Eight Indian poker players will make an appearance at the inaugural 2019 PokerStars Players NL Hold’em Championship (PSPC), which is shaping up to be the biggest poker tournament in history.
The PSPC has a buy-in of $25,000 which is extremely high for Indian poker players given the currency conversion rates. However, thanks to the Platinum Passes on offer by PokerStars, Eight Indian players will have a seat at the high-stakes poker vent will runs from January 6 to10 in the Bahamas.
Indian players Nikhil Segel, Raman Gujral, Vivek Singh, Sharad Rao, Kavin Shah, Sumit Sapra Saurabh Sindhwani and Aneesh Nair each earned a Platinum Pass worth $30,000 which includes accommodation costs and expenses.
To win the much-coveted Platinum Pass, players must take part in different tournaments organized by PokerStars, as well as those initiated by the website’s brand ambassadors including Chris Moneymaker, Live Boeree and Daniel Negreanu. The eight players won their passes in several ways.
PokerStars Ambassador Jaime Staples threw down a challenge to find the most resilient and determined individual who could quit smoking and cut some pounds. In return, the individual would get a Platinum Pass to the PSPC. New Delhi architect Nikhil Segel conquered the #UltimateSweat challenge, losing more than 15 kg and dropping the smoking habit.
Sumit Sapra won his Platinum Pass by beating Randy Lew, another PokerStars ambassador at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour which took place in Korea while online poker pro and Pune native Sharad Rao won the PokerStars India Diwali Rush tournament, topping a field of more than 500 entries and also took home a PSPC Platinum pass.
The other winners, Kavin Shah from Mumbai, Chennai’s Vivek Singh, Raman Gujral from Chandigarh, Kerala’s Aneesh Nair and Saurabh Sindhwani from Ghaziabad earned their passes as a team at the Global Poker League (GPL) tournament. They defeated more than 7000 online qualifiers and five other GPL teams. The tournament was hosted by PokerStars India.
Strong Performance At PSPC Will Boost Indian Market
Ankur Dewani, CEO at Sachiko Gaming Pvt Ltd, is extremely delighted with the increasing number of Indians showing interest in poker. The fact that a small Indian contingent is making their way to the PSPC is a strong boost for the Indian poker market. Should any of these 8 poker players have a good run at the 2019 PSPC, it will generate massive interest in India’s fast growing poker market.
