Just a couple of years ago, poker was a relatively unknown game in the Indian market as games like teen patti and rummy were player favourites.
These games were easy to play, had low stakes that allowed players from all backgrounds to participate and provided both fun and entertainment to those involved.
Things have changed considerably in the last 24 months as poker has slowly but surely gained the upper hand and is now played by millions of players in India both offline and online.
There are a number of reasons as to why poker has witnessed a massive spike in popularity. One of the main reasons is that online poker rooms have significantly boosted their guaranteed prize money in the last 24 months and are also hosting major tournaments on a more frequent basis.
With these massive guaranteed prize pools, poker players in India are realizing that they can not only make a living playing poker full time but also get rich quickly. Players between the ages of 20-40 are the ones who are showing the most interest in poker as they realize that they have an opportunity to make money on the side by playing online poker.
Online poker operators are fighting for this market by trying to outdo each other by offering bigger guarantees, exciting prizes like sending a group of players to international locations to compete in prestigious poker tournaments like the World Series of Poker (WSOP). The competition between iPoker operators has benefitted Indian poker players and boosted the popularity of the game as well.
PokerStars India which launched services earlier this year is one of those sites that has come up with some great guarantees. The online poker site had a guaranteed prize pool of 1.5 crore rupees spread across 34 events.
Online Satellites Working Well In India
Some of these high roller events have massive guarantees but the buy-ins are pretty high and not all Indian players can afford them. Online satellite events with low buy-ins offer players from different financial backgrounds the chance to qualify for a very small amount and as a result online satellite events have turned out to be a great success in India.
Indian players also have multiple poker sites to choose from such as PokerStars India, Adda52 and Poker Lion. Many players create accounts at multiple poker sites in order to be able to play the events that have the biggest guarantees.
