This Week in Poker: March 8 – 14

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  • PG News March 14, 2017
  • 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

Live action was focused at the PokerStars Festival Rozvadov, where Petr Svoboda took down the Main Event for €124,346 and Boris Kuzmanovic won the High Roller for €37,791. Team India was represented by several players and among those who cashed were Vivek Rughani and Manish Goenka (Main Event) as well as Amit Sur (22nd place in a side event).

The King’s Casino Rozvadov is set for greater glory this fall, as the World Series of Poker (WSOP) announced their first bracelet-festival for the Czech Republic to be held in October/November this year.

Currently, it’s a busy spring, as tournaments abound in different parts of the world and some of the major upcoming ones will be the PokerStars Championship Macau, slated to run from March 30 to April 9 and before that will be the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Korea running from March 22 to 28.

As far as news reports go, it was another packed week with numerous developments in India and abroad.

The election results are out in Goa and past CM, Manohar Parrikar has been invited in to form the government, though the opposition Congress has decided to challenge it in court. The party that comes into power will play a big role in determining the future of the offshore casinos. In fact, the sixth operator has already sought legal help for getting the license operational.

On a positive note, it was reported that the Law Commission of India was seeking to legalize sports betting and casinos. In business, Paawan Bansal and PokerBaazi mutually parted ways.

International business news includes a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) DeepStack defeating 11 top pros, including Phil Laak; David Baazov selling a part of his shares of Amaya, as his hopes of acquiring the company sink and online gaming getting a fillip in Michigan and Pennsylvania, with bills in both states making progress.

Tournament reports are also in from the Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour (GUKPT) Manchester, and the World Poker Tour (WPT) Bay 101 Shooting Star.

Domestic online action was as usual, with regulars notching up the scores and Team PokerStars Aditya Agarwal seems bent on carrying forward his heater from last year. Aditya caught his second “PokerGuru Star of the Week” title with more than $16K from multiple cashes all in the top bracket of finishes.

Online players will have a lot more to look forward to with the sixth anniversary of the PokerStars Sunday Storm, which has a whopping $1 million prize pool.

Online Railbird Report

Last year ‘Adi Agarwal’ as his moniker goes online, Aditya made it as the “PokerGuru Star of the Week” a huge eight number of times and seems in a mood to break that record this year.

This past week, Aditya cashed four times, including a first place for $9,572.97 in the PokerStars Hot $109, $40K GTD’. He made two fourth place finishes in the PokerStars ‘Hot $162, $25K GTD’ for $2,504.98 and then also in the PokerStars ‘Hot $162, $25K GTD’ for $2,423.20. With a runner-up finish in the PokerStars ‘$109+R NLHE [Turbo], $5K GTD’ for $1,750.00, Aditya made the highest amount of more than $16K this week and also got himself his second “PokerGuru Star of the Week” title.

Aditya Agarwal

Aditya Agarwal

Other notable finishes include –

Vaibhav ‘kill_619’ Sharma won $8,680.63 for 1st place in the PokerStars ‘Big $55, $50K GTD’

Karan ‘Karan Radia’ Radia won $2,059.35 for 1st place in the PokerStars ‘$5.50 Mini Win the Button, $12K GTD’

Vikram ‘caprese512’ Kumar won $1,887.42 for 2nd place in the PokerStars $82 NLHE [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo], $10K GTD

Shravan ‘shravanc13’ Chhabria won $1,331.66 for 19th place in the PokerStars ‘$215 Sunday Supersonic [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo], $175K GTD’

Sanjay ‘funsukwangdu’ Taneja won $1,254.04 for 6th place in the PokerStars ‘Bounty Builder $44, $60K GTD’

Sriharsha ‘indiandurr’ Doddapaneni won $1,112.64 for 3rd place in the PokerStars ‘Big $27, $10K GTD’

PokerStars Sunday Storm 6th Anniversary

The sixth anniversary celebrations of the PokerStars Sunday Storm begin on March 19 and up for grabs is an assured prize pool of $1,000,000, available for just miniscule buy-ins.

Read the complete story here.

PokerStars Festival Rozvadov

The PokerStars Festival Rozvadov concluded at the King’s Casino in the Czech Republic after a highly successful run.

