This Week in Poker: September 9 – 15

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!

We have crossed the mid-way mark in September, and it’s still the online action that is dominating the felts.

This week witnessed Spartan Poker host the first-ever Grand Poker Series (GPS) ₹2 Crores GTD Main Event. The ₹11,000 buy-in tourney attracted 1,950 entries through four starting flights. Apratim ‘checm@te’ Sharma rose to the top of the field and bested the competition to claim the title and top prize of ₹34.24 Lakhs. This victory secured Sharma his personal-best score to date and the bragging rights of becoming our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

PokerGuru Ambassador Kartik ‘TheInternetKid’ Ved finished runner-up for an equally impressive ₹19.08 Lakhs. He had also placed eighth in the same event for ₹3.32 Lakhs, taking his cumulative score in the tourney to ₹22.40 Lakhs.

Pulkit Goyal, Pranay Chawla, Manish Lakhotia, Vikram Mishra, and Arsh Grover, alongside PokerGuru Ambassadors Laksh Pal Singh and Gokul Raj, featured among the other big scorers this past week.

There is simply no let-up in action at Spartan Poker. Just as the second edition of the GPS culminated on Sunday, the Ultimate Value Series (UVS) made a comeback on September 15. Boasting ₹90 Lakhs in guaranteed prizes, the five-day-long series features 34 tournaments.

Not done doling out the good news, Spartan Group, which operates Spartan Poker, announced its latest venture, Spartan Rummy.

With the immensely popular IPL 2020 just days away, several celebrity cricketers have joined hands with online poker and fantasy sports companies. India-facing poker site 9stacks roped in former Indian batsman Suresh Raina as its brand ambassador. At about the same time, cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar was announced as the new brand ambassador for PayTM First Games.

Fantasy sports platform Playerzpot appointed cricketers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Smriti Mandhana as its brand ambassadors. Simultaneously, noted cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle joined another fantasy portal Fantasy Akhada as its official ambassador for two years.

While we are on the topic of fantasy sports, the country`s most prominent fantasy gaming portal, Dream11, completed a $225 Million (~₹1,656 Crores) funding round at a whopping $2.50 Billion valuation from a group of investors, including Tiger Global Management, TPG Tech Adjacencies (TTAD), ChrysCapital, and Footpath Ventures.

In international news, French poker pro Benjamin Pollak has become the newest pro recruit for partypoker.

In tournament action, the 2019/2020 World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) concluded with the season-ending Global Casino Championship (GCC) crowning three-time ring winner Andrew ‘RandyLerch’ Kelsall the champion. Kelsall won his career-first bracelet and a $275,632 payday for his efforts.

Online Railbird Report

Thirty-year-old Apratim ‘checm@te’ Sharma had a Sunday he should remember for a very long time. The semi-professional poker player navigated his way past a massive 1,950 entries to capture Spartan Poker’s GPS Main Event title.

Eventually, Sharma locked horns with PokerGuru Ambassador Kartik ‘TheInternetKid’ Ved heads-up, and he beat the more experienced Ved to emerge the champion! The personal-best ₹34.24 Lakhs that Sharma earned in the tourney makes him the top performer of the week, and deservedly our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

Runner-up Ved added a hefty ₹19.08 Lakhs for his efforts. He also placed 8th in the tourney for ₹3.32 Lakhs, collecting ₹22.40 Lakhs in total!

Former Millionaire Champion Pulkit ‘Championplayer’ Goyal placed 3rd to collect a seven-figure score of ₹13.32 Lakhs.

Sunday also saw the rescheduled ₹1 Crore GTD Full House Finale play down to a winner. The anonymous user ‘capricorn_3’ powered his way through a crowded 1,779 entries to bank ₹22 Lakhs in first-place prize money. Seasoned pro Pranay ‘setmeup’ Chawla pocketed ₹12.20 Lakhs for coming in second.

The other headliner this week, Spartan Poker’s ₹55 Lakhs GTD GPS #39 High Roller, saw anonymous user ‘Ghayal2112’ claiming the winner’s prize of ₹13.15 Lakhs following a three-way deal with PokerGuru Ambassador’s Laksh Pal ‘LuckyBhai$’ Singh (runner up for ₹11.79 Lakhs) and Gokul ‘Super Kings’ Raj (3rd for ₹9.98 Lakhs).

