Match IPL Apologizes For Featuring Pros Who Don't Know League Exists

Honest mistake or blatant lie?

That's the question being asked by many after the Match Indian Poker League (MIPL) named a number of poker pros who would be participating in its poker league, but at least a couple of those pro players stated that they were unaware that such a league even existed.

The incident came to light when Indian poker news website Poker Guru carried a story that claimed that the newly-formed MIPL had landed such stars as Victoria Coren, Luke Schwartz, Marsha Waggoner, Mustapha Kanit, and Faraz Jaka to be players in the league and ready for action in Mumbai in November. That was news to Kanit and Jaka, who are both already affiliated with the Global Poker League (GPL), which has yet to commence its Season 2 after a lackluster Season 1 that misfired on several cylinders.

According to Glaws.in, Match IPL is headed by Raj Kundra and his Viaan Industries in collaboration with the International Federation of Poker, which has changed its name to the International Federation of Match Poker (IFMP). Apparently, this Kundra fellow is seen by some as being on the wrong side of shady for a similar misrepresentation of a celebrity that occurred last year.

Kundra was running a now defunct website called Celebritypoker.in and apparently claimed that Bollywood stars Minissha Lamba and Shahid Kapoor as well as Australian cricketer Shane Warne were affiliated with the site. Warne took to social media to confirm that he was in no way connected to the website, much the same way that Faraz Jaka did just days ago in denouncing his association with Match IPL.

It was GPL CEO Alex Dreyfus who noticed the false and misleading article at Poker Guru, dutifully informing Kanit and the Faraz "homeless millionaire" Jaka that their names were being used as part of the new league's promotional efforts. Match IPL was forced to apologize for the "error" via social media, claiming that the mistake was "unintentional."

Poker Guru has since removed the portion of the offending article that listed the names of the pros who are not actually involved with the new league. The article includes an interview with Kundra, who answers questions about the upcoming launch of Match IPL and his vision for the future.

Kundra doesn't say so in the article, but let's hope his vision includes no more misrepresentations of poker pros.