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Daily Majors: Lakhotia, Ahuja, Sapra, Sood, & Gandhi Bank the Big Wednesday Scores

It was an eventful Wednesday, even though most flagship tourneys had to fill in sizable overlays. Alongside the big-ticket events, there were a slew of moderately priced tourneys running as part of Spartan Poker’s Ultimate Value Series (UVS) and Adda52’s Nano Poker Series (NPS).

Here’s a quick recap of the Wednesday action!

 

Spartan Poker

After a week’s gap on account of the inaugural Millionaire Series, Spartan Poker’s signature Wednesday flagship, the ₹25 Lakhs GTD Destiny, made a smashing comeback last night. The event logged in 547 entries to post a guarantee-crushing ₹27.35 Lakhs prize pool. After more than eight hours of play, ‘papertiger’ (anonymity requested) navigated their way to the top, claiming a site-best ₹5.96 Lakhs and a seat in the Destiny 17.0 SnG Finale. The player struck a heads-up deal with Abhinav ‘shadow12’ Mantri, who finished runner-up for ₹5.43 Lakhs.

The Spartan Poker reg, ‘papertiger,’ was last in the news for winning the Ultron for ₹3.23 Lakhs on December 3. Their total winnings on the site have reached ₹12.39 Lakhs with ₹1.83 Lakhs in net profits.

Day 3 of the Ultimate Value Series (UVS) was all about 6-Max events. The biggest of them, the ₹4.75 Lakhs GTD UVS #18 6-Max, crowned a winner in Varun Raj ‘Arch1806’ Mahajan who won a personal-best (on Spartan Poker) ₹75,248 following a four-way deal with Ashish ‘intrcptr101’ Kaushik (runner-up for ₹67,802), ‘FloatingMonkey’ (third for ₹62,229), and ‘notoriusB.I.G’ (fourth for ₹60,043).

Runner-up Ashish Kaushik
Runner-up Ashish Kaushik

 

 

PokerStars India

PokerStars India once again had two ₹5 Lakhs GTD tourneys on the Wednesday schedule. The Night on Stars, the featured tourney of the day, logged in 280 entrants to post an overlay of ₹54,520. It took a little over six hours and thirty minutes for ‘CS2Poker’ to ship the tourney for ₹88,637, following a heads-up deal with the mystery user ‘xqwxqw’ (runner-up for ₹76,095).

The Big Bubble Rush played out amid 172 runners, overlaying ₹70,000. It was 2:22 AM on Thursday by the time Pranjal ‘lilmessipranjal’ Gandhi wrapped up the tourney, winning ₹1.22 Lakhs (₹47,354 in prize money and ₹74,843 in bounties). Armaan ‘armaan007111’ Kochhar finished runner-up for ₹65,155 (₹47,811 in prize money and ₹17,344 in bounties) – courtesy of a heads-up deal. Gandhi is a former Two of a Kind winner who won his second title of the month yesterday. Before this, he had won Adda52’s Maverick on December 2 for ₹3.84 Lakhs.

Pranjal Gandhi
Pranjal Gandhi

 

The ₹1 Lakh GTD Bigstack Turbo pulled in 92 entries to post an overlay of ₹8,000. ‘yash1805’ championed the tourney for ₹22,373, beating ‘deep12322’ (runner-up for ₹16,922) in heads-up play.

 

Adda52

Adda52’s Nano Poker Series played host to Day 1C of the ₹35 Lakhs GTD Nano Main Event last night. The event pulled in 294 entries on Wednesday to add to its existing 374 entries (Day 1A – 157 and Day 1B – 217). After the stipulated 29 levels of play, 32 runners made it through to Day 2. Rahul ‘qwerty3293’ Singhroha (457,340) bagged the end-of-day chip lead – also taking the overall chip lead. Niraj ‘ooltus’ Yadav (357,794) and Ankit ‘senshubhamqwerty’ Sen (241,568) rounded out the top three stacks of the day.

Adda52’s ₹15 Lakhs GTD Maverick clocked in 598 entries to register an overlay shortfall of ₹1.39 Lakhs. Manish ‘newkidpoker’ Lakhotia championed the tourney, winning ₹3.83 Lakhs for the outright victory. Abhishek ‘DurrrSucks’ Garg finished runner-up for ₹2.18 Lakhs.

Manish Lakhotia
Manish Lakhotia

 

This is the second time that Lakhotia has won the Maverick. He had won the tourney for the first time in January last year for ₹88,386. But what`s really got him noticed was the Millionaire title he won on December 6, when he took down the Millionaire Warm-up for a career-best ₹17.03 Lakhs, making this his second title victory in 11 days. The former IOPC Millionaire United winner Lakhotia now has ₹2.34 Crores in annual earnings with an online scorecard touching ₹5.25 Crores.

Unlike the Maverick, the ₹4 Lakhs GTD La Luna smashing its listed guarantee comfortably after registering 250 entries. The #1 ranked player of the year for 31 consecutive weeks, Young Gun Gaurav ‘gauravarod’ Sood, took down the event for ₹1.07 Lakhs, with PokerBaazi’s The Endeavour champion, Arpan ‘distroyer’ Majhi, finishing runner-up for ₹63,550.

Gaurav Sood
Gaurav Sood

 

Young Gun Sood also final tabled PokerStars India’s Big Bubble Rush, placing fourth for ₹26,444, and narrowly missed making it to the Night on Stars` final table, ranking 10th for ₹6,067. With ₹1.39 Lakhs in cumulative winnings for the day, Sood`s annual tally has crossed ₹4.38 Crores, with ₹6.56 Crores in recorded lifetime online winnings.

 

PokerBaazi

PokerBaazi`s ₹10 Lakhs GTD The Pride registered 271 entries, overlaying ₹48,000. The #3 ranked player of the year, PokerGuru Ambassador Ashish ‘rocky3705’ Ahuja, came out on top to win a top-prize of ₹2.21 Lakhs. Last night`s score has pushed Ahuja`s annual earnings close to ₹3.22 Crores. At the same time, his lifetime tally has also shot up to ₹6.27 Crores.

Ashish Ahuja
Ashish Ahuja

 

The #4 ranked player on the annual leaderboard, Sumit ‘boronyx’ Sapra, finished runner-up to Ahuja for ₹1.55 Lakhs.

Sumit Sapra
Sumit Sapra

 

The 9 PM Special ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD Wednesday MegaStack saw Suhas N ‘skullkiker’ Yadav running past 128 entries to win the ₹68,610 first-place cash prize. Aniruddha ‘PocketacesAJ’ Joshi placed runner-up for ₹48,050.

Suhas N Yadav
Suhas N Yadav

 

The other Wednesday winners were:

PlayerPrize AmountEventPoker Site
Gaurav 'gauravarod' Sood ₹1.07 LakhsLa Luna ₹4 Lakhs GTD Adda52
Arch1806₹75,248UVS #18 ₹4.75 Lakhs GTDSpartan Poker
EgoCrusher007₹39,185Night Rider - Monster Stack ₹2.45 Lakhs GTDSpartan Poker
Mohit ‘imohitahuja’ Ahuja₹36,080Turbo ₹1.5 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi
min2thomas₹34,243Ultrasonic ₹1.5 Lakhs GTDPokerStars India
Uttam 'chinunew' Kumar Sinha₹31,720UVS #16 ₹1.75 Lakhs GTDSpartan Poker
bleedforthis₹28,150PLO Boost Monster ₹1 Lakh GTDPokerBaazi
Taliwagang ‘Meverick’ Jamir₹28,1506-Max Holdem BOOST DST ₹1 Lakh GTDPokerBaazi
yash1805₹22,373Bigstack Turbo ₹1 Lakh GTDPokerStars India
Luckydeep₹22,000Wednesday PLO ₹1 Lakh GTDPokerDangal
Dunnopoker₹17,360UVS #17 ₹85K GTDSpartan Poker
ijaydc₹16,755Afternoon on Stars ₹1 Lakh GTDPokerStars India
kd69₹11,500Unravel ₹50K GTDPocket52

 

Nano Main Event 35 Lakhs GTD Day 1C Adda52

Buy-in – ₹1,750

Entries – 189

Re-entries – 105

Survivors – 32

The third starting flight, i.e., Day 1C of the ₹35 Lakhs GTD Nano Main Event, took place last night. Only 32 runners from a starting field of 294 entries made it through to Day 2.