The Delhi lad Singh took down two titles this week. He won PokerStars India’s INCOOP-114 Sunday Highroller for ₹5.05 Lakhs and Adda52’s Maverick for ₹3.20 Lakhs, accumulated a whopping ₹20.04 Lakhs through the week.

Another name that features among this week`s top winners is Manish Lakhotia. The online reg crushed the Grand Poker Series, winning the GPS – Grand Ultron on Spartan Poker for ₹4.82 Lakhs, while also picking up two FT scores in the GPS Main Event, finishing fifth and ninth for ₹7.73 Lakhs and ₹2.54 Lakhs respectively. Lakhotia also placed third in the ₹50 Lakhs GTD GPS #41 Battlefield for ₹3.5 Lakhs, adding an impressive ₹18.59 Lakhs to his tally this week!

Vikram ‘GreenSTUFF79’ Mishra was another seven-figure winner. He championed two PokerStars India tourneys, the INCOOP-103 Hercules for ₹7.67 Lakhs, and the INCOOP-92 Uppercut ₹3.06 Lakhs, to win ₹10.73 Lakhs.

‘borntrouble’ was another mover and shaker. The player added ₹10.47 Lakhs to their tally after placing fourth in the GPS Main Event for ₹9.64 Lakhs and winning the GPS #34 Mega Freeze for ₹83,096.

The list of the week`s standout winners would be incomplete without Young Gun Arsh Grover`s mention. He took down two titles and posted a third deep run to bank more than a million through the week. Grover won PokerStars India’s INCOOP-81 Highroller for ₹6.06 Lakhs on Sept 10. On Sept 15, he took down Spartan Poker’s Recharge for ₹2.01 Lakhs. The other noteworthy score was his 7^th place finish in Adda52’s Full House Finale for ₹2 Lakhs.

Arun ‘arungeo95’ George (won the ₹50 Lakhs GTD Battlefield for ₹8.60 Lakhs), Chandan ‘Meme lover’ Arora (won the ₹40 Lakhs GTD GPS Grand The Elite for ₹8.46 Lakhs), and Srihari ‘bangbang99’ Bang (won the ₹35 Lakhs GTD Grand Destiny for ₹8.21 Lakhs) were the other prominent winners.

The notable scores of the week include –

Spartan Poker’s Ultimate Value Series (UVS) Underway

Spartan Poker`s popular Ultimate Value Series is on its second day today. There are 34 high-value tournaments on the schedule promising ₹90 Lakhs in guarantees, and for the consistent winners, there is an additional ₹3 Lakhs in leaderboard prizes to be won. The showstopper tourney at the series is the ₹2,200 entry buy-in ₹35 Lakhs GTD The Millionaire Lite.

Read the complete report here

Spartan Gaming Enters Rummy Industry With the Launch of Spartan Rummy

India’s leading poker brand Spartan Poker has entered the rummy industry with the launch of Spartan Rummy on September 15.

Read the complete report here

Cricketing Legend Sachin Tendulkar Joins PayTM First Games

India’s cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar has joined e-commerce payment company PayTM’s online gaming arm, PayTM First Games (PFG), as their brand ambassador.

Read the complete report here

9stacks Signs Indian Cricketer Suresh Raina as its Brand Ambassador

India-facing online poker site, 9stacks has announced Indian cricketer Suresh Raina as its brand ambassador. Raina will be seen promoting the site`s promotional campaigns across various digital platforms.

Read the complete report here

Harsha Bhogle Joins Fantasy Akhada as Investor & Ambassador

Harsha Bhogle has joined Fantasy Akhada as its official ambassador for two years and will be using his popularity to engage more users for the site. He has also invested an undisclosed amount in the fantasy sports platform.

Read the complete report here

Playerzpot Signs Bhuvneshwar Kumar & Smriti Mandhana as Brand Ambassadors

Fantasy sports portal Playerzpot has signed on Indian cricketers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Smriti Mandhana as its brand ambassadors.

Read the complete report here

Dream11 Raises $225 Million in Funding at a $2.5 Billion Valuation

The parent company of fantasy gaming giant Dream11, Dream Sports, has raised $225 Million (~₹1,656 Crores) in funding from a group of investors, including the New York-headquartered Tiger Global Management, TPG Tech Adjacencies (TTAD), ChrysCapital, and Footpath Ventures. The secondary investment has valued the company at around $2.50 Billion (~₹18,407 Crores) while the primary investment has come in at a valuation of $2.20 Billion (~₹16,198 Crores).

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.