This Week in Poker: July 15 – 21

This Week in Poker
  • Profile picture
  • PG News July 21, 2015
  • 5 Minutes 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

It’s been a hectic week that saw the WSOP 2015 $10,000 Main Event grind down from the last 27 to the final nine players, before its last lap in November. The final few days of the event left many broken hearts, especially those of six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu, as well as our very own Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal. However, all’s well that ends well, as Aditya did break his own record with a best-to-date finish of 71st place for $96,445 Aditya Sushant brought down the Vegas chapter in style, when he made a great 12th place finish for $38,358 in the Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza $5,000 Main Event. Sushant not only made up for his dry run this WSOP, but also got an early birthday gift.

The aftermath of an adrenalin-driven festival like the WSOP can often result in a serious bout of dullness. But, our players have not let that happen, by plunging right back with a vengeance on the virtual felts.

Our Online Railbird Report has Aditya ‘Adi Agarwal’ Agarwal scoring a victory within days of his return from Vegas, besides great scores from Amit “bblacklegend” Jain, Sahil “AntiloG” Agarwal, Karan Radia and Abhishek “abhi147” Rathod.

From what has been a difficult choice, our “PokerGuru Star of the Week” title goes to Sharad “KEENYLE” Rao, who made a cumulative $4,820 this past week.

With the upcoming MicroMillions and PokerStars largest online $51K Super High Roller Event at the 2015 WCOOP, the online action is set to accelerate to an exciting pitch in the coming days.

In other news, we have reports of the Bellagio Cup, which has brightened up the ending of WSOP for several pros, as well as the announcement of the next Aussie Millions schedule.

We also have a report of Laurent Polito making history with a record fourth win at the WPT National Main Event in Belgium.

In non-tournament reports, there is the news of the latest issue to hit Macau casinos with a proposed complete smoking ban by the govt. This is followed by the takeover of bwin.party by 888 Holdings and finally, we have news of Mediarex, a London company that is now seeking to invest a huge amount in sportifying poker and taking it to greater levels.

 

Online Railbird Report

With WSOP over, regulars thronged back to the virtual felts and this is evident from the numerous scores this past week.

Sharad Rao collects this weeks “PokerGuru Star of the Week” title for three first place finishes and one final table finish, making up a total of $4,820 in notable cashes.

Sharad’s three first places were all on PokerStars and include $1,311.59 in the ‘$10.50 NL Hold’em [Super-Knockout], $15K GTD’, $1,222.08 in the ‘$5.50 NL Hold’em [2R1A], $5K GTD’ and $1,079.72 in the ‘$8.80 NL Hold’em [Progressive Super-Knockout], $8K GTD’. He also made a fourth place for $1,208.95 in the ‘$5.50 NL Hold’em [2R1A], $12K GTD’, again on PokerStars.

The credit for the largest score in a single event goes to Amit Jain, who made $3,762.50 for first place on PokerStars ‘$109 NL Hold’em [Turbo], $12K GTD’.

Sahil ‘AntiloG’ Agarwal showed that nothing can keep a good player down, a dull time at WSOP not withstanding and he has collected $3,750.00 for a second place in the 888 Poker ‘$25,000 Saturday Challenge’ within days of his return to India.

Abhishek ‘abhi147’ Rathod continued his last weeks great run with another runner up finish on TitanPoker – €25,000 Grand Sunday, where he made $3,543.15.

Karan Radia has three scores this week, with two at PokerStars. He made $1,487.50 for sixth place on PokerStars in the ‘$55 NL Hold’em, $35K GTD’ and a first place for $1,186.49 in the ‘$11 NL Hold’em [8-Max], $5K GTD’. Radia also won $1,276.96 for second place in the Full Tilt Triceratops event.

Aditya Agarwal returned fresh from his largest live tournament cash of $96,445 in the Main event and celebrated it by collecting $2,425.00 for a first place finish on PokerStars in the ‘$109 NL Hold’em [Turbo], $8K GTD’.

Other notable scores include:

Indiandurr” who won $1,615.00 for sixth place in the PokerStars ‘$109 NL Hold’em [Turbo], $30K GTD’.

Arsh “bigggTymeR” Grover collected $1,248.47 for first place in the 888 Poker ‘The $5,000 Swordfish’.

Kartik “Pegasus1505” Ved made $1,049.61 for 1st place at PokerStars in the ‘$8.80 NL Hold’em [Progressive Super-Knockout], $8K GTD’.

The MicroMillions at PokerStars began on July 16, however our players are yet to clinch a big score in the series. However, there are still five more days of tournaments still to unfold, and we will be keeping a close tab on our Indian players in the series.

The week also saw the announcement of the largest buy-in online tournament ever by PokerStars. PokerStars announced a $51,000 Super High Roller event that will be held on Sunday, Sept 20, a week before the 2015 WCOOP Main Event.

 

2015 WSOP

Event 68 – $10,000 Main Event

The last few days of finding the Main Event final tablists were truly nerve-wracking for most players, with many in pain and just nine lucky players finding solace of making it in the November Nine. Two such heartbreak stories were those of Daniel Negreanu and our very own Aditya Agarwal.

Aditya was eliminated on Day 5, ending a cherished hope for a bracelet this year, but his achievement of breaking his own earlier Main Event record was a silver lining. This year, Aditya made a 71st place for his career-best tournament cash of $96,445.

