This Week in Poker: April 4 – 10

  • Profile picture
  • PG News April 13, 2018
  • 8 mins Read

In the PokerGuru feature ‘This Week in Poker’ we bring to you the weekly round up 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

Summer has just begun but the poker action was sizzling this past week at the coastal state of Goa. Live action sprang back into high gear and the major attraction was the second edition of the Baadshah Gaming Live Tournament. Australian poker pro Bobby Zhang collected the Main Event trophy along with a cool ₹17 Lakhs on his maiden visit to India. Chennai’s S. Saravanan won the big buy-in High Roller event for ₹12.50 Lakhs, while Aditya Sushant, Vidwath Shetty and Vickey Narwani picked up side event titles.

Another event dotting the Asian circuit, APPT Korea got underway on April 6. Tournament regular Sumit Sapra is in attendance at the series though he is yet to score there is one player who just wont stop winning. Korean pro Yuki Ko has already picked up back-to-back titles at the series along with a PSPC Platinum Pass valued at $30,000!

Over to the online sphere, the festivities continue. As usual, PokerStars remains in the news for many reasons, To start with, the news of PokerStars launching a new segregated player pool website for Indian players on April 17 has been the headline news on the online front. The online giant has also announced a massive ₹10 Lakhs guaranteed freeroll along with Early Bird freerolls on the launch week of the new site.

Two other announcements from PokerStars include a record-breaking $65M GTD SCOOP where unfortunately Indians will not be able to play and the new Early Payout Tournaments that pays out the min-cash to all existing players once the money bubble bursts.

The other domestic poker sites seemed to have braced up for the incoming competition by announcing exciting promotions themselves. 9stacks will be hosting a special #LFG Vegas freeroll on April 15 where the top five finishers will win a free trip to Las Vegas to attend the WSOP 2018. India’s most trusted poker site – PokerBaazi launched a ‘Poker Insurance’ promotion and Mad Over Poker is currently running the second chapter of its popular Cash Run promotions with bigger and better rewards.

On to the online score card, Naren ‘naren89’ Purohit was the biggest online scorer of the week for winning the Adda52 Millions and for this he takes our “PokerGuru Star of the Week” title.

In domestic news, we saw Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty Kundra’s Viaan Industries Ltd taking the Match IPL concept online with the launch of the new Online Team Poker League (OTPL).

Moving on, we have news of WSOP 2018 announcing the debut of the Big Blind Ante format at eight events at this year’s schedule.

To wrap up, we have tournament from the partypoker LIVE Barcelona, APPT Korea, MSPT Maryland Live, MPN Poker Tour Bratislava, RunGood Tunica, and WSOP Circuit Planet Hollywood.

Online Railbird Report

Hectic action and fabulous performances sum up the online action this past week. Naren ‘naren89’ Purohit tops the charts for winning the ₹10 Lakhs top prize after taking down the Adda52 ‘Mega Suits’. For this, Purohit is our “PokerGuru Star of the Week”

Naren Sharma

Naren Sharma

Other notables scores of the week include –

Vaibhav ‘kill_619’ Sharma won $8,084.51 for 1st place in the PokerStars ‘Big $55, $4-K GTD’

Sumit ‘Dougpolk’ Malik won ₹3.15 Lakhs for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘BSS (₹15 Lakhs GTD)’

Anujkumar ‘thekinganuj’ Kodam won ₹2.60 Lakhs for 1st place in the Adda52 ‘Sunday Suits’

Kartik ‘pegasus1505’ Ved won $3,313.61 for 1st place in the PokerStars ‘$11 Mini Sunday Starter, $25K GTD’

Armaan ‘armaan007’ Kochhar won $1,702.45 for 1st place in the PokerStars ‘$11 NLHE [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo], $7.5K GTD’ and won $1,175.76 for 5th place in the PokerStars ‘Hot $162, $12K GTD’. Kochhar also won $1,168.99 for 6th place in the PokerStars ‘$215 NLHE [Turbo], $15K GTD’ and won $1,316.80 for 7th place in the PokerStars ‘Hot $109, $35K GTD’