Rahul ‘qwerty3293’ Singhroha (457,340) emerged as the end-of-day chip leader, with Niraj ‘ooltus’ Yadav (357,794) and Ankit ‘senshubhamqwerty’ Sen (241,568) carrying forward the next top stacks.

Mohit ‘Gandiaa’ Dhingra (238,080), Sanish ‘sanish21’ Chhabra (235,227), Young Gun Gaurav ‘gauravarod’ Sood (209,975), Ryan ‘plassma’ Cardoso (209,300), PokerGuru Ambassador Arjanveer ‘arjan30’ Singh Chadha (209,225), Arun ‘runyrules’ Sriram (184,390), and Sathish ‘Sathishlloyds’ Kumar K (170,807), also featured among the top 10 stacks of the day.

Top 10 Chip Counts at the End of Day 1C

  1. Rahul ‘qwerty3293’ Singhroha – 457,340
  2. Niraj ‘ooltus’ Yadav – 357,794
  3. Ankit ‘senshubhamqwerty’ Sen – 241,568
  4. Mohit ‘Gandiaa’ Dhingra – 238,080
  5. Sanish ‘sanish21’ Chhabra – 235,227
  6. Gaurav ‘gauravarod’ Sood – 209,975
  7. Ryan ‘plassma’ Cardoso – 209,300
  8. Arjanveer ‘arjan30’ Singh Chadha – 209,225
  9. Arun ‘runyrules’ Sriram – 184,390
  10. Sathish ‘Sathishlloyds’ Kumar K – 170,807

 

Destiny 25 Lakhs GTD – Spartan Poker

Buy-in – ₹5,500

Entries – 237

Re-entries – 114

Re-buys – 196

Prize Pool – ₹27,35,000

Places Paid – 50

Spartan Poker`s ₹25 Lakhs GTD Destiny coming back after a week-long hiatus, registered 547 challengers (237 unique entries, 114 re-entries, and 196 re-buys) to collect a guarantee smashing ₹27.35 Lakhs prize pool. The top 50 places walked past the money line.

The 8 PM tourney took almost eight hours of uninterrupted action to play down to a winner. papertiger’ (anonymity requested) was the last player standing in the tourney and won ₹5.96 Lakhs following a heads-up deal with Abhinav ‘shadow12’ Mantri (runner-up for ₹5.42 Lakhs).

This was a breakout score for ‘papertiger’ who was in the red for almost ₹4 Lakhs and now sits with a profit of ₹1.83 Lakhs.

Shashank ‘Goldfish097’ Shekhar (3rd for ₹2.52 Lakhs), Avinash ‘Seiborg09’ Anand (4th for ₹1.80 Lakhs), Aditya ‘SuperuSer’ Sushant (5th for ₹1.14 Lakhs), Vikranth ‘borntrouble’ Varma (6th for ₹95,725), and Kiran Kumar ‘mannu2424’ Reddy Ainala (8th for ₹55,535) were others who FT-ed the tourney.

Final Table Results

  1. papertiger – ₹5,96,455*
  2. Abhinav ‘shadow12’ Mantri – ₹5,42,975*
  3. Shashank ‘Goldfish097’ Shekhar – ₹2,52,988
  4. Avinash ‘Seiborg09’ Anand – ₹1,80,510
  5. Aditya ‘SuperuSer’ Sushant – ₹1,14,870
  6. Vikranth ‘borntrouble’ Varma – ₹95,725
  7. argo1 – ₹63,240
  8. Kiran Kumar ‘mannu2424’ Reddy Ainala – ₹55,535

*denotes heads-up deal

 

Maverick 15 Lakhs GTD Adda52

Buy-in – ₹2,500

Entries – 296

Re-entries – 302

Prize Pool – ₹15,00,000

Places Paid – 63

Adda52`s 8 PM primetime tourney, the ₹15 Lakhs GTD Maverick logged in 598 entries, overlaying 1.39 Lakhs.

Play continued till 4:14 AM, with the two-time Millionaire champion Manish ‘newkidpoker’ Lakhotia navigating his way to the top to win ₹3.83 Lakhs. This is the second time Lakhotia has won the Maverick and currently boasts of ₹5.25 Crores in online earnings.

Abhishek ‘DurrrSucks’ Garg finished runner-up for ₹2.18 Lakhs.

The FT lineup included Basant ‘Rush99’ Kumar Singh (3rd for ₹1.49 Lakhs) Mahesh ‘maheshg1811’ Shivajirao Gambhire (4th for ₹1.08 Lakhs), Sandeep ‘pokesand’ Singh (5th for ₹75,000), Suresh ‘insanium’ Kolli (6th for ₹52,500), Vinay ‘vinay0902’ Rajpal (7th for ₹41,250), and Shekhar ‘brat_poker’ Singh (8th for ₹30,000).

Final Table Results

  1. Manish ‘newkidpoker’ Lakhotia – ₹3,82,500
  2. Abhishek ‘DurrrSucks’ Garg – ₹2,17,500
  3. Basant ‘Rush99’ Kumar Singh – ₹1,49,250
  4. Mahesh ‘maheshg1811’ Shivajirao Gambhire – ₹1,08,750
  5. Sandeep ‘pokesand’ Singh – ₹75,000
  6. Suresh ‘insanium’ Kolli – ₹52,500
  7. Vinay ‘vinay0902’ Rajpal – ₹41,250
  8. Shekhar ‘brat_poker’ Singh – ₹30,000

 

The Pride 10 Lakhs GTD – PokerBaazi

Buy-in – ₹3,850

Entries – 158

Re-entries – 114

Prize Pool – ₹10,00,000

Places Paid – 36

Struggling to overcome the overlay avalanche, PokerBaazi’s ₹10 Lakhs GTD The Pride once again had to fill in a ₹48,000 shortfall after registering 272 runners.

Racing past the competition was none other than the #3 ranked player on the Yearly Leaderboard, PokerGuru Ambassador Ashish rocky3705’ Ahuja, who boosted his poker bankroll for a hefty ₹2.21 Lakhs with the win.

Seasoned pro and the #4 ranked Sumit ‘boronyx’ Sapra finished runner-up for ₹1.55 Lakhs.

While Ahuja’s lifetime earnings have crossed ₹6.27 Crores, Sapra now sits on ₹6.37 Crores in lifetime MTT earnings.

With back-to-back FT finishes on December 14 and December 15, Ashit ‘nexus010’ Sharma scored another ₹99,700 from his third-place finish in The Pride. He even placed eighth in the Wednesday MegaStack for ₹9,139.

Ashish ‘Notoriouskonvict’ Nailwal (5th for ₹55,400), Ankur ‘Stonecold’ Sehgal (7th for ₹36,800), and Faiz ‘AilaGaya’ Alam (8th for ₹29,500) were others who FT-ed the tourney.

