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NPS India 2025 Day 22 Recap: Suyash Sanghavi, Debayan Das & Amit Kr Jha Rake in the Top Monday Scores For Making the NPS#147 Mini Main Event Podium; Vishal Bajaj Bags Another Gold Medal
The National Poker Series India 2025 has been a raging firestorm for three straight weeks, and Monday, Day 22, was a full-blown volcanic eruption! A mind-blowing ₹7.51 Crores in prize money detonated across eight high-octane tournaments. A colossal 10,310 entries poured into PokerBaazi (including the two qualifiers), making it the single biggest day of this already legendary series. And through the smoke and fire, six players rose as first-time NPS Gold Medal champions!
But here’s the even bigger story: NPS India 2025 has officially shattered the ₹75 Crores ceiling! A staggering 199,635 entries have been logged, and the total prize money awarded has skyrocketed to a dizzying ₹76.36 Crores, leaving the ₹68.95 Crores guaranteed up to this point in the dust. The series is entering its final week, and there is a hanging expectation of more fireworks!
Monday was a monumental day, thanks in large part to the ₹5 Crores GTD NPS#147 Mini Main Event, the biggest tournament played out at this series so far, and second only to the ₹10 Crores GTD NPS#191 Main Event, which will reach its epic conclusion next Monday!
The Mini Main Event was a stage for legends, and Suyash Sanghavi seized the spotlight. This former The MoneyMaker champion finally achieved his breakthrough, claiming his first-ever NPS Gold Medal (and his second medal overall in the series). Sanghavi, who previously snagged a Bronze in the NPS#50 Sunday Kickoff, fought his way to the finale through Qualifier 4 and went on an absolute tear. A three-way deal delivered him a career-changing ₹34.91 Lakhs – almost four times his previous PokerBaazi best. This win snaps an 11-month title drought and places him among the elite 85 players with multiple medals this series. He’s also the 27th player from Maharashtra to capture Gold this year, jumping to #13 on the state leaderboard.
Debayan Das, another former The MoneyMaker champion, came incredibly close to Mini Main Event glory himself, but a smart three-way deal landed him an even larger payout—₹35.49 Lakhs, a whopping 2.4X his previous best score. This career-high finish gave him his first-ever NPS medal – a gleaming Silver – and blasted him past the ₹1 Crore in tracked online earnings. He’s now sitting pretty at #42 on the Maharashtra State Leaderboard. With a monstrous total north of ₹36.24 Lakhs, he walked away as Monday’s top scorer, period.
Amit Kumar Jha was on the verge of ending a 2.5-month title-less streak in the Mini Main Event. The December Daily Last Chance champion snagged his first-ever NPS Bronze Medal, and the payout was even sweeter: a phenomenal ₹35.92 Lakhs – a jaw-dropping 9.5X his previous top score. This was not only a personal best for him, but with this payout, he is the biggest single scorer of the series up until now. This incredible win also boosted him to #10 on the Bihar State Leaderboard.
The Mini Main Event was dishing out fortunes, but Vishal Bajaj was busy building his own empire. He conquered the NPS#146 Monday Medley, seizing his second Gold Medal of the series and ₹8.46 Lakhs in prize money after a heads-up deal. This was his third NPS Gold overall and also his third medal of the series (2 Golds and 1 Bronze), placing him in the rarefied company of only 12 players to accomplish such a feat. Two more deep runs brought his total Monday winnings to a handsome ₹8.83 Lakhs, rocketing him to #2 on the Maharashtra State Leaderboard, where is he now breathing down the neck of the current leader, PokerBaazi Team Pro Zarvan Tumboli.
Anurag Srivastava, already a two-time Gold Medallist this series (NPS#16 Megadive and NPS#74 Wednesday Volley), was eyeing a third in the Monday Medley. He had to settle for his first-ever Silver, but the ₹7.21 Lakhs payout was nothing to sneeze at. Cashing in six out of eight NPS events on Monday, he stacked up over ₹7.70 Lakhs, sailing past ₹50 Lakhs in lifetime NPS earnings. He’s further cemented his lead on the Delhi State Leaderboard, now holding the #4 spot on the NPC Leaderboard, #47 on the NPS Series Leaderboard, and #23 in PokerBaazi’s 2025 POY rankings.
Vasu Tyagi, one of the fresh faces joining the NPS winner’s circle, scored big in NPS#145 Deepdive. He grabbed his first NPS medal (a glorious Gold) and a career-topping ₹4.83 Lakhs – more than double his previous best. With another cash, his Monday earnings totalled ₹4.86 Lakhs, and he is now #10 on the Uttar Pradesh State Leaderboard. Debapriya Manna, already flaunting a Silver from NPS#64 Deepdive and a fifth-place finish in NPS#141 (7-Max) SPRINT, kept the momentum going. He picked up another Silver in the Deepdive, scoring ₹3.37 Lakhs – their best of 2025 and seventh-biggest career score. With a total take of over ₹3.51 Lakhs on Monday, Manna sits at #10 on the West Bengal State Leaderboard.
Ashit Sharma (Won NPS#149 Knockout (PKO) for ₹4.21 Lakhs), Sashi Datta (Won NPS#148 Megadive for ₹3.72 Lakhs), Anish Arora (Won NPS#143 Slamdunk for ₹2.88 Lakhs), Amulya Krishna (Won NPS#144 (7- Max) Hyper for ₹2.68 Lakhs) and Dhaval Solanki (Won NPS#142 Marathon for ₹1.77 Lakhs) were the other Gold Medal conquerors of the day!
On the NPS Series Leaderboard, Bhanu Prakash KC is still the player to catch, having further extended his lead by accumulating 31,070 points from a mind-boggling 120 cashes. Vinay Rajpal is a close second, sitting at 28,270 points with an even more astonishing 128 cashes, keeping the pressure on. Rising Star Aman Parakh holds onto third place with 26,820 points from 111 cashes.
Outside the NPS India 2025 vortex, other platforms also saw their share of big wins.
On Natural8 India, Pranay Chawla, after almost nine months away from the platform, returned with a vengeance, proving he hasn’t lost a step. Facing a field of 668 entries in PLO Bounty Hunters 54, he seized control and captured his fifth recorded title on the platform and a ₹5.71 Lakhs payday – his second-biggest score on the site.
Parmeet Singh Arora, Young Gun Siddhanth Kripalani, Jatin Sablani, Kamal Punjabi, Aditya Chodhary, Sneha Moondra Heda, Sharad Haridasan, and Nishant Pandey also scored big in the other Monday marquees.
Here are the Monday highlights!
PokerBaazi
NPS#147 Mini Main Event – ₹5 Crores GTD
Buy-in – ₹5,750
Total Entries – 5,032
Total Re-entries – 2,392
Survivors – 835
Prize Pool – ₹5,00,00,000
Places Paid – 835
The ₹100 Crores GTD National Poker Series India 2025 isn’t just making history; it’s detonating it, leaving all previous records in a smouldering heap! Day 22 was a pure adrenaline shot, a poker spectacle that defied all expectations. A staggering 10,310 entries flooded the PokerBaazi tables across eight high-voltage tournaments and qualifiers for two NPS behemoths—the colossal ₹10 Crores GTD NPS#191 Main Event and the ₹1 Crore GTD NPS#190 Golden Rush.
While there were some significant overlays, the combined ₹7.25 Crores guarantee wasn’t just reached—it was annihilated, exploding to a breathtaking ₹7.51 Crores – a 3.5% increase. If anyone doubted the explosive growth of Indian poker, consider this the definitive answer! With only a week remaining, this series is building towards a climax of epic proportions.
And here’s the banner headline—the NPS India 2025 has officially smashed through the ₹75 Crores milestone! With a mind-bending 199,635 entries recorded to date, the total prize money awarded has rocketed to ₹76.36 Crores, leaving the ₹68.95 Crores guaranteed up to this point in the dust.
Maharashtra is flexing its muscles in this series, dominating the medal tally for the 12th time in 22 days. The state’s poker sharks added five more medals to their overflowing treasure chest, including two Golds, strengthening their already iron grip.
And Maharashtra’s crowning achievement came in the day’s main attraction—the ₹5 Crores GTD NPS#147 Mini Main Event. The 16th event of the series to boast an eight-figure prize pool (and the biggest tournament yet!) was a white-knuckle, down-to-the-wire brawl as players scrapped for a payday that could change their lives.
Every poker player harbours a dream of a career-making score, and on Day 22 of the NPS India 2025, Suyash ‘tyso2506’ Sanghavi‘s dream became a reality! No stranger to success – he’s a former The MoneyMaker champion- proving Sanghavi has been an intermittent yet potent force on the platform for almost four years! But he entered NPS India 2025 with a clean slate in the medal department and a fire in his belly to rewrite that narrative. He tasted some of that glory in the NPS#50 Sunday Kickoff, battling to a respectable third place and snatching a Bronze Medal—his first-ever NPS hardware. But last night, he wasn’t just playing; he was forging his legend!

The NPS#147 Mini Main Event was a beast of a tournament, reeling in 7,424 entries across nine starting flights. The grand finale saw 835 battle-tested survivors return at 7:30 PM, each with one goal—grabbing the biggest slice of that jaw-dropping prize pool and that coveted Gold.
Sanghavi, who punched his ticket through Qualifier 4, tackled the brutal 7.5-hour finale with the heart of a lion. And when the smoke cleared, he stood as the champion, capturing his first-ever NPS Gold Medal (his second medal of the series) and a career-defining ₹34.91 Lakhs after a three-way deal —a staggering 3.88X increase over his previous best score on PokerBaazi, injecting a massive dose of adrenaline into his bankroll.
This monumental victory snapped an 11-month title dry spell, marking his second career title on the platform and his first of 2025. It also launched him into an exclusive club—one of just 85 players to win multiple medals at NPS India 2025. His triumph made him the 27th player from Maharashtra to seize Gold this year, skyrocketing him to #13 on the Maharashtra State Leaderboard—a meteoric rise in one of the series’ most fiercely contested state-level battles.
Suyash Sanghavi’s PokerBaazi stats: Site Winnings: ₹64.74 Lakhs| Site Profits: ₹46.17 Lakhs | Titles Won in 2025: #1 | Moves to #13 on the Maharashtra State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 1 Gold, 1 Bronze | Lifetime NPS Winnings: ₹46.60 Lakhs
The Mini Main Event delivered a heart-stopping heads-up duel, an all-Maharashtra affair between Suyash Sanghavi and Debayan ‘Dbz19’ Das.
Das is himself a former The MoneyMaker champion and even holds the IPM#11 Big Bounty title from last year. This time, he was gunning for NPS greatness—and he came achingly close. Although he narrowly missed the top spot, his runner-up finish was a thing of beauty. Thanks to the shrewd three-way deal, Das walked away with an even bigger ₹35.49 Lakhs, which was 2.4X more than his previous top score! More importantly, this deep run earned him his first-ever NPS medal—a Silver, a defining moment in his poker career. This spectacular performance propelled Das past the ₹1 Crore milestone in tracked online winnings, with almost half of that pure profit! The deep run also shot him up to #42 on the Maharashtra State Leaderboard.

Das also made waves in the NPS#146 Monday Medley, finishing 13th for an extra ₹75,233. With a colossal total of over ₹36.24 Lakhs in earnings, he reigned supreme as Monday’s top earner, narrowly edging out his fellow podium finishers from the Mini Main Event!
Debayan Das’s online stats (PokerBaazi and PokerStars India): Lifetime Winnings: ₹1.03 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹52.96 Lakhs | Moves to #42 on the Maharashtra State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 1 Silver | Lifetime NPS Winnings: ₹40.58 Lakhs
Joining Sanghavi and Das on the Mini Main Event podium was Amit ‘philivey007’ Kumar Jha, who almost shattered his 2.5-month title drought in spectacular fashion! The December Daily Last Chance champion played with fire in the Mini Main Event, grabbing his first-ever Bronze Medal and the lion’s share of ₹35.92 Lakhs from the three-way deal—a mind-blowing 9.5X increase over his previous best! This breakout score not only crowned him the single-biggest winner of the series so far but also catapulted him to #10 on the Bihar State Leaderboard. It was a performance that screamed dominance—loud and clear!

Amit Kumar Jha’s PokerBaazi stats: Site Winnings: ₹82.66 Lakhs | Site Profits: ₹34.02 Lakhs | Moves to #10 on the Bihar State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 1 Bronze | Lifetime NPS Winnings: ₹40.95 Lakhs
The colossal NPS#147 Mini Main Event also dished out knockout payouts for the other finalists, including Ragesh ‘Ragesh91’ Mishra (4th for ₹15.07 Lakhs), ‘BANBER’ (5th for ₹11.98 Lakhs), last night’s NPS#144 (7-Max) Hyper Silver Medallist Sagar ‘BustedAA’ Raj (6th for ₹9.45 Lakhs), Kushagra ‘Pokerbaaaz’ Kogata (7th for ₹7.10 Lakhs), and Varun ‘Willgetthere’ Devayya (8th for ₹5.10 Lakhs)!
Other notables to post deep runs in the Mini Main Event included NPS#82 Mega Rush Gold Medallist and last night’s NPS#148 Megadive finalist Kritagya ‘foldnhihota’ Sharma (10th for ₹3.85 Lakhs), NPS#111 Megadive Gold Medallist Akhilesh ‘Ikka5’ Chauhan (11th for ₹3.85 Lakhs), Siddartha ‘siddyk20’ Khandelwal (14th for ₹3.10 Lakhs), Sreeprakaash ‘fitzmagic’ Seetharaman (15th for ₹3.10 Lakhs), Rahul ‘Godfather10’ Purohit (18th for ₹2.55 Lakhs), and Janish ‘Janish1998’ Jain (19th for ₹2.55 Lakhs).
The ₹5,750 buy-in NPS#147 Mini Main Event was a massive draw, but it still fell short of its advertised guarantee by an eye-opening ₹1.29 Crores. The value was through the roof, and all 835 players who made it to the finale shared in the life-altering ₹5 Crores prize pool, with even a min-cash worth a solid ₹10,000. With opportunities like this, NPS India 2025 is the place to be for any serious poker player. It’s an opportunity that can’t be missed, and there’s still a week of heart-pounding action left to unfold!
Final Table Results
- Suyash ‘tyso2506’ Sanghavi – ₹3,490,682*
- Debayan ‘Dbz19’ Das – ₹35,49,125*
- Amit ‘Philivey007’ Kumar Jha – ₹35,92,193*
- Ragesh ‘Ragesh91’ Mishra – ₹15,06,500
- BANBER – ₹11,98,000
- Sagar ‘BustedAA’ Raj – ₹9,45,000
- Kushagra ‘Pokerbaaaz’ Kogata – ₹7,10,000
- Varun ‘Willgetthere’ Devayya – ₹5,10,000
*denotes a three-way deal
NPS#146 Monday Medley – ₹75 Lakhs GTD
Buy-in – ₹8,050
Entries – 565
Re-entries – 543
Prize Pool – ₹77,56,000
Places Paid – 186
The NPS India 2025 is turning the online poker world upside down, creating a level of excitement we’ve rarely witnessed! And now, as it thunders into its final week, things are getting seriously hot. Day 22 was a monster, with eight events concluding and a staggering ₹7.51 Crores in prize money getting thrown around. Sure, the ₹5 Crores GTD NPS#147 Mini Main Event finale made Monday a day of insane payouts, but let’s not forget the ₹75 Lakhs GTD NPS#146 Monday Medley, which kicked off just 30 minutes earlier and delivered its own brand of breathtaking drama.
The 7 PM Monday Medley supercharged the beginning of the week. With a field of 1,108 entries (565 unique) that blew the guarantee out of the water, the fight lasted almost 10 gruelling hours. Then, just before 5 AM on Tuesday, Pune’s own poker powerhouse, Vishal ‘Vishzz’ Bajaj, stood as the last player standing, grabbing his second Gold Medal of the series and a massive ₹8.46 Lakhs payday after a heads-up deal – a phenomenal return on his four bullets.

Bajaj is a familiar face in the big leagues, and his resume is pretty darn impressive. He’s a 2021 WPT India High Roller champion, won Spartan Poker’s 2023 IOPC #115 High Roller, and even placed fourth in the G.O.A.T 2.0. This online phenom consistently delivers in some of the biggest, most respected tournaments around.
And he’s been on a tear at the NPS India 2025. He already snagged a Gold Medal in the NPS#18 Marathon, a Bronze in NPS#88 Slamdunk, and other near-misses like a fourth-place finish in Saturday’s NPS#134 HighRoller (good for ₹12.33 Lakhs) and a sixth-place spot in the NPS#92 Super HighRoller (adding ₹7.06 Lakhs to his bankroll). This second Gold Medal (his third if you count last year’s NPS#55 Sunday Slamdunk win) puts him in an elite group of only 12 players to achieve this, with only a select group, including Advait Rajguru and Mohit Bohra at the top with three each. He’s also in the exclusive category of 20 players with three medals! With 22 points, he’s breathing down the neck of PokerBaazi Team Pro Zarvan Tumboli (25 points) on the Maharashtra State Leaderboard. Another Silver or Gold could very well see him dethrone the long-standing state leader.
Bajaj’s domination extended beyond the Monday Medley; he also made deep runs in two other NPS events, bringing his Monday plunder to a breathtaking ₹8.83 Lakhs (approx.)! Having played 82 events and cashed in 47, including five final table appearances and three trips to the medal podium, Bajaj is living up to his reputation as a true force of nature, and it will be a real treat watching him in this final week.
> 1st in PokerBaazi’s NPS#146 Monday Medley ₹8,45,980* (heads-up deal)
> 404th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#147 Mini Main Event for ₹23,500
> 58th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#145 Deepdive for ₹13,029
Vishal Bajaj’s online stats (PokerBaazi, Adda52, PokerStars India and Spartan Poker): Lifetime Winnings: ₹14.86 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹6.45 Crores | Titles Won in 2025: #3 | Moves to #2 on the Maharashtra State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 3 Gold & 1 Bronze | NPS Winnings: ₹74.78 Lakhs | Annual Winnings: ₹55.72 Lakhs
But Bajaj had to fight for the win. Anurag ‘Rebuy2survive’ Srivastava has been another constant threat in the NPS India 2025. He’s shown exceptional consistency with 142 events played and a staggering 80 cashes, including five final tables. He already has three medals this series – two Golds from NPS#16 Megadive and NPS#74 Wednesday Volley, and a Bronze from NPS#85 (7-Max) Friday Deepstack. Srivastava was definitely aiming for a third Gold in the Monday Medley. He came this close but still walked away with his first-ever Silver Medal and a hefty ₹7.21 Lakhs prize, thanks to the heads-up deal with Bajaj.

