Vinod KK

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Telangana Government Passes Ordinance to Ban Online Gaming; Move Likely to be Challenged in Court

Contradicting its own policy of drawing investments in the gaming industry, the Telangana state cabinet moved four ordinances to amend existing online gaming acts to ban online gambling making both online gamblers and promoters of these games in the state liable for prosecution under the new law. The ordinance with the gaming clause has been approved last week and sent to Governor E S L Narasimhan.

Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari after the cabinet meeting in Hyderabad spoke about the new developments, “Soon after the formation of Telangana, the CM had ordered police to crack down on clubs and other places which encourage gambling. But the government received complaints that people are now indulging in online gambling. We want to eliminate gambling in all forms. So the Gaming Act would be amended, banning online gambling. The cyber police will track online gambling and act against violators”

Notably, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had released its gaming policy three months ago under which investors in the online gaming industry were proposed to be given incentives but upset over rising patronage of online card games, the CM asked officials to prepare a new law. The new government (TRS) has made voluntary efforts to crack the whip on gambling, illegal card clubs and forced them to stop their operations, which lead to online card games being promoted.

According to reports, the local police received several complaints of financial loss due to these games and the state government was upset over the rising number of complaints against the industry.

The state is looking to classify online poker and rummy as ‘gambling’ and planned to impose a fine of ₹5,000 for the first offence and higher fines for repeat offenders.

Two years ago, Andhra Pradesh High Court upheld that Rummy is a game of skill and playing it was within the framework of the Constitution, which was followed by a Supreme Court order that also ruled that online rummy was not illegal.

Apart from online gaming, the TRS also plans to curb sale of spurious seeds, food adulteration and fake certification with these ordinances.

Image Source: Times Of India e-paper

Industry sources have indicated that a consortium of gaming operators are likely to challenge these acts of the government in court in the next few days.

Keep following the latest development on this story right here on PokerGuru!

PGT all set to return to Casino Pride with Season 3 in April

After a successful season 2, PGT is back for a new season in 2013.The first edition of PGT Season 3 is all set to kick off with the April edition from 3rd – 7th April which will be held at the Pride poker room onboard Casino Pride, Goa.

The season will set off with the crowning of the PGT Season 2 champion where the top 10 players from Season 2 will battle it out in the ₹12 Lakhs POY Freeroll! The PGT Season 2 leaderboard currently features Karan Jain from Delhi in pole position. Karan accumulated this lead by winning the PGT Season 2 March edition 12K bounty event and was the runners up in the Oct edition 30K freezeout main event. The consistency will pay out well as he will be starting the POY freeroll with a chip advantage over the other qualifiers.

 

The remaining players to qualify for the POY freeroll are:

Manoj Singh
Husain Lakda
Shridhar Kumar
Pulkit Kalia
Jasven Saigal
Vinod KK
Rajesh Goyal
Prabhat Mukherjee
Nitish Gupta

Complete chip stacks of the 10 contenders along with details of the POY freeroll will be posted on PokerGuru soon.

Apart from the POY freeroll ,the five event series will feature tournaments with buy-ins ranging from ₹3K to ₹10K.

 

Here is a look at the schedule for PGT Season 3 April edition:

If past PGT events are any indication, players can once again expect record numbers and big payouts not to mention an exciting tournament experience. Members interested to join this series can register here to ensure your names are on the casino guest list.

For the complete PGT Season 2 leaderboard standing and information on upcoming PGT events, visit the PokerGuru Tour page.

If you have any questions please post them here. You may also email queries at info@pokerguru.in or call us at +91-9332320067

Spotlight: Interview with PGT July Edition Main Event Champion – Vinod KK

The biggest surprise at PGT July edition has been a young and dynamic player from Bangalore – Vinod KK (cover image) whose soft demeanor is in complete contrast to his aggression on the felt. Vinod KK dominated the PGT main event from the start and collected a massive chip lead entering the final table. As predicted, he finished the job in style the following day, taking home ₹6 Lakhs in prize-money and adding a valuable 428 points to his name on the ₹12 Lakhs PGT POY Leaderboard.

We spoke to Vinod shortly after his win at the PGT main event to know more about his Poker story and to discuss his experience at PGT. Here is an excerpt of the interview:

 

Hi Vinod, Congratulations on winning the PGT July Edition Main Event! How was your experience at PGT?

Thanks. This is my second PGT visit and as always I enjoyed playing the PGT tournaments. Though winning the main event obviously makes this visit a lot sweeter. In any tournaments you are basically looking for good turnouts, good structures and basically quality players to play against. And PGT is one of the few tournaments in India currently that guarantees that. So PGT is something that I look forward to.

