The eight-anniversary celebration of PokerBaazi saw another high point as the winners of India’s largest standalone poker tournament called Greatest of All Tournaments (G.O.A.T) were announced on Monday.
G.O.A.T, which kicked off on 30 October 2022, with the qualifier tournaments, finally culminated on 7 November 2022, and registered a huge total of 7196 entries. Competing for a record prize pool of Rs 7.2 Cr., Kumar Chandra Rohit – an associate director in data sciences with Walmart hailing from Patna, claimed the first position and prize money of Rs 94,69,000. The second and third spots were clinched by Puneet Sachan and Anmol Mehta both being popular names in the poker fraternity and hailing from the capital – Delhi. While the former took home prize money of Rs 68,73,418, the latter won Rs 31,51,848 to complete the places on the podium.
Commenting on the occasion, Baazi Games founder and CEO Navkiran Singh said, “With each major tournament, the quality of players and competition is improving and there are no clear favourites despite big names in the pool. I would like to congratulate all the winners on their achievement and participants who helped the tournament reach its scale.”
He further added, “The record setting numbers of G.O.A.T have only strengthened our belief that we are moving in the right direction of establishing poker as a sport and will see many Poker GOATs emerging from India in this global sport in the years to come.”
Kumar Chandra Rohit (aka CK) was overjoyed with his performance and said, “Poker is a true game of strategy and skill. While I have been playing poker for a long time, I never thought that I will be at the top in India’s largest poker tournament by defeating very skilled opponents and some star names from the Indian poker circuit. Poker’s popularity is growing, and the landscape is evolving; with more tournaments such as G.O.A.T, we will see the general shift in perception of luck vs. skill happening faster. It is truly one of the biggest days in my poker career and I would like to congratulate my fellow winners on their achievement.”
Apart from the top three, there were a host of other winners who made a mark for themselves. The fourth position was grabbed by Avish Sharma (Jammu) who won Rs 27,12,892, Shashank Shekhar (Mumbai) won Rs 23,02,720 and Vishal Kumar (Delhi) won Rs 19,42,920 who stood fifth and sixth respectively. The last four positions of the top 10 were clinched by – Vinayak Bajaj (Mumbai) who won Rs 16,19,100, Anish Grover (Delhi) who won Rs 13,24,064, Arman Rahul Baldota (Pune) who won 10,00,244 and Vaibhav Tamani (Jaipur), winning prize money of Rs 6,83,620.