Final Table Results

  1. Ashish ‘rocky3705’ Ahuja – ₹2,21,000
  2. Sumit ‘boronyx’ Sapra – ₹1,55,000
  3. Ashit ‘nexus010’ Sharma – ₹99,700
  4. Allwyn – ₹73,800
  5. Ashish ‘Notoriouskonvict’ Nailwal – ₹55,400
  6. krushnadadhich – ₹44,300
  7. Ankur ‘Stonecold’ Sehgal – ₹36,800
  8. Faiz ‘AilaGaya’ Alam – ₹29,500

 

Night on Stars 5 Lakhs GTD – PokerStars India

Buy-in – ₹1,750

Entries – 158

Re-entries – 122

Prize Pool – ₹5,00,000

Places Paid – 47

PokerStars India’s Wednesday primetime attraction, the ₹5 Lakhs GTD Night on Stars, attracted 280 entries resulting in an overlay of ₹54,520. Taking the title home after more than six-and-half hours of play was anonymous player ‘CS2Poker,’ who helped themselves to a ₹88,637 paycheque following a heads-up deal with ’xqwxqw’ (runner-up for ₹76,095).

The top 47 players finished ITM and collected TLB points for the “Star of the Month” leaderboard race.

Abhiman ‘AbhimanUrs’ Urs (5th for ₹27,440) and PokerGuru Ambassador Devvrat ‘bhasm@sur1’ Arya (7th for ₹14,743) FT-ed the tourney.

Final Table Results

  1. CS2Poker – ₹88,637*
  2. xqwxqw – ₹76,095*
  3. ForeverTJ – ₹51,072
  4. kanvarlal – ₹37,436
  5. Abhiman ‘AbhimanUrs’ Urs – ₹27,440
  6. rachit9786 – ₹20,114
  7. Devvrat ‘bhasm@sur1’ Arya – ₹14,743
  8. muttonmm – ₹10,807
  9. durr2020 – ₹7,921

*denotes heads-up deal

 

Big Bubble Rush 5 Lakhs GTD 7-Max – PokerStars India

Buy-in – ₹1,750

Entries – 100

Re-entries – 72

Prize Pool – ₹5,00,000

Places Paid – 29

Starting off 90 minutes after the Night on Stars, the ₹5 Lakhs GTD Big Bubble Rush ran amidst 172 entries last night, overlaying ₹70,000. The top 29 places got paid.

Sailing past the field, including a stacked final table, was Pranjal ‘lilmessipranjal’ Gandhi, who struck a heads-up deal with Armaan ‘armaan007111’ Kochhar to win ₹1.22 Lakhs (₹47,354 in prize money and ₹74,843 in bounties).

Kochhar, a PokerStars India regular, conceded to a runner-up payday of ₹65,155 (₹47,811 in prize money and ₹17,344 in bounties).

This is the record flagship title for Gandhi this month. Before this, he had won the Maverick on December 2 for ₹3.84 Lakhs.

Akshay ‘VaahBhaiVaah’ Gupta (3rd for ₹35,653), Young Gun Gaurav ‘3betPanda’ Sood (4th for ₹26,444), and Vinay ‘CharleSCorreA’ Bk (6th for ₹16,108) were the other known FT finishers.

Runner-up Armaan Kochhar
Runner-up Armaan Kochhar

 

Final Table Results (Includes Bounties)

  1. Pranjal ‘lilmessipranjal’ Gandhi – ₹1,22,197*
  2. Armaan ‘armaan007111’ Kochhar – ₹65,155*
  3. Akshay ‘VaahBhaiVaah’ Gupta – ₹35,653
  4. Gaurav ‘3betPanda’ Sood – ₹26,444
  5. flipper595 – ₹19,742
  6. Vinay ‘CharleSCorreA’ Bk – ₹16,108
  7. muttonmm – ₹14,262

*denotes heads-up deal

 

UVS #18 6-Max 4.75 Lakhs GTD – Spartan Poker

Buy-in – ₹990

Entries – 298

Re-entries – 106

Re-buys – 213

Prize Pool – ₹5,55,300

Places Paid – 55

Spartan Poker’s ₹4.75 Lakhs GTD UVS #18 6-Max generated a guarantee-crushing ₹5.55 Lakhs prize pool on the back of 617 runners.

Besting them all was Varun Raj ‘Arch1806’ Mahajan, who added ₹75,248 to his Spartan Poker balance, following a four-way deal with Ashish ‘intrcptr101’ Kaushik (runner-up for ₹67,802), ‘FloatingMonkey’ (3rd for ₹62,229), and ‘notoriusB.I.G’ (4th for ₹60,043).

Ramesh ‘Dabidi_Dibide’ Pathipati finished 6th for ₹24,322.

Final Table Results

  1. Varun Raj ‘Arch1806’ Mahajan – ₹75,248*
  2. Ashish ‘intrcptr101’ Kaushik – ₹67,802*
  3. FloatingMonkey – ₹62,229*
  4. notoriusB.I.G – ₹60,043*
  5. maglumagic27 – ₹31,597
  6. Ramesh ‘Dabidi_Dibide’ Pathipati – ₹24,322

*denotes four-way deal

 

La Luna 4 Lakhs GTD – Adda52

Buy-in – ₹1,800

Entries – 128

Re-entries – 122

Prize Pool – ₹4,10,000

Places Paid – 27

Adda52’s ₹4 Lakhs GTD La Luna ran from 9:30 PM to 2:45 AM and gathered 250 participants to collect ₹4.10 Lakhs in the prize pool kitty.

Young Gun Gaurav ‘gauravarod’ Sood is the undisputed annual leaderboard topper and has dominated the charts for 31 consecutive weeks. Adding yet another title to his tally, Sood took down the La Luna last night for ₹1.06 Lakhs.

Sood also final tabled PokerStars India’s Big Bubble Rush (4th for ₹26,444) and narrowly missed out on a final table berth in the Night on Stars (10th for ₹6,067), raking in a cumulative ₹1.39 Lakhs for the day. Sood currently sits on ₹6.56 Crores in lifetime earnings and is the only player with ₹4+ Crores (₹4.37 Crores) in recorded winnings this year.

PokerBaazi’s The Endeavour champion from Tuesday, Arpan ‘distroyer’ Majhi, finished runner-up for ₹63,550. Majhi boasts of ₹78.05 Lakhs in online earnings.

PokerGuru Ambassador Shashank ‘IndianRat’ Desai (3rd for ₹47,765), Sathish ‘Sathishlloyds’ Kumar K (4th for ₹34,850), Yash ‘Zayo’ Dhruv Divesh Wadhawan (5th for ₹23,575), and Usha ‘BobbyAxelrod’ Bharatbhai (6th for ₹17,425) also FT-ed the tourney.

 

Wednesday MegaStack 2.5 Lakhs GTD – PokerBaazi

Buy-in – ₹2,200

Entries – 84

Re-entries – 44

Prize Pool – ₹2,56,000

Places Paid – 15

PokerBaazi`s 9 PM Special Wednesday MegaStack generated a ₹2.56 Lakhs prize pool from 128 registrations, and the top 15 placed got paid.

After four and half hours of non-stop action, Suhas N skullkiker’ Yadav championed the tourney to win ₹68,610. Online reg Aniruddha ‘PocketacesAJ’ Joshi came in second for ₹48,050.

Tuesday Turbo third-place finisher Ankit ‘Ankitmodi’ Modi (4th for ₹22,890), Avinash ‘aksinha97’ Kumar (5th for ₹17,150), Tuesday Turbo winner Harsh ‘harsh1327’ Bubna (6th for ₹13,720), and last night’s The Pride third-place finisher Ashit ‘nexus010’ Sharma (8th for ₹9,139) also FT-ed the tourney.

 

Nano Maverick 1.5 Lakhs GTD Adda52

Buy-in – ₹250

Entries – 335

Re-entries – 296

Prize Pool – ₹1,50,011

Places Paid – 63

Adda52`s ₹1.5 Lakhs GTD Nano Maverick logged in 631 entrants, enough to get the tourney to scrape past its listed guarantee.

