This Week in Poker: October 9 – 15

Welcome to ‘This Week in Poker,’ where we bring you the most significant online scores by Indian MTT players and the top stories from both the live and online poker circuits. Here are this week’s highlights!

This past week was absolutely insane for Indian poker! Just as the Durga Puja and Navaratri celebrations were winding down, PokerBaazi turned up the heat with its 10th Anniversary celebrations and the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Tournaments) 2024 – a ₹25 Crore behemoth with a ₹5 Crore top prize that had everyone talking!

This wasn’t just another tournament; it was the grandest in India’s history, even overshadowing the grand finales of the Victory Showdown Series and the Big Win Mania. PokerBaazi set its sights on a massive 28,749 entries to meet that unprecedented guarantee, and players from all over the country flocked to the tables, hoping to turn their poker dreams into reality.

The final tally of 15,172 entries (10,506 unique) fell glaringly short of the ambitious target, resulting in a record-breaking ₹11.81 Crore overlay – a staggering ₹9.83 Crore net loss for PokerBaazi (including rake!). But for the players, it meant insane value. 1,118 warriors made it to Day 2, ready for a marathon nine-hour battle of poker wits and nerves.

When the dust settled, two names emerged from the wreckage: Kabir Chhatwal and Sanjay Chaudhury. Chhatwal etched his name in poker history as the G.O.A.T. 2024 champion, taking home a life-changing ₹3.11 Crores. But the real shocker came when a heads-up deal saw runner-up Chaudhury walk away with a mind-blowing ₹4.14 Crores – the biggest single online payout in Indian poker history!

Chhatwal’s win, an astronomical 31 times his previous best score, catapulted him to #8 in the Player of the Year (POY) rankings. Chaudhury’s record-breaking payday rocketed him to #3 in the POY race. Their achievements were so monumental that they’ve both been crowned our “PokerGuru Stars of the Week,” a well-deserved deviation from our usual weekly trend.

The G.O.A.T. final table was a goldmine, with all eight finalists achieving their career-best scores. Mohammad Azhar, the inaugural NPS India Main Event champion, finished third for a staggering ₹1 Crore.

Other big names like Akshay Kapoor, Neeraj Sattawat, Raghavendra Rajanna, Om Prakash, Pramod Kumar, PokerStars India Ambassador Siddharth Karia, Debayan Das, Nishant Kumar, Satyam Verma, Shobhit Jaju, and Ankur Sehgal also walked away with massive online scores this week!

Top Online Winners of the Week

While the online scene was ablaze, the live action was just as hot at the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Cyprus! The Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa has been bustling, hosting some of the world’s best poker players just five weeks after the massive 20th-anniversary edition of EPT Barcelona. With 17 champions already crowned, this series is shaping up to be legendary.

Indian poker fans have plenty to cheer for, with top players like Ankit Ahuja and Santhosh Suvarna in attendance. Suvarna, fresh off his impressive final table appearances at EPT Barcelona`s €12,300 PokerStars Cuatro Knockout and €100,000 EPT Super High Roller, narrowly missed adding a second EPT title to his name in the $10,200 Mystery Bounty.

Despite entering the final day with a short stack, he made a commendable comeback, finishing fifth for $34,600 (~₹29.09 Lakhs) (including $7,500 in bounties) (~₹29.09 Lakhs). This adds to his phenomenal career earnings, which now stand at nearly $14.50 Million, only adding to his lead on India’s all-time money list. This performance also intensifies his race with Ankit Ahuja for the 2024 GPI (India) Player of the Year title. Ahuja himself had a small score in the Eureka Main Event, finishing 223rd for $2,530 (~₹2.13 Lakhs).

The $10,200 Mystery Bounty title ultimately went to Uruguay’s Marcelo Bonanata, who earned his first PokerStars Silver Spadie trophy and a career-best $156,800 (including $57,500 in bounties).

Here are some of the standout winners from EPT Cyprus so far:

• Leo Worthington-Leese (Won $1,100 Eureka Main Event for $314,030)
• Ognyan Dimov (Won $20,000 NL Hold’em for $253,876)
• Elias Gutierrez (Won $25,000 SHR Warm Up for $417,570)
• Diogo Coelho (Won $2,200 Eureka High Roller for $357,048)
• Mikalai Vaskaboinikau (Won $50,000 EPT Super High Roller for $601,397)

The $5,300 EPT Cyprus Main Event is currently underway, drawing a massive field of 1,229 entries. After two intense starting flights, only 260 players returned for Day 2, with Russia’s Viktor Ustimov leading the pack with 379,000 chips. Santhosh Suvarna is also still in contention, carrying the hopes of Indian poker fans into Day 2 with a healthy stack of 151,500.

And there’s more live poker action on the horizon! The Deltin Poker Tournament (DPT) is returning to Goa with the all-new DPT Grand, taking place onboard the Casino Deltin Royale from October 22 to 28. With 15 tournaments on the schedule, this is one festival you don’t want to miss!

In other news, China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd is selling its entire stake in Dream11‘s parent company, Sporta Technologies Ltd, to Singapore-based Tiga Investment Pte Ltd for $150 Million. This move is likely a response to India’s regulations on Chinese investments.

In a move that’s exciting high-rollers, WPT Global has joined forces with Triton Poker as their official sponsor! Triton Poker, known for its premiere high-stakes tournaments and cash games featuring the biggest names in poker, is partnering with WPT Global to expand its reach and make its events accessible to a wider audience.

This week, female players made waves in both online and live tournaments, proving that poker prowess knows no gender.

Maria Konnikova, the renowned psychology author and PokerStars ambassador, won her first WSOP bracelet in the $888 NLHE Fall Crazy 8’s on WSOP.com for $68,477.

Katie Lindsay made history by becoming the first woman to win a Moneymaker Tour Main Event, taking down the Moneymaker Tour Aruba Main Event for a career-best $102,915.

And in a true underdog story, Lena Ayad, who had never played poker before, won the Celebrity Poker Tour H3 Game Night at PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, defeating the entire H3 Podcast crew for the $5,000 grand prize and a WWE-style championship belt.

The World Series of Poker Circuit recently ended at Thunder Valley Casino Resort, where players battled it out across 13 ring events. The series culminated in a $1,700 Main Event with a $1 Million guarantee, easily surpassed thanks to a massive turnout. Travis Egbert emerged victorious, capturing his third WSOP Circuit ring for the year and a massive $214,565!

With this, we conclude this week’s round-up of the latest news updates and developments from the world of poker. We will return next week with another weekly report. Stay tuned!