Poker players in India, have a limited opportunity of playing poker as there are only a handful of Casino’s that operate in the country, which means that most of the poker games that take place do so on a small scale basis.
However, during the last few years, the number of poker players in India has slowly been increasing. The popularity of online poker, media coverage on the poker industry and the launch of the India Poker Championship (IPC) in 2010 are some of the major factors that have contributed to the rise in the popularity of poker in India.
The IPC initially held tournaments every quarter but soon found that there was a great demand for more tournaments to be held and decided to increase the frequency of the tournament. The IPC initially scheduled most of its tournaments in the tourist friendly city of Goa, where there are a few offline casino’s along with a lot of expats. In 2011, the IPC decide to host a poker tournament every other month to ensure that poker players in India had the opportunity to play and compete on a more regular basis.
Now in 2013, the IPC had decided to take the tournament one step further by going international. The IPC has made its way to Colombo, Sri Lanka and will be host the tournament between the 4th to the 8th of September. The first ever international IPC will take place at Bally’s Casino in Sri Lanka.
Bally’s Casino will play host for all 5 days of the tournament, which includes a special main event that has a INR 25,000 (rupee) buy-in. A number of Indian poker players are also expected to make an appearance as the island country of Sri Lanka is only about 300 kms off the coast of India.
In a statement, IPC’s Rajeev Kanjani said
The potential of Sri Lanka as a poker destination is huge and IPC has always believed in giving the best possible experience to our players. With the backing of our host venue, Bally’s Casino, we hope this first ever international edition of IPC will be a great success.
Anuruddha Meddegoda who is the India Poker Champion of 2013 lives in Colombo and will be certain to play and defend his title. The main event is scheduled to take place on Saturday the 7th of September.