India’s first-ever Poker Sports League (PSL) turned out to be a grand success and it is perhaps this reason that the chief executive officer (CEO) Pranav Bagai is planning for the 2nd season of PSL. Only time will tell, but the first season of PSL has been a great story so far. The 5-day series took place on 24th May with 12 teams, consisting of 1 mentor, 2 local pros, 2 live qualifiers, 2 online qualifiers, and 2 wild card entries, fought it really hard for the title at India’s most luxurious casino Deltin Royale in Goa. After five days of the gruelling action, Delhi Panthers emerged the winner to take down the top prize of INR 1.5 crores. Mumbai Anchors mentored by Amit Jain came 2nd and won INR 1 Crore. Kolkata Royaled finished 3rd for INR 50 Lacs. Punjab Bluffers picked INR 35 Lacs for the 4th place finish.
A Quick Look at the Winning Teams in PSL Season 1:
Delhi Panthers
The five days of action at Poker Sports League saw many teams coming up and down on the PSL Leaderboard. In the end, it was Delhi Panthers who came very strongly on the final day and emerged the champion of the opening season of the PSL, winning 1.5 Crores in the top prize money. The Delhi team was sitting on 8th position on the PSL Day 4 Leaderboard with a total of 347400 points. Thanks to the extraordinary performances by the mentor Akash Malik, Aman Dhamija and Vinod Megalmani. They all proved their mettle and finally managed to win the very first PSL title for their team.
Mumbai Anchors
This team mentored by Adda52 Pro Live Amit Jain looked like the real winner on Day 3 when Amit won the main event and took his team to the 2nd place on PSL Day 3 Leaderboard with 439800 points. But not bad at all, Mumbai still managed to finish runner-up. In this team, many players impressed with their amazing performances. The key role was played the mentor Amit Jain himself. Among other players who won the hearts included the Wild Card Danish Sheikh, Kartik Ved and Honey Bijalni. Superb show by Danish, as he finished 6th in the main event and shipped a turbo event as well. Kartik Ved and Honey Bijalni won a Turbo Event for the team. Overall, it was a great show by Mumbai team.
Kolkata Royals
Kolkata Royals which held 4th place on Day 4 PSL leaderboard with a total of 523800 points came 3rd in PSL series and won INR 50 Lacs for their efforts. Wonderful show by the Kolkata pro-Mayank Agarwal, he finished 3rd in the Day 3 main event and scored a few big points for his team. Naman Khettry & Kunal Sharma also played a key role, as they won the Day 4 Teams Event, winning some big points and pushing their team to 4th place on Day 4. This team started PSL in style with Naman Khettry winning Day 1 Heads-up Texas Holdem for his team and taking it to 9th place PSL Day1 leaderboard.
Punjab Bluffers
Punjab Bluffers mentored by Abhishek Goindi looked in good form all across the series. They were on the 3rd place on PSL Day 4 Leaderboard but ended finishing 4th for INR 35 Lacs on the final day of PSL. While the key role was played by Akira Ohyama who finished 5th on Day 1 Main Event, other players
including the mentor Abhishek Goindi and Vineet Kumar came out with some brilliant performances for their team. Overall, it was a superb efforts from the team and they all played like a well-knit unit.
The opening edition of PSL proved a big success. It attracted a few heavyweights in the form of wildcards, including Dong Kim featured for the Bengaluru Jokers, Former PokerStars Team Pro Bryan Huang for the Goan Nuts, Macau Poker Cup winner Henrik Tollefsen for the Gujarat Acers and the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Player of the Year Sam Razavi who thanked Pranav Bagai via Facebook for an awesome first season and expressed his view that PSL has the potential to grow into something huge in coming years. Among other star players, Japanese star Akira Ohyama represented Punjab Bluffers and PartyPoker’s Patrick Leonard featured for the Rajasthan Tilters. Mel Judah from Australia, who holds around $3.6m in live tournament earnings, was also an inspired choice as the Tournament Director. He won many hearts as a tournament director ( TD) and almost everyone admired him.
Getting corporate sponsors was key to the success of Poker Sports League and fortunately it got the attention of some renowned companies, including Jet Airways, Bira 91, Real Activ and John Jacobs Eyewear. All these organizations lent their financial support, which contributed to the success of PSL.
As a whole, this entire PSL series has been a great milestone for India’s faster-growing poker industry.