The Delhi State Leaderboard king cashed in six of the eight NPS events on Monday, swelling his earnings by a little over ₹7.70 Lakhs and soaring past the ₹50 Lakhs milestone in lifetime NPS winnings. He’s currently sitting pretty at #4 on the NPC Leaderboard, #47 on the overall NPS Series Leaderboard, and #23 in PokerBaazi’s 2025 POY rankings.
> 2nd in PokerBaazi’s NPS#146 Monday Medley for ₹7,20,732* (heads-up deal)
> 298th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#147 Mini Main Event for ₹28,500
> 90th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#145 Deepdive for ₹10,508
> 144th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#148 Megadive for ₹5,232
> 148th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#149 Knockout (PKO) for ₹3,792
> 223rd in PokerBaazi’s NPS#142 Marathon for ₹1,708
Anurag Srivastava’s NPS stats: Ranked #1 on the Delhi State Leaderboard | Moves to #47 on the NPS Series Leaderboard | Moves to #3 on the NPC Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 3 Gold, 1 Silver & 2 Bronze | NPS Winnings: ₹51.59 Lakhs Lakhs | Moves to #23 on PokerBaazi’s 2025 POY Leaderboard
Avadh ‘Sting240’ Shah, a long-time regular who knows how to make his online appearances count, has been having a phenomenal run of his own at the NPS India 2025. Before this series, he’d never even touched an NPS medal. Now, he has three! While the Gold still eludes him, he added his second Bronze on Monday, finishing third in the Monday Medley for ₹4.90 Lakhs – his biggest score of 2025 so far, after investing in three entries.

Shah’s Monday earnings topped ₹5.33 Lakhs, boosted by cashes in NPS#148 Megadive (16th for ₹28,776) and NPS#147 Mini Main Event (686th for ₹14,500). With one Silver and two Bronze Medals, he now sits at #5 on the Gujarat State Leaderboard but has a chasm to cross with Mohit Bohra with 40 points (3 Gold and 2 Silver Medals), looking like a lock to make the National Poker Champion showdown in Goa.
Avadh Shah’s online stats (PokerBaazi’s Adda52 and Spartan Poker): Lifetime Winnings: ₹3.88 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹53.57 Lakhs | Moves to #5 on the Gujarat State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 1 Silver & 2 Bronze | NPS Winnings: ₹24.89 Lakhs
The NPS#146 Monday Medley final table was a murderer’s row of poker talent, featuring Sunday’s Big Whale finalist Saurabh ‘Twister’ Rohila (5th for ₹2.65 Lakhs), recent Adda52 Millions champion Young Gun Sanat ‘mehro2511’ Mehrotra (6th for ₹1.97 Lakhs), last night’s NPS#145 Deepdive finalist Loveleen ‘kartoos’ Singh (7th for ₹1.47 Lakhs), and Friday’s Supreme podium finisher Aditya ‘pnutbutterbacon’ Navalkar (8th for ₹1.19 Lakhs).
With the tension building as the NPS India 2025 enters its final week, Monday was pure fireworks, and the NPS#146 Monday Medley was a big part of that explosion. It crushed its guarantee, creating a gigantic ₹77.56 Lakhs prize pool. The top 186 finishers all got a piece of the pie, with a minimum payout of ₹13,961—1.7 times the initial ₹8,050 buy-in. If Monday was any indication, this final week is going to be legendary!
Final Table Results
- Vishal ‘Vishzz’ Bajaj – ₹8,45,980*
- Anurag ‘Rebuy2survive’ Srivastava – ₹7,20,732*
- Avadh ‘Sting240’ Shah – ₹4,90,179
- thedev – ₹3,67,634
- Saurabh ‘Twister’ Rohila – ₹2,65,255
- Sanat ‘mehro2511’ Mehrotra – ₹1,97,002
- Loveleen ‘kartoos’ Singh – ₹1,47,364
- Aditya ‘pnutbutterbacon’ Navalkar – ₹1,19,442
*denotes a heads-up deal
NPS#145 Deepdive – ₹40 Lakhs GTD
Buy-in – ₹3,450
Entries – 712
Re-entries – 689
Prize Pool – ₹42,03,000
Places Paid – 226
The NPS India 2025 has been a brutal arena, a relentless proving ground, and Monday, Day 22, detonated as the biggest day yet in the last three weeks. We’re talking about a colossal, earth-shaking ₹7.51 Crores in prize money distributed, with eight players seizing those glorious, hard-fought Gold Medals. It was a day of savage clashes, dramatic reversals, and stunning comebacks. Among the six players who tasted that golden sweetness for the first time was Vasu ‘BrothermanV’ Tyagi.

For months, Tyagi had been a silent predator, lurking in the shadows, a casual player, dipping in and out of the scene since October 2023. Big wins for him had been as rare as desert rain. The last time he’d felt the rush of victory was over a year ago, back in February 2024, when he took down the Blockbuster. But Day 22 of NPS India 2025 was when Tyagi decided to author a new chapter.
PokerBaazi’s ₹40 Lakhs GTD NPS#145 Deepdive is where Tyagi decided to make his legendary stand. This 6:30 PM flagship event, the fourth battle in the day’s packed NPS lineup, was no quick skirmish; it was a gruelling, drawn-out marathon lasting over eight and a half hours. It took this long to carve down a fiery, almost volcanic field of 1,401 entrants (712 unique) to a single, solitary, undisputed champion. It was a turbulent, unpredictable contest, but when the dust finally settled, Tyagi stood alone, the victor, clutching a game-changing ₹4.83 Lakhs. This wasn’t just a win; it was a financial earthquake for Tyagi, more than doubling his previous best score from that long-ago Blockbuster win. And, of course, the real prize: his first, hard-earned NPS Gold Medal!
This victory was a resurrection. After a long stretch of almost-glories, Tyagi was back, proving that dedication and grit pay off. His climb also shook up the rankings, pushing him to #10 on the Uttar Pradesh State Leaderboard.
A little extra cash from a 168th place finish in the NPS#143 Slamdunk (₹3,000) meant Tyagi’s Monday haul was a striking ₹4.86 Lakhs plus change – a near-miraculous recovery that almost single-handedly pulled him out of a year-long slump!
Vasu Tyagi`s PokerBaazi stats: Site Winnings: ₹22.92 Lakhs | Moves to #10 on the Uttar Pradesh State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 1 Gold | Lifetime NPS Winnings: ₹7.17 Lakhs
But the NPS#145 Deepdive wasn’t just Tyagi’s story. Debapriya ‘detulelungikhul’ Manna was also on a quest for that elusive first Gold. Manna was playing with a purpose after having already tasted Silver in the NPS#64 Deepdive and with a strong fifth-place finish in the NPS#141 (7-Max) SPRINT just the night before. He battled his way through the massive field all the way to the final two. But the poker gods can be fickle and the Gold Medal remained just out of his grasp.

Nevertheless, Manna still walked away with a well-earned ₹3.37 Lakhs and his second Silver Medal, his second one from the series – his top score of 2025 and seventh-biggest on the platform. And the night still held more for him. With a couple of other minor cashes in two other NPS events, Manna’s Monday winnings were a sweet pile of over ₹3.51 Lakhs. This performance did more than just fatten his wallet; it also bumped him to #10 on the West Bengal State Leaderboard.
> 2nd in PokerBaazi’s NPS#145 Deepdive for ₹3,37,081
> 830th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#147 Mini Main Event for ₹10,000
> 119th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#143 Slamdunk for ₹4,250
Debapriya Manna’s online stats (PokerBaazi, Adda52 and Spartan Poker): Lifetime Winnings: ₹3.50 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹71.91 Lakhs | Moves to #10 on the West Bengal State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 2 Silver | NPS Winnings: ₹22.71 Lakhs
Sachit ‘Happihigh’ Malik was also right there, trying to shake off a frustrating three-month title dry spell. After a soul-crushing runner-up finish in NPS#89 (6-Max) SPRINT, he had the chance at redemption in the NPS#145 Deepdive. The dream was close, but, in the end, he had to settle for third place. It was still a noteworthy finish, adding ₹2.59 Lakhs to his bankroll —his second-largest take on the site. The elusive NPS Gold might still be out there, beckoning, but with a Silver and Bronze already in his collection, he’s now ranked #16 on the Haryana State Leaderboard.

Sachit Malik’s online stats (PokerBaazi, Adda52 and PokerStar India): Lifetime Winnings: ₹1.85 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹25.69 Lakhs | Moves to #16 on the Haryana State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 1 Silver and 1 Bronze | Lifetime NPS Winnings: ₹15.89 Lakhs
The NPS#145 Deepdive final table was a gathering of known crushers and some fresh faces looking to make a splash, like the NPS#13 Deepdive Gold Medalist and volume king Rajneesh ‘msdhoni’ Thakur (4th for ₹1.90 Lakhs), last night`s NPS#146 Monday Medley finalist Loveleen ‘kartoos’ Singh (5th for ₹1.38 Lakhs), Neeraj ‘neeraj2828’ Bajaj (6th for ₹1.01 Lakhs) and Kunal ‘symbolicchamp’ Agrawal (7th for ₹77,335).
As expected from anything bearing the NPS name, the ₹3,450 buy-in NPS#145 Deepdive was an explosive affair, completely obliterating its ₹40 Lakhs guarantee and generating a mouth-watering ₹42.03 Lakhs prize pool. With a generous 226 players getting a piece of the action, everyone who made it that far walked away with at least ₹5,884, adding fuel to the ever-burning inferno as this epic, unforgettable series races towards its dramatic climax.
Final Table Results
- Vasu ‘BrothermanV’ Tyagi – ₹4,83,345
- Debapriya ‘detulelungikhul’ Manna – ₹3,37,081
- Sachit ‘Happihigh’ Malik – ₹2,59,325
- Rajneesh ‘msdhoni’ Thakur – ₹1,89,976
- Loveleen ‘kartoos’ Singh – ₹1,37,858
- Neeraj ‘neeraj2828’ Bajaj – ₹1,00,872
- Kunal ‘symbolicchamp’ Agrawal – ₹77,335
- gladiatorp – ₹60,103
NPS#148 Megadive – ₹30 Lakhs GTD
Buy-in – ₹2,300
Entries – 803
Re- entries – 832
Prize Pool – ₹32,70,000
Places Paid – 260
If there was ever a firecracker start to the week, this past Monday was IT, with the NPS India 2025 exploding with a mind-boggling ₹7.51 Crores in prize money splattered across eight massive tournaments, all under the shadow of the gargantuan ₹5 Crores GTD NPS#147 Mini Main Event grand finale! While one poker beast snagged his second Gold Medal of the series, seven other players tasted that sweet, sweet victory for the first time this series, and among these newly-minted champions was Sashi ‘Suterisateri’ Datta, who finally snagged that elusive first win on a platform where he’d been relentlessly grinding – and it couldn’t have happened on a grander stage than the NPS.
Datta, already sporting a battle-tested Bronze Medal from the NPS#95 Marathon, elevated his game to a whole new stratosphere last night. Charging like a bull through PokerBaazi`s ₹30 Lakhs GTD NPS#148 Megadive, Datta decisively clinched that coveted Gold Medal (his first Gold and second series medal overall) with undeniable, breathtaking flair.
The 8:30 PM NPS#148 Megadive was a feeding frenzy, with a staggering 1,635 entries (803 unique) all clawing their way towards that golden dream. After a gruelling nine-hour poker battle, Datta, a former WTF runner-up and IPM#101 Megastack podium finisher, finally grasped that long-desired Gold Medal, pocketing a site-best ₹3.72 Lakhs.
With this win, Datta became the fourth player from West Bengal to boast two medals this series, and those 12 points have now catapulted him to the very top of the West Bengal State Leaderboard. However, with other state leaderboard toppers having done even better, Datta currently sits at #14 on the overall NPC Leaderboard, facing a tough, uphill climb for more medals in the final week if he wants a seat at the National Poker Champion showdown in Goa next month!
Sashi Datta’s PokerBaazi stats: Site Winnings: ₹22.49 Lakhs | Site Profits: ₹5.95 Lakhs | Titles Won in 2025: 1 | NPS stats: Moves to #1 on the West Bengal Leaderboard | Moves to #14 on the NPC Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 1 Gold & 1 Bronze | Lifetime NPS Winnings: ₹5.70 Lakhs
While Datta enjoyed his moment in the sun, Kazi Salimmiya ‘Monster8181’ Samsuddin came this close to stealing the Gold. Rising from relative obscurity, Samsuddin, a primarily low-to-mid-stakes grinder, also came incredibly close to grabbing his first-ever victory on PokerBaazi and that prestigious Gold. He may have fallen just short in the heads-up duel, but his first-ever NPS medal (Silver) came with a platform-best ₹2.62 Lakhs cash prize, essentially wiping the slate clean of all past losses and rocketing him to #8 on the Gujarat State Leaderboard!
Kazi Salimmiya Samsuddin`s PokerBaazi stats: Site Winnings: ₹2.90 Lakhs | Site Profits: ₹2.53 Lakhs | Moves to #8 on the Gujarat State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 1 Silver | NPS Winnings: ₹2.62 Lakhs
Taking third place and the well-deserved Bronze was a familiar face, Mitesh ‘mikeknp’ Gupta. Gupta, known for his impressive fourth-place finish in Spartan Poker’s FTS#58 Game of Diamonds, a commanding victory in IOPC#107 Wednesday High, and another top finish in Adda52’s MHWColossus, surprisingly hadn’t booked a win in two years. Coming off a promising deep run in Natural8 India’s Deepstack No Limit Holdem Championship just a few weeks ago, Gupta sliced and diced his way through the brutal, unforgiving field in the Megadive, eventually collecting the Bronze Medal (his first piece of coveted NPS hardware) and a well-earned ₹1.99 Lakhs.

Adding a little on top of his fiery podium finish, Gupta also cashed in the NPS#149 Knockout (PKO) (200th for ₹4,177), boosting his Monday take to almost ₹2.04 Lakhs.
Mitesh Gupta’s online stats (PokerBaazi, Adda52 and Spartan Poker): Lifetime Winnings: ₹2.84 Crores | Moves to #34 on the Uttar Pradesh State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 1 Bronze | NPS Winnings: ₹15.19 Lakhs
The NPS#148 Megadive final table was loaded with talented players riding a wave of success in the series, including Saturday’s NPS#122 Slamdunk Gold Medallist Rajvardhan ‘mrmeeseeks0405’ Kavi (4th for ₹1.45 Lakhs), NPS#82 Mega Rush Gold Medallist Kritagya ‘Foldnhihota’ Sharma (6th for ₹73,248), and NPS#127 Value Mine Silver Medallist Saroj ‘angrychidiya’ Chudasma (7th for ₹58,860).
And with the NPS India 2025 barreling into its final week, the ₹2,300 buy-in NPS#148 Megadive kept the adrenaline pumping by obliterating its guarantee, creating a tempting ₹32.70 Lakhs prize pool. The top 260 players got a piece of that pie, with payouts starting at ₹3,597 – adding to an explosive day of poker action at this epic series.
Final Table Results
- Sashi ‘Suterisateri’ Datta – ₹3,71,799
- Kazi Salimmiya ‘Monster8181’ Samsuddin – ₹2,61,600
- Mitesh ‘mikeknp’ Gupta – ₹1,99,470
- Rajvardhan ‘mrmeeseeks0405’ Kavi – ₹1,45,515
- Shakespeare – ₹1,05,294
- Kritagya ‘Foldnhihota’ Sharma – ₹73,248
- Saroj ‘angrychidiya’ Chudasma – ₹58,860
- maddy00007 – ₹46,761
NPS#143 Slamdunk – ₹25 Lakhs GTD
Buy-in – ₹1,725
Entries – 708
Re-entries – 711
Prize Pool – ₹25,00,000
Places Paid – 242
The arrival of a new week ignited a firestorm of first-time champions at the NPS India 2025, with Monday’s action witnessing six players etching their names in the gold medal column for the very first time. But perhaps no one deserved the victory more than Anish ‘PapaNegreanu’ Arora.
Many might remember Arora for steering Team Crushers to victory in PokerBaazi’s “Poker MasterClass” on Jio Cinema. Yet, since his December 1 win in Adda52’s Sunday Head Hunter, he’d been conspicuously absent from the winner’s circle. That, however, was most certainly not from a lack of trying.

