This Week In Poker: November 16 – 22

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  • PG News November 22, 2016
  • 8 mins Read

In the PokerGuru feature ‘This Week in Poker’ we bring to you the weekly roundup of the biggest online scores by Indian MTT players along with the top stories from both the live and online poker circuit.

Here are this week`s top stories:

It was a week of several developments, including a huge one for domestic players, with PokerStars announcing that it was to commence talks with local operators to setup a new India-only site, even as it plans to withdraw from the Australian market. PokerStars also began early holiday celebrations with its ‘Christmas Festival’ that will have online players rejoicing. It was a pretty dull time at the virtual felts last week with Rohit ‘$oulcrusher’ Mittal taking our “PokerGuru Star of the Week” for banking a little over $2,600 from two cashes.

Ripples of the demonetization move began to reflect across the country, with casinos suffering the most and Delta Corp share prices falling by a huge 36%, prompting Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, ace investor to immediately buy 12.5 lakh more shares.

Other news reports include the announcement of the Asian Poker Tour (APT)’s year-ending tournament at the APT Finale Macau and the results from its ongoing APT Noumea stop. Additionally, PokerStars announced that it is looking at re-launching its Portugal client and that payout structures at upcoming live events would be the same as at the European Poker Tour (EPT) 12 Malta.

Then we have news of Bet365 which received an online poker license from Bulgaria and the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit adding six new international stops to its 2016 – 2017 schedule.

In live action, legendary player and host Mike Sexton won his first World Poker Tour (WPT) title at the WPT Montreal Main Event. A number of other tournaments took place and these included the 2016 Master Classics of Poker (MCOP) Amsterdam, and the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit Rozvadov Main Event. We also have reports from the 2016 Seneca Fall Poker Classic, the 2016 Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour (GUKPT) Blackpool and the WSOP Circuit Caribbean Main Event.

Online Railbird Report

In the absence of regulars, except for a couple like Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal, who is busy notching scores, the online action saw few takers. The one making the most was Rohit ‘$oulcrusher’ Mittal who made two cashes amounting to a little over $2,600 and grabbed the “PokerGuru Star of the Week” from Aditya, who made just a wee bit less.

Mittal first made a sixth place finish in the PokerStars ‘Hot $162, $20K GTD’ for $1,189.79. He then collected $1,492.37 for a 43rd place in the PokerStars ‘$1,050 Thursday Thrill [Progressive KO], $400K GTD’.

Other notable scores:

Aditya ‘Adi Agarwal’ Agarwal made $2,578.11 for fourth place in the PokerStars ‘$215 NLHE [Turbo], $25K GTD’

Shravan ‘shravanc13’ Chhabria finished 48th in the PokerStars ‘$215 SUNDAY MILLION, $1 Million GTD’ for $1,505.37.

Piyush ‘iriveru16’ Gupta cashed $1,102.55 for a fourth place in the PokerStars ‘Hot $82, $10K GTD’.

Alok ‘1darkmatter1’ made a runner-up finish for $1,093.06 in the PokerStars ‘Bounty Builder $82 [Saturday Special], $20K GTD’

PokerStars ‘Christmas Festival’

The season of fun begins early at PokerStars with the Christmas Festival that has a whopping $5 Million in guaranteed in prizes. The promo has three different offers starting with a $1M GTD Freeroll and then the Christmas Calendar which is full of surprises each day. It culminates with the $2 Million GTD Monday Million on December 26.

Read the complete story here.

PokerStars May Launch India Only Site in Early 2017

Another cheering news was the announcement by Rafi Ashkenazi, who said that the company was expected to enter the Indian market soon. Ashkenazi also declared that the site was exiting the Australian market and would soon commence talks with top Indian operators for a launch in the Indian market.

Read the complete story here.

Goa Turmoil

Issues continued to plague Goa casinos, first due to the demonetization and then with local politicos continuing their tirade against them.

Casinos found the going tough with the large denomination currency withdrawn and restrictions on cash withdrawals. Simultaneously, shares of Delta Corp, the country’s only listed gaming company dropped to INR 104, down by 36%. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, investor who already owns shares in the company immediately snapped up 12.5 lakh shares on the company’s past performance.

