Popular Indian poker site 9stacks has big plans for the Aussie Millions Poker Championship next year. It has announced a new promotion that could see 100 Indian players participating in the 
tournament, which is scheduled to be begin in the latter half of January 2019.
The site has organized an “Aussie100” event that began last month and which will run until December 16. Winners will be given a package worth two lakhs (US$2,737) that includes airfare to and from the event, eight nights in Melbourne and a 50,000 in chips to use on the 9Stacks site. If someone chooses not to attend the tournament, he or she can opt for a cash equivalent, which will be deposited to the user’s 9Stacks’ account.
The poker portal has reportedly already selected the first 15 players that will represent India during the tournament. Among them is Chandni Malik, the first female player to be selected. She is a relative newcomer to India’s poker scene, but is already a well-known player.
According to 9stacks CEO Sudhir Kamath, the website was created as a method to allow amateur players an opportunity to participate in poker tournaments. The company has been adhering to that policy and sent 25 players to the WSOP in Las Vegas this past summer. Two of the players, Vivek Rughani and Nishant Sharma, were the first two Indian players to ever make it to the top 100 of a WSOP Main Event. Rughani made it to 34th place after Sharma was sent to the rail in 88th place.
9Stacks was founded last year and has more than 100,000 subscribers in India. It hosts monthly tournaments and is a member of the All India Gaming Corporation.
The 2019 Aussie Millions will be held at the Crown Melbourne from January 15 to February 4. It will offer 27 events – one more held in the previous edition – and will put up a combined guarantee of US$15.14 million. The Main Event, which will be held from January 27 to February 3, will almost definitely be more successful than this past January’s tournament. 800 entries were recorded for the event and British player Toby Lewis ultimately took down the field and pocketed the first-place prize of $1.156 million.
