The future looks bright for poker

After the successful reign of Indian Premier League since 2008, another league that has grabbed all the right eyeballs this year is the Poker Sports League.

The brainchild of Amit Burman, Anuj Gupta and Pranav Bagai, the league saw participants from all over India in their first season, which concluded earlier this year and they have launched their 2nd season last month which has already attracted a lot of interest among poker lovers.

And with the second season on, Sam Reddy and Haritha Ghattamaneni of Hyderabad have taken up the challenge of winning the tournament and making poker a household game in the region with their team Andhra Bullets.

The league attempts to establish poker as a game of skill and do away with the negative perception around this mind game. Sam, who started off as an IT professional in the United States and is now a successful entrepreneur in the city’s hospitality industry, says, “Poker is not a game of chance since it involves analytical skills, statistics, patience, psychology, strategy and calculated aggression. Poker is perhaps 10 times tougher than chess because a poker player is playing up to nine players at the same time. He must analyse several rounds of past play to be able to predict the opponent’s next move.”

About how he joined the poker league, Sam adds, “Poker has always been my passion and after bringing big Western food brands to the city, I saw this opportunity to bring both my passions together.” Haritha, a former IT professional and one of Sam’s business partners, says, “I am new to poker. So when Sam asked me about joining him for Andhra Bullets, I asked him to first teach me how to play. Now I understand the concept better.”

Poker has now become a trendy sport. Today’s generation finds it chicer to be a poker player than a rummy or chess player, feels Sam. “Poker is actually being formally taught at reputed institutes such as MIT and Harvard and even our own IIM colleges. It is very popular in USA, Europe, China, Russia and is now becoming very popular in India. There are more poker players than tennis, badminton, golf  players in India,” he says.

So what’s next in store for Andhra Bullets? “As of now, we are all charged up! The formation of the team will be our foremost importance. We are looking for great players who not only have the passion for the game but can excel under pressure. The prize money of '3.5 crore is definitely big enough to fetch great talent,” says Sam.