IPC Announces Return to Goa with New Schedule From Jan 21 – Jan 25, 2015 at Deltin Royale Poker Room

PokerGuru yesterday informed readers about IPC duo Sameer Rattonsey and Rajeev Kanjani joining hands with Amin Rozani, in taking over Goa’s most prestigious poker room onboard Casino Deltin Royale. Together the three feel that poker is ascending in India and are looking to give players a professional and global platform, at their recently acquired poker room.

The trio has certainly kicked off things with a bang by announcing the return of the India Poker Championship tournament series, which will be hosted at Deltin Royale poker room.

Scheduled to run from January 21 – 25, the 5-event tournament will mark the return of the IPC after a long hiatus of 15 months.

The last IPC tournament was also its first international stop and was held in Sept 2013 at Bally’s Casino, Colombo. The 5-day series had seen several Indian, Sri Lankan and Chinese players making money.

IPC will be returning to India after its last series in March 2013, held at Casino Royale. The Main event witnessed a silent drama, with Amit ‘bblacklegend’ Jain on a delayed flight with just two hours for the play to begin. Racing against time, Amit got a friend to buy in, but was blinded out for almost half the level and the next one too, until he finally grabbed his seat. In a thrilling climax, Amit topped the event, after beating Kanishak Kapoor in heads up play. It was Amit’s against Kapoor’s , but the former’s luck held as the board belted out and Amit took a memorable win.

In a statement released to Gutshot magazine, IPC Director, Sameer Rattonsey said, “We are excited about returning to Goa and we’re hoping that our players are too… it’s been a while since any poker tournament has happened in Goa so we’re quite happy to be the ones kicking off the 2015 calendar. Our aim with the IPC has always been to provide a world class tournament and playing experience so we encourage poker enthusiasts from across the country to come be a part of this exciting festival of poker”.

Rattonsey revealed a new strategic media alliance stating, “We are happy to have PokerGuru as our media partner for live coverage of the entire event.”

The Championship begins with an ₹6,500 Mega Satellite at 8:30 pm on Wednesday, Jan 21, 2015. Players can expect a good shot at getting in at a low cost, with a guarantee of two packages offered. A new highlight this season will be a player’s party right after the Mega Satellite. Details about this will be given out, before the start of the series. Thursday and Friday will feature the 5K and 10K Freeze out events with a guaranteed prize pool based on 100 players.

The crowning jewel of the tournament will be the 30K Main Event with its guaranteed prize pool of ₹20 Lakhs, which will culminate on Sunday. The same day will also see the last two side events, the 6-max Freezeout and the 12k Headhunter (with re-entries) unfolding later in the evening.

The organizers have added an extra event on Sunday, keeping in mind the holiday weekend of January 26.

Talking about it, Rajeev Kanjani adds, “Since 26th January is a public holiday, we figured a lot more players will be keen to stay back and play some poker. Hence the idea of having 2 side events on the day with the 6 max event starting earlier followed by the Headhunters.”

The organizers have announced a deduction of 15% from the prizepool as entry fee with the Deltin Royale poker room bearing the entire TDS liability on behalf of the players.

Times seem to be looking brighter the coming year, after a dull 2013 in India. The return of IPC with another exciting tournament is sure to be an extended New Year’s party. Talking about it, Peter Abraham, IPC Co-Director admits that 2013 was quiet in India but goes on to add, “However in the interim Indian players have been doing well in the Asian region and other parts of the world. So we want to encourage poker enthusiasts from across the country to come and experience tournament poker in the best setting the country has to offer. We look forward to welcoming all players and here’s to a great weekend in January!”

We spoke to Amin Rozani and Peter Abraham on the upcoming IPC tournament series. Here are the excerpts:

IPC is returning to Goa after a long hiatus or nearly 2 years. Why the long gap for the return?

Peter Abraham: There has been a fair hiatus but that doesn’t mean that we weren’t trying to get a live event going in Goa. We thought about Bangalore as a potential venue and even contemplated going back to Colombo, but nothing quite clicked. Then a couple of months back, things looked up and eventually we were able to work out the details. We should hopefully have a lot more events in 2015.

With the change in management at the Deltin Royale poker room, it is safe to assume that the poker room will be the venue for all upcoming IPC events in the near future. How many events are planned for the calendar year?

Amin Rozani: Obviously it helps to be hosting our own event in our room. And yes for the near future we do expect to host all IPC events in the Deltin Poker room. As Pete mentioned, we have planned a regular schedule of tournaments and expect to do at least 6-7 events in 2015.

Are you guys planning a special ‘Player of the Year’ prize? If yes, what?

Amin Rozani: In the past too, we have had special prizes for the India Poker Champion and the India Player of the Year (IPOY) and we are keen to get this restarted in the new year’s schedule as well. We are still finalizing all the details and this info will be released in the coming weeks.

The poker community seems pretty excited with the return of IPC to Goa but the one big question that is surely lingering on every poker players mind – how much rake is going to be deducted and what will be the TDS hit on the prizepool?

Peter Abraham: We are humbled and delighted at the response we got when we announced the dates of the next IPC. Players seem to be enthusiastically looking forward to playing tournament poker and we’re happy to oblige 🙂

TDS is certainly an issue which has put off a lot of players and has affected turnouts to a certain extent. Here’s how we’ve chosen to tackle it – 15% from every tournament’s prizepool will be deducted towards entry fee. The TDS component will be borne entirely by the IPC. All we ask is for players to mandatorily bring along their PAN card info and ID so we are able to process and send along their TDS certificates in due course.

Why no guarantees on the side events on Sunday? Also two side events on a Sunday night seems a little too much, any specific reason for the same?

Amin Rozani: In the past too we have rarely guaranteed Sunday events so just carrying on from there. As for the additional events on Sunday, we expect more players to stay back as Monday, 26 January is a holiday due to Republic Day. As it is players tend to treat the Sunday events as a bit of fun which is why we have different formats like the 6-max event (which is capped at 40 players) and of course the much loved Headhunter tournament with re-entries. The whole schedule looks pretty solid and should appeal to all tournament players, noobs and veterans alike.

For queries, email info@indiapokerchampionship.com or call +91-9920803125. Event: India Poker Championship Dates: 21-25 January 2015 Venue: Poker Room @ Casino Deltin Royale Barcolento Jetty, D. Bandodkar Road, Panjim, Goa 403001. Contact Numbers: 90110 13514 | 88066 63594 Dress Code: Smart casuals, no shorts or flip-flops allowed.