'Landlord' or Dou Di Zhu in Chinese has seen its first ever national contest on Saturday.

 

中国首届全国性斗地主大赛将在本周六开赛。

 

The winner could get as much as five million yuan, and players can also gain master points that will be the basis for a national ranking of Landlord poker¹ players.

 

Anyone can apply to play in the competition for free, but instead of actual poker, they will be competing online in preliminary matches that last until June, 2017.

 

Contestants² ranked 2,000 and above in preliminary matches will then have the chance to compete face-to-face.

 

A deputy director under the General Administration of Sport, Chen Zelan, expressed confidence about the popularity of the competition.

 

"We can see a stunning³ number of people in the competition. We are expecting over 100 million players enrolled⁴ online in total," she said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency.

 

The Two Against One Poker Championships were held after the administration granted official status to the poker game as a type of card or chess game in March of this year.

 

The authority also published a set of rules and regulations for the poker game and an assessment⁵ system for points and ranking.

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