After almost seven hours of play, ‘POKERBRAT0118’ came out on top to win ₹22,793, while Siddharth ‘siddarath1998’ Kumar came in second for ₹18,305.

 

Bigstack Turbo 1 Lakh GTD – PokerStars India

Buy-in – ₹1,100

Entries – 60

Re-entries – 32

Prize Pool – ₹1,00,000

Places Paid – 17

PokerStars India`s ₹1 Lakhs GTD Bigstack Turbo wrangled in 92 entries – falling eight entries short of its 100-player guarantee.

The 10.30 PM tourney is one of the two daily qualifying events for the PokerStars India “Star of the Month” leaderboard race, and 17 finishers collected payouts and TLB points for December.

After more than three hours of play, ‘Yash1805’ took down the title for ₹22,373 after eliminating ‘deep12322’ (2nd for ₹16,922) in second place.

Dhawel ‘dhawal17’ Baghel (4th for ₹9,681) and Siddharth ‘gangnam gangi’ Gangwar (5th for ₹7,322) also final tabled the event.

 

Wednesday PLO 1 Lakh GTD – PokerDangal

Buy-in – ₹660

Entries – 87

Re-entries – 37

Prize Pool – ₹1,00,000

Places Paid – 20

PokerDangal’s ₹1 Lakh GTD Wednesday PLO brought in 124 entrants to leave an overlay deficit of ₹25,600, and the top 20 places finished ITM.

Topping them all was Luckydeep,’ who beat ‘Striker9357’ (runner-up for ₹16,500) heads-up to walk away with ₹22,000 in cash prize.

Jai ‘jaisharma13’ Sharma (6th for ₹5,000) was the only known player on the FT.

 

Pocket Jacks 75K GTD Pocket52

Buy-in – ₹550

Entries – 87

Re-entries – 49

Prize Pool – ₹75,000

Places Paid – 21

The ₹75K GTD Pocket Jacks on Pocket52 registered 136 entries, overlaying ₹7,000.

The anonymous user ‘Imtheking’ shipped the event for ₹16,500, just as ‘Mrbobo’ placed second for ₹12,000.

Arpan ‘Novus’ Majhi (3rd for ₹9,000), making his second FT finish of the day, won ₹72,550.

Abhiroop ‘Ron007’ Gupta (4th for ₹6,750) also cashed the final table.

 

This report was updated at 5 PM on 17.12.2020.

Keep following PokerGuru for daily updates on the biggest winners across the major domestic networks!

Daily Majors: Grover, Yomso, Ahuja, Batra & Chaudhary Conquered the Wednesday Majors

It was a wild Wednesday on the virtual felts which saw the ongoing PokerBaazi Premier League (PPL) crown five champions. Underlining the success of the series was the fact that all five events overshot their advertised guarantees with the day’s headliner, PPL #29: The Vegas ₹40 Lakhs GTD alone collecting a jaw-dropping ₹45.50 Lakhs in prize money!

Topping the list of winners was one of our first batch of Young Gun’s – Arsh ‘Button_Hai_Bro’ Grover. A player equally adept at playing both live and online, Grover has several international scores to his name. Last year in November we saw Grover take down two Sunday Stacks ₹10 Lakhs GTD titles on 9stacks over consecutive Sundays, pocketing ₹2.55 Lakhs on November 11 and ₹2.60 Lakhs on November 18. He splashed onto the scene once again in June when he took down Spartan Poker’s Half Price ₹6 Lakhs GTD for ₹1.74 Lakhs. Grover played exceedingly well in the PPL #29: The Vegas ₹40 Lakhs GTD where he outplayed the 910-strong field (515 unique and 395 re-entries) to take home ₹7.96 Lakhs in prize money.

Another big winner last night was Wilson ‘kalingkaling’ Yomso who outperformed 310 entries (158 unique and 152 re-entries) to win the PPL#28 PLO: High Roller for ₹6.84 Lakhs. Incidentally, both Grover and Yomso had to face-off with the same heads-up opponent – Neeharika ‘dewdrops’ Kodirekkala. A relatively low-key player, Kodirekkala’s last memorable run was in the PokerBaazi GameChanger 1.0 where she placed 29th among the top 33 finishers and earned ₹1.09 Lakhs. With two runner-up finishes that amped up her bankroll by a cumulative ₹10.37 Lakhs, Kodirekkala undoubtedly made a big splash last night!

Over at the PPL #27: 6-Max SuperStack ₹5 Lakhs GTD, Guddu ‘gudduhero20’ Chaudhary emerged the champion netting ₹1.12 Lakhs and Aditya ‘adit11’ Kulkarni took down PPL #30: 4-Max Hyper Turbo ₹3 Lakhs GTD for ₹77,490. Suhas ‘skullkiker’ N rounded out the big winners on PokerBaazi by shipping the PPL #26: ₹3 Lakhs GTD for ₹72,676.

Kulkarni, in fact, was in superb form yesterday, for he took down not one but two events. Following his win in the 4-Max Hyper Turbo, he topped 9stacks’ StackUp @8 PM ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD, under the moniker ‘MoneyHeist,’ banking ₹67,703.

Spartan Poker’s Destiny 11.0 ₹25 Lakhs GTD was another prominent tournament that kept the poker circuit engaged last night. Yesterday the event logged in 572 entries (238 unique, 131 re-entries and 203 rebuys), surpassing its offered guarantee to accumulate ₹28.60 Lakhs in the prize pool. In the end, it was the rising poker sensation Ashish ‘Spewushhhiiiii’ Ahuja who claimed the title, adding an impressive ₹6.02 Lakhs to his bankroll.

Overlays continue to haunt the major tournaments on Adda52 and last Wednesday the site’s mainstay tournament, Maverick ₹10 Lakhs GTD, registered a minor shortfall of ₹46,775 after logging in 419 entries (224 unique and 195 re-entries). Vikram ‘vikrambatra23’ Ved Batra topped the field to collect ₹2.05 Lakhs in first-place prize money. Meanwhile, ‘xoredvoid’ shipped the Hexagram ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD for ₹71,250.

PokerStars India’s Night on Stars ₹5 Lakhs GTD eclipsed its advertised guarantee for a second consecutive week, posting a ₹5.40 Lakhs prize pool via 270 entries (145 unique and 125 re-entries). ‘Barakiel7’ was the last player standing and took home a cool ₹1.03 Lakhs for their win. ‘mpaonker’ won the Progressive KO – 4 Max ₹2 Lakhs GTD for ₹50,833.

 

PPL #29: The Vegas ₹40 Lakhs GTD (RE) PokerBaazi

Entries – 515

Re-entries 395

Prize Pool – ₹45,50,000

Places Paid – 108

The biggest tournament last night was PPL #29: The Vegas ₹40 Lakhs GTD that attracted 910 entries (515 unique and 395 re-entries) to accrue a mind-boggling prize pool of ₹45.50 Lakhs, a good ₹4.5 Lakhs more than its advertised guarantee. Racing to the top was Arsh ‘Button_Hai_Bro’ Grover who banked ₹7.96 Lakhs for his efforts.

Also posting a final table finish was Chirag ‘miyagi’ Sodha (9th for ₹79,625) while Akshay ‘sherlock52’ Nasa (17th for ₹40,950), Nishant ‘nishant177’ Sharma (27th for ₹28,210), Arjanveer ‘holdbaby’ Singh Chadha (34th for ₹24,570), Faiz ‘AilaGaya’ Alam (46th for ₹17,745), Devrat ‘flopCheck’ Arya (49th for ₹17,745), Raghav ‘thatssosick’ Bansal (52nd for ₹17,745), Ashish ‘rocky3705’ Ahuja (55th for ₹14,560) and Ashutosh ‘senojwod’ Balodhi (65th for ₹12,740) finished ITM.