‘imluckbox007’ won $1,475.25 for 54th place in the PokerStars ‘Sunday Million’

Akshai ‘akshai’ Kakarla won ₹26,160 for 1st place in the PokerBaazi ‘BSS (₹1 Lakhs GTD)’

‘Sumitkaushik’ won ₹35,000 for 1st place in the 9stacks ‘Sunday Stack’

PokerStars India To Launch on April 17, Announces Massive Launch & Early Birds Freerolls

The world’s largest online poker site – PokerStars is finally entering India with a new segregated Indian player pool client. PokerStars India has already announced a special free-to-play poker tournament on April 22 with a massive ₹10 Lakhs guaranteed prize pooland has also put out details of Early Bird freerolls that will run from April 17-22 with over ₹3 Lakhs in prizes.

Read the complete story here.

9stacks’ #LFG Vegas Tournament, Higher GTD Daily Events & Exciting New Promotions

The latest and fastest growing online poker startup – 9stacks is raising the bar this April and in a unique offering is hosting a special #LFG Vegas tournament on April 15, 3pm. The top five finishers in the tournament will get a free trip to attend WSOP 2018 in Vegas along with 11-night stay at the Rio. Along with the tournament, the site has also announced higher guarantee events, Happy Hours offer for cash games, deposit codes offering free tickets to the #LFG Vegas tournament and a unique promo that gives all qualifying players a chance to win an iPhone 8!

Read the complete story here.

PokerStars Announces SCOOP, Indian`s Not Invited

In an official blog post, online giant PokerStars unveiled the complete schedule for one of its richest and longest running online tournament series i.e. Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP). If the prize money was not enough, PokerStars is also giving out five Platinum Passes at the series. Unfortunately, Indian players are not invited to this party since with effect from April 16, Indian players will no longer have access to play on the international PokerStars client though they would still be able to login into the client and withdraw funds.

Read the complete story here.

PokerStars Rolls Out Early Payout Tournament

Online giant PokerStars has come out with a new feature – Early Payout Tournaments where players are credited the min-cash immediately after the money bubble bursts in select MTT`s. The balance payment is credited after the player is eventually eliminated based on his position.

Read the complete story here.

PokerBaazi’s ‘Poker Insurance’ Promotion

India`s most trusted online poker website PokerBaazi.com has launched a new promotion named Poker Insurance that runs from April 2- 29 and ensures everyone comes out a winner for depositing and entering the promotion. The promotion rewards players with attractive bonuses but players get assured bonus even if they are unable to complete the target. All players who achieve the VIP Points target in all 4 weeks can claim twice the bonus collected each week.

Read the complete story here.

Baadshah Gaming Live Tournament April ‘18

The second edition of the Baadshah Gaming Live Tournament series kept both – railbirds and us busy this past weekend. A bevy of names made headlines starting with the defending champion Aditya Sushant, who opened the series in style by shipping the ₹10K Warm-Up event for ₹3.89 Lakhs.

Aditya Sushant

Aditya Sushant

Read the complete story here.

Visiting India for the first time, Australia’s Bobby Zhang put his experience to good use by taking down the ₹30K Main Event for ₹17 Lakhs – talk about a rewarding holiday!

Bobby Zhang

Bobby Zhang

Read the complete story here.

Bengaluru-based Vidwath Shetty took down the ₹15K Bounty Event for ₹1.60 Lakhs after a 3-way deal with Young Gun Devesh Thapar and Manoj Pentakota.

Vidwath Shetty

Vidwath Shetty

Read the complete story here.

Finally, the two debuting events saw two first time champions. The highest buy-in event on the lineup i.e. ₹75K High Roller was taken down by 32-year-old Chennai based S. Saravanan for ₹12.50 Lakhs and the ₹25K Heads-Up event title went to 40-year-old Mumbai-based businessman Vickey Narwani.

S Saravanan

S Saravanan

Read the complete story here.

Viaan Industries Ltd Announces Online Team Poker League (OTPL)

Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty Kundra’s Viaan Industries Ltd expanding on their experience with the Match IPL announced an online variant – Online Team Poker League (OTPL). The national event will feature thirty teams from all over India who will play online twice a month in an attempt to top the leader board. The yearlong season will award an eye-popping ₹6.6 crores to the top eight performing teams.

