IPC January Edition Main Event Winner to be Named ‘India Poker Champion’ & Get ₹20 Lakhs Sponsorship Deal

Undisputedly, the longest-running live poker tour in the country, the India Poker Championship (IPC), made a grand re-entry in September following an almost four-year-long hiatus! The comeback series that was sponsored by Spartan Poker was the stuff of legends and saw records tumble in each of the four listed events. In fact, the Main Event set a new India record at 777 entries – crushing the 697 entry record set at the 2018 WPT India Main Event.

It’s no surprise then that the domestic poker fraternity cheered on when the dates for the next IPC were announced. Starting precisely a month from today, the IPC will once again be heading to the Big Daddy Casino with the dates of the festival set from January 15-19.

Even as the anticipation for the four-event series was building up, IPC sponsors Spartan Poker has upped the ante by announcing that the Main Event winner at the upcoming series will be named the new ‘India Poker Champion!’

Now it’s not just the bragging rights of becoming a national champion that’s on offer, the lucky winner will also be awarded a one-year sponsorship deal worth a whopping ₹20 Lakhs along with a gorgeous engraved watch worth ₹5 Lakhs! According to sources at Spartan Poker, the watch will be a Panerai or of a similar brand!

India Poker Champion – What’s The Deal?

The IPC was the platform that nourished the initially small but fast-growing pool of poker players in the country. The popular series has also acted as a diving board to catapult several seasoned stalwarts of the industry like bracelet winner Aditya Sushant and Nikunj Jhunjhunwala, to national and international poker fame.

By naming the IPC January Edition Main Event winner as the new India Poker Champion, Spartan Poker has added a lot more glitz to the brand’s attraction.

Elaborating more on the same, the co-founder of Spartan Poker, Sameer Rattonsey, said, “The January edition of the IPC will crown the India Poker Champion for 2020. This is the biggest and most prestigious poker title in India, and we plan to continue crowning the India Poker Champion every year moving forward. The winner of this title will be the next poker superstar of India. Besides a monster payday, with this win comes a ₹20 Lakhs sponsorship deal with Spartan Poker for all tournaments in India, a beautiful watch worth ₹5 Lakhs, and a chance to get featured on the cover of the next Gutshot Magazine, along with much more.”

In its previous run, the IPC Main Event had promised ₹1.6 Crores in prize money and ended up giving away a massive ₹2.65 Crores. The IPC January 2020 edition has four events, and this time around, the Main Event features a whopping ₹3.25 Crores prize pool guarantee – over double that of last time.

Having won the IPC Main Event once himself, Rattonsey is a player at heart, as he adds, “This is not just another Main Event, it is the biggest title for poker in India, and it’s happening at the India Poker Championship. This is a legacy that will remain engraved in the history books of poker for years to come. I was fortunate enough to win this title a few years back, and I believe with this title comes instant recognition and a lot of responsibility. I hope the winner of this title will be a good brand ambassador for poker and take on the responsibility to educate people about this sport we all love.”

“We expect the January edition to be the biggest IPC event to date and Main Event to be fiercely contested,” he concludes.

The new India Poker Champion will be able to use the ₹20 Lakhs sponsorship amount to enter any tournament in the country, including all upcoming IPC editions, but will need to don the Spartan Poker patch at all such events.