This Week in Poker: June 3 – 9

This Week in Poker
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  • PG News June 9, 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

Amidst the heat and hope for strong rains to ease the sweat, we are back again with another edition of our weekly news round up. The weather may have played truant in Goa, but poker-mania escalated at the IPC June edition, which saw exhilarating action with a full house on all its four days. New winners shone in this IPC and it was Karan Khushlani who won the 30K Big Game Main Event. Read on below to catch all the details.

We then bring you highlights from WSOP, where Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal, Adda 52 Team Spades Pros Aditya Sushant and Kunal Patni are deep into the series. Kunal even cashed in a side event today i.e. Planet Hollywood Poker Series, making 26th place for $3,347.

‘Poker Brat’ Phil Hellmuth finally did it and claimed his 14th bracelet in Event #17: $10,000 Razz Championship for $271,105. This makes it the second non-hold’em bracelet for the Poker Hall of Famer.

In other news, we begin with the new poker room – Turn ‘N’ Riva in Kolkata. Following that there is the debut APT Poker Weekend Series in Manila and its events.

We also have news from Vietnam and Kazakhstan, the first about a refusal for a casino and the second a launch of one.

You will also find reports about the released EPT Season 12 schedule, the dismissal of the case against Paul Phua and PokerStars, which is always in the eye of the storm. Read all about their latest offerings and the antagonism of the California tribes to their entry.

Finally, we begin with our section – Online Railbird Report, which has little to show this week. Nevertheless, Shashank Jain, who is off to WSOP on June 15 manages a coup as he makes a whopping sum of $20,211.46 for 1st place at the PokerStars ‘The Big $109, $80K GTD’. The prize money will add to his bank roll for Vegas, besides netting Shashank our ‘PokerGuru Star of the Week’ title.

 

Online Railbird Report

With major action happening at the live tournaments, it was an extremely dull online week, there were few players making scores.

Shashank “felter1989” Jain had a truly fortuitous moment, winning a large purse of $20,211.46 for 1st place on PokerStars The Big $109, $80K GTD’.

The score will boost his bankroll, as Shashank leaves for WSOP on June 15. For this win, Shashank is our “PokerGuru Star of the Week.”

Shashank Jain
Shashank Jain

A few other scores noted online were, Sahil$lim$hady19” Chutani who made 1st place on PokerStars ‘$13.50 NL Hold’em [Knockout], $10K GTD’ for $1,915.76 and “Aajwani” who won $1,718.20 for 8th place on PokerStars ‘The Big $109, $75K GTD’.

We move on to our news section and the first report in on the IPC June edition in Goa, which concluded on Sunday.

 

IPC June Edition Recap

The IPC saw large numbers throng this edition, just as they did last time. This was despite several issues, such as an under maintenance airport, less flights and bad weather in Goa.

 

6K Mega Satellite

165 entries exploded the guarantee of five Full weekend packages to 16! Besides that the 17th, 18th and 19th place finishers too won seats to IPC.

The Player Party aboard the Deltin Royale saw fun, drinks and great company making for a great evening and an excellent start to the series.

 

5K Warm-up Event

A perfect mix of regulars and newbies comprised the 229-strong player field in the opening event. Vidwath Shetty displayed an amazing game, as he waded through to win the event for ₹2.5 Lakhs. Vishal Gajaria was runner up for ₹1.60 Lakhs.

Vidwath Shetty
Vidwath Shetty

Read the complete story here.

 

10K Weekend Kickoff Event

207 players took to the felt in the Weekend Kickoff event. Mumbai student Divyesh Shah overcame several notables to take the title and the top prize of ₹3.6 Lakhs. A deal was made between the last three players and Maulik Shukla was the 2nd place finisher for ₹3.2 Lakhs

Divyesh Shah
Divyesh Shah

Read the complete story here.

 

30K Big Game Main Event

The IPC Main Event saw a new winner in Karan Khushlani, who won the title after beating a player field of 164 that included all the latest champions, regulars and more.

