PokerBaazi Starts November With a Bang; Hits Record 5,000 Concurrent Players

November 2022 will be remembered for a long time, for its the month the Indian poker community will witness the crowning of the biggest winner ever on the country’s leading online poker platform PokerBaazi.

The market leader offers the best-in-class gaming experience on its avant-garde poker app. Celebrating eight years of operations in a closely competitive but fast-evolving space, the home-grown site is busy hosting qualifiers to the G.O.A.T. For the uninitiated, the G.O.A.T – the Greatest Of All Tournaments – is the country’s biggest online tournament, guaranteeing a never-before-seen ₹7 Crores in prize money!

Over the past month, the PokerBaazi team has aggressively promoted the G.O.A.T and other offerings as part of its eighth-anniversary celebrations. The efforts have hit the mark by creating a buzz like never before. And the platform set a new benchmark for the industry on November 1, reporting a record-high of 5,000 concurrent players on the site with 1,600 players on the cash tables. It is by far the most traffic recorded on an Indian poker platform to date.

We don’t mince our words when we say that PokerBaazi, under the stewardship of CEO and founder Navkiran Singh has genuinely emerged as the biggest and most popular online poker platform in the country.

While its dominance in cash games is well known, PokerBaazi has also been the industry`s flagbearer in hosting the “biggest-ever” online tournaments in India. The brand has constantly set the bar higher, starting with the ₹1 Crore GTD The Money Maker, the ₹2 Crores GTD The Game Changer, the ₹5 Crores GTD EndBoss and the currently underway ₹7 Crores GTD G.O.A.T.

Simultaneously, PokerBaazi has kept its sail high when it comes to offering players a safe and “player-friendly” environment. It is unsurprising, then, that you will find even the routine PokerBaazi marquees surpassing their posted guarantees on any given day, especially when many other competitors are struggling to fill theirs.

The players have been equally appreciative of the efforts put in by the PokerBaazi team, evident in how the site dealt its 1 Billionth hand in March 2022. By registering such record numbers in tournament and cash game traffic, PokerBaazi has firmly established itself as the market leader in India.

Reflecting upon the PokerBaazi team`s jubilation on hitting such a tall benchmark, the Marketing Director of Baazi Games and a long-standing stalwart of the poker industry, Varun Ganjoo, said, “Every new milestone is a forward step for us. More and more people engaging with our platform shows how much people are loving the product and solidifies our positioning as the best poker product in the industry. There’s a long way to go, and we are very excited about the next phase of poker’s growth in India.”

PokerBaazi – Celebrating 8 Years of Poker

PokerBaazi officially launched on October 23, 2014, and dealt its first hand on October 24. The unrelenting efforts of its co-founders ensured the site picked up traction quickly, and within a month of operations, it had dealt over 1 Lakh hands. The site’s offerings were so well-received that by February 2015, it had dealt a million hands!

In March 2022, PokerBaazi hit another significant milestone, dealing its 1 Billionth hand, a moment it shared with the players through the #BaaziBillion campaign.

It is one of the select Indian online poker sites to boast a completely indigenous product built in-house. It would not be an overstatement to say that PokerBaazi`s revamped platform (and app) is at par, if not superior, to any other poker platform worldwide.

Here are some significant milestones reached by PokerBaazi in eight years:

> January 2017 – Launched new software upgrade, bringing in a new tournament lobby, 4-colored deck, and convenient hand history.

> 2017- Launched The MoneyMaker – then India’s first and only tournament to promise a ₹1 Crore prize pool guarantee.

On October 2, 2017 – Anujkumar Kodam won the first-ever MoneyMaker (₹30.48 Lakhs). The site hosted 12 other MoneyMaker editions until March 2022. As part of the Baazi Billion campaign, another seven more MoneyMakers were crowned. The tournament has now become a monthly staple and is hosted on the first of each month.

> February 2019 – Launched the ₹2 Crores GTD The Game Changer – also the first-ever online event hosted in India sporting the massive prize pool guarantee.

Prashanth Sekar won the first-ever ‘Game Changer’ (₹33 Lakhs). Another five The Game Changer editions have been hosted on PokerBaazi since. On August 7, 2022, Jaipur-based Shagun Jain won the prestigious tournament for the second time (₹25.30 Lakhs), becoming the Game Changer 6.0 champion.

> May 2019 – The site rolled out a significant UI/UX upgrade that revamped the user interface and introduced a first-in-market portrait mode on its app.

> January 26, 2020 – CEO Navkiran Singh announced the launch of the National Poker Series, planned initially as a live domestic stop.

> April 19, 2020 – Hosted the largest poker tournament in the country, ₹5 Crores GTD EndBoss, championed by Abhishek Maheshwari (₹1 Crore).

> December 2020 – PokerBaazi partnered with the Asian Poker Tour (APT) to launch the APT India Online Series from January 15 – 26, 2021. This was followed by a second edition on August 1 – 8, 2021, while the third edition ran from January 30 – February 6, 2022.

> May 9, 2021 – Rolled out an all-new and improved poker app.

> June 13 – 27, 2021 – The National Poker Series made its debut online, recording 83,793 entries across 64 tournaments and awarded a jaw-dropping ₹19 Crores in prize money.

> October 2021 – PokerBaazi announced the launch of its all-new desktop app

> October 20-24, 2021 – Hosted Endboss 2.0 featuring a ₹5 Crores prize pool guarantee

> January 2022 – Introduced PokerBaazi Classics featuring all its popular flagships with higher guarantees; the second edition of the series was held from July 31 – August 7.

> May 31 – June 19, 2022 – Launched the 1100 Texas Hold ‘em Championship (THC) with 100 tournaments featuring a fixed ₹1,100 buy-in.

> May 2022 – The site crossed 1000+ Concurrent players on its cash tables.

> June 2022 – PokerBaazi extended its partnership with APT for two more years. The fourth edition of the APT India Online Series was hosted from July 1 – 10, 2022, and was the biggest yet, boasting ₹10-plus Crores in guaranteed prizes.

> June 2022 – PokerBaazi signed Bollywood heartthrob Shahid Kapoor as its brand ambassador.

> March 25 – May 23, 2022 – The site hosted seven The MoneyMaker editions as part of the Baazi Billions promotion.

> March 2022 – Hosted National Poker Series (NPS) 2.0 featuring ₹18.50 Crores in prize pool guarantees spread across 84 tournaments and awarded 252 medals.

> September 2022 – Announced G.O.A.T. – India`s largest online poker tournament with a whopping ₹7 Crores guarantee. The qualifiers are currently underway, and a winner will be crowned on November 6.

PokerBaazi has come a long way since its humble start eight years ago and has helped put Indian poker on the world map. However, looking at its growth trajectory, it’s evident that the brand still has a long way to go.

Keep following PokerGuru for the latest updates and promotions from PokerBaazi!