This week’s poker news kicks off with a focus on PokerStars’ expansion into India. It has signed a new ambassador and the familiar face should bring the brand a lot of business.
Sethi Hired As PokerStars Ambassador
PokerStars recently expanded into India and wasted no time bringing awareness to the brand. The latest move is hiring a face of the movement, which will be Muskan Sethi, a native of New Delhi. Sethi has won just over $50,000 from live tournaments with her largest payday coming in February 2017 when she won $13,107 in a tournament in England. However, Sethi has won about $115,000 in online tournaments in her career after getting her start playing on PokerStars.
Sethi, a 27-year-old who graduated from the London School of Fashion, is a budding star. Her popularity is on the rise after she was honored by Indian President Ram Nath Kovind as one of 100 Indian women who are successful in fields that would usually be dominated by males. That makes Sethi a natural selection for PokerStars, which stopped using its online dot-com poker room in India and kicked off a localized PokerStars India version in the country. With a rising star in Sethi leading the way, Pokerstars is hoping that a lot of players follow her lead to the brand.
Goliath Phamous Dates Announced
While most of the upcoming poker attention in Las Vegas will be paid to the World Series of Poker (at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino), Planet Hollywood is looking to generate a buzz for its big event. It’s going to be hosting the 2018 Goliath Phamous Poker Series, which will have 73 events going on from May 24 to July 15. The highlight will be the main event, which will have a buy-in of $2,200 and a guaranteed prize pool of $2 million up for grabs. That will kick off on June 20 and wrap up on July 1. The Goliath Milly will have a buy-in of $520 + 80 and begin on June 6, going through to June 8. There will also be four daily tournaments that have guaranteed prize pools of $1,500 with buy-ins of $80 and nightly tournaments that have $130 buy-ins.
In terms of sheer size, the Goliath Phamous Poker Series is almost as large as the World Series of Poker but, of course, the WSOP is the one that has the prestige in the poker world.
Slate for XL Inferno Series Released
888poker has announced the full slate of dates for the XL Inferno Series, which is going to start online on May 10 and run through to May 20. A total of 34 tournaments will take place and there are a few key highlights to take note of.
First off, the Mini Tune Up on May 13 has a $12 buy-in, but there is a guaranteed prize pool of $50,000, which isn’t a bad return on a modest $12 investment. Then there are three main event tournaments, the first of which has a $30 buy-in with a guarantee of $50,000. Another has a $160 buy-in with a guarantee of $200,000 and the third a $1,050 buy-in with a guarantee of at least a million dollars.
The satellites to get into these tournaments have already started on 888poker and some have a buy-in as low as a single penny, so now is the time to get in on the action.