 

We have not seen you playing many tournaments in Goa. After the win are you planning on playing more tournaments?

Not really. I have always played poker as a hobby. But I do take poker seriously; it is more like a second profession. So definitely in terms of involvement I put in a lot of effort. But in term of volumes I am not too keen on that. I actually look for quality rather than quantity. So in the future I will definitely be playing more quality tournaments. So you will see me in the next PGT for sure.

 

Do share some highlights of your experience at PGT!

Pretty early in the tournament I doubled my starting stack against Hussain Lakda and knocked him out. It was a classic set over set hand on a board of K 5 2 where I had the set of fives and he had the twos. But after few round I lost most of that on an A J x board where I had the set of Jacks and my opponent had AK. He had runner-runner Ace and King and I was back to slightly over starting stack. I thought this was the key moment for me because I just took a deep breath and just went back to grinding. I knew immediately I was in a good state of mind and I was playing well. I had some timely bluffs, some good laydowns. Also I was happy with some of the incorrect decisions I made like calling with 33 on a board of 2 5 7 where I lost the chip lead to sushi. I thought my thought process was right even though the result was not. Also some of the shoves by my opponents were really very helpful. Their timing was so wrong (no offense) which helped me a lot in building a huge stack. Also I have never experienced such a massive chip lead going into the final table. Having close to 3.5x times the chips to your nearest competitor was insane. Though I must confess in a weird way there was some added pressure just because of that massive chip lead to take the main event home. But all in all it ended well. I guess this main event was mine to take and I did it.

 

So how long have you been playing poker and how did you get started in Live Tournaments?

I have been playing poker since 2005. I was vacationing in Las Vegas and I used to play lot of blackjack and was good at it. This was also the time when Chris Moneymaker had taken the world by storm and poker boom was about to start. So curiosity got the better of me and I saw this bunch of people playing fixed limit hold’em. So I started watching them play and trying to figure out how it was being played. But standing on the sidelines it is not easy to learn the game and I have this philosophy that the fastest way to learn anything is by making mistakes and be knee deep in it. So I sat down on the table and started playing. I still remember when I was down to my last few chips I played a hand 2 8 off. My logic being all you have do is hit a pair, so it does not matter whether you have an Ace in your hand or 2 since probability of hitting the pair will be same. So I put all my money on that hand and I ended up getting a full house. The guy who lost literally cursed me for my bad play. I did not realize what I did wrong. Anyways l guess beginners luck was there for me on that day and I ended up playing 26 hours straight (only rest room breaks I took) before I lost my starting buy in. So that’s how I learnt the game and staying in Delaware (US) Atlantic City (Mini Vegas) was 1.1 hrs drive from my place. So I used to go once in 2-3 months to play tourneys. So like I said I have been playing this for some time now but more quality and less quantity. But playing infrequently and for that long has given me the opportunity to reinvent my game a few times, which has helped a lot. Also when I moved back to India a year back I thought I will miss poker but never knew there was a mini boom going on in India.

 

What are your Poker Goals for 2012?

I would like to play and win one of the major tournaments either in Macua, Cebu or even the WSOP maybe my end of 2013. So that’s my goal up until 2013. So need to see either by being staked or winning satellite I want to achieve that goal.

 

On a parting note is there anything you would like to say or add?

Yes I would like to add two things.

First, I think it is fair to say that PGT actually represents Poker in India. So poker in India is actually going to grow or fall with PGT. I think you guys have a very good brand name and the things you are trying to do in India in terms of mentorship and also having these rake free tournaments and giving back to poker community is absolutely great. You guys can dictate how tournaments need to be run and other organizers are going to follow. Having said that I think it is an added responsibility of PGT that you do not drop the ball on this one and take a back seat. What I am trying to say is PGT needs to take the leadership and ownership in promoting Poker in India. (Please do not take this negatively it more of a complement J. I think PGT is in the best position to do this.)

Second this is just a suggestion and I am not sure how the logistics and financially effective it is going to be. But for a non-Goan and a non-pro like me the biggest headache in playing tournament in Goa is the hotel/flight expenses. For me I would rather play in a raked tournament if my hotel/flight expenses were cut in half at least. I am sure you guys can team up with casinos/hotels etc and have some sort of deals for visiting poker players. In the end the number for tournaments will only grow if semi-pro players start playing this game. And semi-pros generally look at these events as a vacation. Just a thought for the future!

Thanks Vinod for taking the time to talk to us and wish you all the best for all your future endeavors.

Vinod KK Claims PGT July Edition Main Event Title

Bangalore based Vinod KK (cover image) continued his strong performance from Day 1 of the PGT main event to win the title after beating Vipun Sharma heads-up. He collected ₹6 Lakhs besting a field of 63 runners to claim the top prize .

