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Volume 1 | Issue 2 | Mumbai | July 2020 | Pages 86

DNEGS SPEAKS COVID DISRUPTS

TO GUTSHOT LIVE SPORTS
An exclusive chat How fantasy sports
with the poker brands tried to stay
superstar alive

WSOP DESTINATION
GOES POKER
ONLINE What’s it like to be
For the first locked down in
time in its Mexico?
51-year
history
GLITTER AND
GOLD
IPC Awards
celebrates India’s
best poker talents

INDIA POKER
CHAMPION
Rubin Labroo lifts the crown at the
2020 IPC Main Event
 CONTENT
5. Editor’s Note
6. Indian News
8. IPC Awards 2020
10. Nikita Luther signed as Spartan Pro
12. You’re all (NOT) invited to Kitty’s Game
16. IOPC Jan 2020: A Booming Success
18. Say Hello to the End Boss
20. Boot Camp could be the Montessori of Poker in India
23. Strategy: How can one improve their MTT play?
24. WSOP 2020 Goes Online!
27. Strategy: Combining GTO and Exploitative Strategies
30. Kid Poker in conversation with Gutshot Magazine
32. COVER STORY: Rubin Labroo – India Poker Champion 2020
38. Pokerbros: Play poker the way you want, when you want
42. Challenges faced by payment gateways in India
44. Strategy: How to see more ‘Upswings’ in cash games?
46. Baazi Poker Tour welcomes 2020 with a 7Cr series
48. Chips, Champagne, Celebrations at IPC Jan 2020
50. The dilemma of legalizing sports betting
53. Level Up: Cool Gaming Gear you can buy
54. How Covid-19 put the brakes on a speeding fantasy sports train in India
56. Industry spotlight: Playerzpot
58. Blockchain: The way forward?
64. Make way for the Shahzzadi – Disha Pandey
66. Bill Perkins on playing the Choker Challengers Cup
68. Poker and Investing – Kanishka Samant
70. ‘Piece of Mind’ by Suited Connectors
72. Diary of an Indian poker pro stuck in Mexico
74. Raising the corporate button
76. Be your Own Hero – Meherzad Munsaf
78. Poker Royale – Aditya Wadhwani
83. Bringing the laughs since 1993 – Suresh Menon
04 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
EDIT
EDITOR’S NOTE
T
he most important five letter word in our
lives is poker. However, in the last few
months, it’s been virus or Covid for virtually
everyone on this little blue marble called Earth.
What strange times we are living in…
This is usually the time of the year with a lot of
excitement because the World Series of Poker,
www.gutshotmagazine.com
the ultimate dream tournament for any poker
player, is well underway in the poker capital of
Las Vegas. But up until a couple of weeks ago,
the streets of Sin City wore a deserted look
and it’s not all that much better right now either.
July 2020 Volume I Issue 2 Casinos are shuttered in pretty much all gaming
hotspots of the world from Vegas to Europe to
Macau and everywhere else in between.
While it feels all doom and gloom, the Corona
virus did give us an opportunity to add an ‘E’
MANAGING EDITOR in front of our magazine. With traditional print
Sameer Rattonsey
options and more importantly, mail and courier
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Peter Abraham services deeply impacted, this was the only
CONTENT way we figured would allow our readers to con-
Dwayne Fernandes
sume our content. So welcome to the first ever
COVER IMAGE
Ravinder Singh Photography Gutshot e-magazine!
STYLING Our cover story features the latest star in the
Urvashi Bhardwaj
world of Indian poker – Rubin Labroo. This
SHOOT CO-ORDINATOR
Shareef Punndith Films 30-something year old prolific player from Delhi
crushed a record Main Event field at the Jan-
DESIGN uary edition of IPC to be crowned the newest
HB Design Pvt. Ltd.
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
India Poker Champion!
Sajid Moinuddin We’ve got coverage from some of the top
live and online events which have taken place
Volume I Issue 2 over the past few months, the fore-mentioned
July 2020
WSOP also scoring a ‘First’ with its first ever
Printed and Published by: Peter Abraham for Gutshot Entertainment Pvt.
online series which will award bracelets, strate-
Ltd., S/6-8 Khira Industrial Estate, B.M.Bhargava Road, Santacruz (West),