Instead of retreating, Arora remained in the trenches, grinding with a focused intensity. Over the past 3.5 months, he’s put together an astounding 12 final table appearances, including some agonizingly close runner-up finishes in PokerBaazi’s Summit Lite and Adda52’s Roller Coaster! He’s been a dedicated soldier in the NPS campaign, playing a staggering 122 tournaments, cashing in a remarkable 49% of them, and even making two final table appearances. His time away from the winner’s circle wasn’t a retreat—it was the drawing back of a bow, storing power for a decisive shot. The victory had been brewing for a while!
And then, Monday struck. Arora let loose a firestorm of skill in PokerBaazi’s ₹25 Lakhs GTD NPS#143 Slamdunk. This 4 PM showdown, the second event on the day’s NPS agenda, was a brutal, nearly ten-hour-long struggle (nine hours and 47 minutes, to be exact), drawing a dense crowd of 1,419 entries (708 unique players). When the final river card fell, Arora was the one left standing tall, finally grasping that NPS medal he’d been so fiercely chasing (a dazzling Gold, at that!) and a hefty ₹2.88 Lakhs—his third-biggest prize on the platform, sending him soaring to #14 on the Maharashtra State Leaderboard!
But Arora’s Monday wasn’t just about one tournament. He also slid into the money in four other NPS events, including a nail-biting fourth-place finish in NPS#149 Knockout (PKO). By the end of his Monday grind session, his total earnings had ballooned to over ₹4.36 Lakhs.
> 1st in PokerBaazi’s NPS#143 Slamdunk for ₹2,87,500
> 4th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#149 Knockout (PKO) for ₹1,32,209
> 133rd in PokerBaazi’s NPS#145 Deepdive for ₹7,986
> 114th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#144 (7-Max) Hyper for ₹5,026
> 224th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#148 Megadive for ₹3,597
Anish Arora’s online stats (PokerBaazi, Adda52 and Spartan Poker): Lifetime Winnings: ₹4.84 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹1.21 Crores | Moves to #14 on the Maharashtra State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 1 Gold | Lifetime NPS Winnings: ₹21.53 Lakhs
Navaneeth ‘kingloser’ Krishna P.K., a player who’s been in the game since March 2020 and still yearning for that maiden online title, came this close to his own breakthrough, almost capturing his first NPS Gold in the NPS#143 Slamdunk. Although he ultimately had to settle for the runner-up position, he still scooped up a substantial ₹2.01 Lakhs – his second-largest score on the platform and a prestigious NPS Silver Medal to kickstart his collection. This impressive run made Navaneeth the fourth player from Kerala to win a medal in this series, rocketing him to #2 on the state leaderboard, where he trails the two-time Silver Medallist Sreekanth Narayan.
Two other deep runs rounded out his Monday, boosting his total winnings to a little under ₹2.21 Lakhs, wiping out nearly a quarter of his accumulated losses from the past five months!
> 2nd in PokerBaazi’s NPS#143 Slamdunk for ₹2,01,000
> 604th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#147 Mini Main Event for ₹14,500
> 112nd in Adda52’s NPS#148 Megadive for ₹5,232
Navaneeth Krishna P.K`s PokerBaazi stats: Site Winnings: ₹29.32 Lakhs | Moves to #2 on the Kerala State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 1 Silver | Lifetime NPS Winnings: ₹11.81 Lakhs
Ashish ‘OMG_spew’ Munot, Chennai’s ‘High Stakes Crusher,‘ added another sparkling jewel to his already crown-like poker resume. Having already claimed Gold in the NPS#19 Micro HighRoller and Silver in the NPS#102 Big Knockout (KO), Munot finally completed the set, seizing Bronze in the NPS#143 Slamdunk and boosting his bankroll by ₹1.54 Lakhs after a six-bullet assault.

Already reigning supreme on the Tamil Nadu State Leaderboard, this third medal launched Munot to #10 on the overall NPC Leaderboard with 17 points. It will be a Herculean task for his fellow state players to knock this titan off his perch.
With a poker resume that reads like a “who’s who” of tournament victories—The Millionaire (twice!), FTS Super HighRoller, IOPC Super HighRoller, PokerBaazi’s APT Online India Mini Main Event, and BTS 2.0 Main Event to name just a few, Munot truly is in a class of his own.
Munot wasn’t just narrowly focused on one tournament—he spread his efforts across multiple events. Deep runs in four other NPS tournaments pushed his Monday earnings to just under ₹2.42 Lakhs.
> 3rd in PokerBaazi’s NPS#143 Slamdunk for ₹1,54,250
> 102nd in PokerBaazi’s NPS#147 Mini Main Event for ₹72,500
> 178th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#145 Deepdive for ₹5,884
> 104th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#144 (7-Max) Hyper for ₹5,025
> 75th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#142 Marathon for ₹3,882
Ashish Munot’s online stats (PokerBaazi, Adda52 and Spartan Poker): Lifetime Winnings: ₹16.04 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹6.92 Crores | Titles Won in 2025: #3 (across all platforms) | Ranked #1 on the Tamil Nadu State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 1 Gold, 2 Silver & 1 Bronze | Lifetime NPS Winnings: ₹67.39 Lakhs
The NPS#143 Slamdunk final table also witnessed strong showings from Avishek ‘Ronywalker’ Mistry (5th for ₹82,000), last night`s NPS#149 Knockout (PKO) Gold Medallist Ashit ‘nexus010’ Sharma (6th for ₹60,000), and Akshay ‘jumlebaz’ Kumar (8th for ₹35,750).
On a Monday that was nothing short of explosive at the NPS India 2025, the ₹1,725 buy-in NPS#143 Slamdunk was one of the few events to fall short of its guarantee, with a ₹3.72 Lakhs overlay! Yet, it was a lucrative undertaking for the 242 players who made the money; each player guaranteed at least ₹3,000 from the promised ₹25 Lakhs prize pool. The series is now in its final, most intense stage, and the promise of even greater drama hangs heavy in the air.
Final Table Results
- Anish ‘PapaNegreanu’ Arora – ₹2,87,500
- Navaneeth ‘kingloser’ Krishna. P.K – ₹2,01,000
- Ashish ‘OMG_spew’ Munot – ₹1,54,250
- CrystalTurtle44 – ₹1,13,000
- Avishek ‘Ronywalker’ Mistry – ₹82,000
- Ashit ‘nexus010’ Sharma – ₹60,000
- Reddington – ₹46,000
- Akshay ‘jumlebaz’ Kumar – ₹35,750
NPS#149 Knockout (PKO) – ₹20 Lakhs GTD
Buy-in – ₹2,875
Entries – 680
Re-entries – 807
Regular Prize Pool – ₹22,30,500
Bounty Prize Pool – ₹14,87,000
Places Paid – 248
This past Monday at NPS India 2025 wasn’t just another day on the calendar—it was a full-blown poker explosion, kicking off the week with a jaw-dropping ₹7.51 Crores paid out across eight monster tournaments. It was, without a doubt, the biggest day yet for this NPS! Among the eight players who struck gold, six were experiencing that championship rush for the first time, while two battle-hardened pros, including Delhi’s own Ashit ‘nexus010’ Sharma, added some serious sparkle to their already glittering trophy cases!

Sharma, who snagged a Gold Medal in the 2023 NPS#19 Relay, has been a relentless predator throughout this series, on the hunt for another title. His NPS India 2025 medal campaign kicked off with a Silver in the NPS#50 Sunday Kickoff, but his moment of absolute triumph arrived last night in the ₹20 Lakhs GTD NPS#149 Knockout (PKO).
Sharma fired a single, perfectly aimed bullet in this high-octane 9:30 PM PKO battle, outmanoeuvring a massive field of 1,487 entries (680 unique) over 10 gruelling hours to seize his second-ever NPS Gold Medal and his second medal of the series! The late-night battle went on till well into Tuesday morning, and Sharma’s dominant performance netted him a hefty ₹4.21 Lakhs, which included a whopping ₹1.66 Lakhs in bounties—proof that his aggressive, bounty-hunting style was on point. This victory elevated Sharma to the exclusive club of 85 players with multiple medals at NPS India 2025, and it shot him up to #5 on the highly competitive Delhi State Leaderboard.
But Sharma was far from done. He went on a tear, posting five more deep runs (cashing in six of the day’s eight NPS events!), including a final table appearance in the NPS#143 Slamdunk. His total Monday haul soared to ₹5.10 Lakhs, pushing him to #29 on the NPS Series Leaderboard with 21,379 points from a phenomenal 87 cashes and landing him in the #2 spot on PokerBaazi’s fiercely contested 2025 POY Leaderboard.
> 1st in PokerBaazi’s NPS#149 Knockout (PKO) for ₹4,20,788* (₹1,66,511 in bounties)
> 6th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#143 Slamdunk for ₹60,000
> 784th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#147 Mini Main Event for ₹10,000
> 65th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#144 (7-Max) Hyper for ₹8,522
> 168th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#145 Deepdive for ₹5,884
> 55th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#142 Marathon for ₹4,814
Ashit Sharma’s online stats (PokerBaazi, Adda52 and Spartan Poker): Lifetime Winnings: ₹9.14 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹2.53 Crores | Titles Won in 2025: #2 | Moves to #5 on the Delhi State Leaderboard | Moves to #29 on NPS Series Leaderboard| NPS Medals Won: 2 Gold, 1 Silver | Lifetime NPS Winnings: ₹39.23 Lakhs | Moves to #2 on PokerBaazi’s POY Race
While Ashit Sharma was revelling in his Gold Medal glory, another poker beast was hot on his heels, snapping at his lead—Neeraj ‘Dattebayo7’ Sattawat. The NPS#105 Slamdunk Gold Medallist and NPS#141 (7-Max) SPRINT Silver Medallist has been on an absolute tear, and he wasn’t about to let up!

Sattawat—who finished #11 in the record-breaking 2024 POY race—has been dominating 2025, bringing that same explosive energy to his NPS India 2025 campaign. He fired two bullets in the NPS#149 Knockout (PKO) and nearly took it down, locking in his third medal of the series – his career-sixth Silver Medal (his ninth NPS medal overall)! This is a player forging an NPS dynasty!
His deep run earned him a well-deserved ₹2.42 Lakhs, including a healthy ₹64,023 in bounties. This finish made him one of a select group of just 27 players in the series with three or more medals—a rare achievement that underscores his consistent excellence.
Sattawat’s killer performance launched him to the very top of the Rajasthan State Leaderboard, toppling the long-reigning leader, Shagun Jain. And that’s not all – he also burst into the top 10 of the overall NPC Leaderboard, landing at #8. He’s undeniably among the top contenders to make the National Poker Champion showdown in Goa.
As always, Sattawat wasn’t satisfied with a single deep run—he put in a full day’s work, racking up four more deep runs in the NPS, taking his Monday take-home to over ₹2.94 Lakhs. This surge pushed him to #15 on the NPS Series Leaderboard with 23,344 points from an incredible 97 cashes, and he climbed to #12 on PokerBaazi’s 2025 POY Leaderboard.
> 2nd in PokerBaazi’s NPS#149 Knockout (PKO) for ₹2,41,963* (₹64,023 in bounties)
> 258th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#147 Mini Main Event for ₹28,500
> 104th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#146 Monday Medley for ₹17,839
> 124th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#143 Slamdunk for ₹4,250
> 226th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#142 Marathon for ₹1,708
Neeraj Sattawat’s online stats (PokerBaazi, Adda52 and Spartan Poker): Lifetime Winnings: ₹6.85 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹2.74 Crores | Titles Won in 2025: #5 | Moves to #1 on the Rajasthan State Leaderboard | Moves to #8 on the NPC Leaderboard | Moves to #15 on the NPS Series Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 2 Gold, 6 Silver, & 1 Bronze | Lifetime NPS Winnings: ₹52.76 Lakhs | Moves to #12 on PokerBaazi’s POY Race
The NPS India 2025 grind has been unforgiving, but Sony ‘swAAmi’ Puthussery is proving he’s got the skills and endurance to thrive under pressure. A regular in the mid-stakes arena, Puthussery once again made waves, claiming his second Bronze Medal of the series in the NPS#149 Knockout (PKO).
This isn’t new territory for him—Puthussery already had a Bronze from the NPS#42 (PLO-5) Megadive and came into this fight with a Gold and Silver from past editions, making this his fourth NPS medal overall. His strong performance in the PKO event lined his pockets with ₹1.65 Lakhs, including a respectable ₹28,856 in bounties! This boosted Puthussery to #3 on the Kerala State Leaderboard.
Puthussery’s ambition extended far beyond a single event—he cashed in five other NPS tournaments on Monday, bringing his total winnings to a tidy ₹2.21 Lakhs.
Sony Puthussery’s online stats (PokerBaazi, Adda52 and Spartan Poker): Lifetime Winnings: ₹2.66 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹85.64 Lakhs | Titles Won in 2025: #3| Moves to #3 on the Kerala State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 1 Gold, 1 Silver, & 2 Bronze | Lifetime NPS Winnings: ₹19.94 Lakhs
Other big names making waves on the NPS#149 Knockout (PKO) final table included last night’s NPS#143 Slamdunk Gold Medallist Anish ‘PapaNegreanu’ Arora (4th for ₹1.32 Lakhs), Saurav ‘eternalgambler’ Gupta (5th for ₹95,534), NPS#120 Wednesday Volley Silver Medallist Vishal ‘Darky’ Ojha (6th for ₹72,338), and Shubham ‘backchod’ Agarwal (7th for ₹49,524).
The ₹2,875 buy-in NPS#149 Knockout (PKO) was another log on the Monday bonfire at NPS India 2025, creating a massive ₹22.31 Lakhs prize pool. The top 248 finishers all got a piece of the action, each earning at least ₹2,677, in addition to whatever bounties they managed to collect from the extra ₹14.87 Lakhs bounty pool. Day 22 of NPS India 2025 served up another helping of high-octane poker action, offering a tantalizing taste of the even greater excitement yet to come in the final week.
Final Table Results
- Ashit ‘nexus010’ Sharma – ₹4,20,788
- Neeraj ‘Dattebayo7’ Sattawat – ₹2,41,963
- Sony ‘swAAmi’ Puthussery – ₹1,64,917
- Anish ‘PapaNegreanu’ Arora – ₹1,32,209
- Saurav ‘eternalgambler’ Gupta – ₹95,534
- Vishal ‘Darky’ Ojha – ₹72,338
- Shubham ‘backchod’ Agarwal – ₹49,524
- pk0822 – ₹41,959
NPS#144 (7- Max) Hyper – ₹20 Lakhs GTD
Buy-in – ₹2,875
Entries – 386
Re-entries – 488
Prize Pool – ₹21,85,000
Places Paid – 143
NPS India 2025 has been driving the online poker action for the past three weeks, and Monday detonated like never before, with a mind-blowing ₹7.51 Crores in prize money splattered across the eight featured events and six players ascending to the throne as first-time NPS champions!
Among this newly-forged golden group was Amulya ‘Amulyeaah’ Krishna. Krishna, a regular on PokerBaazi since July 2022. Krishna chose the ₹20 Lakhs GTD NPS#144 (7-Max) Hyper as his battlefield. A massive 386 players (874 total entries) joined the evening frenzy, kicking things off at 5:30 PM. Krishna, a two-time Daily SPRINT champion (his last victory in January 2024), navigated this lightning-fast skirmish with the precision of a surgeon, steamrolling through a rapid-fire four-hour and 10-minute session – ending a dry spell that stretched over a year. This wasn’t merely a win; it was the realization of a poker player’s dream: claiming that coveted Gold Medal.
With this stunning performance, Krishna, the IPM#7 (5-Max) Hyper podium finisher and fresh off his NPS#98 Megadive final table appearance, locked down his first-ever flagship title on the platform and a career-best ₹2.68 Lakhs after firing three entries, just edging out his previous high score from that Megadive final table.
Adding to the triumph, Krishna brought glory to Karnataka, earning his state its 17th Gold and rocketing to #13 on the state leaderboard. And, as the perfect finishing touch, Krishna also min-cashed the NPS#147 Mini Main Event (785th for ₹10,000), wrapping up his day with a haul exceeding ₹2.78 Lakhs, steadily chipping away at past losses, although he still has a way to go to get into the black.
Amulya Krishna’s PokerBaazi stats: Site Winnings: ₹34.11 Lakhs | Titles Won in 2025: #1 | Moves to #13 on the Karnataka State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 1 Gold | Lifetime NPS Winnings: ₹7.20 Lakhs
Right on Krishna’s tail was the online force known as Sagar ‘BustedAA’ Raj. Riding the wave of his recent victory in the NPS#135 (7-Max) SPRINT, Raj, the 2024 POY #18, came dangerously close to grabbing his second Gold Medal of the series. While he just missed out on the ultimate prize, he still walked away with the Silver and a handsome ₹1.83 Lakhs runner-up payout.

