IOPC Day 2: After Legends And Mastermind, Aniket Waghmare Is Now A High Roller Champ

Day 2 of the India Online Poker Championship (IOPC) on Spartan Poker saw some blazing action rain down on the virtual felts. Aniket Waghmare, an online reg who’s also shipped marquee titles in IOPC took down the High Roller for boatloads of money, and we are not surprised to see this incredible player smash the felts. Many well-known pros from the circuit are grinding in this coveted series while many lesser known players are also making their marking by shipping tournaments. Friday night on the virtual felts had a lot of action going, and if you’ve missed it, take a look below for a full low down.

IOPC #9 R+A (₹5 Lakh GTD)

This event was shipped by a mystery player called ‘chips generator’ for ₹1,13,255. The runner-up was yet another anonymous player ‘YourLastNightmare’ for ₹71,443.

Total entries: 979 (429 entries, 118 re-entries and 432 rebuys)
Prize pool: ₹5,85,600
Buy-in: ₹660
Places paid: 63
Min-cash: ₹2,547

IOPC #10 (₹8.50 Lakh GTD)

Nandan Pugalia shipped this event and added ₹2,09,520 to his bankroll. The winner may not be a very popular name but he does grind in online tourneys. Pugalia ended PokerBaazi’s ₹10 Lakh GTD Daily Value Boost in a deal with a mystery player for ₹1,46,000. Ashwin Vijay took the second spot for ₹1,32,840. In Jul 2021, He was leading the final table of the IOPC Blaze of Glory tournament with a stack of 31,49,983 chips. Harshad Barve eventually won the coveted title and the final table chip leader became the runner-up for ₹12,01,434. As per Vijay’s online poker records, he has 46 titles to his credit.

Total entries: 794 (312 entries, 88 re-entries and 320 rebuys)
Prize pool: ₹10,80,000
Buy-in: ₹880
Places paid: 55
Min-cash: ₹5,292

IOPC #11 (₹5.50 Lakh GTD)

Online reg Karan Radia took down this event for a sum of ₹1,22,847. Another known IOPC grinder Kovid Saraswat was the runner-up for ₹77,494. The runner-up of this ₹5.5 Lakh GTD event had previously struck a deal with the winner of IOPC #7 Gopal Bajaj for a payday of ₹3,43,012.

Total entries: 794 (362 entries, 89 re-entries and 343 rebuys)
Prize pool: ₹6,35,200
Buy-in: ₹880
Places paid: 63
Min-cash: ₹2,547

IOPC #12 Deepstack (₹8 Lakh GTD)

The winner of this tournament was Rohan Kumar for ₹1,88,819. Anand Babu turned runner-up for a prize money worth ₹1,17,531. We got in touch with the winner and asked how he felt about his win. Kumar said, “IOPC is the biggest tournament series of Spartan Poker and I am so thrilled to be the part of the series. 😀 I’m super excited to play more.” As a promising player on the virtual felts, it would be intriguing to see how Kumar takes his journey forward in the current edition of IOPC.

As for Babu, he’s a live and an online reg. The player was seen grinding at the IPC Megastacks May 2022. Babu became the first casualty at the IPC 25K Kick-Off event. He was busted by another online reg Shashank Murarka.

Total entries: 986 (493 entries, 109 re-entries and 384 rebuys)
Prize pool: ₹9,86,000
Buy-in: ₹1,100
Places paid: 87
Min-cash: ₹3,056

ALSO READ: What’s Unique About Spartan Poker’s IOPC Jan/Feb 2023?

IOPC #13 Friday Prime (₹55 Lakh GTD)

This was a crucial tourney for all the pros out there. But in an interesting twist, a part-timer player Arvind Halaharvi beat Arsh Grover to take down the title and a prize money worth ₹11,75,640. Grover on the other hand, had to settle for the runner-up spot for ₹7,45,380. We asked Halaharvi who’s affiliated to partypoker about his victory and he said, “I have been putting decent volume from November, so the results were coming in. Sweet to finally ship an IOPC event of this magnitude and get the monkey off my back. Special thanks to Abhishek Goindi, Shardul Parthasarathi, Owen Shiels and other pros from PBCI for constantly running those camps that enables part-timers like me to get the mandatory study time.”

For those who don’t know about this Friday Prime winner’s story, he has been working in the poker industry for over 15 years and has been grinding for over five years now. Talking about his online exploits, the player registered some impressive cashes like the Adda52 Millions ₹25 Lakh GTD (Dec 2022, 2nd for ₹4,50,531), Maverick ₹15 Lakh GTD (Nov 2022, 2nd for ₹2,21,250), The Big Deal ₹30 Lakh GTD (Sep 2021, 3rd for ₹1,92,340), Destiny ₹20 Lakh GTD (Aug 2109, 1st for ₹5,89,625) among others. It would be nice to see if Halaharvi goes on to ship some more IOPC titles.

Coming to the runner-up, this pro is quite head-turner. As per his online records, Grover has 152 online titles to his credit, with his largest cash coming from Final Table Series (FTS) March 2022. This pro shipped the FTS Main Event for a whopping ₹40,23,590 and has won many online feature tournament titles. Grover also grinds in live poker events and has made a mark there too. He struck a deal with Alok Birewar in the IPC 100K High Roller, to take the second biggest share of the prize pool. The pro who’s a fitness freak, added ₹31 Lakh to his bankroll for his incredible finish in the High Roller game.

Total entries: 606 (310 entries, 95 re-entries and 201 rebuys)
Prize pool: ₹60,60,000
Buy-in: ₹11,000
Places paid: 55
Min-cash: ₹29,694

IOPC #14 High Roller (₹1 Crore GTD – 6 Max)

IOPC Jan 2021 Millionaire Legends and Mastermind winner Aniket Waghmare struck a deal with Dhinesh Kumar to end this monster tournament. Waghmare grabbed the High Roller title and a hefty pay cheque of ₹20,22,745. Kumar also added a handsome amount of ₹20,07,254 to his bankroll.

Total entries: 194 (107 entries, 41 re-entries and 46 rebuys)
Buy-in: ₹55,000
Places paid: 20
Min-cash: ₹1,34,000

IOPC #15 Friday Spotlight – Triple Chance (20 Lakh GTD)

Gopal Kumar Jha shipped this event for ₹4,18,785. The runner-up was Areyann Gurbaxani for ₹2,36,225.

Total entries: 2,662 (902 entries, 654 re-entries and 1,106 rebuys)
Prize pool: ₹23,95,800
Buy-in: ₹990
Places paid: 231
Min-cash: ₹2,755

IOPC #16 All Rounder Deepstack (₹11 Lakh GTD)

Ravinder Singh ended the tourney in a deal with Peter Nazareth for ₹2,04,957. Nazareth who regularly grinds in IOPC added ₹1,61,237 to his bankroll.

Total entries: 776 (405 entries, 109 re-entries and 262 rebuys)
Prize pool: ₹11,64,000
Buy-in: ₹1,650
Places paid: 71
Min-cash: ₹4,423

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Mrinal Gujare

With a Masters Degree in Journalism and Communication, Mrinal Gujare currently is cruising through an exciting genre of writing and editing at Gutshot Magazine. Apart from being an Editor, Mrinal is an avid reader and a former contemporary dancer. She is also perennially hungry for intriguing scoops from across the globe. No holds barred is the rule Mrinal follows in life.