This Week in Poker: March 11 – 17

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!

It has been quite a week! With the Coronavirus pandemic forcing a global shutdown resulting in poker brands calling off their scheduled live stops, the focus at least for the poker fraternity has shifted entirely towards the online action.

The domestic turf was dominated by online poker, and with several full-blown series running, players had a whale of a time. From the Adda52 Online Poker Series (AOPS) to the PokerBaazi Premier League (PPL), the Spartan Super Series (SSS), and the UFC KO Series on PokerStars India, it was a busy time for MTT players in India. And last Sunday, an incredible nine players entered the Millionaire’s club!

The biggest event of the week was the AOPS Finale Main Event ₹2 Crores GTD, the showstopper event at the ambitious new series from Adda52. The Main Event logged in a giant field of 1,743 entries across four starting flights. The final table was a reg-infested affair, and walking away with the life-changing ₹50 Lakhs first-place prize was a prominent member of the PokerGuru Staking stable, Faiz’ TheInternetKid’ Alam!

This was a historic win for Alam, as this is the second most massive prize money won by an Indian player in a domestic tournament to-date. The distinction of winning the single most massive online score still belongs to Anurag Srivastava for championing the IOPC The Millionaire Main Event last month for ₹60.34 Lakhs. Alam’s blistering run makes him our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

Like Alam, runner-up Rahul’ rahulpalawat’ Jain also raked in a career-best ₹26 Lakhs in the AOPS Finale Main Event.

The other prominent winner from the week was the 36-year old IIT/IIM graduate Sandeep’ PoKcey’ Singh, who took down the marquee event at the PokerBaazi Premier League – The MoneyMaker ₹1 Crore GTD – for a whopping ₹18.30 Lakhs!

Spartan Poker has always been a frontrunner when it comes to churning out millionaires. This week’s The Millionaire X5, part of the Spartan Super Series, had five players walking away with six-figure paydays, namely, Vinayak’ tuktuki’ Bajaj, Siddarth’ PeterPunter’ Singhvi, Arjun Singh’ avengers906’ Kochhar, Anish’ TheWitche007’ Grover and Kavish’ Dietchips’ Kukreja.

While there is little doubt that the online action is looking upbeat, the same cannot be said for the live poker scene that has taken a significant hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fear of the spread of the contagious virus has resulted in lockdowns all across the world, and this includes all operating casinos in the country. The closure of casinos in Goa and Sikkim has definitely put a dampener on the once-prospering live poker scene resulting in the postponement of all live poker tournaments that were planned for March and April.

While India presently has 147 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the global scene looks much worse, with the US reporting 6,524 positive cases and Italy being the worst-hit country in Europe with 31,506 cases. Unsurprisingly, a large number of casinos have begun to shut down across prime international locations. This includes famous Vegas haunts like the Wynn and the MGM Resorts, King’s Casino in Rozvadov, and the Dusk Till Dawn poker room in Nottingham, England.

With casinos shutting down and governments worldwide, adopting stringent measures to ensure ‘social distancing,’ a massive number of international stops have also been called off. Despite all this, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) remains non-committal about calling off its annual summer extravaganza in Vegas. The brand has, however, begun expanding its repertoire of online offerings. It has now announced the WSOP.com Online Super Circuit Series that is to run from March 14 to 31 and is open to players in Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey.

Among the few live stops that did take place last week was the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Super High Roller Series in Sochi. Among the prominent winners was Canada’s Timothy Adams, who took down the $250,000 Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) Russia Main Event for $3.6 Million!

Online Railbird Report

A blockbuster Sunday saw high-octane action across all online poker sites. Walking away with the most significant slice of prize money was our very own PokerGuru Ambassador Faiz Alam. Alam, who plays as ‘TheInternetKid’ on Adda52, took down Adda52’s AOPS Main Event Finale ₹2 Crores GTD for a life-changing ₹50 Lakhs. With the win, Alam has etched his name in history by taking down the second-largest prize money to date, and is unabashedly our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!!”

Alam’s final battle in the event was against Rahul’ rahulpalawat’ Jain, who may have missed out on the title but pocketed a career-best ₹26 Lakhs for his runner-up finish.

The notable scores of the week include –

WPT & partypoker Announces Inaugural WPT Online Series

The World Poker Tour (WPT) has extended its partnership with partypoker by announcing the launch of the all-new WPT Online Series. The inaugural WPT online series is to take place online at partypoker from May 10 to 26.