Raj now sits at the peak of the Madhya Pradesh State Leaderboard, with other Gold Medallists from his state like Puneet Mishra and Saransh Garg within striking distance, and he also holds a commendable #11 rank on the overall NPC Leaderboard, positioning him as a serious threat to make it to the National Poker Champion showdown in Goa.
But Raj, the 2024 DPT Grand dual bracelet winner and the 2024 NPS#97 Marathon Gold Medallist, had more than one iron in the fire. He also charged into the final table of the NPS#147 Mini Main Event, finishing sixth for a whopping ₹9.45 Lakhs! Adding two more deep runs, his Monday spoils nearly reached an astounding ₹11.79 Lakhs!
> 6th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#147 Mini Main Event for ₹9,45,000
> 2nd in PokerBaazi’s NPS#144 (7-Max) Hyper for ₹1,82,885
> 11th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#149 Knockout (PKO) for ₹44,936
> 225th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#145 Deepdive for ₹5,884
Sagar Raj’s online stats (PokerBaazi, Adda52, PokerStars India and Spartan Poker): Lifetime Winnings: ₹5.85 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹1.73 Crores | Titles Won in 2025: #4 | Moves to #1 on the Madya Pradesh State Leaderboard | Moves to #11 on the NPC Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 2 Golds & 1 Silver | Lifetime NPS Winnings: ₹39.74 Lakhs
Then there was another ‘Hyper’ specialist from Madhya Pradesh, Vignesh ‘Rajjni007’ Kumar (opted out of our tracking), the 2024 NPS#6 Deepdive Silver Medallist. Still buzzing from snagging the Bronze Medal in NPS#91 (5-Max) Hyper, Kumar added another Bronze to his growing poker trophy case, taking third place in NPS#144 (7-Max) Hyper and earning a solid ₹1.43 Lakhs, placing him at #7 on the Maharashtra State Leaderboard.
Kumar also made the money line in the NPS#147 Mini Main Event, finishing 160th for ₹45,000, bringing his total Monday haul to almost ₹1.88 Lakhs.
Vignesh Kumar’s NPS stats: Moves to #7 on the Maharashtra State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 2 Bronze | Lifetime NPS Winnings: ₹17.92 Lakhs
The NPS#144 (7-Max) Hyper final table also featured other notables like last week’s NPS#107 (7-Max) SPRINT Bronze Medallist Sameer ‘tandoori’ Agarwal (5th for ₹78,005), NPS#122 Slamdunk Silver Medallist and a dual Bronze Medallist of NPS India 2025, Prateek ‘CHOTUU88’ Parakh (6th for ₹58,995), and Gauravjit ‘gora981’ Singh (8th for ₹45,320).
These Hyper tournaments have been a runaway success at the NPS India 2025, and the NPS#144 (7- Max) Hyper was another prime example, the ₹2,875 buy-in event generating a juicy ₹21.85 Lakhs prize pool! There’s a mountain of action still to come, and this final week of this monumental series is already shaping up to be one for the ages.
Final Table Results
- Amulya ‘Amulyeaah’ Krishna – ₹2,68,100
- Sagar ‘BustedAA’ Raj – ₹1,82,885
- Vignesh ‘Rajjni007’ Kumar – ₹1,42,899
- donkabomber2 – ₹1,08,158
- Sameer ‘tandoori’ Agarwal – ₹78,005
- Prateek ‘CHOTUU88’ Parakh – ₹58,995
- Gauravjit ‘gora981’ Singh – ₹45,230
NPS#142 Marathon – ₹15 Lakhs GTD
Buy-in – ₹1,150
Entries – 740
Re-entries – 813
Prize Pool – ₹15,53,000
Places Paid – 260
Day 22 of the NPS India 2025 was another gold rush, with eight champions crowned and a stunning six players claiming their first-ever Gold Medals. Among these newly minted winners was Dhaval ‘TheMaHaKaL’ Solanki, who conquered PokerBaazi’s ₹15 Lakhs GTD NPS#142 Marathon, seizing a sweet ₹1.77 Lakhs prize.

The action-packed NPS#142 Marathon kicked off the Monday madness at 2:30 PM, drawing a packed crowd of 1,533 entries (740 unique). After a grueling nine-plus hours of poker combat, Solanki, who fired two bullets, emerged as the last player standing. This triumph not only gave Solanki his first-ever NPS medal (and a Gold one, at that!) but also his third-best score of 2025!
Solanki’s impressive Monday wasn’t a one-hit-wonder—he also carved out a respectable run in the NPS#146 Monday Medley, finishing 138th for an extra ₹13,961. This stellar performance boosted his day`s total to a nifty ₹1.91 Lakhs, sending him soaring to #3 on the Gujarat State Leaderboard.
Dhaval Solanki’s online stats (PokerBaazi and Spartan Poker): Lifetime Winnings: ₹1.37 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹9.01 Lakhs | Titles Won in 2025: #4 | Moves to #3 on the Gujarat State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 1 Gold | NPS Winnings: ₹6.82 Lakhs
Anurag ‘AGENTP52’ Kureel, still riding high from his Gold Medal victory in Sunday’s NPS#139 Knockout (KO), nearly pulled off a repeat performance, finishing a strong second in the NPS#142 Marathon. After two entries, Kureel walked away with his first-ever NPS Silver Medal (his second medal of the series and third overall) and a hefty ₹1.24 Lakhs payout, fueling his continued climb up the ultra-competitive Maharashtra State Leaderboard, where he now sits at #7.

With deep runs in four different NPS events on Monday, Kureel’s total Monday haul swelled to over ₹3.01 Lakhs!
> 64th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#147 Mini Main Event for ₹1,55,000
> 2nd in PokerBaazi’s NPS#142 Marathon for ₹1,24,240
> 93rd in PokerBaazi’s NPS#146 Monday Medley for ₹17,838
> 121st in PokerBaazi’s NPS#143 Slamdunk for ₹4,250
Anurag Kureel’s online stats (PokerBaazi, Adda52 and Spartan Poker): Lifetime Winnings: ₹70.45 Lakhs | Lifetime Profits: ₹29 Lakhs | Titles Won in 2025: #11 | Moves to #7 on the Maharashtra State Leaderboard | NPS Medals Won: 2 Gold & 1 Silver | Lifetime NPS Winnings: ₹20.03 Lakhs
Rounding out the NPS#142 Marathon podium was West Bengal’s ‘Fisherman15,’ who snagged their first-ever NPS medal—a Bronze—along with a rewarding ₹94,733, their second-largest score on the platform to date.
The NPS#142 Marathon’s fiercely competitive final table saw some familiar faces in action, including Karan ‘silentkiller25’ Sanghrajka (4th for ₹69,109), Sidhant ‘6ix90007’ Khanna (6th for ₹34,787), the NPS#68 Marathon Silver Medallist Utkarsh ‘utkarshvaish9’ Vaish (7th for ₹27,954), and Kaustubh ‘KaustubhKa’ Kulkarni (8th for ₹22,208).
Adding fuel to the Monday fire at the NPS India 2025, the budget-friendly ₹1,150 entry buy-in NPS#142 Marathon comfortably surpassed its guarantee, creating a ₹15.53 Lakhs prize pool. The top 260 finishers all enjoyed a payday, starting at ₹1,708, a nice 1.5X return on their initial investment, further contributing to the record-shattering success of this epic series.
Final Table Results
- Dhaval ‘TheMaHaKaL’ Solanki – ₹1,76,576
- Anurag ‘AGENTP52’ Kureel – ₹1,24,240
- Fisherman15 – ₹94,733
- Karan ‘silentkiller25’ Sanghrajka – ₹69,109
- koishima6969 – ₹50,007
- Sidhant ‘6ix90007’ Khanna – ₹34,787
- Utkarsh ‘utkarshvaish9’ Vaish – ₹27,954
- Kaustubh ‘KaustubhKa’ Kulkarni – ₹22,208
₹10 Crores GTD NPS Main Event – Qualifier 2
Q2 > Entries – 357 | Re-entries – 185 | Survivors – 38 | Chip Leader – Aditya ‘konstantin’ Singh (976,000)
Combined > Entries – 727 | Re-entries – 331 | Survivors – 82 (unique) | Overall Chip Leader – Aditya ‘konstantin’ Singh (976,000)
₹1 Crore GTD NPS Golden Rush – Qualifier 2
Q2 > Entries – 475 | Re-entries – 371 | Survivors – 83 | Chip Leader – Ambika ‘ItonThrne’ Chowdhury (574,000)
Combined > 1,138 | Re-entries – 722 | Survivors – 213 (unique) | Overall Chip Leader – Ambika ‘ItonThrne’ Chowdhury (574,000)
Junglee Poker
‘Raja31740388’ won the ₹4 Lakhs GTD Monday Monster for ₹1.01 Lakhs.
Parmeet ‘singhpoker’ Singh Arora (Won ₹1 Lakh GTD Monday Battleground for ₹29,922) and ‘khan28’ (Won ₹60K GTD Monday Sunsetter for ₹11,776), and ‘prepstation’ (Won ₹60K GTD Hangover for ₹11,203) won the other Monday marquees on Junglee Poker.
Adda52
Young Gun Siddhanth ‘sidstack’ Kripalani won the ₹8 Lakhs GTD Iron Man for ₹1.53 Lakhs.
The MasterMinds Arena title winners of the day included Jatin ‘jatin2929’ Sablani (Won ₹3 Lakhs GTD MMA 8-Max PKO for ₹50,954), Kamal ‘kamalpunjabi11’ Punjabi (Won ₹2 Lakhs GTD MMA Monster Stack for ₹49,256), Aditya ‘AnonPokerGuy’ Chodhary (Won ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD MMA 6-Max for ₹28,942), Sneha ‘sneval’ Moondra Heda (Won ₹1 Lakh GTD MMA PKO for ₹27,289), ‘ImAlpha’ (Won ₹1.25 Lakhs GTD MMA Mystery Bounty for ₹20,892), Sharad ‘zimbawe’ Haridasan (Won ₹50K GTD MMA PLO4 Bounty for ₹18,601), and Nishant ‘stockfull’ Pandey (Won ₹75K GTD MMA Turbo 6-Max for ₹18,601).
₹25 Lakhs GTD MMA Main Event – Day 1A
Day 1A> Entries – 79 | Re-entries – 27 | Re-buys – 5 | Survivors – 15 | Chip Leader – Young Gun Gaurav ‘BuildPuntOK’ Sood (268,661)
Pocket52
‘TurkshManuka’ won the ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD (7-Max) Deepstack Turbo for ₹42,230.
Spartan Poker
‘HirA123’ (Won ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD Monster Stack for ₹33,300), ‘sanzoo’ (Won ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD Monster Turbo for ₹28,650), and ‘sanzoo’ (Won ₹50K GTD Centurian for ₹8,560) won the Monday marquees on Spartan Poker.
Keep following PokerGuru for daily updates on the biggest winners across the major domestic networks!
This Week in Poker: February 5 – 11
Welcome to the latest edition of ‘This Week in Poker,’ where we bring you the most significant online scores by Indian MTT players and the top stories from both the live and online poker circuits. Here are this week’s highlights!
The second week of February saw live poker explode across the globe! From the vibrant shores of Goa to the bustling cities of Manila and Cambodia, there was no shortage of action. Goa was the epicentre for Indian players, with the DPT Xpress drawing a massive crowd. Regulars and newcomers alike flocked to the national poker capital for six days of intense play. Meanwhile, the PokerStars Manila Super Series 21 (now concluded), the APT Manila Poker Classic and WPT Championship Cambodia attracted many of India’s top players to the international stage. Across the globe, the PokerGO Cup kicked off in Las Vegas, featuring some of the biggest names in the game. It was a week where the live poker scene truly came alive!
The virtual felts were also buzzing with their own energy. Natural8 India and PokerBaazi hosted some of the biggest tournaments, while Junglee Poker’s ₹1+ Crore Lakhpati Legends continues to offer exciting opportunities for mid-stakes grinders. Pocket52 is also keeping the tournament fires burning with over ₹5.50 Crores in guaranteed prizes this month. And the excitement is only set to escalate with PokerBaazi’s colossal ₹100 Crores GTD National Poker Series India 2025 just around the corner, promising even more epic poker battles.
Tarun Goyal Dominates the Headlines
This week’s report was initially poised to celebrate the incredible success of Indian players in live tournaments. However, a stunning online performance by one individual forced a dramatic rewrite. Tarun Goyal, the former IT professional turned poker pro, has etched his name into poker history. His late surge last year was nothing short of extraordinary, racking up an unprecedented ₹12.39 Crores in annual winnings and nearly ₹10 Crores in profit in just five months – almost entirely on Natural8 India. And after weeks of picking up small scores, Goyal unleashed a Tuesday night run for the ages, dominating the headlines with a monstrous ₹3.54 Crores haul on Natural8 India.
Goyal, who lapped up an unbelievable five eight-figure scores on Natural8 India last year, added a sixth on Tuesday. Battling an elite 1,226-entry field in the ₹10.30 Lakhs buy-in GGMillion$ Main Event, he finished eighth and pocketed a jaw-dropping ₹2.74 Crores – his second-biggest score ever, trailing only his ₹5.05 Crores mystery bounty windfall in the Mystery Millions Online 2750 in December. It also ranks as the fourth-highest online score ever achieved by an Indian player.
And the story doesn’t end there. In an almost unbelievable twist of fate, Goyal flopped a royal flush on a $100/$200 All in Or Fold PLO cash table on the same night (Tuesday), scoring an insane ₹79.83 Lakhs jackpot. With ₹3.20 Crores in total winnings this year (excluding that cash game jackpot), he has already built what seems to be an insurmountable lead in the 2025 POY race, putting firmly in the driver’s seat as he chases a repeat run for the POY crown. For this outstanding performance, Tarun Goyal is hands down our “PokerGuru Star of the Week!”

His top finishes include:
> 8th in Natural8 India’s GGMillion$ Main Event 10300 for ₹2,74,29,007
> 10th in Natural8 India’s Saturday Night Fever 2100for ₹7,25,991
While Goyal commanded the spotlight, other players also achieved impressive results online, including Mitesh Gupta, Pratik Manjrekar, ‘ayemi1122,‘ Rubin Labroo, Rishabh Gupta, Mukesh Surana, Anurag Srivastava, Anish Arora, Devvrat Singh Kaurav, Vishal Ojha, Shivam Dubey, and Aniruddha Joshi.

