Indian Poker Association to Open 3 Poker Clubs in Ahmedabad & First Legal Club in Delhi

Indian Poker Association
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  • PG News April 15, 2017
  • 4 Minutes Read

The city of Ahmedabad is set to be exploding with poker action as Indian Poker Association (IPA) is expanding their presence with three new clubs in Ahmedabad which will be in located in prime spots considering the central business district. IPA will also make their presence felt in the nation’s capital as well with the fourth club opening in Delhi at the Radison Blu in Paschim Vihar.

KN Suresh, the man behind the landmark rulings that legalized poker operations in Karnataka, Kolkata and Ahmadabad is busy expanding his poker organization. According to Glaws.in, which reported the news, Suresh announced these openings through social media.

Suresh posted “The IPA@YMCA Ahmedabad is a CoCo room. CoCo standing for company owned company operated.

Treat it as your own room, eat & drink what you want, when you want. Play when you want. Pay immediately. Collect then & there!!!!
Credit only to WSOP bracelet winners, accompanied by parents.

IPA brings you Poker in 3 more prime properties in Ahmedabad & @ Radisson Blu, Paschim Vihar, New Delhi from 1st May 2017. Yes, you heard it right. In 17 days IPA will be at 4 more locations.

Enjoy your favorite game & learn life skills while you play. IPA is striving to bring you TDS free tournament poker in Rajkot, Surat, Gandhidam, Baroda, Surendranagar, Gwalior, Indore, Varanasi, Guragaon, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Bombay, Nagpur, Pune, Hyderabad and a city near you over the next six months.

Let us know if we missed your city. We promise, we will leave no stone unturned to do everything to be there.

Come learn at the Indian Poker Academy, swim with the sharks & learn to smell the fish.

Yes, it’s all true. Go tell your friends this exciting news and waste no more time in calling 99000-POKER (76537) and learn to play like the pros. Cheers!! May the flop be with you.”

On the new ventures, Suresh states “IPA has signed an agreement with the Radisson Blu Hotel at Paschim Vihar in New Delhi and three other five star properties in Ahmedabad. Radisson Blu poker room, launched as a joint venture between IPA and other local partners, would be operated under the brand name ‘Safe House’, two poker rooms in Ahmedabad would operate under the brand name ‘VIP Premiere Lounge’ and another one would operate under the name ‘Quads@IPA’.

On the legal front, Suresh mentions, “The existing precedents have convinced the Radisson Blu and other locations to lease out the properties. IPA would approach the courts in case there is any interference from the police or other local authorities.”

The founder of IPA is a lawyer himself and has already created a legal precedent for operating poker rooms, without hindrance from local authorities in Kolkata and Ahmedabad in the recent past.

PokerGuru spoke to Rajeev Raut, operator of IPA, Ahmedabad and he shares information about the poker room, the new ventures, his views and plans for IPA and more….

 

Please tell us a bit about IPA Poker club in Ahmedabad?

I will give you a brief about our current IPA room in Ahmedabad that currently has nine tables. On a regular basis, we have at least 6 to 7 tables running. Due to the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) the action has slowed down a bit but on Friday-Saturday-Sunday we host at least 7 to 9 tables. We also have started our weekly tournament “Luckpati Challenge”. We have a database of around 600 to 700 players who have visited our club at least once and we have around 150 to 200 regular visitors who arrive at different times.

 

Please tell us a bit about the core team of IPA, Ahmedabad. Who all are actively involved in the management?

The core team involves IPA Founder & Secretary KN Suresh, myself and Tarang Patel who brought us to Ahmedabad in the first place. So, the three of us will be actively involved in operating the club.

 

Please tell us about the room, the dealers, staff, management and services on offer.

We have selected experienced dealers to run the show for us. Currently we have 25 dealers and will have at least 20 dealers in each club.

What are your expectations with the club?

We are very happy that players can expect to play poker in a legal environment and we are very keen on hosting regular tournaments. We also had a satellite for Kings casino in Rozvadov and we sent one of the local regulars to Rozvadov after a qualifying tournament. We plan to host many other satellites like this where people can qualify and visit good poker destinations. We are also looking to send our sponsored players for APT and PokerStars Macau. We would want the new guys and pros to represent IPA at least in Asian events for now.

