PokerStars’ launch in India got a boost this morning after the online gaming giants announced that Muskan Sethi would join Aditya Agarwal as a brand ambassador for the company. And we have a round-up from the Asian Pacific-Poker Tour in Korea.
I wonder if Muskan Sethi’s publicist has a spot under his or her wing?
What an incredible four years for a young woman whose personal mantra is to make a life, and not just a living. The story is a classic one, the highly intelligent and learned young woman struggling to find her place in the world. It’s an inspirational story we should consume greedily alongside our sugar-laden Starbucks trips and sneaky packets of crisps from the gas station.
Sethi was born in the midst of 1.3 billion people.
That’s a challenge, alone.
And yet she somehow managed to create a personal brand that has attracted the most significant online poker room in the world.
The dogs bark.
The church bells ring.
And this magnificent madam keeps hitting home runs.
From the catwalk to the president to PokerStars
Sethi is the latest face of PokerStars.IN.
The 27-year-old joins Aditya Agarwal with the responsibility to promote the PokerStars brand in a region that struggles to believe that poker is nothing more than a flip of a coin and a potential problem for the Indian community.
When Sethi first began considering a career, she set her heart on commerce. Then the space between the beats slowed down, and only fashion quickened them. Sethi earned a diploma in fashion journalism and brand management from the London School of Fashion.
And then the tick-tock-ticking of her heart began to slow once again.
Then, in 2014, Sethi qualified for the PokerStars Shark Cage promotion while playing online and headed to Barcelona to appear alongside her idol Liv Boeree for the chance to win €1m – she finished second in her heat, but a star was born.
From there, Sethi was picked up by the Indian online poker room Adda52, and from out of nowhere, President Ram Nath Kovind honoured her amongst 100 pioneering females who had carved out careers in male-dominated environments.
Cue Indiana Jones style boulders.
Most recently, Sethi joined the All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), in a bid to help promote poker and other forms of skill games in her country.
Sethi has earned a smidgen over $50k playing live tournaments, so she is still a pup. Her best score to date was a final table appearance in last year’s £1,000 buy-in Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour (GUKPT) Main Event in the Vic where she finished eighth for £10,400.
PokerStars.IN teamed up with Sachiko Gaming to officially launch in India on 17 April. The newly appointed CEO, Ankur Dewani, spoke to Glaws of the need for poker to be patient, stating that the lawmakers are not as familiar with the game as they are with the likes of rummy and chess.
“Sure there will be some challenges,” said Dewani, “But it is our job to educate and work with the government to provide information, case studies, research reports, to ensure states and the central government understand this beautiful mind sport.”
Or you could hire one of the President’s best buddies.
A Round Up From The Asian-Pacific Poker Tour in Seoul
Moving from India to South Korea, and it’s safe to say that Christopher Soyza had a reasonably decent run at the Asian-Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Korea festival.
Soyza, who came into the festival as a top Malaysian multi-table tournament (MTT) player with over a million in cashes, made money in four events, made the final table of three and won two including the coveted Main Event.
The Malaysian star finished 36/377 in the Kickoff event cashing for $575. He followed that up with a 3/55 finish in a No-Limit Hold’em Turbo event for $1,258, before beating 449 entrants to win the $148,629 first prize in the Main Event. Not content with topping a final table that included Randy Lew, Soyza hopped into a No-Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha mix and took it down for $9,815.
In addition to his buckets of cash, Soyza also earned a $30,000 Platinum Pass for the 2019 PokerStars Player’s No-Limit Hold’em Championship, the most significant $25,000 buy-in event in the world.
Here are the final table results of the APPT Korea Main Event.
1. Christopher Soyza – $148,629
2. Mitsuhiro Shiga – $93,156
3. Diwei Huang – $57,485
4. Tomita Ryo – $43,615
5. Randy Lew – $31,721
6. Toru Wakamatsu – $25,109
7. Kojiro Mizukami – $19,827
8. Yuki Ko – $16,521
Soyza wasn’t the only player who earned a Platinum Pass during APPT Korea. The Japanese pro, Yuki Ko, will also be flying to the Bahamas after beating 226 entrants to win the $31,647 first prize and Platinum Pass at the APPT National Event.
Like Soyza, Ko also had a magnificent APPT Korea, winning $62,236 after beating 62 entrants in the Single Day High Roller and making the final table of the Main Event, finishing in eighth.
Ko beat the New Zealander Tae Han in heads-up action. Incredibly, the pair also met in the heads-up phase of last year’s PokerStars Festival Main Event in Korea. Han won that one earning $73,954 in the process.
Here are the final table results from the National Main Event.
1. Yuki Ko – $31,647
2. Tae Han – $20,671
3. Simon Burns – $13,305
4. Pete Chen – $10,339
5. Sheng Li – $8,399
6. Ryu Jaebok – $6,781
7. Kunimaro Kojo – $5,490
8. Masakazu Okamoto – $4,200
