The World Poker Tour has signed a deal to partner with India’s major online poker network Adda52.com, and Nick Petrangelo has picked up a side event victory at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.
The World Poker Tour (WPT) continues their global assault on the poker market with a multi-year international brand licensing agreement with India’s most popular online poker brand Adda52.com.
Founded in 2011, Adda52.com – a subsidiary of the online gaming portal Gaussian Networks Pvt. Ltd. – currently boasts a community of over 800,000 players. The terms of the deal will hand Adda52 the rights to showcase WPT programming and leverage the brand name. You will also see Indian players qualifying for the WPT events through their online satellite qualifiers.
Anuj Gupta, Founder, and CEO of Adda52.com believes poker in India is in the midst of a boom and that the ‘association with the World Poker Tour comes at a very crucial time,’ in the country.
You have to bow down to the strategic planners at the WPT. They have one of the strongest live tours in the most card crazy country in the world, and they now have affiliations in the two populous nations in the world. The WPT was acquired by the Chinese Goliath Ourgame International Holdings for $35m back in June. A deal that has given them the freedom to expand into India.
During a recent interview with PokerNews, WPT CEO Adam Pliska called the deal with Ourgame a ‘wonderful blessing’, and said it gave him and his team the ability to ‘have fun and really play with the brand.’ Ourgame has over 500 million registered users on their Chinese platform and sent 800 qualifiers to the WPT’s recent event in Sanya.
The WPT are not alone in seeing potential in the second most stuffed country in the world. In January 2015, PokerStars made a foray into India’s poker market when they chose Aditya Agarwal to be the first member of PokerStars Team Pro India, and at the turn of the year Europe’s most successful live tournament player, Sam Trickett, signed up as an ambassador for the India-facing online poker network Starpoker.in.
Nick Petrangelo Wins WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Side Event
Nick Petrangelo has won his first title of 2016. The World Series of Poker (WSOP), bracelet holder, took down the $2,200 No-Limit Hold’em Eight-Max at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.
The event attracted 191 entrants, ensuring that the $200,000 guarantee was beaten by $182,000. Petrangelo picked up the $93,208 first prize after defeating Kou Vang in heads-up action.
European Poker Tour (EPT) Champion Niall Farrell, former WSOP bracelet winner Anthony Spinella, and Global Poker League (GPL) San Francisco Team Manager Faraz Jaka also made the final table.
Petrangelo is no stranger to WPT success. In December, he finished runner-up to Fedor Holz in the WPT Alpha8 Las Vegas event taking home over a million bucks.
Final Table Results
1. Nick Petrangelo – $93,208
2. Kou Vang – $53,480
3. David Malka – $39,728
4. Matt Affleck – $29,032
5. Faraz Jaka – $22,920
6. Aaron Massey – $16,999
7. Niall Farrell – $13,370
8. Tyler Patterson – $10,123
9. Anthony Spinella – $7,640