Read the complete story here.

Meanwhile, a local political party, the Goa Suraksha Manch (GSM) which is gearing up for the coming 2017 elections declared that they would ban all casinos as well as raves parties and electronic dance festivals in the state if elected.

Read the complete story here.

Asian Poker Tour (APT) Noumea Recap

The APT announced that it would end the year with the APT Finale Macau, which would run in December with a number of varied events, including a HKD 11,000 Main Event and two new events added to the roster. The winner of the APT Player of the Year will also be announced at the Player’s Party.

In the meantime, the first ever APT Noumea tournament found winners in pros Tetsuya Tsuchikawa who won the Opening NLH event for XPF 1,258,30 and Iori Yogo who took down Event 2 – PotLimit Omaha for XPF 768,000. The head hunter event was won by local player Olivia Briene.

Tetsuya Tsuchikawa Iori Yogo

Currently, the Main Event has completed Day 3 and leading the 23 survivors is Daniel Gilles with a stack of 254,500. The event drew 143 entries creating a prize pool of more than XPF 14,000,000.

Read the complete story here.

PokerStars – Portugal Re-launch / EPT 12 Malta Payout Structures to be Retained

A statement was made by PokerStars that having acquired most licenses, it was ready to launch in Portugal, after final compliances fell into place, however there would be shared liquidity with other markets currently.

The company also declared that henceforth, payout structures that had been introduced at the EPT 12 Malta would be retained for future live events with the money line including 20% of the field.

Read the complete story here.

Bet365 Gets Poker License From Bulgaria

Bet365 managed to gain a license from Bulgaria, after being blacklisted in 2014. The site will be able to offer players not only online poker, but also casino games.

Read the complete story here.

WSOP Circuit Adds Six New International Stops For 2016 – 2017

Six new stops have been added to the 2016 – 2017 schedule of the WSOP Circuit taking the total to no of tournaments to 13. The new locations include venues in Australia, Portugal and Belgium, besides the established ones.

Read the complete story here.

Mike Sexton Claims First WPT Title at WPT Montreal

Commentator and WPT host, Mike Sexton crossed over the table and won the WPT Montreal Main Event for $317,896, gaining his first title at WPT and a host of other goodies. The legendary pro defeated 648 runners and was replaced as host by Tony Dunst.

Mike Sexton

Read the complete story here.

2016 Master Classics of Poker (MCOP) Amsterdam

At the 2016 MCOP, Amsterdam, Ole Schemion claimed his second High Roller title for this year, by winning the €25,000 Super High Roller for €160,875, after earlier shipping the EPT 12 Malta Grand Final Monte Carlo €25,000 Super High Roller.

Ole Schemion

Read the complete story here.

WSOP Circuit Rozvadov Main Event

Ivan Banic emerged the champion at the WSOP Circuit Rozvadov Main Event for €232,241. Banic is a noted online grinder and this was his first live major tournament cash.

Ivan Banic

Read the complete story here.

2016 Seneca Fall Poker Classic

Dan Wagner took down the 2016 Seneca Fall Poker Classic Main Event for a payday of $64,882. It turned out to be a great investment for the $200 qualifier he rode in through.

Dan Wagner

Read the complete story here.

2016 GUKPT Blackpool

Tom Middleton shipped the 2016 GUKPT Blackpool Main Event for a sum of £56,255, after a deal was struck between the last three players, with Middleton getting the largest share.

Tom Middleton

Read the complete story here.

WSOP Circuit Caribbean

Defeating the 224 entries at the WSOP Circuit Caribbean Main Event was Timothy Cavallin who took home a prize of $84,000, after a heads up match that lasted barely 10 minutes.

Timothy Cavallin

Read the complete story here.

And we end this edition of our weekly report. Do log on same time next week for all the developments from the world of poker.

Related Articles:

1. Goa Suraksha Manch (GSM) Promises to Ban Casinos & Rave Parties in Goa

2. APT Noumea Kicks Off in New Caledonia; Tetsuya Tsuchikawa, Iori Yogo & Olivia Briene Win Side Events

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