Karan also received an enviable winner’s package of goodies that included a brand new Electric Scooter courtesy Poker Stuff India and the winning purse of ₹11.2 Lakhs.

Karan Khushlani
Karan Khushlani

 

10K Super Knockout

The IPC June ended with the 10K Super Knockout and Rajesh Rajpopat was the winner, collecting ₹1,58,000. The event saw 140 players participating and the top 15 made the money.

Rajesh Rajpopat
Rajesh Rajpopat

 

2015 WSOP

A lot of action, with players bagging their first and repeated bracelets saw WSOP marching on its usual glory. However, controversy kept dogging it and the latest was a cheating case in Event 10.

Indian challengers were deep in the fray, with Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal, Kunal Patni and Aditya Sushant playing several events.

 

Event 7- $10,000 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Championsip

Tuan Le made history, winning the same event consecutively for 2 years. This time he collected $322,756 for 1st place, besting a player-field of 109 that created a prize pool of $1,024,600.

Tuan Le
Tuan Le

 

Event 8 – $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em

Event 8 saw Paul Michaelis collect his first bracelet, winning the top prize of $189,818. The Austrian student beat several pros to claim the 1st place.

Paul Michaelis
Paul Michaelis

 

Event 9 – $1,500 Razz

A 3rd bracelet for Max Pescatori in Event 9 for $155,947! Pescatori made the win besting a player field of 462 players battling for a prize pool of $623,700.

Max Pescatori
Max Pescatori

 

Event 10 – $10,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship

A cheating controversy was the mainstay of Event 10 and the accused was 5th place finisher for $54,000, Valeriu Coca.

Several notables like Connor Drinan, Pratyush Buddiga and Byron Kaverman, who ultimately busted him. The allegedly cheated pros took to Two+Two complaining about Coca and currently the matter is under investigation by WSOP authorities.

In all, 143 players signed up for Event 10, creating a prize pool of $1,344,200. The finale had two already-bracelet holders Paul Volpe and Keith Lehr battle for the title, which was eventually won by the latter for $334,430.

Valeriu Coca
Valeriu Coca

 

Event 11 – $1,500 Limit Hold’em

William Kakon won Event 11 for $196,055, beating 660 players, who created a prize pool of $891,000. Kakon is perhaps the only one from Morocco to win a WSOP bracelet.

William Kakon
William Kakon

 

Event 12 – $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max

Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal played Event 12, but was eliminated early on.

A young techie Idan Raviv won his first bracelet, collecting $457,007 for the 1st place finish. In all, the event had 1,651 entries and a prize pool of $2,228,850.

Idan Raviv
Idan Raviv

 

Event 13 – $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo

Konstantin Maslak was another who claimed his first bracelet. Maslak defeated a player-field of 474 to collect the top prize of $269,612.

The event had a prize pool of $1,078,350 and the top 48 places were paid.

Konstantin Maslak
Konstantin Maslak

 

Event 14 – $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout

Well-known pro Barry Hutter won Event 14 for $283,546. The event had 1,000 entries that created a prize pool of $1,350,000.

Kunal Patni played this event but busted before the money bubble was reached.

Barry Hutter
Barry Hutter

 

Event 15 – $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em Championship

Shaun Deeb won this event, denying Paul Volpe a second bracelet. 128 players participated the event, with only the top 18 making the money.

Deeb collected $318,857 for his win.

Shaun Deeb
Shaun Deeb

 

Event 16 – $1,500 Millionaire Maker No-Limit Hold’em

Aditya Agarwal made two entries in Event 16, but was eliminated both times.

The other Indian participating the event was Aditya Sushant, who was also busted.

This mega event collected a prize pool of $9,821,250 from 7275 entries and is still underway with 17 players remaining.

Randy Pfeifer leads the chip counts with 6,500,000 chips.

 

Event 17 – $10,000 Razz Championship

Phil Hellmuth made history, as he collected his 14th WSOP bracelet in Event 17 for $271,105. The pro had been rather upset earlier and had mentioned switching from Event 16 Millionaire Maker to Razz to change his fortunes. (All available in our last WSOP report)

His words at that time seem prophetic now, “Razz is a great tournament for me.”