Notable Online Winners of the Week
Player Prize Amount Event Poker Site
“ayemi1122” ₹8.02 Lakhs BSS Superstack ₹50 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Rubin Labroo ₹7.50 Lakhs The Summit ₹50 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Siddhant Gaurav ₹6.75 Lakhs The Endeavour ₹50 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
"The multiverse7" ₹6.21 Lakhs Zodiac Dragon High Roller Natural8 India
"Indian Rec" ₹5.57 Lakhs Omaholic Bounty Warm-Up 215 Natural8 India
Gaurav Bhandari ₹5.04 Lakhs The Pride ₹30 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Mithil Pingle ₹5 Lakhs The Big Show ₹30 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Aniruddha Joshi ₹4.35 Lakhs The Quest ₹30 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Devvrat Singh Kaurav ₹4.20 Lakhs Pocket Kings ₹20 Lakhs GTD Pocket52
Anurag Srivastava ₹4.19 Lakhs Adda52 Millions DPT Edition ₹20 Lakhs GTD Adda52
“Bijuu” ₹4.02 Lakhs Pocket Highroller ₹15 Lakhs GTD Pocket52
Sunil Arora ₹3.87 Lakhs Sunday Special Knockout ₹20 Lakhs GTD Junglee Poker
Gaurav Sood ₹3.80 Lakhs WTF ₹25 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Shreyansh Sharma ₹3.33 Lakhs Godfather DPT Edition ₹17.50 Lakhs GTD Adda52
Puneet Sachan ₹3.29 Lakhs BSS Super Value ₹25 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Advait Rajguru ₹3.06 Lakhs WTF ₹20 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Kashish Gupta ₹3.01 Lakhs The Ballers DPT Edition ₹15 Lakhs GTD Adda52
Abhishek Mandal ₹2.60 Lakhs Sunday Head Hunter DPT Edition ₹15 Lakhs GTD Adda52
Pradip Ghosh ₹2.45 Lakhs The Endeavour Lite ₹15 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Arya Dutta ₹2.28 Lakhs WTF ₹15 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Advait Rajguru ₹2.20 Lakhs Big PLO-5 ₹10 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
“Krish1177” ₹2.08 Lakhs Big PLO-5 ₹10 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Prince Singh ₹2.03 Lakhs The Mint DPT Edition ₹12 Lakhs GTD Adda52
Vishal Ojha ₹2.01 Lakhs The Quest Lite ₹12.50 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Vaibhav Temani ₹2.01 Lakhs Big PLO-5 ₹10 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
“mythical” ₹1.93 Lakhs Summit Lite ₹12 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Saransh Garg ₹1.90 Lakhs Maverick DPT Edition ₹10 Lakhs GTD Adda52
Rajneesh Thakur ₹1.90 Lakhs Daily Last Chance ₹10 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Aditya Kulkarni ₹1.88 Lakhs Pocket Bullets ₹8 Lakhs GTD Pocket52
Praveen KR ₹1.88 Lakhs Pocket Magnets ₹8 Lakhs GTD Pocket52
Ravi Kant Kumar ₹1.88 Lakhs Pocket Rocket ₹8 Lakhs GTD Pocket52
Anmol Mehta ₹1.84 Lakhs Thursday Mini HighRoller ₹8 Lakhs GTD Junglee Poker
Vishal Maharaj ₹1.79 Lakhs Daily Last Chance ₹10 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Jyotindra Dubey ₹1.69 Lakhs Daily Last Chance ₹10 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Arsh Grover ₹1.69 Lakhs Pocket Jacks ₹7 Lakhs GTD Pocket52
Vishal Maharaj ₹1.68 Lakhs Daily Last Chance ₹10 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
“hotstreak” ₹1.67 Lakhs Tuesday Phoenix ₹7.50 Lakhs GTD Junglee Poker
Aritra Hazra ₹1.66 Lakhs The Big Show Lite ₹10 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Puneet Sachan ₹1.62 Lakhs Daily Last Chance ₹10 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
“tonkaaaaaa” ₹1.53 Lakhs Wednesday Superstack ₹7 Lakhs GTD Junglee Poker
Chirag Khanduja ₹1.51 Lakhs (6-Max) BSS Sprint ₹10 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Amar Iyer ₹1.50 Lakhs Friday Supernova ₹8 Lakhs GTD Junglee Poker
Siddhanth Kapoor ₹1.49 Lakhs Daily Last Chance ₹10 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Arjanveer Singh Chadha ₹1.43 Lakhs Sunday Big Slick DPT Edition ₹7.50 Lakhs GTD Adda52
“killfish09” ₹1.32 Lakhs The Pride Lite ₹10 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
"magnumopus" ₹1.27 Lakhs Daily Hyper 60 Natural8 India
“kalidenalii” ₹1.27 Lakhs Iron Man DPT Edition ₹6.50 Lakhs GTD Adda52
Pramod Kumar ₹1.25 Lakhs BSS KickOff ₹7.50 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
Yash Chitre ₹1.10 Lakhs Monday Monster ₹4.50 Lakhs GTD Junglee Poker
"Wonderwoman6" ₹91K Daily Hyper 80 Natural8 India
Mukesh Surana ₹69K (7-Max) Afternoon Boost ₹5 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
DPT Xpress Wraps Up an Electrifying Run in Goa
India’s longest-running and only live poker series, the Deltin Poker Tournament (DPT), concluded its first edition of the year at Casino Deltin Royale in Goa this past Monday. The seventh edition of DPT Xpress, which has evolved from a budget-friendly series into a full-fledged poker festival, packed in ten tournaments (including an Adda52 freeroll), across six action-packed days!
The series’ headliner, the ₹30K Xpress Main Event, saw the 25-year-old Samyak Sethi topple a 340-entry field (across three flights) to win his first-ever live poker title. The primarily online MTT player pocketed a career-best ₹16.90 Lakhs and the DPT Xpress Main Event trophy. With another deep run, Sethi`s total for the series hit ₹17.06 Lakhs, making him the overall top scorer! Sudarshan Ravi, who finished runner-up in the Main Event, also notched up his biggest career payday, taking home ₹12.46 Lakhs.
The other top scorer was poker veteran Raghav Bansal, who roared back to form by conquering a 124-entry field in the ₹50K Xpress Highroller to win ₹12.81 Lakhs—picking up his fifth live title and fourth DPT trophy after almost ten months without a live score although he had decent success in big-ticket online tournaments. Rising Star Aman Parakh came close to his maiden live win but had to settle for ₹9.42 Lakhs as the runner-up, echoing his near-miss at the APT Hanoi Billions Vietnam Sunday Superstack in December 2023.
Another standout was Ridhav Chawla, who achieved a remarkable feat, winning two titles in just three days. He first took down the ₹20K Xpress NLH Bounty, outlasting a 138-entry field to win ₹3.84 Lakhs, including ₹1.05 Lakhs in bounties. Days later, he closed out the series by shipping the ₹11,500 Xpress Closure for another ₹3.24 Lakhs. This impressive double made Chawla only the fourth player in recent memory to win two titles in a single series in Goa.
DPT Xpress February 2025 Winners
Player Name Event Name Prize (INR)
Angad Kaura Event #1: ₹5,750 Xpress Rush 8,68,056
Abhishek Sharma Event #2: ₹16,500 Xpress Mystery Bounty 6,56,350
Raghav Bansal Event #3: ₹50K Xpress Highroller 12,80,982
Ritwik Khanna Event #4: ₹15,000 Express Mini Main 3,84,615
Samyak Sethi Event #5: ₹30K Xpress Main Event 16,89,926
Ridhav Chawla Event #6: ₹20K Xpress NLH Bounty 3,84,088
Anand Babu Pallikona Event #7: ₹15K Freezeout 3,51,249
Vikash Shah Event #8: ₹11,500 Xpress PLO-4 2,05,240
Ridhav Chawla Event #9: ₹11,500 Xpress Closure 3,23,583
Harshit Pradeep Kamwani Event #10: ₹7.50 Lakhs Adda52 Freeroll 2,00,000
Indian Contingent Roars at APT Manila Poker Classic
The Asian Poker Tour (APT) Manila Poker Classic 2025 has exploded onto the scene at the Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria, kicking off the 2025 APT season with a bang. Hosted in partnership with Metro Card Club, this second New Era APT stop in the Philippines (following the record-breaking APT Manila 2024) is a mammoth affair, boasting a staggering 100 tournaments and a ₱143 Million (~$2.40 Million) prize pool guarantee.
With five days of action already in the books, 45 champions have been crowned, and four APT trophies (including one from an India-exclusive event) are making their way back to India. The Indian contingent has already racked up 24 cashes, proving its mettle against a tough international field.
Patni Adds Another APT Title to His Collection
Natural8 India Executive Director and Ambassador Kunal Patni added a fifth APT trophy to his impressive collection. He conquered Event #9: ₱20K Mystery Bounty Hunter – Sponsored by Natural8, battling through a field of 377 entries (154 unique). Patni pocketed ₱1.115 Million (~₹16.78 Lakhs), including ₱300,000 in bounties, along with the coveted Silver Lion Silhouette trophy, keeping his hot streak from last year burning strong!

Jaruplavath Breaks Through for His First APT Win
Live circuit veteran Raju Jaruplavath, also a martial arts expert with a black belt in Taekwondo, finally captured his first APT title in Event #1: ₱12K Philippines National Cup. He outlasted a 398-entry field in the first featured tournament of the series, walking away with ₱797,765 (~₹12.07 Lakhs) and the beautiful Gold Lion Silhouette Trophy.

Gambhir Makes a Dream APT Debut
Making his APT debut, Birangat Singh Gambhir couldn’t have asked for a better start. He took down Event #27: ₱12K Hyper Turbo, charging past the 85-entry field (77 unique) to claim ₱236,696 (~₹3.56 Lakhs).

Deshmukh’s Fairy Tale Victory
In a true underdog story, Jayant Deshmukh, a casual weekend grinder on Natural8 India, also made a fantastic debut by winning the Natural8 India APT Manila Classic – India Exclusive Tournament. This online/live hybrid event saw 283 players compete on Natural8 India, with the final eight players winning an all-expenses-paid trip to Manila for the live finale (one player was unable to attend). Deshmukh not only made it to the final table but went all the way, claiming ₹2.13 Lakhs, the APT trophy, and a free entry (worth ₹90,000) into the APT Manila Classic Main Event.

Main Event Shatters Records
With the early tournaments wrapped up, the stakes have risen as the ₱60,000 (~$1,000) buy-in Main Event is now in full swing. All four starting flights are complete, and including direct entries on Day 2, the Main Event has drawn a record-breaking 1,202 entries. This massive turnout generated a ₱62.312 Million prize pool, exceeding its ₱60 Million (~$1 Million) guarantee and setting a new record as the tour’s largest-ever field in the Philippines. A total of 377 players advanced to Day 2 from the starting flights, with 56 additional players buying in before play resumed. Among them, 17 Indian players were in the thick of the action on Day 2.
𝗔𝗣𝗧 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗹𝗮 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 𝗦𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝘀 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀
While #APTManila2024 shattered records, the #APTManilaClassic2025 has now set the record for the tour’s largest Main Event field size in the Philippines, marking a… pic.twitter.com/oN0IksHQhi— Asian Poker Tour (@AsianPokerTour) February 12, 2025
Among those who bagged stacks, Bharath Jayaram (229,100 ~ 143 BBs), Somasekhar Sanampuri (148,000 ~ 93 BBs), WSOP bracelet winner Abhinav Iyer (124,000 ~ 78 BBs), and Rajeev Kanjani (86,700 ~ 54 BBs) advanced from Day 1A.
Raju Jaruplavath (114,100 ~ 71 BBs), PokerStars India ambassador Siddharth Karia (91,100 ~ 57 BBs), Bhavik Khatsuria (77,300 ~ 48 BBs), and Akash Malik (69,800 ~ 44 BBs) made it through from Day 1B.
Natural8 India Executive Director and Ambassador Kunal Patni (184,500 ~ 115 BBs), Ish Agarwal (153,400 ~ 96 BBs), Shiva Shenbagaraj (113,000 ~ 71 BBs), Rahul Darak (105,700 ~ 66 BBs), and Deepak Vansil (43,300 ~ 27 BBs) got through from Day 1C.
Anant Purohit, Avinash Tauro, Chirag Shah, and Rishi Mehra joined the Day 2 action directly with a 40,000 (40 BBs) starting stack.
Team India Scores at APT Manila Poker Classic
Rank Player Name Event Name Prize (PHP)
1 Raju Jaruplavath Event #1: Philippines National Cup 7,97,765
16 Shiva Shankar Shenbagaraj Event #1: Philippines National Cup 42,000
21 Bharath Jayaram Event #1: Philippines National Cup 34,000
29 Kunal Patni Event #1: Philippines National Cup 26,000
32 Vineet Kumar Event #1: Philippines National Cup 22,000
37 Rajiv Sachdeva Event #1: Philippines National Cup 22,000
6 Nikita Luther Event #16: Hyper Turbo - High Roller 65,000
1 Kunal Patni Event #9: Mystery Bounty Hunter - Sponsored by Natural8 11,15,176
47 Rajiv Sachdeva Event #9: Mystery Bounty Hunter - Sponsored by Natural8 20,000
7 Nikita Luther Event #19: Sunday Super Stack 1,46,000
1 Birangat Singh Gambhir Event #27: Hyper Turbo 2,36,696
1 Jayant Deshmukh Natural8 India APT Manila Classic – India Exclusive Tournament 2,13,054
2 Rahul Darak Natural8 India APT Manila Classic – India Exclusive Tournament 1,57,618
3 Anant Purohit Natural8 India APT Manila Classic – India Exclusive Tournament 1,16,605
4 Thummala Karthik Reddy Natural8 India APT Manila Classic – India Exclusive Tournament 86265
5 Vineet Kumar Natural8 India APT Manila Classic – India Exclusive Tournament 63819
6 Devajit Labh Natural8 India APT Manila Classic – India Exclusive Tournament 47213
7 Sunny Prajapati Natural8 India APT Manila Classic – India Exclusive Tournament 34928
8 S Shiva Shankar Natural8 India APT Manila Classic – India Exclusive Tournament 25840
9 Pratik Parte Natural8 India APT Manila Classic – India Exclusive Tournament 19117
15 Shiva Shankar Shenbagaraj Event #30: NL Hold'em - Freezeout 57,000
14 Chirag Shah Event #35: Turbo - Double Stack 31,000
5 Raju Jaruplavath Event #45: NL Hold'em 2,10,000
3 Rajeev Kanjani Event #48: Super Hyper Turbo 60,000
APT Manila Poker Classic 2025 List of Winners
Player Name Event Name Prize (PHP)
Raju Jaruplavath Event #1: Philippines National Cup 7,97,765
Jun Weng Event #2: PL Omaha Hi-Lo - 5 Card (Big O) 1,83,552
John Tech Event #3: Single Day High Roller - Freezeout 15,03,200
Hanh Tran Event #4: Limit Triple Draw - Lowball Mix (A-5, 2-7, Badugi) 1,10,577
Teyah Kimberly Plamiano Event #5: Women's Event 31,248
Marc Richelieu Rivera Event #6: Turbo - High Roller 3,81,200
Paul Hoa Han Ho Event #7: Turbo - PL Omaha High 1,46,366
Pattarapol Wannarat Event #8: Super Hyper Turbo 1,00,672
Kunal Patni Event #9: Mystery Bounty Hunter - Sponsored by Natural8 11,15,176
Rex Hunt Ai Event #10: 9 Game 2,19,926
Vermerdino Magsakay Event #11: Single Day High Roller - Mystery Bounty (PHP 55K Bounty) 17,03,040
Handong Jo Event #12: PL Omaha High 2,06,944
Xiyu Xie Event #13: Women's Event 76,504
Oliver Charles Guillame Komarnicki Event #15: Turbo - PL Omaha Hi-Lo - 5 Card (Big O) 3,15,800
Chase Cokaliong Event #16: Hyper Turbo - High Roller 3,15,800
Michael Joseph Shank Event #17: Super Hyper Turbo 1,03,222
Dongju Han Event #19: Sunday Super Stack 8,32,280
Jarryd Godena Event #20: Big "O" Masters - PL Omaha Hi-Lo - 5 Card 4,79,480
Tobias Schwecht Event #21: APT Super High Roller 1,21,43,900
Tomohiro Abe Event #22: Limit Triple Draw - Mix (Badugi, A-5, Badacey, 2-7, Badeucey, High) 1,64,520
Janette Dee Event #23: Women's Event 97,088
Taichi Masumoto & Keisuke Abe Event #24: NL Hold'em - Teams Event (PHP 30K Buy-In Per Team of 2 Players) 1,87,840
Dale Andrew Townsend Event #26: Turbo - NL Omaha High - Double Board - 2 Winners 1,56,742
Birangat Singh Gambhir Event #27: Hyper Turbo 2,36,696
Florencio Campomanes Event #28: Hyper Turbo - High Roller 2,89,800
Ryuki Shirase Event #29: Super Hyper Turbo - Win the Button 1,56,108
Jayant Deshmukh Natural8 India APT Manila Classic – India Exclusive Tournament 2,13,054
John Niko Costiniano Event #30: NL Hold'em - Freezeout 8,54,960
John Charles Caridad Event #31: Omaha Masters - PL Omaha High 8,14,640
Andrija Robovic Event #32 High Roller - Ultra Stack 31,81,960
Yao Liu Event #33: Limit Razzdugi (7 Card Razz, 1/2 Pot to Razz, 1/2 Pot to Badugi) 1,46,366
Sunhye Park Event #34: Women's Event 1,42,229
Sirisilp Chotvijit Event #35: Turbo - Double Stack 4,41,888
Chuning Tan Event #37: Turbo - NL Triple Draw Mix (A-5, 2-7) 1,03,853
Matthew Paul Belcher Event #38: Hyper Turbo - Super Hold'em (3 Hole Cards, Use 3, 2, 1 or 0 Cards) 1,76,755
Junyoung Kim Event #39: Super Hyper Turbo - Super Hold'em (3 Hole Cards, Use 3, 2, 1 or 0 Cards) 1,28,323
Yepeng Ni Event#40: NL Hold'em 8,65,880
Yu Tang Wang Event #41: 5 Card Draw Masters (Limit Triple Draw A-5, 2-7, Badugi) 4,35,800
Zhen Chen Event #42 Baby Superstar Challenge 43,27,600
Aleksandr Elizarov Event #43: PL Omaha Hi-Lo - 5 Card (Big O) 2,50,476
Linda Minh Phuong Nguyen Event #44: Women's Event 1,61,480
Cezar Ii Quiambao Event #45: NL Hold'em 5,00,000
Jun Weng Event #46: Turbo - PL Omaha High - Bomb Pot 1,03,851
Kohei Suzuki Event #47: Hyper Turbo - Double Stack 3,60,748
Wing Sheuk Sham Event #48: Super Hyper Turbo 1,23,356
Team India Making a Strong Showing at WPT Championship Cambodia
The World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship Cambodia 2025 is underway at NagaWorld, Phnom Penh. Kicking off on February 6, the series boasts an action-packed schedule of 63 events and a $3 Million guaranteed prize pool. Running until February 24, the series has already crowned 18 champions in its first six days.
Team India, continuing its dominant streak on the Asian live circuit, has arrived in force and has already notched up 25 cashes. Indian players have already made it to 13 final tables, with four runner-up finishes and one prestigious title victory!
Arjun Agrawal Leads the Charge
Arjun Agrawal has emerged as the lone Indian title winner so far, taking down Event #4: $1,650 Single Day Megastack Mini HR for a whopping $33,524 (~₹29.12 Lakhs) and his first-ever live title. He followed up this impressive win with another deep run in Event #12: $3,000 Single Day HR, finishing fourth for $15,646 (~₹13.59 Lakhs). With these two strong performances, Agarwal has already locked in $49,170 (~₹42.71 Lakhs) in series winnings, leading the charge for the Indian players.

Amit Kaushik’s Near Misses
While Agarwal has been the standout performer, Amit Kaushik has come close to a win on three separate occasions. The Kurukshetra-based pro, a force to be reckoned with on the South Asian live circuit, has already accumulated $37,933 (~₹32.95 Lakhs) from three final table appearances, placing him second in overall winnings among Indian players. His deep runs include a second-place finish in Event #6: $550 Deepstack Turbo 20 sec for $3,405 (~₹2.96 Lakhs), another runner-up finish in Event #9: $800 Mystery Bounty for $30,760 (~₹26.72 Lakhs), and a fourth-place run in Event #16: $1,000 Hyper Turbo 20 sec for $3,768 (~₹3.27 Lakhs).

