Meet the Finalists of Destiny 5.0 Finale SnG

It’s been an intense 10 weeks of action at The Spartan Poker and we are now at the cusp of crowning the big winner of the Destiny tournament this weekend. As you may be aware, the Destiny is a weekly tournament with a buy-in of INR 5,500 and featuring a massive INR 20 Lakhs in guaranteed (GTD) prize pools. Every week’s winner not only wins prize money in cash but also a ticket worth INR 1 Lakh into the Destiny Finale Sit n Go. This winner-take-all tournament awards just one prize worth INR 10 Lakhs that includes a Main Event entry into a top European live series along with return flight tickets and hotel stay for the duration. It is a dream come true for any player who wants to test his skills with the best in the world and they can do so at a fraction of the cost via the weekly Destiny route.

The fifth edition of the Destiny series kicked off on 13 June and ended its 10^th week this past Wednesday. The Finale SnG takes place at 6:30pm IST on 19^th August and here at Gutshot, we thought it was a good time to profile the ten players who are going to play for this fantastic poker package which could leads to millions of dollars!

Abhinav Iyer

Abhinav Iyer aka ‘Schumi91’ shipped the opening tournament of Destiny 5.0 winning a whopping INR 6,99,400 plus the INR 1 lakh ticket to the Finale. Iyer is a 24-year-old young gun of poker based in Mumbai. He has been playing poker since his under-grad days, playing small stake cash games with friends and acquaintances. Pursuing further studies in Australia, he moved up the stakes and also got introduced to online poker on PokerStars and played live games at the Crown Casino in Melbourne.

By the time Iyer finished his education in Australia (getting his Master’s) and returned to India in 2016, he was so driven to get into the domestic poker fraternity and play poker that he left his Sports Management job a mere 3 months of returning and started playing poker professionally. In April this year Iyer played in the DPT Super High Roller Event 2018 and finished 4^th bagging his career best win of $16,294. Later that month he played at the Macau Millions where he was able to get 2 final table finishes. He also made it to the final table of the 1 Crore GTD Big Millions at Adda52 in May.

vyakulkumar010

From the username of this player, you might get a slight hint about the player’s real name. However, we’re only taking guesses, as this player wished to stay anonymous after his big Destiny victory on 20^th June. He took home a prize in excess of INR 5 lakh, beating ‘Strangeplay’ in heads-up with Aces and Sixes in what was the final hand. He will be all pumped up for the Finale tomorrow, and maybe if he wins, the player might want to reveal his identity.

Phanindra Akkina

Phanindra Akkina aka ‘k9akkin’ shipped the third Destiny title, winning a massive sum of INR 5,30,000, beating ‘VG92’ who took home a sum of INR 3,30,000. 1 lakh was deducted from Akkina’s winnings for the 10L GTD Destiny Final SnG. With Abhinav Iyer and vyakulkumar010 already booking their seats in the Finale SnG, it was Akkina’s turn to do so, being the third entrant with seven more to follow. This Bangalore based player is not a new name in the Indian poker fraternity. With over $250,000 worth of winnings on pokerstars.com, rated 9^th in Bangalore and 11^th in Karnataka and 87^th in India, Akkina is a top poker player. He has a final table finish in the marquee tournament ‘Sunday Millions’ on pokerstars.com with prize pool of $1M GTD. This May he finished 4^th in the 20L GTD Adda52 Millions, for INR 2,26,000.

Nitin Arora:

Nitin Arora bagged the 4^th week Destiny title on 4^th July and took away the top prize of INR 5,30,000. INR 1 lakh was deducted from his winnings for a ticket to the anticipated INR 10l GTD Destiny Final SnG to decide who will go to Europe to play the Main Event of a poker festival in a fully paid trip. The 24 year old had just won the Mega Freeze event the previous week and then clinching the Destiny was a huge bankroll bump for the young man. Trying to make his name in the blooming poker industry, Nitin started playing poker with live tournaments and believes that live poker is where he feels more comfortable. Arora wished to use his winnings to play the recently concluded DPT and the Manila Super Series. However, he was also keen on saving a chunk of his winnings and the rest would be added to his poker bankroll.

