Abhinav Iyer emerges victorious at The Elite: 4 other wins announced

Because of India’s biggest online poker championship (IOPC), hosted by Spartan Poker, the Indian poker scene is currently witnessing a record-shattering series that began on the 11th and this time the series guarantees a massive GTD of 8.5+ Cr, including 30 lakhs in leaderboard prizes. The 10 day poker festival, starting from 11th January to 20th January, 2019 is full of several high-value tournaments including ‘The Millionaire’ tournament offering a 1 Cr GTD and the IOPC Main Event giving away a 1.5 Cr GTD. A total of 5 events were hosted with its biggest feature tournament being – The Elite INR 30 Lakhs GTD. Others including – Super High Roller (70 Lakhs GTD) and PLO High Roller (30 Lakhs GTD).

The series already declared its first five title wins. Among those winners, Abhinav Iyer took home the biggest event title – The Elite INR 30 lakhs GTD for INR 7,11,857 after striking a heads up deal. The Elite began at 7.30 pm in the evening and attracted a staggering field of 412 entries with another regular ‘KasolHieghts’ to bag this heavyweight title on Day 1 of IOPC. The runner-up earned the cash prize of INR 6,63,398 for his finish.

The remaining four events saw massive numbers take part from across the country. The first event was the NLHE INR 5L GTD. It attracted a huge field of 663 entries for a buy-in of INR 550. The player to emerge victorious and the first IOPC title winner was ‘imalucksac’. He beat the well-known young grinder Nadeem Basha aka ‘pokerbill’ in heads-up to bag INR 1,15,668 as the 1st place cash prize.

The second event hosted after that on the day was the NLHE INR 3L GTD. The event drew 512 entries making the prize pool come to INR 3,85,600. The player to top that was Sachin Nanda aka ‘vivid _sachin’. He took home INR 69,794 for his victory, beating ‘Immmortal killer’ in heads-up.

The third event for the day was again an INR 5L GTD NLHE. This event drew 398 entries for a buy-in of INR 880. The champion was 'avinkon’, taking home a wholesome INR 1,00,936 as 1st place prize. He beat the well-known Nishant Sharma aka ‘FunkyouFTW1’ in heads-up to bag his title.

The last event of the day was the INR 8L GTD PKO. Akshay Nasa emerged victorious after firing seven bullets to bag the 1st place cash prize of INR 1,97,290, beating 545 total entries. He played almost seven and a half hours in the tournament and beat ‘flash’ in heads-up battle.