The Qualified games, scheduled to take place across New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore throughout March and April have now been canceled due to COVID-19.
The novel coronavirus has now reached every country in the world and we’re seeing increasing amounts of lockdowns and quarantine regimes.
While India is still in the beginning stages of the virus contamination and recorded the first cases way later than most countries in the western world, now it seems like the risks are higher, hence the government has issued a new set of restrictions, banning all public events, including this Poker qualifiers.
Luckily the cancellation only affected the offline games, meaning that those who were hoping to participate in the online version or have already been playing since January don`t have to worry about losing their progress because the online championship will go on business as usual.
Online gambling communities can access all of their real money casino games online, while those who were hoping to continue going to real casinos, following weeks are going to be tough.
You will still be able to access the online games, through its app, #HashtagPoker for iOS as well as Android.
The qualifiers have been going on since November of last year and were set to end on the 5th of April.
The schedule remains unchanged with each playing having a maximum limit of 18 online qualifiers.
The demand for these games has increased 50% from its last season and the organizers are actually, the teams have also become more diverse.
According to the Poker Sports League founder Amit Burman, in previous seasons the teams would have 1-2 international players at best, but this time around the teams are made up of only Indian players.
Across the country, there are 40,000 professional poker players and their skills are getting better and better with each season.