Arsh Grover Wins PPL #29 The Vegas on PokerBaazi (Sept 25)
Arsh Grover

Final Table Results

  1. Arsh ‘Button_Hai_Bro’ Grover – ₹7,96,250
  2. Neeharika ‘dewdrops’ Kodirekkala – ₹5,57,830
  3. V42V – ₹3,60,815
  4. archibl – ₹2,66,630
  5. mahikalra – ₹1,99,290
  6. Vishal ‘FlopturnRiver’ Madan – ₹1,61,070
  7. Prakash ‘pinnug’ Gupta – ₹1,33,315
  8. Rohit ‘acesinyourfaces’ Setia – ₹1,06,015
  9. Chirag ‘miyagi’ Sodha – ₹79,625

 

PPL #28: PLO High Roller ₹30 Lakhs GTD (5 RE) PokerBaazi

Entries – 158

Re-entries – 152

Prize Pool – ₹31,00,000

Places Paid – 36

PokerBaazi’s PPL#28: PLO High Roller held a guarantee of ₹30 Lakhs, but with a vast, 310-strong player field (158 unique and 152 re-entries), the tournament strode past the number, collecting ₹31 Lakhs in prize money! Wilson ‘kalingkaling’ Yomso, a well-known name in the online circuit bested the field and snagged the title. Yomso was last seen winning the Adda52 ₹25 Lakhs GTD Mega Suits for 5.67 Lakhs in May. This time he added ₹6.84 Lakhs to his bankroll.

A long list of experienced players entered the field, and among those seen final tabling the event was Chirag ‘miyagi’ Sodha (4th for ₹2.28 Lakhs), Vivek ‘Ishoveonyou’ Rughani (5th for ₹1.71 Lakhs) and Sahil ‘CairyHunt’ Agarwal (6th for ₹1.37 Lakhs).

Also taking home payouts were Sumit ‘boronyx’ Sapra (20th for ₹30,690), Akshay ‘sherlock52’ Nasa (24th for ₹27,280), Aditya ‘gangajal’ Sushant (27th for 24,180), Arjanveer ‘holdbaby’ Singh Chadha (34th for ₹21,080) and Shagun ‘sogani22’ Jain (35th for ₹21,080).

Wilson Yomso
Wilson Yomso

Final Table Results

  1. Wilson ‘kalingkaling’ Yomso – ₹6,84,790
  2. Neeharika ‘dewdrops’ Kodirekkala – ₹4,80,500
  3. Psycorp – ₹3,09,070
  4. Chirag ‘miyagi’ Sodha – ₹2,28,780
  5. Vivek ‘Ishoveonyou’ Rughani – ₹1,71,740
  6. Sahil ‘CairyHunt’ Agarwal – ₹1,37,330
  7. perkio07 – ₹1,14,080
  8. TIGERANNA – ₹91,450
  9. Rohit ‘Executioner00’ Jinwal – ₹68,510

 

Destiny 11.0 ₹25 Lakhs GTD Spartan Poker

Entries – 238

Re-entries – 131

Rebuys – 203

Prize Pool – ₹28,60,000

Places Paid – 50

Spartan Poker’s Wednesday flagship tournament – Destiny 11.0 ₹25 Lakhs GTD – attracted 572 entries (238 unique, 131 re-entries and 203 rebuys), generating ₹28.60 Lakhs in the prize pool.

Chandigarh based lawyer-turned-poker pro Ashish ‘Spewushhhiiiii’ Ahuja overpowered Utsav ‘CAseK’ Taneja (runner-up for ₹5.98 Lakhs) heads-up, to clinch the title, along with a sizeable top prize worth ₹6.02 Lakhs.

Among the notables who also cashed the event were the likes of Vaibhav ‘BeBoT’ Sharma (5th for ₹1.20 Lakhs), Nishant ‘FunkyouFTW1’ Sharma (7th for ₹1 Lakh), Sajal ‘GoMuckYourself’ Gupta (9th for ₹54,340), Vivek ‘Pokerbatman27’ Rughani (13th for ₹28,600), Gaurav ‘mozzie17’ Sood (22nd for ₹21,450), Rakesh ‘rrbhagat’ Bhagat (25th for ₹21,450), Faiz ‘DrStrange’ Alam (26th for ₹17,160), Vaibhav ‘Nikka Zaildar’ Sharma (29th for ₹17,160), Ragesh ‘ragesh91’ Mishra (31st for ₹15,730), Haider ‘Nutbuster’ Madraswala (32nd for ₹15,730), Avijit ‘tyler2643’ Jaiswal (34th for ₹15,730) and Sagar ‘lolMinions’ Choudhury (38th for ₹10,965).

Ashish Ahuja
Ashish Ahuja

Final Table Results

  1. Ashish ‘Spewushhhiiiii’ Ahuja – ₹6,02,856
  2. Utsav ‘CAseK’ Taneja – ₹5,98,344
  3. Netflixxed – ₹2,59,785
  4. masterbluff – ₹1,88,760
  5. Vaibhav ‘BeBoT’ Sharma – ₹1,20,120
  6. MandirYahinBanayenge – ₹1,00,100
  7. Nishant ‘FunkyouFTW1’ Sharma- ₹66,735
  8. siddyk20 – ₹58,155
  9. Sajal ‘GoMuckYourself’ Gupta – ₹54,340

 

Maverick ₹10 Lakhs GTD Adda52

Entries – 224

Re-entries – 195

Prize Pool – ₹10,00,000

Places Paid – 43

Yesterday’s Maverick ₹10 Lakhs GTD on Adda52 saw a massive field of 419 entries (224 unique and 195 re-entries), and the top 43 finishers benefitted from the ₹46,775 overlay.

Topping them all was Adda52 regular Vikram ‘vikrambatra23’ Ved Batra who outduelled ‘axios’ (runner-up for ₹1.92 Lakhs) heads-up to win the ₹2.05 Lakhs top prize.

Sagar ‘alwaysnutz’ Choudhury (12th for ₹12,500), Pranav ‘pranavbang’ Bang (17th for ₹10,000), Faizan ‘realkidsanju’ Samad (19th for ₹8,500), Naren ‘IMUNAGI’ Purohit (25th for ₹7,500), Ayan ‘gutshotguru1’ Ray (33rd for ₹6,500), Aniket ‘WhiteRabbit’ Sharma (37th for ₹5,500) and Deepak ‘bothras’ Bothra (43rd for ₹5,500), all crossed the money line.

Vikram Ved Batra Wins Maverick on Adda52 (Sept 25)
Vikram Ved Batra

Final Table Results

  1. Vikram ‘vikrambatra23’ Ved Batra – ₹2,05,267
  2. axios – ₹1,92,733
  3. POKERCAPS – ₹1,05,000
  4. ganu12 – ₹80,000
  5. Deepak ‘Deepak32145’ Choudhary – ₹52,000
  6. Vaibhav ‘alienrobot’’ Sharma – ₹35,000
  7. Prem2610 – ₹27,500
  8. chetraj1000 – ₹22,500
  9. Sanish ‘sanish21’ Chhabra – ₹16,000

 

PPL #27: 6-Max SuperStack ₹5 Lakhs GTD (5RE) PokerBaazi

Entries – 230

Re-entries – 216

Prize Pool – ₹5,57,500

Places Paid – 54

The PPL #27: 6-Max SuperStack ₹5 Lakhs GTD pulled 446 hopefuls to the virtual felts yesterday, smashing the guarantee by a healthy margin with the final tally touching ₹5.57 Lakhs. It all ended when Guddu ‘gudduhero20’ Chaudhary defeated Shashank ‘Acekiller’ Shekhar heads-up to win the event for ₹1.12 Lakhs. Shekhar pocketed ₹78,551 for finishing runner-up.

Seasoned pros Sriharsha ‘yUDdam’ Boneni (6th for ₹22,467) and Sameer ‘Killersam’ Tavanandi (9th for ₹11,205) both made final table finishes.