Team India Scores at WPT Championship Cambodia
Rank Player Name Event Name Prize (PHP)
12 Dhaval Mudgal Event #3: Championship Warm Up $4,444
23 Ankit Ahuja Event #3: Championship Warm Up $2,101
30 Dhiraj Agarwal Event #3: Championship Warm Up $1,538
39 Asish Ghosh Event #3: Championship Warm Up $1,328
43 Nishant Kumar Event #3: Championship Warm Up $1,328
53 Aditya Sushant Event #3: Championship Warm Up $1,123
2 Amit Kaushik Event #9: Mystery Bounty $30,760
28 Somashekar Kurkhepally Event #9: Mystery Bounty $1,293
32 Harsh Bubna Event #9: Mystery Bounty $1,293
58 Sumit Sapra Event #9: Mystery Bounty $800
11 Ankit Dohare Event #1: NagaWorld SuperStack $1,383
15 Aditya Sushant Event #1: NagaWorld SuperStack $1,163
4 Nishant Kumar Event #2: Superstack Turbo 20 sec $1,050
6 Kabir Tandon Event #2: Superstack Turbo 20 sec $637
10 Ankit Wadhawan Event #2: Superstack Turbo 20 sec $382
1 Arjun Pulak Agrawl Event #4: Single Day Megastack Mini HR $33,524
2 Amit Kaushik Event #6: Deepstack Turbo 20 sec $3,405
2 Chakshu Deep Raina Event #8: Hyper Turbo 15 sec $2,061
6 Dhaval Mudgal Event #8: Hyper Turbo 15 sec $538
4 Arjun Pulak Agrawl Event #12: Single Day HR $15,646
5 Abhishek Paul Event #13: Deepstack $600 Survivor Bounty $1,970
2 Rohit Begwani Event #14: Freezeout $3,121
4 Amit Kaushik Event #16: 1k Hyper Turbo 20 sec $3,768
4 Sumit Sapra Event #18: DeepStack Hyper Turbo to ITM 15 sec $1,687
8 Chakshu Deep Raina Event #18: DeepStack Hyper Turbo to ITM 15 sec $842
WPT Championship Cambodia List of Winners
Player Name Event Name Prize (USD)
Martin Sedlak Event #3: Championship Warm Up $45,578
Erik Rozhynskyi Event #9: Mystery Bounty $42,843
Johan Lees Event #1: NagaWorld SuperStack $16,281
Zeyu Sun Event #2: Superstack Turbo 20 sec $4,328
Arjun Pulak Agrawl Event #4: Single Day Megastack Mini HR $33,524
Chaveewanitkun Kornkit Event #5: Freezeout $2,648
Jack Richard Maris Event #6: Deepstack Turbo 20 sec $5,674
Wee Lim Yew Event #7: PLO $6,882
Tom Maguire Event #8: Hyper Turbo 15 sec $3,496
Takahiro Seki Event #10: Short Deck $2,056
Anzhela Vasylenko Event #11: Ladies Cheap Shot $350
Simas Karaliunas Event #12: Single Day HR $50,660
Xiaosheng Zheng Event #13: Deepstack $600 Survivor Bounty $6,857
Justine Rouviere Event #14: Freezeout $5,443
Aleksandr Varakin Event #15: PLO Turbo 30 sec $5,228
Simas Karaliunas Event #16: 1k Hyper Turbo 20 sec $14,698
Chun Ping Lo Event #18: DeepStack Hyper Turbo to ITM 15 sec $5,000
Takaaki Arai Event #20: Deepstack 20/15/10 20 sec $8,133
PokerStars Manila Super Series 21 Concludes With a Flourish; Anant Acharya Wins First Spadie
The PokerStars Manila Super Series 21 wrapped up another exciting edition on February 19 at Okada Manila. This action-packed festival spanned nine days, featuring 44 tournaments and awarding over ₱21 Million in prize money. By the time the dust settled, 29 champions were crowned, with a small but mighty Indian brigade locking in nine scores, including four final table appearances and one impressive victory!
Main Event Crowns a Champion
The ₱20K Main Event was the highlight of the series, attracting 705 entries across four starting flights and easily surpassing its ₱10 Million (~$170,560) guarantee with a ₱10.936 Million (~$186,500) prize pool. Local hero Emmanuel Florendo emerged victorious, capturing his first live title and a career-best ₱2.066 Million (~$35,238), along with an APPT Main Event package worth ₱125,000. Japan’s Ko Okubo finished as the runner-up, earning ₱1.259 Million (~$21,473).

Anant Acharya Claims Maiden Spadie
The biggest success story for India came from Anant Acharya, who triumphed in Event #10: ₱12,500 Deepstack, capturing his first-ever PokerStars spadie. Acharya navigated a 134-entry field to claim his maiden live title and a personal-best ₱356,780 (~₹5.33 Lakhs). Ashley Patterson from the UK finished second, pocketing ₱223,500 (~$3,825).

Team India Scores at PokerStars Manila Super Series 21
Rank Player Name Event Name Prize (PHP)
18 Siddharth Karia Event #23: Main Event 81,000
1 Anant Acharya Event #10: Deepstack 3,56,780
12 Harish Kumar Asnani Event #10: Deepstack 29,000
29 Chirag Shah Event #18: Mystery Bounty 16,000
30 Siddharth Karia Event #18: Mystery Bounty 16,000
36 Harish Kumar Asnani Event #18: Mystery Bounty 16,000
3 Chirag Shah Event #24: Double Stack 64,500
6 Siddharth Karia Event #25: Super Series High Roller 88,000
5 Ankit Bhardwaj Event #38 Mini Main Event 1,12,500
PokerStars Manila Super Series 21 List of Winners
Player Name Event Name Prize (PHP)
Emanuel Florendo Event #23: Main Event 20,66,078
Christian Lortie Event #1: Warm-up 5,60,000
Oliver Kubalek Richert Event #8: Turbo 1,24,098
Anant Acharya Event #10: Deepstack 3,56,780
Anthony Castro Event #14: Survivor Knockout [25K bounty] 2,16,380
Marc Gagne Event #18: Mystery Bounty 4,20,000
Shuhei Hiroshima Event #3: Run It Twice - Turbo 36,018
Sonny Soriano Event #5: NLH 10/10/10 50,308
Fred Farboud Feridoun Event #6: Superstack 2,82,350
Sergei Korzhenko Event #7: Knockout [5K bounty] 1,70,952
Carsten Klug Event #11: NLH 1,10,936
Ryuki Shirase Event #13: Win the Button Hyper Turbo 54,916
Juhwan Kim Event #15: 6-Handed Shot Clock 96,800
Alvin Jeff Sembrano Event #17: Superstack Hyper Turbo 66,060
David Erquiaga Event #19: Single Re-Entry 77,504
Naofumi Morishita Event #21: Showtime Hold’em Turbo 50,308
Joseph Sia Event #24: Double Stack 1,43,872
Sergei Korzhenko Event #25: Super Series High Roller 4,31,755
Liu Li Ming Event #26: Split Hold’em 50,740
Moshe Yurkevich Event #27: NLH - 15/10/5 54,916
Marciel Cerbito Event #30: Super Series Turbo 1,77,500
Nayeon Cho Event #31: Hyper Turbo 21,000
Keijiro Shimojo Event #33: Mix PLO/NLH 1,06,296
Kenji Hamamoto Event #34: Badugi 55,747
Junsuke Shigemura Event #36: Super Knockout [5K bounty] - Turbo 40,188
Tamon Nakamura Event #37: Superstack Hyper Turbo 85,456
Nikolai Babushkin Event #38: Mini Main Event 2,03,880
Shun Yamauchi Event #40: Knockout [₱2K Bounty] - Turbo 1,25,304
Keijiro Shimojo Event #41: Super Hyper Turbo 68,328
Tamil Nadu Introduces Strict New Gaming Regulations
In a move that has sent shockwaves through the industry, the Tamil Nadu government has introduced strict new regulations on real-money gaming, reaffirming its anti-gaming stance. After two previous attempts to ban gaming in the state failed, the government has imposed several strict restrictions, including mandatory “blank hours” prohibiting all forms of real-money gaming between 12 AM and 5 AM. Platforms must also implement strict KYC checks with Aadhaar verification, along with spending limits and real-time alerts. A total ban on minors will need to be enforced, and gaming platforms are now required to display prominent addiction warnings.
The Tamil Nadu Online Gaming Authority (TNOGA) has been empowered to regulate, suspend, and handle grievances related to games of chance, directly impacting platforms offering poker, rummy, and fantasy sports. Industry reactions to these sweeping changes have been mixed, with some calling them arbitrary and predicting that many platforms might temporarily block players from the state to avoid the complexities of implementing these measures for a single region. Others anticipate legal challenges to these new regulations.
Ethan Klein Wins Celebrity Poker Tour Game Night V
Moving over to international news, the first Celebrity Poker Tour (CPT) event of the year in Las Vegas was a resounding success! Content creator Ethan Klein outshined a field of stars to take down Celebrity Poker Tour Game Night V, claiming the winner-takes-all $10,000 grand prize!

Poker Legend John Cernuto Passes Away
In sad news, Poker Hall of Fame nominee and legendary tournament player John ‘Miami’ Cernuto passed away at the age of 81. The former air traffic controller turned poker pro succumbed to colon cancer after a short but courageous battle. Surrounded by loved ones, Cernuto breathed his last on Monday evening, leaving behind a lasting legacy in the poker world and countless cherished memories.

With this, we conclude this week’s roundup of the latest news updates and developments from the world of poker. We will return next week with our weekly report. Stay tuned.
Daily Majors: Mitesh Gupta & Pratik Manjrekar Turn Monday Blues Into Winning Hues!
While the weekend’s action-packed poker scene might have simmered down, Monday still brought its share of excitement to the online felts! With live poker stealing the spotlight—the DPT Xpress wrapping up in Goa, the APT Manila Classic 2025 drawing crowds (where Team India has already snagged four wins!), and a few players battling it out at WPT Cambodia (where Arjun Pulak Agrawal won the Single Day Megastack Mini HR)—the online scene was a bit quieter. But that didn’t mean there weren’t any fireworks!
Both high-stakes players and the mid-stakes crowd had plenty to fight for, with Natural8 India’s Millions Week 2025 wrapping up tonight, promising insane payouts, and the more affordable ₹1+ Crore Lakhpati Legends series on Junglee Poker offering a budget-friendly option. Not to mention the usual big battles on Natural8 India and PokerBaazi, which crowned the biggest winners of the night!
And amidst all this action, some familiar names rose to the top. Mitesh Gupta, after a mysterious five-month absence, made a thunderous return to Natural8 India. He didn’t just dip his toes back in the water – he cannonballed in! With a 55th place finish in the Bounty Hunters HR Main 525 for ₹3.95 Lakhs and another 95th place finish in the Super Monday Bounty Hunters 525 for ₹1.30 Lakhs, he raked in over ₹5.25 Lakhs, leaving no doubt about who ruled the virtual felt last night!

> 55th in Bounty Hunters HR Main 525 for ₹3,94,696
> 95th in Super Monday Bounty Hunters 525 for ₹1,30,434
PokerBaazi had its own share of excitement, with Mithil Pingle stealing the show! After a relentless two-year downswing, he finally broke through, snagging his first-ever flagship title in style by taking down The Big Show for a career-best ₹5 Lakhs—more than three times his previous top score from a final table finish in #25 The MoneyMaker last April. This dominant performance made him the biggest winner on PokerBaazi and the second-biggest online scorer of the day! Pratik Manjrekar came close to adding a fourth win for 2025, finishing runner-up in The Big Show for ₹3 Lakhs!
Back on Natural8 India, newcomer ‘magnumopus,’ who made a grand debut just a fortnight ago with a GGMasters Classic 25 victory and followed that with a Daily Hyper 60 win on Thursday and a runner-up finish in GGMasters Double Stack 25 on Friday, further padded his stats by finishing 67th in a colossal 4,725-entry field in the GGMasters Bounty Anniversary 320 to collect ₹2.36 Lakhs.
And that’s not all! Natural8 India saw two more solid finishes:
- ‘Ante-man‘ made a grand entrance, finishing 154th in the Super Monday Bounty Hunters 525 and pocketing ₹1.96 Lakhs.
- Tarun Goyal, the reigning 2024 POY champion, finished 44th in the Super Monday Bounty Hunters 525, earning ₹1.96 Lakhs and pushing his yearly winnings to over ₹46 Lakhs!
Back on PokerBaazi, Aritra Hazra, who had been teasing a breakthrough with a relentless streak of final table finishes, finally got it done in The Big Show Lite, locking up ₹1.66 Lakhs through a heads-up deal and snapping a 3.5-month title drought. Another final table run in Adda52’s Iron Man DPT Edition (4th for ₹51,445) boosted his Monday winnings to over ₹2.17 Lakhs. Surajkishan Razdan, a satellite crusher who recently finished runner-up in the Daily Last Chance, kept his hot run going by finishing runner-up in The Big Show Lite, collecting the lion’s share of ₹1.86 Lakhs from the deal. With another deep run earlier in the day, he racked up over ₹1.94 Lakhs in total.
Puneet Sachan also kept his foot on the gas, notching up his second win in as many days! After winning PokerBaazi’s BSS Super Value on Sunday, he wasted no time in adding another trophy to his collection, dominating the Daily Last Chance to collect ₹1.62 Lakhs after a heads-up chop, bringing his Monday total to nearly ₹1.79 Lakhs across three deep runs. But he wasn’t the only one making moves! Milan Biswas, coming off his own Daily Last Chance win on Saturday (his first win in 3.5 months), almost took it down for the second time in three days. He battled hard but had to settle for ₹1.31 Lakhs as the runner-up from the deal. With another deep run boosting his total to ₹1.38 Lakhs and swinging him back to profitability on PokerBaazi, it was a Monday well spent!
Over at Adda52, ‘kalidenalii‘ reigned supreme by winning the Iron Man DPT Edition for ₹1.27 Lakhs—their first-ever Iron Man title and biggest score of the year (sixth-best overall). ‘Sherlockholmes221‘ put up a strong fight, finishing runner-up for a personal-best ₹94,024!
Junglee Poker witnessed the continued reign of Yash Chitre. Coming off a string of successes last week, including winning Tuesday Phoenix, he dominated the Monday Monster for his third title on the platform this year, earning ₹1.10 Lakhs—his fifth title of 2025. Three more deep runs, including a final table appearance in Pocket52’s Pocket Jacks, saw Chitre’s Monday earnings soar to almost ₹1.75 Lakhs. Ekjot Singh finished second in the Monday Monster for ₹56,880 —his best score of the year and his fourth-best overall. Two other deep runs brought his Tuesday total to ₹95,160.
Young Gun Arsh Grover continues to make waves on Pocket52! Just six days after crushing Pocket Bullets, the poker prodigy and perennial Player of the Year contender was back in the winner’s circle, delivering a knockout performance by dominating Pocket Jacks and securing his third title on the platform this year for ₹1.69 Lakhs, pushing his Monday winnings to over ₹1.73 Lakhs. Shivam Jain, fresh off his Pocket Jacks victory last month, gave a tough fight for a repeat win but had to settle for ₹1.19 Lakhs as the runner-up.
Monday also saw standout performances from Mukesh Surana, Prince Singh, Gaurang Bhatti, Akshay Choudhary, Ajeeth Kumar, Rajneesh Thakur, Praveen KR, Sahil Babbar, Pranav Khandalkar, Shrey Baj, and Tejas Joshi, each winning marquee events.
Here are the Monday highlights!
PokerBaazi
The Big Show – ₹30 Lakhs GTD
Buy-in – ₹5,750
Entries – 324
Re-entries – 267
Prize Pool – ₹30,00,000
Places Paid – 87
After a high-voltage Sunday, the Monday grind on PokerBaazi was a bit more subdued (likely due to the DPT Xpress, which wrapped up last night and many other regs busy at APT Manila Classic 2025 and WPT Cambodia) with the day’s star attraction—the ₹30 Lakhs GTD The Big Show—falling a little short of its guarantee. But that didn’t stop site regular Mithil ‘Pokerstar0110’ Pingle from taking centre stage!

Pingle had been grinding hard since September 2022, searching for that elusive flagship victory amidst a frustrating downswing. But last night, his luck turned around in a big way. Pingle outlasted a 591-entry field (324 unique) in The Big Show, claiming his first major title and an all-time-best ₹5 Lakhs payday—over three times his previous best score from a final table finish in the #25 The MoneyMaker last April!
This Pune-based grinder has shown flashes of brilliance in the past, including a bronze medal in NPS#86 Slamdunk in March and that memorable The MoneyMaker final table. But last night was different. He fired two bullets in the 8 PM headliner and proceeded to dismantle the competition in eight hours flat, scoring a breakthrough win! This wasn’t just a bankroll boost; it helped him recover over a quarter of their past losses, making him the top dog on PokerBaazi and the second-biggest online scorer of the day, only trailing Mitesh Kumar Gupta, who racked up over ₹5.25 Lakhs across two deep runs on Natural8 India!
Mithi Pingle’s PokerBaazi stats: Site Winnings: ₹24.82 Lakhs | Titles Won in 2025: #1
Pratik ‘zpAAced’ Manjrekar also came to play in The Big Show, gunning for his fourth title of the year. He kicked off 2025 in beast mode, racking up a whopping ₹11.34 Lakhs on January 8 from a fourth-place finish in Natural8 India’s The Weekender 50 and standout wins in PokerBaazi’s WTF and Pocket52’s Pocket Rockets. He even took down Junglee Poker’s Thursday Mini Highroller the very next day!

