Deccan Aces Wins Inaugural Virtual Poker League! 

The weekend gone by has been monumental for the Indian poker industry. What with the country’s first-ever poker league, the Poker Sports League (PSL) successfully pulling off India’s first virtual poker league; it was time to relive the team-based competition that poker leagues are famous for in a never-seen-before streaming extravaganza!

As a precursor to the upcoming PSL-Virtual (PSL-V), the league ran an exhibition charity league, the Virtual Poker League (VPL), from October 14 to 17 on its free-to-play Hashtag Poker app. The team Deccan Aces, led by its owner Sam Reddy and mentored by Kunal Patni, emerged as the champions after topping the competition across the four-day-run and three legs of competition!

The VPL was a grand affair with 30 of the country’s top-ranked players participating as part of six teams across an intensely mapped set of SnG matches. With a prize pool of ₹10 Lakhs on the line, the competition was neck-to-neck with VPL going “#AllinForCharity’ as the full prize money was donated across different education-based organizations.

Dominating the action after an intense four days of play were the Deccan Aces comprising Sam Reddy (owner), Kunal Patni (mentor), Rajat Sharma, Smita Agarwalla, and Anant Purohit. Taking an early lead after Agarwalla won the first SnG match, the team’s mentor, Patni, sealed the team’s victory after taking down the finale.

Deccan Aces donated the ₹5 Lakhs they won to ASSCOD – Association for Sustainable Community Development.

Talking about Deccan Aces’ winning run, mentor Kunal Patni said, “When I first heard about the concept and the thought behind VPL, I knew I had to be part of this. Our children are the future of this country, and whatever little that we can do to secure their future, we must come forward. All of us who battled in the tournament played with a sense of pride. I am thankful to the PSL team for giving us all an opportunity to come together and use our skills to contribute towards the society.”

If you haven’t watched the VPL mega finale, check it out below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVIhWSLArvw&feature=youtu.be

Chennai Troopers finished runner-up and donated their prize money of ₹3 Lakhs to Super School India, with second runner-up Delhi Czars donating ₹2 Lakhs to United Way Chennai.

CEO and co-founder of PSL, Pranav Bagai congratulating the winners, said – “I would like to thank all the players and the Poker community for coming together for this noble cause and helping us take our vision to the next level. We are absolutely thrilled with the kind of response that Virtual Poker League has received in the last few days.”

Deccan Aces – Path to Victory

The VPL was divided into three events. Event 1 comprised of five SnG matches.

Deccan Aces’ Smita Agarwalla won the first SnG after beating Gujarat Falcons’ Romit Advani heads-up. The second SnG was won by PokerGuru Ambassador Ashish Ahuja for his team Chennai Troopers, match 3 was won by Jaydeep Dawer of the Gujarat Falcons. Sharad Rao of the Chennai Troopers won match 4, and match five was taken down by Young Gun Arsh Grover for his team Goan Nuts.

Deccan Aces took a leap up on the leaderboard after captain Sam Reddy won Event 2 – 30-man SNG.

Team mentor Kunal Patni played a significant role in clinching the win for the team. Selected to represent Deccan Aces in the Finale, Patni raced past Gaurav Sood (Chennai Troopers), Abhinav Iyer (Goan Nuts), Romit Advani (Gujarat Falcons), Sriharsha Doddapaneni (Delhi Czars), and Nishant Sharma (Mumbai Anchors) to make his team the first-ever VPL champions!

Keep following PokerGuru for all the latest updates from the Poker Sports League!