Some of the other notable players who earned payouts were Ashutosh ‘senojwod’ Balodhi (20th for ₹5,017), Nadeem ‘SpadeHunter’ Basha (24th for ₹4,515) and Parikshit ‘zapdos1234’ Dhall (53rd for ₹2,564).

Guddu Chaudhury
Guddu Chaudhury

Final Table Results

  1. Guddu ‘gudduhero20’ Chaudhary – ₹1,12,057
  2. Shashank ‘Acekiller’ Shekhar – ₹78,551
  3. Harsh ‘harsh1327’ Bubna – ₹50,509
  4. Imperative – ₹37,352
  5. Anuj ‘technoforever’ Mahajan – ₹28,042
  6. Sriharsha ‘yUDdam’ Boneni – ₹22,467
  7. Bahuthogaya – ₹18,732
  8. pokerbaazifan – ₹14,941
  9. Sameer ‘Killersam’ Tavanandi – ₹11,205

 

Night on Stars ₹2,200 NLHE ₹5 Lakhs GTD PokerStars India

Entries – 145

Re-entries – 125

Prize Pool – ₹5,40,000

Places Paid – 44

PokerStars India’s Wednesday extravaganza, Night on Stars ₹5 Lakhs GTD, smashed its guarantee for a second consecutive week, registering 270 entries (145 unique and 125 re-entries) that generated ₹5.40 Lakhs in the prize pool. ‘Barakiel7’ championed the event, banking ₹1.03 Lakhs.

Among the known names who final tabled the event was Sahil ‘inaboobham’ Mahboobani (3rd for ₹56,157), Pranav ‘dak0o’ Bang (6th for ₹22,531), Faiz ‘LFGgggg’ Alam (8th for ₹12,256) and Rohit ‘PillowFight22’ Mishra (9th for ₹9,040).

Akshay ‘youcantcallme’ Nasa (10th for ₹7,408), Devvrat ‘bhasm@sur1’ Arya (22nd for ₹4,975), Laksh ‘B00MTilt23’ Pal Singh (30th for ₹4,076), Utsav ‘rannyOO6’ Taneja (33rd for ₹4,076), Vikram ‘vikrambatra23’ Ved Batra (34th for ₹4,076), Rachit ‘hack_R27’ Parihar (36th for ₹4,076) and Vikram ‘Prison M!ke’ Singh (40th for ₹4,076), also finished ITM.

Final Table Results

  1. Barakiel7 – ₹1,03,232
  2. i_am_who_knocks – ₹76,139
  3. Sahil ‘inaboobham’ Mahboobani – ₹56,157
  4. arunachal – ₹41,418
  5. bellarybabu – ₹30,548
  6. Pranav ‘dak0o’ Bang – ₹22,531
  7. clickasaur007 – ₹16,618
  8. Faiz ‘LFGgggg’ Alam – ₹12,256
  9. Rohit ‘PillowFight22’ Mishra – ₹9,040

 

Hexagram ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD Adda52

Entries – 65

Re-entries – 52

Prize Pool – ₹2,50,000

Places Paid – 13

‘xoredvoid’ topped yesterday’s Hexagram ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD on Adda52 and took away the top prize worth ₹71,250.

Tournament regs Akshay ‘vibaks’ Nasa (4th for ₹25,000), Ankit ‘kasatankit’ Kasat (8th for ₹7,500) and Ankit ‘loser05’ Khattar (9th for ₹6,250) final tabled the event.

Final Table Results

  1. xoredvoid – ₹71,250
  2. raj413 – ₹47,500
  3. deps111 – ₹32,500
  4. Akshay ‘vibaks’ Nasa – ₹25,000
  5. selffish – ₹18,750
  6. gongo – ₹12,500
  7. saahib – ₹10,000
  8. Ankit ‘kasatankit’ Kasat – ₹7,500
  9. Ankit ‘loser05’ Khattar – ₹6,250

 

PPL #30: 4- Max Hyper Turbo ₹3 Lakhs GTD PokerBaazi

Entries – 200

Re-entries – 169

Prize Pool – ₹3,69,000

Places Paid – 45

There were 369 players (200 unique and 169 re-entries) who gave the coveted PPL title a shot at the PPL #30: 4-Max Hyper Turbo ₹3 Lakhs GTD on Wednesday. Aditya ‘adit11’ Kulkarni was the eventual winner, and he banked ₹77,490 for his efforts.

Arjanveer ‘holdbaby’ Chadha (4th for ₹25,830), Sam ‘thereallokimon’ Anand (22nd for ₹3,099), Ashutosh ‘senojwod’ Balodhi (30th for ₹2,398) and Akshay ‘sherlock52Nasa (33rd for ₹2,398) posted scores.

Aditya Kulkarni
Aditya Kulkarni

Final Table Results

  1. Aditya ‘adit11’ Kulkarni – ₹77,490
  2. doordarshan – ₹54,243
  3. Archit ‘flyingmuck’ Khandelwal – ₹34,870
  4. Arjanveer ‘holdbaby’ Chadha – ₹25,830
  5. Jatin ‘jtsuited’ Tuteja – ₹19,372
  6. vodafone1 – ₹15,498
  7. Piyush303 – ₹12,915
  8. Nikhil ‘Nikhil93’ Gutta – ₹10,332
  9. Rafiq ‘Mrkhan’ Khan – ₹7,749

 

PPL #26: ₹3 Lakhs GTD (3RE) PokerBaazi

Entries – 194

Re-entries – 135

Prize Pool – ₹3,29,000

Places Paid – 36

Overcoming a field of 329 entries (194 unique, 135 re-entries) Suhas ‘skullkiker’ N took down the PPL #26: ₹3 Lakhs GTD for ₹72,676. The tournament quickly met the advertised guarantee and the final prize pool generated was ₹3.29 Lakhs.

Notables like Aditya ‘gangajal’ Sushant (7th for ₹12,107), Parikshit ‘zapdos1234’ Dhall (10th for ₹5,296), Rony ‘bisadip176’ Chowdhury (35th for ₹2,237), and Akshay ‘sherlock52Nasa (36th for ₹2,237) made a deep run in the event.

Suhas N
Suhas N

Final Table Results

  1. Suhas ‘skullkiker’ N – ₹72,676
  2. Harry ‘Harrys111’ Singh – ₹50,995
  3. Albetrose ‘ISILDUR1’ Alex – ₹32,801
  4. Anirudha ‘DurzoBlint’ Shankar – ₹24,280
  5. Bunty ‘hiteshbhai’ Batra – ₹18,226
  6. Devrat ‘vickypune’ Singh – ₹14,574
  7. Aditya ‘gangajal’ Sushant – ₹12,107
  8. Shivam ‘broosky’ Shukla – ₹9,705
  9. Neeraj ‘SelfClaimedPro’ Kumar – ₹7,270

 

StackUp @8 PM ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD 9stacks

Entries – 103

Re-entries – 32

Rebuys – 42

Prize Pool – ₹2,65,000

Places Paid – 25

9stacks’ daily signature tournament, StackUp @8 PM ₹2.5 Lakhs GTD, finally managed to meet its guarantee last night. Pulling in 177 entries (103 unique, 32 re-entries and 42 re-buys), the event secured a prize pool of ₹2.65 Lakhs.

Walking away with the most significant chunk of the prize pool kitty was PokerBaazi’s The Summit ₹15 Lakhs GTD winner from September 19, Aditya ‘MoneyHeist’ Kulkarni who netted ₹67,703.

Shashank ‘Goldfish03’ Shekhar (3rd for ₹29,869), Ankit ‘Hidimba’ Saxena (5th for ₹16,992), StackUp @8PM winner on September 20, Vibhu ‘Vibsi’ Agarwal (6th for ₹11,284) and Anuj ‘brockLesnar95’ Yadav (9th for ₹5,974), final tabled the event.

