Here Are the Highlights of PokerStars India’s Incredible 2020 Run!

After all that has been said and done, one thing is sure, 2020 has been an unforgettable year that we will all be talking about it for days and years to come. Unforgettable not just because of the once-in-a-generation virus that plagued us but also for many other reasons. One such reason was the shutdown of live poker worldwide and the consequent unprecedented growth of online poker.

In India, the nationwide lockdown resulted in online poker’s meteoric growth, and we witnessed online sites doling out massive guaranteed tournaments and lucrative offers.

One of the brands that have been at the forefront, not just in terms of coming out with big-tickets tournaments, series, and promotions, but also for its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, is PokerStars India!

The global online poker giant, PokerStars, had entered the Indian market in 2018, and since then, PokerStars India has worked hard to increase its brand presence in the country. This year, the site came out all guns blazing, further cementing its position as one of the country’s top-tier online poker sites.

Now that we are on the penultimate day of 2020 let us take a quick look at all that PokerStars India has accomplished this year!

High-Value Tournaments Series

PokerStars India hosted seven flagship MTT events this year with the primary objective of offering the best value to players across stakes!

The most memorable of them all was the 2020 India Championship of Online Poker (INCOOP) that promised ₹9.05 Crores in prize pool guarantees, making it the brand’s biggest online poker series to date! Running from September 3 to 22, the series had more than 200 events and 100+ PKO tourneys. The star attraction was the 3-day-long Main Event that featured a ₹1 Crore guarantee. MTT reg Sanish Chhabra was declared the first-ever INCOOP Main Event champion and won ₹14.52 Lakhs after striking a three-way deal.

The 2020 India Summer Championship of Online Poker (INSCOOP) featuring ₹8.1 Crores in guaranteed prizes was the headline fixture on PokerStars India’s summer schedule! It ran from May 10 to 26, comprising 185 events and 90 PKO tourneys. The series kicked off with a ₹10 Lac GTD PokerStars Anniversary Freeroll to mark the second anniversary of PokerStars India. The series’s crowning glory was the ₹1 Crore GTD The MAMMOTH championed by Vineet Kumar, who won a career-best ₹17.15 Lakhs!

The seven-day long UFC KO Series was the first KO series hosted by PokerStars India and ran from March 9 to 15. It comprised of 55 PKO tourneys and boasted of ₹2.14 Crores in prizes. Niteen Raj championed the ₹50 Lakhs GTD UFC KO Series 50-Main Event, pocketing ₹8.77 Lakhs in prize money.

The brand kicked off 2020 with its popular Winter Series that ran from January 20 to 26. Featuring 48 tourneys, the series promised ₹2.19 Crores in prize pool guarantees. Akash Shekhar emerged victorious in the series-showstopper ₹50 Lakhs GTD Winter Series-44 Main Event, netting ₹8.03 Lakhs up top.

The Micro KO Series catered mainly to the low-stakes player and sported buy-ins starting from as little as ₹50. The series played out from April 5 to 12, with ₹12 Lacs GTD Main Event being the series’s highlight. Rising talent Armaan Kochhar toppled the 954 entry-field to take down the Main Event, claiming ₹2.34 Lakhs in first-place prize money.

Touted to be the ‘ultimate low-stakes tournament series,’ the Micro Millions took place between July 12 to 29 and featured ₹1.44 Crores in guaranteed prizes. The series offered 72 tournaments, of which 40 were PKO events. The series’s centerpiece was the ₹20 Lakhs GTD Main Event that was shipped by online phenom Srihari Bang, who won ₹3.39 Lakhs for the outright victory.

The latest series offered by PokerStars India was the uber-successful Diwali Series that ran from November 22 to 29. The pièce de resistance of the series, ₹50 Lakhs GTD DIWALI RUSH-51 Main Event, was conquered by PokerGuru Ambassador Ashutosh Balodhi, who took home a colossal ₹9.22 Lakhs in the top prize.

Amazing Offers, Promotions & Software Upgrades

TDS on poker winnings is a sore topic of conversation in the Indian poker circuit. To make its TDS policy more user friendly, PokerStars India, w.e.f. October 1, has started deducting TDS on ‘Net Winnings’ instead of ‘Gross Winnings.’

In association with us at PokerGuru, PokerStars India also launched a mega leaderboard race on October 5. Two players have already won the coveted “Star of the Month” title in Shailesh Patel (October) and PokerGuru Ambassador Ashish Munot (November), with the hunt for the December champion presently underway.

The brand has also rolled out its latest game engine, Aurora. The international site had announced the software upgrade last year, and its India-facing platform introduced the upgrade in 2020.

Playing For a Cause

Besides offering high-value tournaments and series, PokerStars India also strives to give back to society through its CSR activities. In October, PokerStars India fostering the ‘spirit of giving,’ ran a seven-day-long series ‘Play For A Cause’ in association with United Way of Chennai during the Daan Utsav week!

The series took place from October 2 to 8. Each day a ₹550 entry-buy-in charity tournament played out sporting a ₹50,000 prize pool guarantee. A portion of the buy-in, amounting to ₹275, went into the prize pool, while the other, i.e., ₹275, was kept aside as a donation.

Seven charities joined hands with PokerStars India in this noble cause, with the charity pool from each tourney benefitting one of these charities.

The charities that were a part of PokerStars India’s Daan Utsav were Manjhi Development Foundation, Seva Kitchen, Pad Squad, Bridge of Sports, Involve Education, Goonj, and United Way of Chennai.

Here is how the series played out:

Reaching Out to the Masses

PokerStars India has been a frontrunner when it comes to promoting the game to the masses. At the same time, it has a unique way of engaging the poker community.

The brand often appoints celebrity ambassadors for mainstream branding while appointing top poker pros to connect with the poker community. In April 2020, the online poker site announced the former captain of the Indian cricket team, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, aka MS Dhoni, as its brand ambassador.

Dhoni headlined three ad-films promoting the game and brand, showcasing how everybody is equal on the poker felts.

You can check out the ads below:

Dhoni’s promotional GIFs went viral on social media, resulting in PokerStars India entering the Top 10 most trending hashtags on Twitter. The hashtag that trended was ThalaMSDGIFs ByPokerStars on October 21.

PokerStars India Team Ambassador and the recipient of the ‘First Ladies’ award by the Hon’ble President of India, Muskan Sethi is the ideal role model for budding poker players. One of India’s leading female poker pros, Sethi, is the face of the brand’s popular YouTube talk show, ‘Off the Felt.’ After an extremely successful first season, the show returned for its second season on November 21.

If you thought 2020 was great for PokerStars India, then there are bigger and better things waiting in 2021, starting off with Winter Series that is all set to take off in January!

Keep following PokerGuru for more updates from PokerStars India!