Since then, Manjrekar has been on the hunt for another title and has come close a few times—most notably finishing fourth in PokerBaazi’s The Endeavour two weeks ago. Last night, he put up another fierce fight in The Big Show, battling till the very end before settling for the runner-up payout of ₹3 Lakhs—his second-best score on PokerBaazi this year.
And just for kicks, Manjrekar also bagged the top stack in the third qualifier of Junglee Poker’s ₹25 Lakhs GTD LL#40 Main Event, putting himself in a prime position for a deep run in the finale on February 16.
Pratik Manjrekar’s online stats (excluding Natural8 India, Junglee Poker and Pocket52): Lifetime Winnings: ₹4.41 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹1.41 Crores | Titles Won in 2025: #1
The Big Show’s final table was packed with familiar faces. Mithilesh ‘Quest4Best’ Choubey banked ₹1.82 Lakhs for fourth place, Pranay ‘5pranay’ Chaudhry walked away with ₹1.12 Lakhs for sixth, while Akhilendra ‘gunmaster7777’ Singh (7th for ₹91,200) and satellite qualifier Kunal ‘symbolicchamp’ Agrawal (8th for ₹72,600) rounded out the top eight.
While The Big Show recorded ₹45,000 in overlays, the value was undeniable. It dished out payouts to the top 87 finishers, each locking in at least ₹10,200—almost twice the ₹5,750 buy-in. A thrilling night of poker wrapped up with Pingle celebrating his biggest win yet while Pratik Manjrekar remained hungry for more. All of this just adds to the excitement of what promises to be a firecracker week of poker action on PokerBaazi!
Final Table Results
- Mithil ‘Pokerstar0110’ Pingle – ₹5,00,100
- Pratik ‘zpAAced’ Manjrekar – ₹3,00,000
- prajime – ₹2,40,000
- Mithilesh ‘Quest4Best’ Choubey – ₹1,82,400
- srishyam – ₹1,34,700
- Pranay ‘5pranay’ Chaudhry – ₹1,11,600
- Akhilendra ‘gunmaster7777’ Singh – ₹91,200
- Kunal ‘symbolicchamp’ Agrawal – ₹72,600
The Big Show Lite – ₹10 Lakhs GTD
Buy-in – ₹2,000
Entries – 457
Re-entries – 346
Prize Pool – ₹13,97,000
Places Paid – 118
While Sunday’s high-octane action might have settled, PokerBaazi still delivered an electrifying Monday night, with Aritre ‘morsmordre’ Hazra front and centre! This mid-stakes specialist from Kolkata (currently residing in Bengaluru) has been making waves for weeks, and he finally hit the jackpot by conquering the ₹10 Lakhs GTD The Big Show Lite, grabbing a cool ₹1.66 Lakhs through a calculated heads-up deal. This victory was sweet for Hazra, who last won the Pocket Magnets on October 24 and was determined to grab the gold this time—and he did!

Hazra’s been on a relentless grind for months now and with some solid results. He finished as the runner-up in The Quest Lite last month, followed by a string of final table appearances in the Monster Turbo PKO, the Daily Boost, Iron Man DPT Edition, and The Endeavour Lite (twice), including one last week! Coming off another final table run in the BSS Super Value just this past Sunday, his persistence finally paid off with a well-deserved The Big Show Lite victory, earning him his first flagship title of the year and ending a 3.5-month title drought!
The 7:30 PM flagship event was a battleground. A guarantee-crushing field of 457 players (803 total entries) jumped into the fray, all hungry for the win. But Hazra, with a cool head and unwavering determination, fired three bullets and navigated a swift but intense six-hour and 22-minute battle to claim the crown—his best score on PokerBaazi this year. Hazra almost made it a double-title night by also storming the final table in Adda52’s Iron Man DPT Edition, snagging a fourth-place finish for a commendable ₹51,445 and boosting his Monday winnings to over ₹2.17 Lakhs.
> 1st in PokerBaazi’s The Big Show Lite for ₹1,65,629* (heads-up deal)
> 4th in Adda52’s Iron Man DPT Edition for ₹51,445
Aritra Hazra’s online stats (excluding Natural8 India, Junglee Poker and Pocket52): Lifetime Winnings: ₹2.07 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹35.75 Lakhs | Titles Won in 2025: #1
The Big Show Lite could have easily seen an underdog story unfold as Surajkishan ‘sukira’ Razdan, a satellite grinder who recently finished as the runner-up in the Daily Last Chance, had a real shot at bagging his first win in three long years. Determined to take it down, he fired two bullets in The Big Show Lite. Despite another near miss, Razdan walked away with the lion’s share of the prize pool, worth ₹1.86 Lakhs from the same deal—his best score ever on PokerBaazi. Razdan had also cashed in the (7-Max) Afternoon Boost earlier in the day, earning ₹7,752 for his 13th-place finish and ending the day with over ₹1.94 Lakhs in winnings.
> 2nd in PokerBaazi’s The Big Show Lite for ₹1,86,470* (heads-up deal)
> 13th in PokerBaazi’s (7-Max) Afternoon Boost for ₹7,752
The Big Show Lite final table was brimming with regulars, including online crusher and one of the top scorers of 2025, ‘bonomo‘ (3rd for ₹1,03,394), former The MoneyMaker champion and last week’s WTF finalist ‘smr1g10‘ (5th for ₹65,530), WPT#9 Warm Up champion ‘Treys‘ (7th for ₹41,917), and mid-stakes beast Yash ‘ShakeyAnimal’ Jaiswal (8th for ₹30,599).
With its affordable ₹2,000 buy-in, The Big Show Lite was a smash hit, generating a guarantee-crushing ₹13.97 Lakhs prize pool. The top 118 places got a piece of the action, each taking home at least ₹4,192—more than double their initial buy-in, keeping the primetime action on fire!
Final Table Results
- Aritre ‘morsmordre’ Hazra – ₹1,65,629*
- Surajkishan ‘sukira’ Razdan – ₹1,86,470*
- bonomo – ₹1,03,394
- rosh777 – ₹79,642
- smr1g10 – ₹65,530
- Daxton – ₹53,514
- Treys – ₹41,917
- Yash ‘ShakeyAnimal’ Jaiswal – ₹30,599
*denotes a heads-up deal
Daily Last Chance – ₹10 Lakhs GTD
Buy-in – ₹2,500
Entries – 319
Re-entries – 200
Prize Pool – ₹11,28,000
Places Paid – 82
Puneet ‘HEROCALLSBRO’ Sachan, the Delhi-based online regular best known for his jaw-dropping runner-up finish in PokerBaazi’s inaugural G.O.A.T., is back in the winner’s circle—and he’s not letting go anytime soon. Fresh off a BSS Super Value victory the night before, Sachan wasted no time adding another trophy to his 2025 collection, this time conquering PokerBaazi’s ₹10 Lakhs GTD Daily Last Chance in spectacular fashion.

Last night, Sachan locked horns with a battle-hardened field of 319 players (519 total entries) in the 10:30 PM Monday showdown. For six hours and 11 minutes, he went head-to-head with some of the toughest players on the platform, but Sachan is not one to back down from a challenge. With the precision of a surgeon and the killer instinct of a shark, he closed out the tournament in style, grabbing his second title of the year (and his second win in a row!), raking in a slick ₹1.62 Lakhs after a heads-up deal.
But stopping wasn’t on his agenda. Riding a wave of momentum, he had already notched up two more deep runs, boosting his Monday winnings to almost ₹1.79 Lakhs. This heater couldn’t have come at a better time, with PokerBaazi`s colossal ₹100 Crores GTD NPS India 2025 now less than two weeks away!
> 1st in PokerBaazi’s Daily Last Chance for ₹1,62,351* (heads-up deal)
> 86th in PokerBaazi’s The Big Show for ₹10,200
> 52nd in PokerBaazi’s The Big Show Lite for ₹6,288
But the Daily Last Chance wasn’t a one-man show! Milan ‘milanbiwas’ Biswas was right there in the thick of it, pushing Sachan to the limit! Biswas, who recently rediscovered his winning touch by taking down this late-night flagship on Saturday (breaking a 3.5-month dry spell), almost pulled off a repeat performance!
With the ferocity of a tiger, he clawed his way through the field, making it all the way to heads-up, where he settled for ₹1.31 Lakhs as the runner-up from the deal—his third-best score on PokerBaazi. Another score in The Big Show Lite sweetened the deal, pushing his Monday winnings to almost ₹1.38 Lakhs and finally swinging him back into the green on the platform.
> 2nd in PokerBaazi’s Daily Last Chance for ₹1,31,460* (heads-up deal)
> 42nd in PokerBaazi’s The Big Show Lite for ₹6,288
Milan Biswas’s PokerBaazi stats: Site Winnings: ₹26.77 Lakhs | Site Winnings: ₹1.09 Lakhs | Titles Won in 2025: #1
The Daily Last Chance saw a host of regs and other up-and-comers making final table runs, including Sunday’s same-event champion Jyotindra ‘JacksPaaro’ Dubey (3rd for ₹88,008), last month’s same-event finalist Kushal ‘kushalg’ Gathoo (4th for ₹64,652), Vishwas ‘vishwas186’ Dubey (7th for ₹35,655), and Sehej ‘UdixiAgain’ Singh (8th for ₹26,515).
This flagship tournament, the last one on the schedule, delivered a night of intense competition. With a modest ₹2,500 buy-in, it generated a tempting ₹11.28 Lakhs prize pool, smashing its advertised guarantee. The top 82 finishers all got a piece of the action, with payouts starting at ₹5,416—more than double the entry fee, making it a rewarding late-night grind for many players.
Final Table Results
- Puneet ‘HEROCALLSBRO’ Sachan – ₹1,62,351*
- Milan ‘milanbiwas’ Biswas – ₹1,31,460*
- Jyotindra ‘JacksPaaro’ Dubey – ₹88,008
- Kushal ‘kushalg’ Gathoo – ₹64,652
- Giniaskhiladhi – ₹54,836
- Stradleking – ₹45,132
- Vishwas ‘vishwas186’ Dubey – ₹35,655
- Sehej ‘UdixiAgain’ Singh – ₹26,515
*denotes a heads-up deal
Mukesh ‘Guruuu’ Surana (Won ₹5 Lakhs GTD (7-Max) Afternoon Boost for ₹68,904), Prince ‘NaNki’ Singh (Won ₹2 Lakhs GTD PLO-5 Boost for ₹35,630), Gaurang ‘bhattigaurang’ Bhatti (Won ₹2 Lakhs Daily Morning SPRINT for ₹22,200), Akshay ‘Akki16’ Choudhary (Won ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD 7-Max SPRINT for ₹21,430), ‘fruitfullllll’ (Won ₹1 Lakh Midnight SPRINT for ₹10,270), ‘Gioje’ (Won ₹1 Lakh GTD Boost for ₹10,000), and ‘benevolent’ (Won ₹1 Lakh Boost for ₹9,300) won the other Monday marquees on PokerBaazi.
Junglee Poker
Monday Monster – ₹4.50 Lakhs GTD
Buy-in – ₹2,300
Entries – 187
Regular Prize Pool – ₹2,63,000
Bounty Prize Pool – ₹1,87,000
Total Prize Pool – ₹4,50,000
Places Paid – 20
If there’s one name sending shockwaves through the poker scene lately, it’s Yash ‘Reeraiser21’ Chitre. This guy is an absolute force, tearing through fields with the precision of a surgeon and the confidence of a king, leaving no doubt about his dominance. He keeps adding to his stacked poker resume constantly, and last night was no different.

Chitre has been on a tear. He kicked off last week with a final table appearance in Adda52’s Iron Man DPT Edition on Monday, then stormed to victory in Junglee Poker’s Tuesday Phoenix, followed by another final table showing in the Maverick DPT Edition the very next day.
And last night, he did it again in Junglee Poker’s ₹4.50 Lakhs GTD Monday Monster! Chitre sliced through a tough field of 187 contenders in a gruelling 6.5-hour battle. When the dust settled, he stood tall, pocketing a cool ₹1.10 Lakhs—with ₹64,688 of that coming from bounties alone. This is his fifth title of 2025 and his third on Junglee Poker this year.
But Chitre doesn’t just collect trophies; he’s a master of the grind. He kept the momentum going, making another final table appearance in Pocket52’s Pocket Jacks and cashing in two other events to boost his Monday earnings to almost ₹1.75 Lakhs. His message to the competition is clear: he’s not just here to play; he’s here to conquer. And by the looks of it, this is just the beginning of his reign.
> 1st in Junglee Poker’s Monday Monster for ₹1,10,371* (₹64,688 in bounties)
> 6th in Pocket52 Pocket Jacks for ₹33,880
> 22nd in PokerBaazi’s The Big Show for ₹23,100
> 19th in Adda52’s Iron Man DPT Edition for ₹7,240
Yash Chitre’s online stats (excluding Junglee Poker, Natural8 India and Pocket52): Lifetime Winnings: ₹5.45 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹2.17 Crores | Titles Won in 2025: #2
Ekjot ‘ekjot4488’ Singh also deserves a standing ovation for his performance in the Monday Monster. He came agonizingly close to victory, finishing second for a respectable ₹56,880 (₹11,250 in bounties). This was his best score of the year and his fourth-best overall. He also added a small score in Spartan Poker’s Monster Turbo (8th for ₹4,400), raking in ₹61,280 in total.
The ₹2,300 buy-in Monday Monster might have fallen short of its advertised guarantee by ₹76,000, but the action was still red-hot! With the top 20 players getting paid from the ₹2.63 Lakhs cash prize pool and plenty of juicy bounties up for grabs from the ₹1.87 Lakhs bounty pool, Junglee Poker continues to be a haven for mid-stakes players looking for exciting poker action and fantastic value.
Final Table Results
- Yash ‘Reeraiser21’ Chitre – ₹1,10,371
- Ekjot ‘ekjot4488’ Singh – ₹56,880
- proteaspower – ₹31,797
- krohit15 – ₹30,651
- arru. – ₹18,751
- Pratishtha01 – ₹16,491
- saraatta – ₹11,203
- poko_yt – ₹10,205
₹25 Lakhs GTD Main Event – Qualifier 3
Q3 > Entries – 84 | Survivors – 4 | Chip Leader – Pratik ‘pyari_titli’ Manjrekar (41,662)
Combined > Entries – 149 | Survivors – 9 | Overall Chip Leader – Pratik ‘pyari_titli’ Manjrekar (41,662)
The Lakhpati Legends title winners of the day included ‘nolimit11’ (Won ₹2 Lakhs GTD LL#14 for ₹36,553), ‘breakneck’ (Won ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD LL#15 for ₹28,440), ‘sdfcghhh’ (Won ₹75K GTD LL#13 for ₹13,408), and ‘sonamg’ (Won ₹50K GTD LL#16 Hangover for ₹7,609).
Adda52
Iron Man DPT Edition – ₹6.50 Lakhs GTD
Buy-in – ₹2,750
Entries – 134
Re-entries – 110
Re-buy – 8
Prize Pool – ₹6,50,000
Places Paid – 35
The DPT Xpress on the floating Casino Deltin Royale may have wrapped up, but the poker action continues online! Adda52 celebrated India’s only-running live poker series by rebranding its online flagship tournaments as “DPT Edition” for the week. And just as the live-action concluded in Goa, ‘kalidenalii’ (anonymity requested) emerged victorious in the ₹6.50 Lakhs GTD Iron Man DPT Edition!
This 8 PM Monday marquee attracted 134 players (252 total entries), falling short of its advertised guarantee (which, despite being reduced from the usual ₹8 Lakhs, still boasted the same ₹6.50 Lakhs as last week). But the overlay meant added value for the players, and ‘kalidenalii’ seized the opportunity, outlasting the competition to capture their first-ever Iron Man title and ₹1.27 Lakhs – their biggest score of the year (sixth-best overall).
Sporadic mystery user ‘Sherlockholmes221,’ who has been on the platform for a year now, also had a great run in the Iron Man DPT Edition, finishing second for a personal-best ₹94,024 on Adda52.
Sherlockholmes221’s Adda52 stats: Site Winnings: ₹10.83 Lakhs | Site Profits: ₹7.21 Lakhs
The final table of the Iron Man DPT Edition was packed with regulars, including last night’s The Big Show Lite champion Aritra ‘prongs’ Hazra (4th for ₹51,445), last month’s BSS Super Value winner Abhinav ‘Borntogamble’ Menon (5th for ₹38,054), long-time sporadic reg Avadh ‘cateyes’ Shah (7th for ₹20,821), and the recent Pocket Kings finalist on a roll, the 2024 POY #20 Vinay ‘ContemporisT’ B (8th for ₹15,401).
The Iron Man DPT Edition, with its ₹2,750 buy-in, fell ₹45,200 short of its ₹6.50 Lakhs guarantee, giving players some extra value. The top 35 finishers got a piece of the prize pool, with a min-cash worth a generous ₹6,225 – more than double the buy-in! It was a fantastic start to another week of exciting poker action on Adda52, and with the DPT Xpress in Goa now wrapped up, the online action is expected to heat up even more!
Final Table Results
- kalidenalii – ₹1,27,111
- Sherlockholmes221 – ₹94,024
- RArThShICa – ₹69,549
- Aritra ‘prongs’ Hazra – ₹51,445
- Abhinav ‘Borntogamble’ Menon – ₹38,054
- Kitwithin – ₹28,148
- Avadh ‘cateyes’ Shah – ₹20,821
- Vinay ‘ContemporisT’ B – ₹15,401
Ajeeth ‘nareshreturns’ Kumar (Won ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD Daily Deep Dive for ₹38,988), Rajneesh ‘rajneesh620’ Thakur (Won ₹150 Lakhs GTD Voyager DPT Edition for ₹38,916), ‘rajat9161’ (Won ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD Nighttide DST Adda for ₹30,683), ‘aloo21’ (Won ₹1 Lakh GTD Afternoon Bounty for ₹29,177), ‘StrawHaats’ (Won ₹50K GTD Morning Adda for ₹16,301), ‘dineshgoel83’ (Won ₹60K GTD Bounty Adda for ₹16,162), ‘dangle143’ (Won ₹80K GTD Iron Man Lite for ₹15,435), and Praveen ‘praveen2626’ KR (Won ₹50K GTD Sundown Adda for ₹13,584) won the other Monday marquees on Adda52.
Pocket52
Pocket Jacks – ₹7 Lakhs GTD
Buy-in – ₹3,300
Entries – 100
Re-entries – 90
Prize Pool – ₹7,00,000
Places Paid – 24
February is off to a scorching start on Pocket52, where cash game sharks and tournament titans are feasting on a smorgasbord of value. With a staggering ₹5 Crores in Cash Game Leaderboard prizes and a whopping ₹5.50+ Crores guaranteed across tournaments, it’s raining money on Pocket52!
And speaking of crushers, Young Gun Arsh ‘BigggTymeR’ Grover is back in beast mode, tearing through the competition like a force of nature. A poker prodigy and perennial Player of the Year contender, Grover’s 2024 may not have reached his usual sky-high standards. However, he still had some highlights—his Spartan Poker Half Buy-in Millionaire victory in April and a runner-up finish in PokerBaazi’s IPM#4 Inaugural in August.