The deep-stacked tournament had a 2-day format, which saw the final nine players returning on day 2 to resume play till we had a new PGT champion!

 

Final Table

After seven hours of play on Day 1, the following players were set to return on day 2 to play down to the winner:

1st – Vinod KK – 335,500 chips
2nd – Aditya Sushant – 100,500 chips
3rd – Madan Kumar – 99,000 chips
4th – Lawrence Melwin – 81,500 chips
5th – Amit Varma – 78,000 chips
6th – Shravan Chhabria – 77,000 chips
7th – Vipun Sharma – 76,000 chips
8th – Shawn Chatterton – 62,000 chips
9th – Santanu Saha – 36,000 chips

PGT Main Event Final Table - Top 9 players
PGT Main Event Final Table – Top 9 players

All finalists were assured to take home at least ₹35,000 but all eyes were on the top prize and the coveted PGT main event title.

Amit Varma was the first to depart from the final table, after losing a big pot when he called all-in from the big blind and Shravan Chhabria called from the button. Amit’s were dominated by Shravan’s and in the very next hand Amit made an all-in move with a similar hand, but ran into the of Lawrence Melwin.

Then an interesting hand happened with a lot of pre-flop action, which according to the event live coverage went as follows:

Madan Kumar has been raising the aggression on the final table today with several pre-flop raises going uncontested in his favor. In yet another such hand, Madan raises to 16000 from UTG, action on Shravan Chhabria who 3-bets to 41000. Madan, after thinking for a while 4-bets it to 100k. Shravan instantly folds and shows the table . “WOW!” is the general sentiment on the final table.”

Shortly thereafter Kolkata native Shawn Chatterton shoves all-in from the small blind, with the action folded to him, and gets a call from Shravan Chhabria in the big blind. Shawn’s fail to catch up against Shravan’s . Shawn is eliminated in 8th place taking home ₹40,000 in prize money.

Five minutes later the 7th place finisher had been decided, when the short stacked Santanu Saha re-shoved into Lawrence Melwin’s raise from the hijack, who was holding . The flop opens and no Ace or King came to Santanuss rescue on the board.

After an hour of swingy play, Aditya Sushant is the next one to leave the final table, after getting his Kings cracked by pocket fours. In his bust-out hand, Aditya’s are beaten by Shravan’s .

Shravan Chhabria hit the rails soon afterwards after losing a flip with against Madan Kumar’s . Shravan claimed the 5th place prize of ₹90,000.

Lawrence Melwin was the next one to leave the final table, after he re-shoved 143,000 into Vipun Sharma’s UTG raise of 45,000.

Vipun:

Lawrence:

The board ran out . Vipun hits a Jack on the river to eliminate Lawrence Melwin in 4th place.

With play down to three handed the game becomes a lot more aggressive and soon we see Madan Kumar pushing all-in from the small blind holding with Vinod making the call in the big blind with . The cowboys hold up and Madan gets eliminated in 3rd place.

The heads-up play between Vinod KK and Vipun Sharma lasts just one (!!) hand.

The final hand of the tournament has Vipun moving all-in pre-flop and he gets a call from Vinod.

Vinod:

Vipun:

The flop comes down the extraordinary , giving both players a set. The turn card is the and the river card is the , crowning Vinod KK as the PGT main event champion!

 

PokerGuru Tour ₹25,000 Main Event Final Results

PositionPlayerPrize
1stVinod KK₹6,00,000
2ndVipun Sharma₹3,30,000
3rdMadan Kumar₹2,25,000
4thLawrence Melwin₹1,40,000
5thShravan Chhabria₹90,000
6thAditya Sushant₹65,000
7thSantanu Saha₹50,000
8thShawn Chatterton₹40,000
9thAmit Varma₹35,000

Read the complete live coverage of this event here.

The PokerGuru Team congratulates all players who cashed in the event.

Online Rankings

i Top Ranked Poker Players in India
Member Won
Member Won
Member Won
₹1,29,29,197
₹1,25,88,313
₹1,21,00,140
₹1,20,22,333
5.Vinay B Vinay B
₹1,15,16,843
6.M L M L
₹1,14,45,592
₹1,09,13,473
₹1,05,83,948
₹99,75,577
₹99,60,672
Member Profit
Member Profit
Member Profit
₹55,77,649
₹50,59,154
₹47,48,174
₹46,35,740
₹44,93,503
₹43,56,316
₹43,24,686
₹42,41,254
₹41,92,614
₹41,05,805
Member Points
Member Points
Member Points
43,040
36,048
28,827
4.N K N K
28,769
26,548
25,649
24,726
24,446
9.M L M L
23,604
23,352

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