Indian players were once again present in large numbers and several cashes were recorded. Though many participated, only Vivek Rughani and Manish Goenka cashed the Main Event.

Petr Svoboda was the eventual champion, collecting €124,346 for his Main Event victory.

Amit Sur was another who cashed; he made 22nd place at a side event.

The €2,200 High Roller was won by Boris Kuzmanovic for €37,791. Vladimir Troyanovskiy won the €5,300 King’s High Roller event for €52,208.

Vivek Rughani

Vivek Rughani

Read the complete story here.

Goa News

Election results in Goa saw the BJP come out lower 13 seats as compared to the Congress, who had 17. Nevertheless, Manohar Parrikar seems set to return as the Chief Minister, which is expected to be a huge relief for the casino industry, as he had openly supported the business.

Manohar Parrikar

Read the complete story here.

Meanwhile, Golden Globe Hotels Pvt Ltd decided not to wait and approached the Goa Court for its pending license, which resulted in the government finally granting it, allowing Goa another offshore casino.

Read the complete story here.

Law Commission of India Studies Viability of Sports Betting & Casinos

In a boost for sports betting, it was reported that India highest legal body, the Law Commission was looking into the feasibility of legalizing the activity. In order to study the matter further, Justice BS Chauhan, Chairman of the Commission even attended an international conference on such speculative gaming that was partnered by FICCI.

Read the complete story here.

Paawan Bansal & PokerBaazi End Partnership

The brand-pro tie-up between PokerBaazi and Paawan Bansal came to an end, when the contract expired. It was said that the parting was on mutual acceptance.

Paawan Bansal

Paawan Bansal

Read the complete story here.

WSOP Europe To Debut At King’s Casino

King’s Casino Rozvadov is gearing up to be the Las Vegas of Europe and confirming the development, WSOP announced its first bracelet-festival at the location. Players will have a guaranteed prize pool of €17,000,000, across 11 bracelet events, making it the largest ever in the region.

Read the complete story here.

AI DeepStack Defeats 11 Pros

A newly developed AI, DeepStack defeated 11 pros in heads up battles over four weeks, involving 4000 hands each. Unlike its predecessors Libratus and Claudico, the new AI was created to use its own experience and ‘gut feeling’ much like intuition.

Read the complete story here.

David Baazov Gives Up On Amaya

Founder of Amaya, David Baazov sold about 30% of his shares in the company, though he yet retains about another 17.6 million more. The ex-CEO accepted that he had given up trying to acquire Amaya privately, due to the high costs involved.

Read the complete story here.

Online Gambling Bills Progress in Michigan & Pennsylvania

Regulated online gaming moved a step further in the states of Michigan and Pennsylvania. In Michigan, the bill was approved by the lower house, though it yet needs higher sanction. Legalization of such a bill in Pennsylvania will net the state huge amounts in revenue.

Read the complete story here.

Andy Hills Wins GUKPT Manchester Main Event

Andy Hills claimed his career’s highest score by shipping the GUKPT Manchester Main Event $57,164, after defeating a 268-entry field and a four-way deal.

Andy Hills

Andy Hills

Read the complete story here.

Sam Panzica Ships WPT Title at Bay 101 Shooting Star

Sam Panzica got his first seven-figure payday and second WPT title by winning the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event for $1,373,000. A heads-up deal announced on Twitter saw Anthony Spinella make $786,610 for his second-place finish.

Sam Panzica

Sam Panzica

Read the complete story here.

And that is all for this weekly report. Do make sure to log on same time next week, when we will return with all the latest from the world of poker.

Written by: Shyamala Gauri

Related Articles:

1. Goa Set to Get Sixth Floating Casino After Court Order

2. WSOP Europe Announced For Oct-Nov at King’s Casino

3. Law Commission of India Seeks to Legalize Sports Betting & Casinos

4. PokerStars Festival Rozvadov: Vivek Rughani and Manish Goenka Cash in Main Event, Santosh Srinivas Makes Day 2 of €2,200 High Roller

5. Manohar Parrikar Returns As Goa CM; Major Relief to Casinos

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