Land-based qualifiers for the third season of India’s Poker Sports League (PSL) have now been cancelled. Organizers made the decision due to the ongoing threat of the coronavirus pandemic which has placed India and many other countries all over the worldwide under lockdown.
Online Qualifying Tournaments Will Continue
The land-based qualifying tournaments were supposed to take place in a number of locations around the country, including New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Bangalore, supplementing the ongoing online qualifying tournaments which will proceed as usual.
This means that those wishing to take part can still qualify online until April 5, 2020. The online qualifiers began on November 2019 and PSL organizers have reported a significant increase in participation compared to the previous season.
PSL pioneered poker team sports in India, giving players the chance to showcase their skills and compete at no cost, with the potential to take home life-changing prizes. PSL was born with the goal of promoting poker as a mind sport through an innovative team-based format. The league is currently handled by Dabur India Ltd, and is now on its third season.
Poker Sports League Season 3
Season 3 will see six teams battling it out in a grand finale on May 19-23 Kolkata. But prior to that they will first join a boot camp where they will get the chance to get to know each other, assess their skills, and improve their poker strategy. The boot is scheduled on May 17 and 18.
All in all, there will be a total of 72 players taking part. Each team is comprised of 12 members, a mix of professionals and amateurs, and a mentor. The amateur players will be chosen from the ongoing online qualifying tournaments.
The six teams competing in the grand finale are Deccan Aces, Delhi Czars, Mumbai Anchors, Gujarat Falcons, Goan Nuts, and Kolkata Kings. Every team will form their respective line-ups on April 30 in New Delhi. Team owners will review the drafts and select the members as well as the respective captains of each team. However due to coronavirus concerns, the schedule and set-up of the roster selection could change.
PSL Season 3 features at least Rs 4 crores ($350,000) in total prize pool, which will be shared among the top four teams. Previous winners include the Goan Nuts (Season 2), and the Delhi Panthers (Season 1).
Exclusive for Indian Players
The first season of the league allowed two foreign players to join in each team but currently, organizers are only inviting Indian players to take part, and that is because there a lot of local players who are qualified to compete and organizers are doing their best to accommodate them.
PSL CEO Pranav Bagai said previous Indian players who qualified for the league’s past seasons got the opportunity to be coached by the top players in the country and now, these players are slowly making a name in the Indian poker scene. According to PSL founder Amit Burman, India is home to around 40,000 professional players playing locally and internationally.
Burman is confident the level of skills currently being showcased by Indian players can now compete against foreign pros.
The team as PSL have been working hard for poker to gain acceptance in India, a country that generally perceives poker as a game of chance. Over the years, there have been efforts to promote the game as a game of skill for it to be fully legalized in the country.
COVID-19 Pandemic Continues
The PSL joins a long list of live events around the world that had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. As of this writing, the number of confirmed cases in India has breached 2,000, with a total of 58 deaths. There are more than 930,000 cases worldwide, including over 47,000 deaths.  The U.S has now surpassed Italy for the most number of cases at over 215,000.