After the win he said, “It’s an amazing feeling, and it’s one of those where I kept my head down the whole time and tried to stay kind of detached from the result. I was just focusing on playing great. Too often in the past when I’m down here I’m like, ‘I need to win the bracelet.’ I said you know what, I’m going to keep my head down, play great until it’s over and then I can look up and celebrate, talk, and whatever. You’ve probably noticed this is the quietest heads-up I’ve ever had before.”

In winning, Hellmuth denied runner up Mike Gorodinsky his second bracelet. Gorodinsky made $167,517 for 2nd place.

The event had 103 runners and a prize pool of $968,200.

Phil Hellmuth
Phil Hellmuth.

 

Planet Hollywood Poker Series

At Vegas, Kunal Patni cashed in the $565 buy-in Goliath event, which had a player-field of 1,205. Patni made $3,347 for a 26th place finish.

Tweeting about it he said, Busted 26th guys. I had 7 bb left. Jammed from button with A9 suited. Big blind had 99 Thanks for the rail guys”

 

Kolkata Gets New Poker Room – Turn ‘N’ Riva

Diddy Thacker has launched a brand new poker room the Turn ‘N’ Riva Poker Club in Kolkata.

Diddy was earlier partner in the Amator poker room, which shut down in Dec 2014.

The new room opened on May 5, 2015 and even had an ₹5K tournament to celebrate its launch.

 

APT Poker Weekend Series

The APT Poker Weekend Series Manila Trophy began its first innings on June 5. The opening PHP 5,500 NLH event was won by Kim Enriquez for PHP170,800.

Kim Enriquez
Kim Enriquez

Flo Campomanes won the PHP55,000 buy in High Rollers event for PHP601,000, beating 31 players.

The PHP 22,000 Buy in Event 4 saw Norbert Koh collecting top prize of PHP 184,300.

Gerard Bringley won the PHP 27,500 Main Event for PHP 795,560. APT Player of the Year 2012-2014, Samad Razavi was leading the chip counts on the second-last day, however, he finished in 2nd place for PHP 646,670.

Gerard Bringley
Gerard Bringley

Indian origin player Piyush Gupta of Australia made 5th place collecting PHP 223,000.

Read the complete story here.

 

Vietnam Govt Refuses Casino License

In Vietnam, poker received a setback, when the Ministry of Finance rejected a proposal for a casino citing existing legislation. Currently the law allows only tourists to play poker.

However, another casino-resort is gearing to launch, believing that things are set to improve.

Read the complete story here.

 

Casino Complex Coming up in Kazakhstan

In contrast to Vietnam, the northern state of Kazakhstan is all set to launch a huge casino complex along the historic Silk Route. The huge integrated entertainment hub is located in the same location that was pictured in the film “Borat” and will boast an amazing array of activities.

Read the complete story here.

 

Schedule for EPT Season 12 Released

The European Poker Tour released dates for its Season 12. In all, 6 events have been confirmed so far. London, San Remo and Deauville have been dropped in this line-up. It is expected that Amsterdam may be added as a new stop.

Read the complete story here.

 

Paul Phua Case Dismissed by US Court

High stakes player and businessman Paul Phua who was facing charges of illegal betting in Las Vegas, has been cleared of all charges by Judge Andrew Gordon. Phua who had been helped by Phil Ivey for bail amount, got back his jet from the FBI and left the US immediately thereafter.

Read the complete story here.

 

PokerStars In the News

PokerStars continues to make headlines, for diverse reasons.

In California, the online site and its parent company Amaya are facing a strong attack from the Viejas Band of Indians. The tribe has launched an offensive radio ad campaign, seeking the exclusion of the site into the ongoing California Bill.

Undeterred, PokerStars is busy expanding its business horizons. In the UK, it finally launched its sports betting offerings, with statements of more verticals in the future.

The company also released a statement about its listing on NASDAQ from June 8 onwards.

 

On that note, we bid you goodbye this week. for your complete weekly dose of poker-information, do log in same time next week.

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