This Week in Poker: August 12 – 18

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 Independence week witnessed a flurry of action on the domestic and international felts. Headlining the domestic action was Vishal ‘amarkhatri999’ Tulsyan‘s phenomenal run the AOPS Main Event Finale on Adda52. He triumphed over a 2,063-strong entry field entry to claim a personal-best ₹43.80 Lakhs. MTT crusher Srihari ‘zombieballs’ Bang finished runner-up for an equally impressive ₹27.50 Lakhs.

Jai ‘jksisme’ Saha, who had finished runner-up in the PPL The MoneyMaker in March, went the distance this time by winning The MoneyMaker title for a jaw-dropping ₹20.84 Lakhs. At the same time, Manash ‘Ravenclaws’ Kalita became the latest Millionaire Lite champion after taking down the UVS#34 The Millionaire Lite for ₹10 Lakhs.

Vikranth ‘borntrouble’ Varma, PokerGuru Ambassador Kartik ‘Pegasus1505’ Ved, Vikas ‘Vikas267’ Yadav and Young Gun Gaurav ‘mozzie17’ Sood were among the other notable players who raked in massive scores since our last weekly recap.

Even though the domestic felts were full to the brim with electrifying action, the ongoing 2020 WSOP Online series, stole all the attention. August 17 turned out to be a landmark day for Indian poker. The country got her first gold bracelet of 2020, along with two more final table finishes, accumulating approximately ₹6.14 Crores in winnings! “Mandovi” championed a 2,207-player field in Event #64: $840 Turbo Bounty NLHE to win a whopping $234,433 (~₹1.76 Crore). For bringing India her sixth bracelet, “Mandovi” is our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

However, this week`s highest-scoring Indian was “M26GreenWood,” who finished runner-up in Event #63: $500 Mini Main Event for a ginormous $586,157 (~₹4.38 Crores) payday.

Rounding out the trio of FT finishes on Sunday was “pokermafiaa,” who finished fourth in Event #62: $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha for $88,727 (~₹66.42 Lakhs).

Another Indian player who ran deep in a bracelet event was “Haversham.” They placed sixth in Event #60: $525 Bounty NLHE 6-Handed for $28,540 (~₹21.35 Lakhs).

Among the other prominent bracelet winners of the week was David Peters, who claimed his 2^nd career bracelet in Event #54 $10,000 Heads Up No Limit Championship for $360,480.

The most-awaited event of the series, the $25 Million GTD Event #77 $5K NLHE Main Event finally kicked off on August 17. Comprising of 22 starting flights, the $5,000 buy-in tourney allows players to fire a maximum of three bullets. Day 2 will play out on August 30 and continue till just 40 players remain in the field. The final 40 will then return to play down to a champion on Saturday, September 5.

Two starting flights are already in the books. Day 1A pulled in 464 runners, with only 99 players proceeding to Day 2. They were joined by 25 Day 1B survivors from a starting field of 114 participants. Finland’s Samuel Vousden claimed the Day 1A chip lead with a stack of 717,497, while China’s Xuming “scplayer” Qi topped the Day 1B survivors with 620,372 in chips.

With rising Indo-China tensions, Chinese mobile major Vivo opted out of its sponsorship of BCCI’s Indian Premier League (IPL) this year. Fantasy gaming giant Dream11 has stepped in and bagged the title sponsorship for the upcoming IPL 2020 for a discounted ₹222 Crores!

With the live poker scene gradually reviving, the World Poker Tour (WPT) Japan was hosted last week across two venues – Sammy Inc. headquarters and Hotel Gajoen Tokyo. The four-day series was headlined by the WPT Main Event that crowned a champion in Charlie Ryuta. Ryuta topped a record 726-strong field to bag a WPT passport worth $13,000.

Online Railbird Report

The action remained intense all throughout the week, but Sunday took things to a crescendo with three high-value series coming to a close. Vishal ‘amarkhatri999’ Tulsyan from Kanpur emerged as the biggest winner across domestic sites after he captured the AOPS Main Event Finale title for a bankroll-boosting ₹43.80 Lakhs.

The young go-getter, Srihari ‘zombieballs’ Bang, placed runner-up for ₹27.50 Lakhs, to climb several places on the annual online leaderboard.