Final Table Results

  1. Aditya ‘MoneyHeist’ Kulkarni – ₹67,703
  2. Antrose – ₹46,463
  3. Shashank ‘Goldfish03’ Shekhar – ₹29,869
  4. Anurag ‘Sharmaji’ Sharma – ₹23,895
  5. Ankit ‘Hidimba’ Saxena – ₹16,992
  6. Vibhu ‘Vibsi’ Agarwal – ₹11,284
  7. Nikhilm – ₹8,629
  8. Vihaan ‘Astillisis’ Singh – ₹7,301
  9. Anuj ‘brockLesnar95’ Yadav – ₹5,974

 

Progressive KO – 4 Max ₹1,650 NLHE ₹2 Lakhs GTD PokerStars India

Entries – 77

Re-entries – 51

Total Prize Pool – ₹2,00,000

Regular Prize Pool – ₹1,04,000

Bounty Prize Pool – ₹96,000

Places Paid – 23

‘mpaonker’ trounced a 128-entry (77 unique and 51 re-entries) field in the Progressive KO – 4 Max ₹2 Lakhs GTD on PokerStars India, pocketing a payday of ₹50,833 in the process.

Final Table Results

  1. mpaonker – ₹50,833
  2. noviceanari – ₹23,946
  3. Ram ‘TheLagLawyer’ Kakkar – ₹18,972
  4. closeperception – ₹9,481
  5. tuffcookie777 – ₹7,543
  6. gkaurb – ₹6,545
  7. Anmolraj ‘modi chai wala’ Singh Chawla – ₹6,076
  8. ankiit8973 – ₹9,419
  9. Utsav ‘rannyOO6’ Taneja – ₹4,965

 

Keep following PokerGuru for daily updates on the biggest winners across the domestic networks!

Indians Who Will Be Making Their WSOP Debut This Year

The 50th World Series of Poker (WSOP) is mere hours away! Starting today, i.e., May 28, the mega poker series will give away 89 bracelets through its extended run that will include many sought-after tournaments like the BIG 50, Millionaire Maker, $10K Main Event, Poker Players Championship, Little One For One Drop and The Closer. While the very first event of the series will be a Charity Poker Tournament hosted in honor of the recently deceased Canadian pro – Gavin Smith, the first bracelet event of this much-awaited series will be the $500 Casino Employees Event which will be held on May 29, followed by the $10K Super Turbo Bounty the same day. The first starting flight of the BIG 50 – $500 No-Limit Hold’em kicks off on May 30 where we expect to see many Indians in action.

While we have extensively discussed the past performances of the Indian battalion at the series, we will now take a look at the players who will be popping their WSOP cherry this year. Last year, many emerging Indian poker players had taken the WSOP felts by storm with the likes of Nishant Sharma, Vivek Rughani and PokerGuru Staking’s Kartik Ved all giving new meaning to the term “dream debut.” This year, the largest-ever contingent of Indian players is expected to be in attendance at the WSOP and as expected many among them are going to be first-timers. With such a talented line-up of debutants, it won’t be amiss to say that the next few weeks promise to be very exciting for railbirds rooting for Team India to bring home its first solo bracelet this year.

 

Ashish Ahuja

First on our list is the Chandigarh-based lawyer turned MTT player, Ashish Ahuja who is a mentee of poker icon Aditya Agarwal and a PokerGuru Ambassador. Though his poker resume boasts of only five live scores, he has been crushing the virtual felts with numerous wins including PokerBaazi’s The Endeavour for ₹6.77 Lakhs in October 2018 and Adda52’s Godfather 7.0 for ₹5.32 Lakhs early this year. He punched his ticket to Las Vegas by winning a Vegas package worth ₹9 Lakhs on Adda52 on March 3.

Ashish Ahuja
Ashish Ahuja

PokerGuru caught up with the budding talent, who also happens to be an avid poker blogger, to learn more about his preparation for the WSOP, and Ahuja said, “I’ve been studying and trying to learn all the new strategies that have recently been evolved in the game right now. My mentor Aditya Agarwal has been very kind to me by showering his knowledge on me. I’ve been taking quite a few training sessions from him.”

Ahuja is planning to play the BIG 50, Millionaire Maker, COLOSSUS, Little One For One Drop, Mini Main Event, and the Main Event and will be in Las Vegas for the entire duration of the series.

“I’m really excited about the series as this will be my first WSOP. Also, this will be my first trip along with Adi [Aditya Agarwal] who will be there to guide me throughout. I’m more excited because of this fact more that Adi will be there because there’ll be so much to learn from him.”

“My expectation from Vegas is to perform well and win a bracelet as a tribute to Adi because he has really worked hard on me to make me a better player,” said Ahuja, summing up his expectations at WSOP.

 

Deepak Bothra

A player equally adept in handling the challenges both on the live felts as well as in online tournaments, Deepak Bothra came to the spotlight when he took down the ₹30K NLHE Tag Team event at the DPT April Edition for ₹2.37 Lakhs. An MBA from IIM Indore, Bothra is a beast on the virtual felts and recently won Adda52’s ‘The Roar’ event, which was a part of the site’s weekly ‘Go Crazy’ tournaments, for ₹2.24 Lakhs.

Deepak Bothra
Deepak Bothra

Talking about his preparation regime, Bothra explained, “I’m preparing by going through online videos, books, etc. Not keeping any expectations will go with the flow. And yeah working a lot to improve my game.”

He like Ahuja plans to be present at the WSOP for the entire schedule.

Anik Ajmera

24-year-old Anik Ajmera is a relatively new face in the domestic scene since he started playing poker only three years ago. The Bengaluru-based player posted his first live cash in the 2017 DPT ₹15K NLHE Kickoff where he finished 14th for ₹34,280. He is better known on the virtual felts and even won the Adda52 Millions in Oct’18 for ₹5.03 Lakhs. Ajmera, notably was one of two online qualifiers in the Poker Sports League (PSL) Team Andhra Bullets last year.

Anik Ajmera
Anik Ajmera

Ajmera won his dream trip to WSOP via a cash game promotion on Adda52 and will be reaching Las Vegas next month on June 12 where he will stay on till the end of the series.

“It is my first time. I’m mostly going to be playing PLO cash games though, might fire 4-5 value tournaments during the series too. Probably not the Main Event since I mostly play cash games. Not decided which, but the big value ones ₹500- ₹1.5K buy-ins. Might hop into the Main Event if cash games go well,” Ajmera told PokerGuru.

 

Naresh Veeravalli

A well-known name in the domestic circuit, Naresh Veeravalli, came to prominence when he claimed his maiden live title in the opening event, ₹5K Freezeout, at the 2012 PokerGuru Tour Season 2 for ₹1.20 Lakhs. His career-best score came at the inaugural World Poker Tour (WPT) India ₹55K Main Event where he finished 26th for ₹1.78 Lakhs.

Naresh Veeravalli
Naresh Veeravalli

Primarily a cash game player, Veeravalli is bankrolling his 2019 WSOP trip and will be reaching the desert city on June 4. He informed us that he is traveling with his good friend Gokul Paravathaneni from Hyderabad,

“This is my first time to WSOP so really excited. I’m planning to grind cash mostly but will be playing a lot of side events and satellites to Main Event. Not going with any expectations as it’s a high variance event.” Veeravalli told PokerGuru.

“Just wanna get the feel of it. I have been to the U.S. before, but this is the first time I’ll be traveling to the country for poker, so looking forward to it,” he added.

