This Week in Poker: June 10 – 16

In the PokerGuru feature ‘This Week in Poker,’ we bring you the weekly roundup of the most significant 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!

Mid-way through June and the fun has not let up, especially on the online felts! And the person who seems to have had the most fun is PokerGuru Ambassador Arjanveer Singh Chadha! Last Sunday, Chadha was on fire and banked a whopping ₹35.81 Lakhs in winnings! He bagged the title in Adda52’s ₹1.5 Crore GTD AOPS Mini ME Finale for ₹30 Lakhs and final tabled PokerBaazi’s The Summit and PokerStars India’s Highroller. For his mind-boggling Sunday run, Chadha is our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

Besides Chadha, another player who deserves special mention is Sanat Mehrotra. The 28-year-old poker player had topped our weekly and monthly leaderboards last week and persisted with his stellar form as he finished runner-up in the AOPS Mini ME Finale for ₹16 Lakhs.

Sriharsha Doddapaneni and Shashank Jain were also among the top online performers of the week.

The high-octane action is not going to slow down with Spartan Poker, PokerBaazi, and Poker Dangal, all gearing up to host exciting online poker series in June and July.

The most-awaited series of the lot is undoubtedly Spartan Poker’s India Online Poker Championship (IOPC) slated to run from July 9 to 26. However, even before the IOPC July edition hits the felts, players will be greeted by the first-ever Freezeout Master Series (FMS). Running from June 18 to 21, the inaugural FMS series comprises 20 tournaments and offers more than ₹1 Crore in guaranteed prizes.

Not to be outdone, PokerBaazi has also announced the first-of-its-kind Indian Micro Poker Series (IMPS) from July 13 to 26. With ₹1.5 Crore in prize pool guarantees, the series offers 120 events with buy-ins ranging from ₹100 to ₹500.

Up-and-coming online poker site, Poker Dangal also announced the brand-new Dangal Progressive Knockout (PKO) Series that runs from June 18 to 20. The three-day series boasts of ₹15 Lakhs in guaranteed prizes, and ₹60,000 in leaderboard prizes.

In the international sphere, the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Online Series has returned for a second edition on Natural8. With 234 events on the schedule, the series is already off to a great start.

The WSOP.com Online Finale Circuit is now in the books. The series closed out in style with New Jersey-based Frank ‘spaghettiii’ Marasco taking down Event #12: $300,000 GTD Online Finale Circuit NLH Main Event 3x Re-entry for $127,535.

While online poker is still going strong, live poker sees some glimmer of revival with casinos opening up in a few counties. Several casinos in Las Vegas opened their doors on June 4. However, most of the poker rooms are still closed. Europe’s biggest casino, King’s Casino in Rozvadoz, opened up on May 11 and announced recently that the establishment will start hosting live poker tournaments from June 20.

World Poker Tour (WPT) also seems determined to host the final tables of the L.A. Poker Classic, Borgata Winter Poker Open, and Gardens Poker Championship live in Las Vegas, as soon as the four-max poker table restriction is lifted by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

In other news, Nazara Technologies increased its stake in HalaPlay by buying out early investor Kae Capital to become the largest stakeholder in the Bengaluru-based real-money fantasy sports portal.

Online Railbird Report

PokerGuru Ambassador and Young Gun Arjanveer Singh ‘arjan30’ Chadha was on a trailblazer on Sunday. Chadha outran a stacked field of 1,890 entries to capture the AOPS Mini ME Finale title for a personal-best ₹30 Lakhs. Alongside the title win, Chadha also finished runner-up in PokerBaazi’s The Summit for ₹3.55 Lakhs, and PokerStars India’s Highroller ₹2.26 Lakhs, earning a total of ₹35.81 Lakhs through the week. The young go-getter’s blistering run makes him the week’s most standout performer and our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

Sanat ‘mehro2511’ Mehrotra, who topped the weekly online rankings last week, finished runner-up for ₹16 Lakhs, further consolidating his lead in the monthly rankings.

Rounding out the trio of top finishers in the AOPS Mini ME was Sriharsha ‘ivey2’ Doddapaneni, who placed third or ₹10 Lakhs. Doddapaneni also finished second in the ₹40 Lakhs GTD AOPS Super High Roller for ₹12.26 Lakhs on June 12, earning a cumulative ₹22.26 Lakhs.

Denying Doddapaneni the title was none other than Shashank ‘felter’ Jain, who took down the AOPS Super High Roller for ₹13.90 Lakhs. He additionally final tabled The Millionaire ₹1 Crore GTD and AOPD Blizzard for total winnings of ₹25.80 Lakhs.