Also pulling in seven-figure scores in the event were PokerGuru Ambassador Rony ‘fish4life’ Chowdhury (3^rd for ₹20 Lakhs), Binit ‘Punter27’ Saraf (4^th for ₹14.30 Lakhs) and Young Gun Kanchan ‘thandicoke’ Sharma (5^th for ₹10.30 Lakhs).

MTT specialist Jai ‘jksisme’ Saha scripted his name in poker history by emerging as the latest MoneyMaker champion. Saha captured the ₹1 Crore GTD tournament to earn a whopping ₹20.84 Lakhs.

It was Vikranth ‘borntrouble’ Varma whom Saha denied the title. Varma himself was on beast mode this week. While he finished runner-up in the MoneyMaker for ₹14.61 Lakhs, the same day, Varma finished sixth in the AOPS Main Event Finale for ₹7.40 Lakhs. Varma final tabled three more events to rake in ₹27.70 Lakhs over the week!

Mystery player ‘karanmangla’ booked two prominent scores this week. The player championed the PPL#44 HighRoller 6-Max for ₹14.18 Lakhs and placed runner-up in the PPL#35 PLO HighRoller for ₹4.95 Lakhs.

PokerGuru Ambassador Kartik ‘Pegasus1505’ Ved was the other standout performer on the virtual felts. Ved bested a field of 194 entries to win Adda52’s AOPS Holdem High Roller for his first-ever AOPS title and a ₹14 Lakhs payday. Additionally, Ved finished third in PPL The MoneyMaker for ₹9.48 Lakhs to boost his winnings by ₹23.48 Lakhs.

Vikas ‘Vikas267’ Yadav (AOPS Mega Suits ₹40 Lakhs GTD for ₹10.05 Lakhs), Manash ‘Ravenclaws’ Kalita (UVS#34 The Millionaire Lite ₹35 Lakhs GTD for ₹10 Lakhs), and Young Gun Gaurav ‘mozzie17’ Sood (Destiny ₹30 Lakhs GTD for ₹8.09 Lakhs) were the other prominent winners this week.

Yadav also final tabled the PPL #30 BSS SuperStack (5^th for ₹1.41 lakhs) to collectively earn ₹11.46 Lakhs.

The #1 ranked player on the annual leaderboard, Sood went on to capture two ₹15 Lakhs GTD tourneys – AOPS PLO Highroller (₹4.35 Lakhs) and AOPS Big Bounty (₹4.24 Lakhs including bounties) to pad his bankroll by ₹16.69 Lakhs.

The notable scores of the week include –

WSOP Online 2020

It was a landmark week for Team India at the ongoing 2020 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Online taking place on GGPoker/Natural8. We’ve been reporting on our Indian challengers posting impressive FT finishes, but ‘Mandovi’ eventually succeeded in crossing the hurdles. The player outran a 2,207-player field in Event #64: $840 Turbo Bounty NLHE to win India its first bracelet of the year! ‘Mandovi,’ who is known for his numerous exploits on the domestic and international circuit but prefers to stay anonymous, earned a whopping $234,433 (~₹1.76 Crore), including $102,972 in bounties. Their phenomenal run makes the mystery player our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

Read the complete report here

There were two other bracelet sweats for Team India on Sunday. ‘M26GreenWood’ made it as far as the heads-up against Croatia’s Ivan ‘zufo16’ Zufic in Event #63: $500 Mini Main Event. The latter eventually took it down for his career-first WSOP bracelet and a massive $843,460, with ‘M26GreenWood’ finishing runner-up. The player pocketed a jaw-dropping $586,157 (~₹4.38 Crores), winning the single-largest score from the Indian contingent at the series yet.

Two more Indians, ‘pokermafiaa’ (Event #62: $1,500 PLO – 4^th for $88,727 – ₹66.42 Lakhs), and ‘Haversham’ (Event #60: $525 Bounty NLHE 6-Handed – 6^th for $28,540 – ₹21.35 Lakhs) FT-ed bracelet events this week.

Read the complete report here

In other highlights, American poker superstar David Peters shipped Event #54 $10,000 Heads Up No Limit Championship to win his second bracelet and $360,480.

Read the complete report here

The most-awaited tournament of the year, the $25 Million GTD Event #77: $5K NLHE Main Event, is finally underway. Two starting flights of the tournament are already done and dusted. Till now, 578 players have entered the tournament, with 124 securing their stacks for Day 2. The Day 1A chip leader, Finland’s Samuel Vousden (717,497), sits with the overall chip lead.

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.