursday Challenge – R&A’ and also made $1,463.22 for 49th place in the PokerStars $215 SUNDAY MILLION, $1,000,000 Gtd

Nitish ‘Invi’ Gupta won $1,588.10 for 1st place in the PokerStars Big $16.50, $6K GTD’

Arsh ‘BigggTymeR’ Grover won $1,587.31 for 3rd place in the PokerStars ‘Big $33, $12K GTD’

Muskan ‘musku89’ Sethi won $1,518.74 for 6th place in the PokerStars ‘$109 Bubble Rush, $30K GTD’

 

WCOOP 2016

The WCOOP – 78, $5000 NLH Main Event was finally won by Jonas ‘llJaYJaYll’ Lauck for $1,517,541. The event drew 2,091 entries with a prize pool of $10,052,879.79.

As the WCOOP ended, Shyam ‘G’s zee’ Srinivasan won his second WCOOP title in Event 80 For $102,747. Srinivasan overcame James ‘Andy McLEOD’ Obst at heads-up to claim the win.

Read the complete story here.

 

Largest Ever “COOP” Series in New Jersey By PokerStars

PokerStars has announced a huge “COOP” series for New Jersey players (Bonafide residents) only. There will be 43 events held from October 15 – 31 with buy-ins to suit all pockets and formats to please all tastes. There will also be a $200,000 GTD No-Limit Hold’em Main Event and a High Roller with a $100,000 guarantee.

Read the complete story here.

 

‘Win The Button’ Format Brought To Online Tournaments By PokerStars

After having a successful run at live tournaments, PokerStars have now begun the WTB format at online tournaments, both daily and weekly. The WTB gives players who win the pot, the Dealer button, increasing their strategy-advantage.

Read the complete story here.

 

Additional Changes At Partypoker

Partypoker announced further changes in its software and policies. These will mostly benefit casual players, who are often victim to ‘seat-scripts’ by regulars. The changes also include anonymous hand histories henceforth.

Read the complete story here.

Delta Corp To Acquire Ace2Three For Approx $100 Million

After having taken over Adda52, it has been reported that Delta Corp is in advanced-stage talks to acquire Ace2Three for a deal estimated to be worth $100 million. The deal is expected to be finalized by October, 2016.

Read the complete story here.

 

Madan Kumar Bids Adda52 Adieu

Live pro Madan Kumar and Adda52 mutually parted ways, after the former decided to return to his earlier job at IBM. Madan Kumar has stated that he will continue to play poker.

Madan Kumar
Madan Kumar

Read the complete story here.

 

Nikita Luther Exits Thrill Poker Pro Team

Another news of a brand-pro separation came when Nikita Luther announced she was no longer part of Team Thrill. The lady gave no specific reasons, except to state that she would be actively pursuing her poker career.

Nikita Luther
Nikita Luther

Read the complete story here.

 

HiFi Tour 2016 Anniversary Bash Announced

The HiFi Tour (Nov 2-7) is all set to celebrate its first anniversary in style at Kolkata and will feature tournaments, cash games, as well as a intellectually stimulating play written by Gulzar, with top artistes performing.

Read the complete story here.

 

Goa Casino Issues

The Goan pot of casino issues continues to simmer, though now Congress, which had been strongly opposing casinos has changed its stance. The Congress high-command are now saying that the final stand by the party would be taken after consulting the ‘people’ of the state.

On the other hand, the AAP has taken a strong stand on the issue and stated that if voted to power they would fight against casinos.

Read the complete story here.

In the meanwhile, local activist, Kashinath Shetye filed a PIL that contends casinos are operating illegally in the River Mandovi and challenged them.

Read the complete story here.

 

PokerStars To Be Exclusive Sponsors For GPL

Phase 3 of the GPL will have PokerStars as its lead sponsors. The site will work towards making the experience a more fan-friendly one and in drawing in many more viewers into the GPL fold.

 

Monte Carlo One Drop Extravaganza Schedule

The schedule for the first-ever One Drop tournament to be held outside the US has been released and will be held from October 13 to 17, with 35 players confirmed for the series. The invitational-only event will have different buy-ins, a range of formats and the organizers have also released the structures of the games.

Read the complete story here.

 

RedKings Moves to Popular MPN Network

One of the highly popular online poker sites, RedKings have switched to the Microgaming network, after its earlier host Ongame shutdown. RedKings announced that players would be able to access a greater selection of tournaments and promotions through the move.

Read the complete story here.

 

Ongame Shuts Online Poker Rooms

Once the top-most site in the US, Ongame has seen a huge decline in footfalls ad has now shut its operations, with a many sites shifting to other networks.

Read the complete story here.

 

Sam Razavi Is Champion of APT Poker Cruise 2016

The first APT Poker Cruise concluded successfully and Sam Razavi emerged the champion at the Main Event. This makes Razavi the third player to have two APT Main Event titles.

Sam Razavi
Sam Razavi

 

Coco Poker Open Championship

A chop at heads up between Indian-origin Kunal Patel and Ian O’Hara saw the former make a runner-up finish at the Coco Poker Open $2,500 Championship for $206,170. Patel had a swingy final table ride, but overcame chip lead Glenn Becker to reach the finish.

Kunal Patel
Kunal Patel

 

WPTDeepStacks Arizona

Jim Rankin was the victor at the WPT Deepstacks Arizona Main Event, defeating a field of 286 to collect $37,346. Indian-origin Balram Bhandari made a second place finish for $35,346.

Jim Rankin
Jim Rankin

Read the complete story here.

 

2016 PMU.fr WPT National Marrakech – Main Event & High Roller

Native player, Rachid Rami headlined the 2016 PMU.fr WPT National Marrakech Main Event, by turning a €150 satellite buy-in into a win of MAD 950,000 ($97,586), after defeating 396 entries.

Rachid Rami
Rachid Rami

The 2016 PMU.fr WPT National Marrakech High Roller was won by Spanish Nabil Carduso for MAD 650,000 ($66,873). Indian-origin pro Kully Sidhu made a 12th place finish for MAD 46,000.

Nabil Carduso
Nabil Carduso

Read the complete story here.

 

LAPT 9 Uruguay

Pedro Claus took his Day 3 chip lead all the way to victory at the LAPT 9 Uruguay Main Event, taking home $90,630 for the win. The Argentinean player entered into a three-way deal in the final stages, with the second place and third place finishers both getting $70K each.

Pedro Claus
Pedro Claus

Read the complete story here.

 

And, with that this edition of our weekly report is over. We will be here again next week, with all the latest reports, so make sure you have your browsers pointed this way.

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