NutsLagGaye:

If you go back to the Destiny tournament on 11^th July, you would remember a certain other player shipping the Destiny tournament. However, it is the same player who has changed his screen name to ‘NutsLagGaye’, while still wishing to stay anonymous. In his victory, he beat ‘kunal’ in heads-up with Kings and Eights, taking away the top prize of INR 4.3 lakh along with the ticket to the Finale.

Ramlakhan Meena

The sixth Destiny tournament was shipped by Ramlakhan Meena aka ‘hitler’ on 18^th July. What made this win more special than the other Destiny titles was that it was a part of the India Online Poker Championship (IOPC), where the guarantee was boosted up to INR 25 lakh and Meena took home INR 7.68 lakh plus the 1 lakh ticket to the Finale. The 25-year old poker player from Jaipur has graduated from IIT Roorkee and is currently waiting for his joining as an income tax inspector. He was introduced to a card game called Sheep, after which friends suggested he tries poker in 2013, a game where you don’t just have fun, but earn money doing so as well. Now, he has a chance to write his own Destiny!

Aditya Chaudhary

This player became the seventh Destiny SnG finalist after he won the Destiny tournament on 25^th July. Playing under the name ‘S1ckB3at’, he shipped the title and earned over INR 4.85 lakh in addition to his ticket to the finale. The 28-year old poker player is from Noida, having completed his MBA from IMT Nagpur and being introduced to the game of poker through Zynga (like many others) in 2008.

He then shifted to small stakes games with friends and then playing online and ultimately, here he is, participating in the Destiny Finale, with the chance of winning a package trip to Europe. The player is working on a way to share helpful inputs with the poker community with a select group of friends, and you may hear more about him in the weeks/months to come.

Siddharth Mundada:

Siddharth Mundada aka ‘sidddhu’ shipped home the 8^th tournament of the Destiny 5.0 edition which saw a total of 477 entries. Mundada got the best pay out of the tournament i.e. a sum of INR 6,32,025 out of which 1lakh will be deducted for the ticket to the finals. Mundada claimed to have a really bad tourney run for the past 3 months before finally claiming the top spot in the 8^th Destiny tournament. He had multiple final table finishes but was unable to win any of them, making it really frustrating for him. To much surprise, this isn’t his first Destiny win as he has already shipped one tournament in December last year making this his second Destiny win, so he will have experience of playing in a Destiny SnG Finale.

In February, Mundada cashed out $11,510.00 for 102^nd place in the Pokerstars ‘$215 Sunday Million 12^th Anniversary, $10M GTD’ and $1,292.38 for 5^th place in the Pokerstars ‘$109 NLHE [6-Max, Hyper Turbo] $20k GTD.’

Ratul Steves:

Ratul ‘Atriohm’ Steves scored a win in the second last (week 9) Destiny tournament in this 10-week long tarriance. A total of 304 entries ponied up the prize pool from 20L GTD to 23.8L GTD. While again 40 placed being paid a minimum of INR 14,280, Steves claimed the grand prize of INR 6,30,700. Steves has also represented Bengaluru Warriors in Season 2 of Poker Sports League (PSL) where he partnered with Aditya Sushant in a tag-team event and finished in 3rd position. Now, Ratul looks to claim the 10L GTD Destiny Finale SnG title which will give him the chance to go to Europe to play in the main event of a poker festival absolutely free of cost along with the stay and return tickets.

Anant Purohit

Anant Purohit aka ‘Pro’ was the latest to join the Destiny SnG Finale, winning the tenth and final Destiny tournament. He has been a regular player on The Spartan Poker, also having won titles in the past. He won a Sunday SuperStack title in December last year and also won an IOPC title last month. With this latest win, he has a chance to participate and write his own Destiny, with a Europe trip in sights. Purohit won the title with a pair of Kings, beating ‘ajgamblerss’ in heads-up, while also beating the popular pro Vivek Rughani aka ‘Pokerbatman27’, who finished 3^rd. Purohit won INR 6,37,100 apart from his INR 1 lakh ticket to the Finale.

Keep reading GutshotMagazine.com for similar updates from the world of poker.