A new online poker festival is coming to India! The first-ever Asian Poker Tour India Online Series is set to get underway on January 15, 2021, running as part of a new partnership between the Asian Poker Tour (APT), Asia’s leading online poker tour, and PokerBaazi.com, India’s top online poker destination.
Both brands announced their new collaboration this week, another positive news for the entire Indian online poker industry, despite the legal obstacles it currently faces. With a combination of live and online events planned for next year as part of the partnership, Indian players will have more opportunities to showcase their skills and pivot in their respective poker careers.
Navrikan Singh, founder and CEO of Baazi Games (PokeBaazi.com’s parent company), welcomed the new partnership, saying the team-up is another exciting addition to India’s growing poker landscape.
APT’s General Manager and Executive Tournament Director Lloyd Fontillas is equally delighted, and also expects the partnership to bring in a more diverse range of events to India starting 2021, considering that PokerBaazi also runs a land-based poker room. This will likely pave the way for the return of a live APT event in the country before the year ends.
APT India Online Series 2021 Details and Highlights
The upcoming series will run from January 15-26, 2021, and will feature a 48-event schedule, which will culminate in the INR 2 Crore-guaranteed Main Event. Overall, the festival will award INR 8 Crore (US$1,084,000) in guaranteed prize money to the winners, and some of them will also walk away with an APT trophy and a ring. The series is exclusive to Indian players.
The festival will feature not just one, but two leaderboards, giving players the chance to take home extra prizes. A combined INR 50 Lacs (US$ 75,000) is on offer in the daily leaderboard and the overall Player of the Series race.
The player who ends up at the top of the overall leaderboard is set to receive a ring, a luxury watch, and the coveted Player of the Series trophy and title, apart from the cash prize. The first and second runner-up finishers will also be awarded with a trophy.
PokerBaazi.com is also hosting plenty of satellites where players can win their way into the key events for as low as INR 22. The satellites just kicked off on December 9 and will take place throughout the series.
PokerBaazi Continues To Expand  
PokerBaazi was founded just six years ago as an online poker venture of local online gaming firm Baazi Games, which is also involved in online fantasy leagues and other sports endeavors.
Since it began operating in 2014, PokerBaazi.com has grown to become India’s leading online poker platform, with a growing number of customers visiting the site on a regular basis. It boasts of a seamless, impartial online experience, and aims to promote poker as a game based on skill.  The platform is supported by an internationally-certified gaming software that guarantees utmost security and protection of player data.
The site currently offers two of the most popular poker variants in the world – Texas Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha. In October 2017, PokerBaazi hosted the first 1 Crore-guaranteed online tournament in India – The Moneymaker, which now runs as part of the PokerBaazi Premier League.
The tournament’s latest winner was Sandeep Singh, who became the 10th PPL Moneymaker champion earlier this year. He walked away with INR 33,32,755 in first-place prize.
What The APT Is All About
APT launched in 2008, holding its very first tournament in Manila, Philippines. Since then, it has organized over 80 events, mainly catering to players in the Asia-Pacific region. It has continued to grow with each passing year, holding stops in various locations around the world, including the Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam, Macau, Cambodia, Australia, New Caledonia, London, and India.
The tour has given away more than US$ 30 million throughout its 12 years of running tournaments.