Hyderabad: Young Hyderabadis are gaming with a vengeance. Due to aggressive combination of social networking and advance mobile technology, gaming in Hyderabad is taken a different level according to a top official of India’s biggest casino operation.

The overwhelming response to a just conlcuded World Gaming Festival at Casino Royale is any indication, the gaming is catching up in Hyderabad along with many cities in the country.  A young Hyderabadi Gopi Sade emerged fourth and won Rs 9 lakh in Poker game at the World Gaming Festival. After deduction of taxes,  he took home a cheque of Rs 6,21,900.compete

He competed with about 100 Pokers from India and abroad and won this prize money.   Jaswinder Singh Suri from Mumbai and Rajeev Kanjani won first and thrid prizes and Aditya Agarwal from Kolkat won second prize.  Gopi Sade from Hyderabad won fourth prize and pocketed Rs 9 lakh.

In this festival 300 gamers competed against one another playing Blackjack, American Roulette, Poker, Baccarat and Indian Flush, some of the most popular games in the casino. The total prize money of all the games at the tournament was Rs 5 crore.

Gopi Sade, 31years old is a software engineer by profession. working at Semantic Space Technologies in city.  I picked up the game while i was working in Switzerland. This is the first time i ever participated in Poker Competition and won prize. It is being a skill game and is followed by 0.25% to 0.5% of Indian youth which is approximately about one lakh people he said. Poker in

India is played only in Goa.  But, most of the youth pick up this game while their stay abroad, he said.

It is true that young Hyderabadis are catching with gaming, not just in our city but in rest of the towns as well, he said.  I have been playing Poker since 2008 when i learnt it while working in Switzerland he said.  According to another gamer of the city,

who doesnt want to be quoted said the average age of young gamers in the city is Rs 25 to 28years, he said.  Even some young girls are also hooked on to these games.  They are not gambling. They are skill games, he added.  Poker is certainly the mind game rather than a luck game.  That is what is catching up with young Hyderabadis.

India has always been a card loving nation, traditionally India has a long history of playing cards. It’s now time to bring this game of skill into India and giving India its place in world poker history said Raju Sarangi another Poker enthusiasat in the city.   It’s time for India’s billion population to cheer for poker and position this game right next to cricket, he added.

Texas HoldEmis one of the most popular game with the youngers in our city.  Facebook has also made it popular.  We even have casino games on our mobiles now, he said.

The WGF hosted gamers from across the country, mainly from major towns like Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Chandigarh, Hyderabad.  The biggest number of gamers participated from Mumbai.  The entry fee for the same was Rs 1 lakh.