Aditya Agarwal
Aditya Agarwal

The pain was probably felt the most by six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu who came agonizingly close to making the final nine, but in a quirk of fate got eliminated at 11th place for $526,228. It must have been a bitter reminiscence for Negreanu, who had made a similar 11th place finish in the Main Event in 2001. Negreanu’s disappointment was visible for all the world to see, as the renowned players fell to the floor, covering his face with the agony of not making it.

Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu

The man who eliminated this feared player was Joseph McKeehen, a 24-year old player from Pennsylvania, who had the chip lead on Day 6 and took care to continue consolidating it right till the end of Day 7. McKeehen will lead the final nine in November with a stack of 63.1 Million, which is more than double of the one held by the next finalist – 36-year old Israeli Zvi Stern, who has 29.8 Million in chips.

The final table of the Main event is mostly made up of 20+ year olds, except for Stern and two 60+ veterans. This lot includes only one previous bracelet winner.

WSOP 2015 November Niners
WSOP 2015 November Niners

This group that will reconvene at the final table includes:

Neil Blumenfield, a veteran of 61 years who will be the second oldest player at this year’s Main event. Blumenfield has a stack of 22 Million. Fourth in chips is the oldest player, 72-year old Pierre Neuville who is snapping at Blumenfield’s heels with 21.075 Million chips.

Max Steinberg is the only bracelet winner at the table and with 20.2 Million chips is fifth on the counts. At 23, Thomas Cannuli is the youngest at the table, and will return in November with a stack of 12.25 Million.

Joshua Beckley a year older than Cannuli has 11.8 Million chips and sits seventh on the counts. 26-year old Patrick Chan is far behind Beckley with almost half the chips of 6.225 Million.

Italian player 25-year old Frederico Butteroni is the shortest of the nine with 6.2 Million chips.

Read the complete story here.

 

Venetian Deepstack Extravganza III – $5,000 Main Event

Aditya Sushant had a rough start in Las Vegas with not much going his way. Little must have he imagined how his Vegas sojourn would end and its kudos to a never-say-die spirit that netted him a wonderful end to his trip.

Sushant participated in the $5,000 Main Event at the Venetian Deepstack and made an impressive 12th place finish for $38,358 out of the 547 players who entered the event.

Both Shashank Jain and Rahul Byrraju who satellited their way into the event, along with Sushant were unable to make it beyond Day 2.

Samuel Bernabeu
Samuel Bernabeu

Samuel Bernabeu was the ultimate winner for $537,017.

Read the complete story here.

 

Bellagio Cup Brings Cheer To WSOP End

Several side events rode on WSOP, taking advantage of the huge global crowd of players thronging Sin City. Chief among these was the ever-popular Bellagio Cup XI $10,400 Championship, which had 301 entries.

A thrilling climax saw the top four players cut a deal and finally Sean Winter was the winner collecting $562,772.

Sean Winter
Sean Winter

Winter and the other three finishers – Dominik Nitsche, Byron Kaverman, and Nick Petrangelo, all have had a highly lucrative WSOP and this event was simply the cherry on the pie.

Read the complete story here.

 

2016 Aussie Millions Schedule Released

The live action rollout continues with the announcement of the next edition of the Aussie Millions. The prestigious series will be held next January at Melbourne and feature a mouth-watering array of events.

The Aussie Millions has always drawn the best of international poker talent, including our talented players.

Once again, a sizeable Indian contingent is expected to attend with Aditya Agarwal expected to be there seeking to add to his growing poker resume.

Read the complete story here.

 

Laurent Polito Claims 4th WPT National Title

In a span of two years, French player Laurent Polito has taken down four WPT Main Events. The latest is his victory at the €700 buy-in WPTN Main Event in Belgium, where he pocketed a winning purse of €56,500.

Polito began his winning streak in 2013 and is now at 28th place on the French All-Time money rankings.

Laurent Polito
Laurent Polito

Read the complete story here.

Macau Casinos Facing Fresh Trouble in Smoking Ban

The last year has seen Macau’s gambling industry face debilitating pressure from the govt’s crackdown on corruption. The industry has shown a constant year-on-year decline in its gambling revenue and this Las Vegas of the east has begun losing its importance.

Now the city faces another issue from the govt, which is looking to impose a complete smoking ban in all areas, including casinos. This move, according to experts is set to further aggravate regular players and lead to more losses.

With several newly invested projects, it is to be seen if Macau will recover or become history for gamblers.

Read the complete story here.

888 Holdings Wins Takeover War for bwin.party

Ever since it took over the giant online sites of PokerStars and Full Tilt, the Canadian corporation Amaya has been flexing its muscles to the great ire of other stakeholders and even players at many times. This time though, Amaya has lost the war to win bwin.party.

888 Holdings with an offer of $1.4 Billion has finally acquired the company and its lucrative sports betting and online poker business.

Read the complete story here.

 

Mediarex to Sportify Poker With $4.9 Million

In other industry news, London-based Mediarex Sports & Entertainment has raised $4.9 Million from private funding to “sportify” poker.

Headed by GPI CEO Alex Dreyfus, Mediarex is looking at poker as a young sport which could be a long-term lucrative business proposition, if promoted in the right way, just like many other popular sports.

Read the complete story here.

With that we bid you adieu for this Tuesday. Keep your browsers pointed this way next week at the same time, when we return with all the latest updates from poker world.

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

Top Online Poker Rooms

Top
PokerGuru