High rollers and poker lovers from across India met with global pro-player and renowned celebrity Patrik Antonius at Delta Corp Ltd’s 10th anniversary special onboard its Deltin Royale casino in Goa. Antonius is a Finnish poker player who was also a tennis player, coach, and model. The long weekend witnessed grand celebrations, including entertainment performances by top Bollywood celebrities, across all three Delta Corp vessels in Goa – Deltin Royale, Deltin JAQK and Deltin Caravela.
Delta Corp is the only listed company in the casino gaming industry in India and has been at the centre of the country’s poker fabric since 2008. It has been instrumental in grooming the country’s competitive poker environment by aligning with multiple poker operators to conduct tournaments in Goa since 2011. Manish Adnani, Delta Corp’s business head for Poker, said, “We are pleased to have Patrik Antonius commemorate our 10th anniversary and enjoy the festivities with the community. I am very humbled to celebrate this moment with Delta Corp. I remember playing the first game hosted by Casino Royale back in 2009, and since then poker has aggressively been promoted by Delta Corp Ltd and is growing at a fast pace in the sub-continent.” Delta Corp introduced Texas Hold ‘Em on Casino Royale in 2009 and led the wave of bringing high stakes poker gaming to Goa in 2011. A few years later, it introduced India’s flagship poker tournament – Deltin Poker Tournament – in 2016, and followed it up with India’s first Poker Sports League the next year.
The company has continually strived to improve the poker scene in India and bring various operators under a single umbrella. In this endeavour, it acquired India’s largest poker website Adda52.com and introduced World Poker Tournament (WPT) India to the country in 2017. Earlier this year, Delta Corp also introduced Deltin Poker Tournament’s (DPT) Colossus India’s first super high roller 2018 and DPT Xpress. Adda52.com, which brought Antonius to Goa, is evaluated by iTech Labs and certified to meet industry standards by using award-winning technology that makes it the most secure online poker game platform in the market.
Manish’s poker journey is interesting. He told, “I came here in 2016, as a player, but later I was asked to give a proposal with regards to poker and soon I became a part of it. It’s good to promote the game in the right way. We introduced the poker sports league. We have introduced many leagues in the tournaments here at Deltin. We are the only company in India that has taken poker live to reach people. The company is doing well in the share market and is soon planning to open another branch in Kathmandu.”
Patrik Antonius joined in the conversation and shared some views and experiences too. He said, “I was one of the top tennis players back in Finland. I gave up tennis when I was 19 years old, but I still like to play it. Later I changed course to poker. I got into it and made good money. When it comes to sports, there is a lot of hard work and dedication involved. Most card games don’t involve strategies, thinking skills etc; but poker is different.” He explained there to be two kinds of games – tournaments and cash games – where the cash games are longer as in sometimes can extend from 1 hour to 30 hours. Tournaments, on the other hand, are more scheduled and go on for weeks. When asked what he likes he said, “I would say cash game, where I would play 6-10 hours. That’s my normal routine. Poker happened unplanned. I just started playing with my friends and I liked it a lot. Then when I was 18 I went into a casino and saw the game and I started to win and make a lot of money.
Despite being into the casino circle, Patrick’s principles are set. “I would say in any sports there is luck. But over time that luck factor fades, and the best player is the one with the skills. I have not specifically taken any professional courses, but I have worked a lot on my own skills and on taking up my own experience and learning from it.
I have looked up to many players and learnt from them too. There are a lot of players that inspire you. In poker there is no right or wrong it’s just about making the right decision.