 

What are your views on the current poker scenario in Ahmedabad?

It is in a very breakout stage, there are a lot of players who regularly play at our club because they don’t want to play home games and want to play in a legal environment where everything is handled professionally and rules are followed. So, we are educating them regularly on rules of cash games and tournaments.

You have been very active in the Indian poker circuit and seen it grow since its inception. How do you think the game has grown in different cities?

Whenever we see poker getting legal in any city, we see a complete change in poker scenario of the city. There are many people who come out and participate in the tournaments and become more educated about the game. They (players) are in a very primitive stage when it comes to rules because home games never follow any rules. It is only the club culture which educates them about the rules and etiquette of the game which they will use when they go to national or international tournaments such as Deltin Poker tournament, India Poker Championship or other events in Macau and Manila where they are very strict when it comes to rules. So, we are trying to educate them on every aspect of the game be it better play, better bankroll management, strategy to choose and select events. Everyone is basically very new to the game.

We have seen a breakout in Bangalore where there were only 200 players when the four clubs started in Bangalore and now there are more than at least 1500 active players in Bangalore. Even in Calcutta, the game is picking up very well; they are into organizing their own tournaments and are also hosting live qualifiers for PSL. So, we are all playing our parts in educating and spreading awareness about the sport.

The most important thing today is awareness about Poker. It only happens with a bunch of experienced players on the tables with the new guys and it can only happen practically as you encounter situations and circumstances when playing the game itself. So, every day they are learning something new about the game and the etiquette’s to be followed at the tables. They’re learning practically as the game happens.

We plan to have senior players come here and conduct seminars and educational conferences in Ahmedabad. We have the facility of engaging at least 400 to 500 players in our banquet hall for a tournament. We have a tournament venue, which can house 50-100 tables. We can have an all India poker educational seminar or a coaching session for any amount of number of players, which is our future plan. We want to educate the players through this venue.

Infrastructure plays a key role in this, as we don’t have such venues in other cities. Bangalore is also developing a very big poker center for hosting big tournaments and these seminars.

 

What exciting promotions are in the pipeline?

We are going to have a lot of satellites to international events and are going to host regular cash game festivals and tournament series. There will be a mix bag of senior players coming from all across the country, which should help the local players. The games are very soft at the moment as everyone is on an intermediate level as of now. We just want them to take their time and have a good poker experience while learning.

It`s a very exciting market and I feel all players from India must come to Ahmedabad and enjoy the Ahmedabad experience. We are also hosting a cash game festival from April 27 to May 2. On April 29, it’s KN Suresh’s 50th birthday so we are throwing a party here in the club and we invite all the players from India to be a part of this party cum festival where we announce our upcoming openings of clubs in Delhi and Ahmedabad.

We will also have a promotional offer of flights and accommodation expenses being reimbursed if the players play cash games. Suresh is also working to get Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs to recognize IPA as a National Federation for poker. We would also like to work with the government and have a cut in TDS percentage in tournament winnings. He’s already in talks with higher bureaucrats for this.

We are planning to host all our big events almost rake free. Rake will be almost the same as the cost of hosting the event and whatever money we have left after cutting costs we will give the money back through a freeroll for everyone who participates in the tournament. We plan to host India’s biggest guarantee event, which will be a five-crore guaranteed event. We will announce the official dates by the end of the month or by early next month.

 

Where do you see IPA Ahmedabad in 5 years?

Within five years IPA will have at least 20 poker rooms in Gujarat because we are flooded with enquiries. More and more entrepreneurs want to take this game to the next level and host it on a professional level and in a legal way. We have got enquiries from all over Gujarat for examples Surat, Baroda, Gandhinagar, all these areas in Gujarat have approached us for an outlet. We are just waiting for a good venue. We want our venue to be only five star hotels or reputed clubs. So, once we come up with good venues we will go ahead with it. I will be actively involved in managing all the rooms IPA opens. My main duties will be to basically keep the clubs occupied by events and action.

For more details contact: 99000-POKER (76537) or Rajeev Raut at – 9011042000

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