The most prestigious poker event of the country today announced its 2022 edition. The National Poker Series India will host 84 tournaments across 15 days starting from 6th March and will crown India’s next gold medalists in Poker.
As history witnessed, the world cup victory in 1983 was one of the defining moments of Indian cricket’s meteoric rise in becoming the country’s top sports category. That moment gave a dream to so many people some of whom would go on to become tomorrow’s Tendulkars, Dhonis, Kohlis and more. And there are many such historic instances in various sports across the globe that helped propel their growth. While India is witnessing a boom in the online gaming industry, the skill-based card game of Poker, a widely played game in the western markets, is something that the country is fast adopting.
The Poker industry in India witnessed its pivotal moment when the first ever National Poker Series was held. The tournament series awarded India’s first ever Poker gold medalists.
The first edition of the NPS was held in June 2021, which recorded 83,793 entries across 64 tournaments, and a total prize pool of 19 crore.
The official announcement of dates for the 2022 edition of National Poker Series India has come as good news for the Poker community entering the new year. It couldn’t be a better spot when the nation is reliving the 1983 dream with the recent launch of Ranveer Singh led multi-starrer film 83. NPS 2022 will be held from 6th March to 20th March and carries a guaranteed prize amount of 18.5 crore.
The popularity of Poker in India is growing across regions and the NPS was a witness to the same. The top 5 states to have scored the highest number of medals were Maharashtra (44), New Delhi (37), Haryana (18) followed by Karnataka (12) and Uttar Pradesh (12). The overall series saw a total participation from 20 states across the nation.
Mohammad Azhar Tak from Rajasthan was crowned the Champion of Champions, while Vivek Bajaj from Jharkhand won the Golden Rush tournament. Interestingly, apart from the medal winners in each tournament, the series also runs a leaderboard based on overall medal tally of players. The NPS podium finishers, Mohammad Azhar Tak (Rajasthan), Ankit Wadhawan (Punjab) and Kritagya Sharma (New Delhi), who won the gold, silver, and bronze medals respectively, also won a ticket to represent India at one of the biggest poker events of the world, held at Las Vegas.
PokerBaazi.com, which is India’s biggest Poker platform, will be hosting the National Poker Series. Navkiran Singh, the founder & CEO of Baazi Games, the parent group of PokerBaazi.com, who also happens to be a passionate Poker player, said that an event like the NPS falls in absolute sync with his vision of creating a distinct category for Poker in India.
“It’s going to inspire the budding/aspirational players. NPS allows the players to engrave their names in the pages of Golden Book of Indian Poker history. This series is all about glory, respect, and fame that the sport has to offer. The concept has been introduced to make the game accessible to millions of poker enthusiasts across the country. With the deep-rooted internet penetration in India, our indigenous app PokerBaazi has been designed to meet the international poker app standards that can eventually be the vehicle through which hidden talents can be discovered and recognized.”Navkiran Singh, the founder & CEO of Baazi Games
The Qualifiers (Satellite tournaments), through which one can win a ticket to the NPS tournaments, will start 15th January on the host app PokerBaazi.com. The details of the 2022 edition have been made available on the event website https://nationalpokerseries.in
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