Read the complete story here

CPP Takes U-Turn on Renewing Trade Licenses For Casinos

Taking a U-turn on its initial reluctance to extend the trade license for offshore casinos in Goa, the Corporation of City of Panaji (CCP) Mayor Uday Madkaikar on March 11 said that the corporation would meet sometime before March 31 to decide on the issue. He further revealed that the corporation would also be seeking legal opinion before coming to a decision in this matter.

Read the complete story here

Gujarat High Court Adjourns Poker Appeal Hearing to May 5

A division bench of Gujarat High Court comprising Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice AJ Shastri adjourned the poker appeals once again. The hearings that have been pending for two years now have been scheduled for May 5.

Read the complete story here

Coronavirus Pandemic Disrupts Live Poker

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has shaken the world to its core and inevitably, adversely affected the poker world. India reported its third death due to Coronavirus (COVID-19), and there is widespread panic in the country with several states on complete lockdown.

Live Events Called Off in India as Casinos Forced to Cease Operations

Taking precautionary steps, the Goa government has forced the closure of all casinos in the state till March 31. This, in turn, has resulted in the postponement of several live poker tournaments that were lined up in March and April. The affected tournament stops include the Deltin Poker Tournament (DPT) Xpress, the National Poker Series, and the DPT April edition.

Even PokerBaazi had to shift the final table of two of its PPL events online.

The Poker Millions Cash Game festival in March was another live poker event that had to be called off because of these developments.

In Sikkim, all public establishments, including casinos, have been closed till April 15.

The Strategic Platform for iGaming Conference and Exhibition (SPiCE) India 2020 that was to take place in New Delhi was also canceled.

Read the complete story here

Casinos Shut Down, Focus Moves Online

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the international poker fraternity even harder. Almost all casinos in Las Vegas have closed their doors and even those that are operational wear an empty look.

Poker venues at other US states like the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Parx Casino in Pennsylvania, and Commerce Casino in California, all Illinois casinos have temporarily stopped operations.

In Europe, the King’s Casino in Rozvadov, and the Dusk Till Dawn poker room and casino in England have also shut down operations.

In the Philippines, all PAGCOR casinos have ceased operations because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Tournament brands like WSOP and WPT have decided to postpone/cancel all ongoing and immediately upcoming tournaments.

Read the complete story here

Betway Slapped With a Record £11.6 Million Fine by Gambling Commission

Online betting company Betway will have to fork out a record settlement worth £11.6 Million after accepting stolen money from high spending ‘VIP’ customers. The regulators of the Gambling Commission found many noteworthy issues in the company’s financial dealings with its seven VIP customers.

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partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Super High Roller Series Sochi

Even with the COVID-19 pandemic shaking up the entire fabric of the world, one poker tour continued running with the creme de la creme of the poker world in attendance.

The partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Super High Roller Series played out at Casino Sochi in Russia last week. One of the last events of the stop was the $250,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) Russia Main Event, and taking down the tourney was Canada’s, Timothy Adams. The tournament gathered 40 runners, and Adams took home a whopping $3.6 Million paycheck along with back-to-back SHRB titles after defeating another former SHRB champion Christoph Vogelsang (2nd for $2.4 Million) heads-up!

Read the complete story here

Among the other winners at the stop was the 10-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Ivey, who won the Event #7: $50,000 Short Deck title and walked away with $856,050 in prize money after defeating Michael Soyza (2nd for $561,780) heads-up. The event pulled in 55 entries, and the top eight finishers took a bite out of the $2.75 Million prize pool.

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Malaysian Chinese high-stakes poker player and 2019 GPA Industry Person of the Year, once again found himself in the spotlight as he took down Event 6: $100,000 NLHE for $1.51 Million after defeating Matthias Eibinger (2nd for $1 Million) heads-up.

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Jiang Xia He (Event #1: $25,000 Short Deck for $378,000), Sam Trickett (Event 2: $25,000 NL Hold’em for $435,000), Wai Leong Chan (Event 3: $25,000 Short Deck for $435,000), Mikita Badziakouski (Event 4: $50,000 NL Hold’em for $765,000) and Wai Kin Yong (Event #5: $50,000 Short Deck for $800,000) were the other winners at the series!

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Craig Varnell Wins Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event After 10-Way ICM Chop

The Bay 101 Shooting Star $5,200 Main Event clocked in 290 entries to generate $1.33 Million in prize money. The event ended in a 10-handed ICM deal even before the play could resume on the final day due to increasing fear surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic. It was WSOP bracelet winner Craig Varnell who was declared the champion and walked away with $159,710 in prize money. Indian-origin players Navin Mohan (3rd for $132,780 ~₹98.20 Lakhs) and Anshul Kulshrestha (5th for $101,430 ~₹75.01 Lakhs) posted FT finishes!

Read the complete story here

And 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.