 

Dhawal Lachhwani

Dhawal Lachhwani is the only player on this list who has already indirectly had a taste of the WSOP before – he took part in the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) stop last year where he picked up his first live score with a 10th place finish in the €1,100 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold ’em for €6,949 (~₹5.87 Lakhs). His live scorecard may be short, but he more than makes up for this with an illustrious online track record dotted with deep runs and notable wins.

Dhawal Lachhwani
Dhawal Lachhwani

Expressing his excitement on making WSOP debut in Las Vegas, Lachhwani said, “The Indian contingent this year is going to be pretty big, and I am sure there are going to be many first-timers like me.”

Talking about his preparations for the series, he added, “There is no special technical prep for the series. I have been working on my game for the past year with courses like RYE and Upswing and will bring my A game to the series.”

“I will be focusing on the value events such as Big 50 and Millionaire Maker. For now, I plan on taking part in the first half of the series, and these will be the events in focus,” he further added.

Revealing his expectations, he said, “My expectations from the series are pretty simple. Go out there and play my best poker. This is also an amazing opportunity to learn and improve because I will be playing with some of the best players in the world.”

“The focus will be on poker. I am already on a U.S tour for May, so come June, I hope to put distractions aside and focus on the game,” he concluded.

 

Sreekanth Narayan

An online regular, Sreekanth Narayan, is primarily a mid-stakes player and like many in this list, he too will be making his WSOP debut because of a ₹2 Lakhs package that he won in ‘Grand FT,’ a tournament that was held on February 24, 2019, by Adda52.

Sreekanth Narayan
Sreekanth Narayan

Narayan informed us that he plans to play the Mini Main Event and COLOSSUS, among others.

“I hope it will be an amazing experience as it is also the 50th edition. Been doing a lot of off table study and focussing on my physical health to keep me fit for the series,” Narayan said talking about his preparation for the series.

 

Avneesh Munjal

Another online phenom, Avneesh Munjal only last Sunday took down the Baazi Super Sunday (BSS) SuperStack on PokerBaazi for ₹4.91 Lakhs. Back in February, Munjal along with Sreekanth had each won a ₹2 Lakhs Vegas package in the Grand FT tournament on Adda52. Munjal will be making a short early trip at the WSOP from May 30 to June 9.

Avneesh Munjal
Avneesh Munjal

The 29-year-old is a banker by profession and was introduced to poker while pursuing an engineering degree in college. While Munjal mostly prefers to play online, he has been to Goa, Las Vegas, and Macau, mainly to play cash games. The 2018 WPT India was his first-ever live series experience where he even made Day 2 in the ₹55K Main Event, eventually falling short of the money. The 2019 WSOP will be his second live poker series.

 

Guneet Kwatra

Guneet Kwatra had his first brush with poker in college. His love for the game prospered with time and saw him become a regular in the weekend tournaments in Bengaluru till a few years back.

Guneet Kwatra
Guneet Kwatra

An MBA from MDI Gurgaon, Kwatra is a known name online where he has accumulated several deep runs over the years – his most recent win coming in the PPL Winter Edition’s The Bout ₹10 Lakhs GTD for ₹1.61 Lakhs in December last year.

Kwatra will be attending the WSOP from June 21 to July 4 and told PokerGuru, “This is going to be my first time to WSOP. I’m still finalizing the plan and the exact schedule but will most likely be there from around 21st June-3rd/4th July, trying to grind some value tournaments. The expectation is to stay focused, play my A-game, and to enjoy the experience!”

 

Siddharth Mundada

Siddharth Mundada is another up and coming player in the domestic circuit. Mostly known for his online forays, Mundada will not only be attending the WSOP for the first time, but this will also be the first time he will be playing poker outside the country.

Siddharth Mundada
Siddharth Mundada

Discussing his expectations from the series and his preparations for the same, Mundada said, “I haven’t kept any financial goals for the series. I am looking forward to playing some good poker and enjoy the series as it has been on my bucket list for quite some time. I have been preparing for WSOP for the past two months. I am taking sessions from one of the best online coaches. Nishant Sharma, Deepak Bothra and Vivek Rughani are going to join me for the series.”

 

Siddharth Karia

27-year-old Siddharth Karia is a recreational player who mostly plays online. Based in Ahmedabad, Karia started playing poker during his college days back in 2010.

Siddharth Karia
Siddharth Karia

Karia was part of the winning team Goan Nuts that won the second edition of the Poker Sports League (PSL) which was hosted onboard Casino Deltin Royale in Goa from May 9–13, 2018. His other significant achievements include winning the 9stacks Sunday Stacks ₹15 Lakhs GTD on May 12 for ₹2.92 Lakhs. Karia will be making his WSOP debut on his own bankroll.

 

Suhas N

A regular on MadOverPoker (MOP), Suhas N shipped the Mega Flight to win the Silver package which was a part of the poker site’s ‘Viva Las Vegas’ promotion.

Suhas K
Suhas K

Thanking MOP for granting him the chance to go to Las Vegas, Suhas was unsurprisingly, very excited for the upcoming series.

“Thank you, MOP, for giving me an opportunity to be a part of Vegas Series. The Vegas mega flight was an amazing tournament, it was wonderful to take part in the Vegas mega flight with the elite list of players. I have always had a great time playing on MOP, and it was an amazing feeling to win the Vegas package. I look forward to going to Vegas and participating in the WSOP and other tournaments there. Thank you for organising such wonderful tournaments and giving us an opportunity to win our way to Vegas.”

 

Aman Kejriwal

With a single live cash to his name, Aman Kejriwal is better known for his online achievements. Playing under the username ‘alwaysriver’ on PokerBaazi, Kejriwal took down the Grinders#19 – Thursday MonsterStack ₹5 Lakhs GTD for ₹1.07 Lakhs in November 2018. His only live score was in the NLHE Freezeout event at the 2015 IPC where he finished fifth for ₹85,000.

Aman Kejriwal
Aman Kejriwal

Though he has been to the Sin City before, he kept his poker exploits limited to cash games only and will be making his WSOP debut this year.

Talking about his WSOP plans, Kejriwal told PokerGuru, “This is my first series in Vegas. I have played cash games in Vegas before, but plan to start the series with the $500 event and then see how it goes from there. Expecting the events to be huge. I am travelling with family and will be mixing poker and vacationing.”

 

Other Rising Poker Stars Who are Expected to Attend

A player who has made a tremendous impact on the virtual felts in recent times – Gaurav Sood, won the Las Vegas Silver package on MOP by generating 15,000 MOP Elite points. However, Sood has applied for his VISA and is still awaiting confirmation. Meanwhile, online phenom Harsh Dembla is another well-known reg on the list of WSOP debutants waiting for his U.S. VISA to be sanctioned.

With the unprecedented growth of online poker, many established and fast-growing poker sites have been hosting promotions, offering players a chance to win Las Vegas-facing all-expenses paid packages. While Ram Tripathi, Utkarsh Somaiya, Ashutosh Agarwal, Rudra Bhushan, Shekhar Singh, and Jim Fernandez, won packages on UMA Poker, Shrey Maheshwari qualified from PokerBaazi.

Touted as the ‘World’s Biggest Poker Festival,’ the WSOP every year welcomes a plethora of newbies from every corner of the globe, including India. With the largest-ever contingent of Indian players expected to attend the series, we have made our best effort to canvass as many debutants as possible. We do expect that a substantial number of players, outside of this list will also be making their WSOP debuts this year, and we will endeavor to bring to you their performance updates from the series daily.

Keep following PokerGuru for more exciting updates from the 2019 WSOP!

Online Rankings

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Member Won
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₹1,29,29,197
₹1,25,88,313
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5.Vinay B Vinay B
₹1,15,16,843
6.M L M L
₹1,14,45,592
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₹1,05,83,948
₹99,75,577
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₹42,41,254
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₹41,05,805
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43,040
36,048
28,827
4.N K N K
28,769
26,548
25,649
24,726
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