Now, 2025 is shaping up to be his year. He kicked things off by taking down Pocket Rockets in January and followed it up just six days ago by conquering Pocket Bullets. But Grover isn’t one to rest on his laurels—he’s now tripled his title count, crushing Pocket52’s ₹7 Lakhs GTD Pocket Jacks in dominant fashion for his third straight victory on Pocket52 this year!
Coming off a final table finish in PokerBaazi’s Daily Last Chance this past Thursday, Grover carried that momentum straight into Pocket Jacks, battling through a 190-entry field (100 unique) in the 8 PM showdown. After seven hours of high-octane poker, he held all the chips, bagging a sweet ₹1.69 Lakhs. And he wasn’t done! Another deep run in PokerBaazi’s The Big Show Lite boosted his Monday winnings to over ₹1.73 Lakhs.
> 1st in Pocket52’s Pocket Jacks for ₹1,69,000
> 106th in PokerBaazi’s The Big Show Lite for ₹4,192
Arsh Grover’s online stats (excluding Pocket52, Natural8 India and Junglee Poker): Lifetime Winnings: ₹18.88 Crores | Lifetime Profits: ₹7.55 Crores | Titles Won in 2025: #3 (across all platforms)
Shivam ‘cyflopse’ Jain—a recreational player and part-time streamer—almost pulled off a repeat victory in style! Fresh off a Pocket Jacks win last month, he came incredibly close to doing it again, finishing as the runner-up for a solid ₹1.19 Lakhs.

The Pocket Jacks final table was replete with talented players. Nimesh ‘zokomo’ Patel (3rd for ₹76,160), Prince ‘willcrushu’ Singh (4th for ₹56,420), recent The Quest runner-up Shivam ‘SoulShaker’ Kumar Dubey (5th for ₹42,350), last night`s Monday Monster champion Yash ‘Reeraizer’ Chitre (6th for ₹33,880), and Abhishek ‘EINSTEIN’ Agarwal (7th for ₹28,140) all battled for the title.
With a ₹3,300 buy-in, Pocket Jacks fell short of its ₹7 Lakhs guarantee, leaving a juicy ₹1.55 Lakhs overlay—a sweet deal for those who jumped in! The extra value meant that the top 24 finishers walked away with a slice of the prize pool, with payouts starting at a generous ₹6,720—more than double the buy-in, making for another thrilling night of poker action on Pocket52!
Final Table Results
- Arsh ‘BigggTymeR’ Grover – ₹1,69,000
- Shivam ‘cyflopse’ Jain – ₹1,19,000
- Nimesh ‘zokomo’ Patel – ₹76,160
- Prince ‘willcrushu’ Singh – ₹56,420
- Shivam ‘SoulShaker’ Kumar Dubey – ₹42,350
- Yash ‘Reeraizer’ Chitre – ₹33,880
- Abhishek ‘EINSTEIN’ Agarwal – ₹28,140
- TheGrinder77 – ₹22,540
Sahil ‘illuminati777’ Babbar won the ₹1.50 Lakhs GTD Soda for ₹38,630.
Spartan Poker
Pranav ‘pranavpoker’ Khandalkar (Won ₹3 Lakhs GTD Supreme for ₹57,300), ‘Arun.mafia.style’ (Won ₹2 Lakhs GTD Bullet for ₹40,737), Shrey ‘kingsb30’ Baj (Won ₹1 Lakh GTD Monster Turbo for ₹22,200), and Tejas ‘Tjoshi9676’ Joshi (Won ₹50K GTD Holdem for ₹12,300) won the Monday marquees on Spartan Poker.
Keep following PokerGuru for daily updates on the biggest winners across the major domestic networks!
Online Rankings: Nishaanth Shanmughasundaram’s Jaw-Dropping ₹1.97 Crore Sunday Score Makes Him Week’s Top Scorer & Boosts Him to POY #2; Neel Joshi Remains Unchallenged as POY King
In this feature, we bring you to the top three weekly, monthly, and yearly performers every Sunday. These rankings are based on cumulative winnings (cashes). However, the rankings only include players registered to our online ranking system, so hurry up and register if you haven’t signed up on PokerGuru yet!
Forget cricket; India is quickly becoming a poker powerhouse. And two homegrown heroes are leading the charge: Santhosh Suvarna, the high-roller extraordinaire making waves at the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP), and Neel Joshi, the young phenom who’s tearing up the online poker scene.
The 2024 WSOP has been a Santhosh Suvarna show. Hot on the heels of his jaw-dropping $5,834,816 win in the $250,000 Super High Roller for his third bracelet, Suvarna stormed the final table in Event #79: $50,000 High Roller PLO. With his consistent dominance across formats, this poker superstar is single-handedly putting India on the global poker map.
Meanwhile, back home, online poker action is thriving on platforms like Natural8 Indi and PokerBaazi. A new generation of poker stars is emerging to shake up the status quo, and leading this digital revolution is Young Gun Neel Joshi, formerly known only by his Natural8 India moniker “HiiiBarbie.” Since the start of 2024, Joshi has been unstoppable, racking up a mind-boggling ₹4.69 crores in annual winnings, including a staggering 11 seven-figure scores. His relentless dominance throughout the year, evidenced by his phenomenal graph on Natural8 India, has left his competitors in the dust in the Player of the Year race.
But Joshi isn’t the only online phenom setting the virtual felt ablaze! Nishaanth Shanmughasundaram (annual winnings – ₹2.74 Crores | weekly winnings – ₹1.97 Crores) is making a serious run for the title of India’s online poker king. This week, Shanmughasundaram achieved the unthinkable. He catapulted to poker superstardom with a career-defining victory in Natural8 India’s Beijing Mystery Bounty Millions, bagging a life-changing ₹1.97 Crores payday. This jaw-dropping sum is the second-largest online score ever recorded by an Indian player, surpassed only by Young Gun Aayush Arya’s legendary WSOP online bracelet win last year. This sensational triumph has propelled Shanmughasundaram into the exclusive and prestigious ‘₹2 Crore Club.’ But he didn’t stop there. He also clinched the title of week’s top scorer and soared to #2 on the annual cashes and profits charts, setting a new record for the highest-ever profits on the weekly leaderboard.
Shashank Chakravarthy (annual winnings – ₹1.80 Crores), the comeback kid, now finds himself at #3 in the POY race, facing a daunting challenge to reclaim his former glory. Meanwhile, Young Gun Gaurav Sood (annual winnings – ₹1.79 Crores), who’s been busy making his mark at the 2024 WSOP, has slipped to #4, his dreams of a fourth POY crown fading with each passing week.
Last week’s top dog, Mitesh Gupta (weekly winnings – ₹53.73 Lakhs), refused to relinquish his spotlight. He doubled down on his success with a stunning runner-up finish in Natural8 India’s Sunday Showdown 105, securing a career-best score and the #2 spot on this week’s leaderboard.
Rounding out the top three is Young Gun Anmol Mehta (weekly winnings – ₹19.52 Lakhs). His impressive second-place finish in the ninth annual Adda52 Mega Millions was the perfect springboard, propelling him onto the weekly leaderboard podium.
Weekly Online Rankings (June 30 – July 6)
Player Weekly Cashes Weekly Profit
Nishaanth Shanmughasundaram ₹1,97,39,510 ₹1,77,65,559
Mitesh Gupta ₹53,73,451 ₹45,67,433
Anmol Mehta ₹19,51,563 ₹17,35,298
Yearly Online Rankings (January 1 – July 6)
Player Yearly Cashes Yearly Profit
Neel Joshi ₹4,68,90,778 ₹2,81,32,655
Nishaanth Shanmughasundaram ₹2,74,14,523 ₹1,91,90,166
Sashank Chakravarthy ₹1,80,35,434 ₹54,18,507
Weekly Online Rankings
1. Nishaanth Shanmughasundaram
Weekly Cashes – ₹1,97,39,510
Weekly Profit – ₹1,77,65,559
Points – N/A
Nishaanth Shanmughasundaram‘s mid-summer night dream became a reality last Sunday as he dominated Natural8 India’s Beijing Mystery Bounty Millions. His spectacular victory, earning him a life-changing ₹1.97 Crores, marks the second-highest Indian online score, only behind Young Gun Aayush Arya’s WSOP online bracelet victory last year.
Shanmughasundaram’s outstanding performance shattered records, with his weekly profits soaring past ₹1.78 Crores. This not only made him the week’s top scorer but also established a new record for the highest-ever profits on the weekly leaderboard, catapulting him to #2 in the POY standings.

Top Cashes This Week
– 1st in Natural8 India’s Beijing Mystery Bounty Millions for ₹1,97,39,510
2. Mitesh Gupta
Weekly Cashes – ₹53,73,451
Weekly Profit – ₹45,67,433
Points – N/A
Mitesh Gupta, the former MHW Colossus champion, is on an absolute tear. Following his jaw-dropping performance in Natural8 India’s Mystery Bounty Festival 260 last week, where he emerged as the top scorer, Gupta has once again outdone himself.
Gupta delivered a jaw-dropping performance in Natural8 India’s Sunday Showdown 105 this past Sunday. Facing a colossal field of 6,048 players, he battled his way to a second-place finish, earning a staggering ₹53.73 Lakhs—a new career high. This outstanding achievement also earned Gupta the #2 spot in the weekly rankings, with total profits amounting to an incredible ₹45.67 Lakhs.

Top Cashes This Week
– 2nd in Natural8 India’s Sunday Showdown 105 for ₹53,73,451
3. Anmol Mehta
Weekly Cashes – ₹19,51,563
Weekly Profit – ₹17,35,298
Points – N/A
Young Gun Anmol Mehta sent shockwaves through the virtual world with an electrifying week of play. He racked up an incredible ₹19.52 Lakhs in total winnings across twelve deep runs and the coveted #3 spot in the weekly rankings.
He kicked off his rampage with back-to-back runner-up finishes in Adda52’s Sunday Head Hunter and the prestigious ninth annual Mega Millions, the latter earning him his biggest payday of 2024.
Mehta continued his hot streak with a seventh-place finish in Adda52’s Knock Out Arena. Though he narrowly missed out on a victory multiple times, his stellar performance secured him a remarkable weekly profit of ₹17.35 Lakhs, proving he’s back in top form and ready to take on the best in the business.

Top Cashes This Week
– 2nd in Adda52’s Mega Millions for ₹15,13,798
– 2nd in Adda52’s Sunday Head Hunter for ₹2,97,901
The week’s other top scorers were Deepak Singh (weekly winnings – ₹18.74 Lakhs), Amit Kaushik (weekly winnings – ₹14.67 Lakhs) and Kovid Saraswat (weekly winnings – ₹13.77 Lakhs).
Yearly Online Rankings
1. Neel Joshi
Yearly Cashes – ₹4,68,90,778
Yearly Profit – ₹2,81,32,655
TLB Points – N/A
A poker phenom, hidden behind the playful moniker ‘HiiiBarbie,’ had been rewriting the rules of the game on Natural8 India, leaving even seasoned pros in a state of bewildered awe.
This enigmatic player crushed top tournaments for months, amassing a jaw-dropping ₹4.69 Crores in just six months. With eleven scores topping ₹1 Million and annual profits soaring to ₹2.81 Crores, ‘HiiiBarbie’ quickly became the talk of the virtual felt, sparking endless speculation about their true identity.
But a fortnight ago, the mystery unravelled. ‘HiiiBarbie’ is Neel Joshi, a 27-year-old poker wizard from Pune and a former PokerGuru Young Gun. Joshi’s meteoric rise has propelled him to the top of the Player of the Year rankings, outpacing established stars like Sashank Chakravarthy and even the legendary Gaurav Sood.
Despite his recent dominance, Joshi has hinted at a possible break from the online grind. This past week, he added a ‘modest’ ₹82,091 to his mountain of winnings, still maintaining an almost insurmountable ₹1.94 Crores lead over his closest rival, Nishaanth S.
With half of 2024 still to play, the question remains: will Joshi continue his reign atop the POY charts, or will a hungry challenger rise to claim his throne? Only time will tell.

Top Cashes This Year
– 1st in Natural8 India’s Bounty Hunters HR 525 for ₹53,44,245 on January 9
– 5th in Natural8 India’s Super Monday Monster Stack 1500 for ₹46,23,304 on April 8
– 1st in Natural8 India’s Daily Warm-Up 250 for ₹24,56,234 on May 12
– 2nd in Natural8 India’s Saturday Superstack 320 for ₹23,05,173 on May 25
– 2nd in Natural8 India’s 250 Sunday MONSTER Stack for ₹20,64,616 on March 10
– 2nd in Natural8 India’s CRAZY EIGHTS 88 for ₹20,25,293 on May 26
– 1st in Natural8 India’s Zodiac Main Event for ₹15,12,055 on May 12
– 3rd in Natural8 India’s WSOPC: Thursday Throwdown Bounty 150 for ₹16,04,670 on March 6
– 1st in Natural8 India’s WSOPC: 125 Spring Marathon for ₹12,45,314 on March 4
– 6th in Natural8 India’s Bounty Hunters MAIN EVENT 54 for ₹11,59,911 on March 2
2. Nishaanth Shanmughasundaram
Yearly Cashes – ₹2,74,14,523
Yearly Profit – ₹1,91,90,166
TLB Points – N/A
A new poker titan has emerged, shattering records and rewriting the rules of the game on Natural8 India. Nishaanth Shanmughasundaram made poker history this week, claiming a jaw-dropping 1.97 Crores in the Beijing Mystery Bounty Millions – the second-highest Indian online score in recent memory.
Shanmughasundaram, already a formidable force with multiple million-rupee paydays on Natural8 India, soared to unimaginable heights with this monumental victory. His total earnings on the platform have now skyrocketed to a staggering ₹2.55 Crores.
But this is just the beginning. Shanmughasundaram’s 2024 winnings now total ₹2.74 Crores, with profits reaching ₹1.92 Crores. This makes him only the second player to enter the exclusive ‘₹2 Crore Club’ for annual winnings, a feat previously achieved only by the phenomenal Young Gun Neel Joshi.
Now, as Shanmughasundaram stands at the #2 spot on the yearly cashes and profits charts, the poker world watches with bated breath. Could he be the one to dethrone the reigning champion, Neel Joshi?

Top Cashes This Year
– 1st in Natural8 India’s Beijing Mystery Bounty Millions for ₹1,97,39,510 on July 30
– 3rd in Natural8 India’s #15: Zodiac Happy New Year Celebration for ₹15,60,697 on February 11
– 466th in Natural8 India’s Global MILLION$ Mystery Bounty 525 for ₹12,09,913 on May 20
– 36th in Natural8 India’s Mystery MILLION$ Main Event for ₹9,70,112 on February 6
– 46th in Natural8 India’s Zodiac Rabbit Lucky for ₹7,04,404 on February 2
– 3rd in Spartan Poker’s Millionaire VII for ₹7,02,669 on March 19
– 2nd in Natural8 India’s Speed Racer Bounty Closer HR for ₹3,25,568 on June 13
3. Sashank Chakravarthy
Yearly Cashes – ₹1,80,35,434
Yearly Profit – ₹54,18,507
TLB Points – 32,442
Can Sashank Chakravarthy, the comeback kid, defy the odds and claim the POY throne? A fierce battle is brewing for the Player of the Year (POY) title, and Chakravarthy, known for his resilience, is not going down without a fight.
With Gaurav Sood‘s extended hiatus, Chakravarthy seemed destined for the #1 spot. However, the emergence of Neel Joshi, aka ‘HiiiBarbie,’ and Nishaanth S‘s colossal win last Sunday have pushed him down to POY #3, making his quest for the title more challenging than ever.
But Chakravarthy is no stranger to adversity. His 2024 performance has been nothing short of electrifying, with an impressive 11 titles, 20 podium finishes, and 30 final table appearances.
Even after a brief hiatus this fortnight, Chakravarthy’s annual earnings stand at a remarkable ₹1.80 Crores, with profits hitting ₹54.19 Lakhs. However, Joshi’s commanding lead and the ₹93.79 Lakhs gap between him and Nishaanth S present a formidable challenge.
The POY race is a marathon, not a sprint. Chakravarthy will need to summon all his skill, experience, and unwavering grit to close the substantial gap. Can he overcome the odds and stage a legendary comeback to claim the POY title?

Top Cashes This Year
– 1st in Spartan Poker’s Millionaire III for ₹16,00,007
– 4th in PokerBaazi’s NPS#92 HighRoller for ₹5,91,300
– 2nd in Adda52 Millions for ₹5,01,281
– 1st in PokerBaazi’s BSS HighRoller for ₹4,73,902
– 1st in PokerBaazi’s Endeavour HighRoller for ₹4,23,519
– 1st in Spartan Poker’s Ultron for ₹3,76,650
– 2nd in Spartan Poker’s The Elite for ₹3,58,700
– 1st in PokerBaazi’s The Endeavour for ₹3,39,949
Three-time POY Young Gun Gaurav Sood (annual winnings – ₹1.79 Crores), 2024 TLB #1 Mohak Kapoor (annual winnings – ₹1.77 Crores), and Sagar Raj (annual winnings – ₹1.76 Crores) are the year`s other top scorers.

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