DPT Announces Schedule For Upcoming July Edition

Deltin Group`s flagship tournament offering, Deltin Poker Tournament (DPT), recently unveiled the schedule for the July Edition. Unlike the previous editions, tournament organizers have extended the schedule this time around to accommodate an extra day. The six-day series will be coming back to the Adda52 LIVE poker room aboard the floating Casino Deltin Royale from July 31 to August 5.

2019 DPT July Edition Schedule

The DPT has played out four editions this year already, starting with a stop in February where Ankit Kapoor emerged as the Main Event champion. The two other DPT sub-brands – DPT Colossus and DPTXpress – have played out a total of three stops between them in 2019. While the Colossus High Roller series was held in May and saw Aditya Agarwal topping the Main Event, the two DPTXpress editions, crowned Ankit Jajodia (March 2019 – Casino Deltin Denzong) and Anant Purohit ( June – Deltin JAQK, Goa) as the respective Main Event champions!

While this will be the last DPT stop this year, Manish Adnani, Business Head of Poker at Deltin Royale, clarified that there is a DPT Xpress in the plans before WPT India makes a return in November.

“This will be the final edition for the DPT for this year, though we also have another edition of DPT Xpress lined up and will play host to the third edition of the World Poker Tour (WPT),” said Adnani.

“Hosting a live tournament series on a boat is never an easy thing to do, but yeah, I’m pretty excited to see how it turns for the DPT series. For the convenience of players, we have brought in a few important changes to the schedule this time,” he added.

DPT July Gets a Longer Run

Last year, the DPT July edition ran for four days, from July 26 – 29, while the DPT February edition this year enjoyed a five-day run. The upcoming edition will run for an additional sixth day keeping the number of events unchanged. The motive behind this is to ease up the run of events and to add an essential break between the two most prominent events on the schedule, i.e., the ₹65K High Roller and the ₹35K Main Event.

“As a part of the constant evolution to the property, we have added a day primarily to create a break between the High Roller and the Main Event and give adequate rest to players who are playing both the events. This is also in response to the constant feedback we have been getting from players.” Adnani explained.

At the DPT February edition earlier this year, the High Roller and the first starting flight of the ₹35K Main Event started the same day, only a few hours apart. At the upcoming DPT stop, the High Roller will begin at 5 pm on August 1, and the first starting flight of the Main Event will take off at 2 pm the next day, i.e., August 2.

Main Event Offers 4 Starting Flights (2 Turbo)

The DPT Main Event has traditionally featured three starting flights, but that’s changing for the July edition. The Main Event at the upcoming stop features four starting flights – two regular and two turbo flights. While the regular flights are scheduled for 2 pm each day on August 2 & 3, the two turbo flights will take place on the same days at 9 pm.

“I can’t predict, but 380 should be a good number – we did 457 last year. A lot of the players have expended their bankrolls online and will not make it to DPT and many players returning from Las Vegas may not want to play,” Adnani said, talking about the expected turnout at the Main Event.

Players who make it through any of the four starting flights will not be allowed to play another starting flight. Moreover, eliminated players won’t be allowed to re-enter the same flight though they have the option to join future flights.

Bounty Doubled in ₹15K NLH Bounty

In a major overhaul to the Bounty event, the buy-in for the tournament has been increased from ₹8,000 to ₹15,000 with the bounty doubled to ₹10,000! Moreover, the event that was usually hosted on the last day of the series has been moved to Day 2.

“Increasing the bounty to 10K will offer players a lot more value than the previous edition. We’re optimistic it will attract more players to participate in the Bounty Event,” Adnani said.

He explained the rationale behind pushing the Bounty event up on the schedule. “The Bounty event was on a Sunday. Post analysis we have experienced a drop in the participation on Sundays primary due to the Sunday Grind and huge value available online. Moving it earlier into the series especially since we have more room now would be a welcome change.”

Online Satellites & More

DPT sponsors Adda52 is pulling out all stops to provide players an enjoyable experience. In addition to promotional sops like Early Bird prizes, and an exclusive ‘Stay and Play’ package for all players planning to play the Main Event and High Roller, DPT is also offering pre-registration for all events on Adda52 in addition to daily online satellites that are already underway on the online poker site.

Increased Competition

There is little doubt that the increasing competition among Goa`s poker operators has resulted in DPT increasing the frequency of events. Casino Pride II has already brought in a new ship, the poker room on which is currently under renovation and expected to launch on August 1. Moreover, PokerBaazi has joined hands with Casino Pride for running the poker room and further gone ahead by bringing onboard well-known names like Vikram Kumar, Rohan Dhawan, and Nikhil Jain as part of its core management team. In the same vein, the Big Daddy Casino has the IPC team taking care of operations, and it is just a matter of time before they get more aggressive by reviving their live series.

Deltin Royale is presently ruling the Mandovi on the back of its established DPT brand, and its tie-up with WPT; however, with potential international tours like APT and even WSOP Circuit likely looking at hosting events in India, the scenario is likely to get even more competitive.

Adnani, who has been around the circuit for long, welcomed the increased competition. “It’s about time that competition came in!” he emphasized, adding that more players in the market will push the growth of the casino sector in India.

“I have always believed that we have a shortage of live poker space in India because the casino fabric cumulatively across all 6 vessels has 5,000 square feet of gaming space assigned to Poker. While Delta Corp has the biggest presence in this sector, it’s always great to have other boats in the river. Competition brings in growth and change, so more power to them (competitors)!”