Read the complete story here.

WSOP 2018 to Feature 8 Events With Big Blind Ante Format

World Series of Poker (WSOP) in introducing the Big Blind Ante format in a total of 8 out of the 78 gold bracelet events at this years WSOP schedule. Several side events including two Daily Deepstacks, numerous Mega Satellites and the $25K and $50K weekend tournaments at King’s Lounge will also implement the new Big Blind Ante format.

Read the complete story here.

partypoker LIVE Barcelona

The 2018 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Grand Final Barcelona currently underway at Casino Barcelona crowned three High Roller winners this past week. Canadian pro Sam Greenwood took down the €51K Super High Roller for the €1,000,000 top prize after ousting a field of 57 players that created a prize pool of €2.8 Million.

Read the complete story here.

German pro Andreas Eiler won the first of two €25,500 Super High Rollers for €700,000 after outlasting a stacked field of 88 entries.

Andreas Eiler

Andreas Eiler

Read the complete story here.

Scotland’s Ludovic Geilich shipped the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Grand Final Open banking €250,000 after defeating a huge field of 1,716 entrants.

Ludovic Geilich

Ludovic Geilich

Read the complete story here.

APPT Korea

APPT Korea was another big series that rolled out this week and the action is set to continue till April 15. There is one player who seems to be enjoying himself – Korea’s Yuki Ko. Ko claimed back-to-back titles at the series, winning two events on the same day! He first took down the APPT National event to win his first-ever NLHE title along with a PSPC Platinum Pass and not content he went on to win the Single Day High Roller the very same day.

Yuki Ko

Yuki ko

In other side events, Chile’s Diego Palma won the APPT Kickoff event for ₩21,110,000 and guess what? He won a PSPC Platinum Pass too!

Read the complete story here.

Greg Himmelbrand Wins MSPT Maryland Live Main Event

The MSPT Maryland Live $1,100 buy-in Main Event fetched a field of 635 entries and besting them all was New York State player, Greg Himmelbrand who banked the $125,598 top prize. Himmelbrand entered the final table with the shortest stack and juggernauted himself to the top to win the title.

Greg Himmelbrand

Greg Himmelbrand

Read the complete story here.

Alex Hendriks Wins MPN Poker Tour Bratislava Main Event

The Microgaming Poker Network (MPN) Poker Tour Bratislava Main Event drew a total field of 329 runners and in the end it was Dutch player, Alex Hendriks who banked the €27,000 top prize post a heads-up deal.

Alex Hendriks

Read the complete story here.

Harris Smith Wins RunGood Tunica Main Event

RunGood visited Tunica for the second time recently and defeating the 472 entrants in the Main Event was Tennesse native, Harris Smith who banked $52,648 after an ICM deal with Chris Conrad and Michael Pelt.

Harris Smith

Harris Smith

Read the complete story here.

Ben Zamani Wins WSOP Circuit Planet Hollywood Main Event

Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Ben Zamani added yet another accolade to his resume this week as he shipped the WSOP Circuit Planet Hollywood Main Event. The event attracted 610 entries across two opening flights and Zamani collected the top prize worth $192,152 for his finish.

Read the complete story here.

And that is all for this edition of our weekly report. We will be here again next week, same time, so stay logged on to catch all the latest news from the world of poker.

Related Articles:

1. PokerStars India Announces Launch on April 17, Massive ₹10 Lakhs Launch Freeroll on April 22

2. Baadshah Gaming Live Tournament: Australia’s Bobby Zhang Ships Main Event on Maiden Trip to India For ₹17 Lakhs

3. Baadshah Gaming Live Tournament: Aditya Sushant Wins Opening ₹10K Warm-Up Event For ₹3.89 Lakhs

4. 9stacks Raising The Ante This April With #LFG Vegas Tournament, Higher GTD Daily Events & Exciting New Promotions

5. PokerBaazi Launches ‘Poker Insurance’ Promotion

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Top Online Poker Rooms

Top
PokerGuru