The other top performers who earned seven-figure scores were –

>‘masterbluff’ – The Millionaire ₹1 Crore GTD champion for ₹16.97 Lakhs

> ‘1-855-925-7070’ – Millionaire runner-up for ₹14.09 Lakhs

> ‘mannu425’ – AOPS Mega Stack ₹45 Lakhs GTD champion for ₹11.09 Lakhs

> ‘thepokerfaceblr’ – AOPS Blizzard ₹45 Lakhs GTD champion for ₹11.02 Lakhs

> Danish ‘king0fmerge’ Shaikh – AOPS Rockets ₹40 Lakhs GTD champion for ₹10.58 Lakhs

> Sumit ‘Sands Myth’ Sapra – UVS The Millionaire Lite ₹35 Lakhs GTD champion for ₹10 Lakhs

The notable scores of the week include –

Spartan Poker Announces Freezeout Master Series (FMS)

Spartan Poker has come out with a new freezeout tournament offering – the Freezeout Master Series (FMS) that runs from June 18 to 21 and will host five tournaments daily. In all, the series features 20 events and over ₹1 Crore in prize pool guarantees.

Read the complete report here

PokerBaazi Launches First-of-its-Kind Indian Micro Poker Series (IMPS)

PokerBaazi has announced the first-of-its-kind Indian Micro Poker Series (IMPS) that will be rolling out on July 13, to run for a fortnight till July 26. The series offers an impressive ₹1.5 Crore in prize pool guarantees across 120 micro-buy-in tournaments with buy-ins ranging from as little as ₹100 to ₹500. Satellites for the three prime tournaments are already underway on PokerBaazi!

Read the complete report here

Poker Dangal`s PKO Series Debuts June 18-20

Fast-growing online poker site Poker Dangal has announced a brand-new Dangal Progressive Knockout Series that will be making a three-day-run from June 18 to 20, promising ₹15 Lakhs in guaranteed prizes, and ₹60,000 in leaderboard prizes.

Read the complete report here

WPT to Host 3 FT’s Live, Unveils $100M GTD World Online Championships

This week, the premier poker brand World Poker Tour (WPT) made two big announcements. It appears that WPT is adamant about hosting the three pending final tables live in Las Vegas. These are the FT`s from the $10,000 L.A. Poker Classic, the $3,500 Borgata Winter Poker Open, and the $10,000 Gardens Poker Championship.

Read the complete report here

WPT has also unveiled the WPT World Online Championships $100 Million GTD that will run on partypoker from July 17 to September 8. The series has buy-ins ranging from $33 to $102,000 and will include 12 Championship events across three categories – Micro, Mini, and Main. The brand has already confirmed two events that will sports a $10 Million prize pool guarantee.

Read the complete report here

Alexandra Botez Defeats Bill Perkins in Poker-Chess Hybrid ‘Challengers Choker Cup’ Semi-Finals

The ongoing Challengers Choker Cup that has eight of the world’s most renowned chess and poker players pitted against each other is now down to its finals.

In the semi-final round, Bill Perkins clashed with chess streamer Alexandra Botez but lost the round. Botez will now play against Eric Rosen on June 18, with the winner to face five-time U.S. Chess Champion and Choker brand ambassador Hikaru Nakamura.

Read the complete report here

APT Online Series

The ongoing second edition of the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Online Series on Natural8.com is three days in the running and has already crowned several champions. There are 234 events scheduled in the series that runs till June 28.

Though the opening day was marred by technical issues, things have gone by smoothly since. Headlining the wins till now is ‘Theprofessor44,’ who captured Event #27: High Roller $75K GTD for $18,210.

Read the complete report here

‘Paranoid Android’ (Event 42: High Roller for $18,201), ‘BakedSand’ (Event 18: Monster Stack $100K GTD for $16,107) and ‘juanson’ (Event 39: High Roller Deep Stack for $14,205) were the next big winners.

On the tap now is Main Event $1M GTD that has nine starting flights and begins proceedings on June 18. The tournament will crown a champion on June 21.

Read the complete report here

Complete List of Winners (So Far)

WSOP.com Online Finale Circuit

The 12-ring event series – WSOP.com Online Finale Circuit – that was open to players in Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware, came to a close this week. The headline tourney, Event #12: $300,000 GTD Online Finale Circuit NLH Main Event 3x Re-entry, crowned a champion in New Jersey-based Frank ‘spaghettiii’ Marasco, who topped a vast field of 1,109 entries to win $127,535.

With the series over, the busy 2019-20 WSOP Circuit season also culminates. All the 12 ring winners at the series won a seat into the Global Casino Championship that will be held online. The 13th seat into the GCC awarded at the series will be bagged by the Leaderboard topper, who will be adjudged the Casino Champ of the series.

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.