Mumbai-400054 gy content from some of the best minds in the
business as well as some focus on travel and
Gutshot Magazine is not responsible for the opinions or views expressed by
individuals or writers that may be included in any part of Gutshot Magazine. The mental health.
views expressed are for encourage - ment and entertainment purposes only.
By being an author on this site all writers transfers copyright ownership of
Stay healthy, stay safe and keep crushing!
the manuscript to Gutshot Magazine. for publication in print, on line and in
downloadable form. Permission is also given to publish all subsequent electronic
media, reprints, and any other subsidiary print rights worldwide of this article
for Gutshot Magazine. The author(s) will have the unrestricted right to reuse this
material on condition that credits are included for prior publication in Gutshot
Magazine, to include the issue and date of publication. Interviews are the
personal opinions of the interviewee and are not necessarily the views of Gutshot
Magazine or it’s Publishers Gutshot Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. take no responsibility
for any of their answers or comments. All interviews are subject to editing
spelling, grammar, and any content that is not useful may be disregarded when PETER ABRAHAM
posted/published. Editor-In-Chief
Gutshot Magazine reserves the right to change, update this disclaimer and policy
at will without any notice.
GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0 05
 INDIAN NEWS
Team India
becomes IFMP
Asian Champions
A
power-packed team
of seven Indians
brought home the
2019 International
Federation of Match Poker
(IFMP) Asian Nations Cup
after a 4-day long event.
Taking place in Taiwan’s
Taoyuan City, it ran between
5-8 November and Team
India was crowned ultimate
winners of the Asian event.
Nations participating
included Australia, Hong
Aditya Agarwal parts ways with
PokerStars India
I C
f our poker community was
Team India, Aditya Agarwal
would be Sachin Tendulkar.
Often looked up on as one
of the leading lights of Indian
poker, he’s arguably the best
poker mind in the country,
associated with the game for
over a decade. In December
2019, he decided to part
ways with PokerStars India,
a brand he was associated
with for 5+ years. A number
of global poker pros have
06 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
Kong, India, Israel, Japan,
Korea, Philippines and
Singapore, and Team India
consisted of Aditya ‘Bitti’
Agarwal, Krina Gala, Prateek
Mishra, Rishab Jain, Tanmay
Bagga, Tarun Mundkar and
the captain Gaurav Gala.
The road to success was
topsy turvy but India didn’t
fail to capitalize on their
Day 1 lead, walking away
victorious!
been splitting with Poker-
Stars and this was the first
time an Indian ambassador
took this step. He posted
about his departure on social
media and the community
showered him with luck for
future endeavours.
Rajasthan
HC reiterates
Dream11 as
game of skill
A
dding further
weight to past
rulings in similar
matters, Rajasthan HC in
February ruled fantasy
sports as a game of
skill. A division bench
comprising of Chief
Justice Indrajit Mohanty
and Justice Ashok
Kumar Gaur reiterated an
order given in the prior
week by the Punjab and
Haryana as well as the
Bombay High Courts
that the game cannot
fall within the activity of
gambling or betting. “The
respondent company’s
website and success in
Dream11’s fantasy sports
basically arise out of
users’ exercise, superior
knowledge, judgment and
attention…. Equally so,
before I conclude, I must
express that gambling is
not a trade and thus, is
not protected by Article
19(1)(g) of Constitution
of India and thus, the
fantasy games of the
respondent-company
cannot said to be falling
within the gambling
activities as the same
involves the substantial
skills which is nothing but
is a business activity.”
Reliance Jio may
soon enter the online
gaming market
T P
he rapid growth in the
digital industry has
boosted online gaming
in India, be it fantasy sports,
poker, rummy or e-sports. And
for Asia’s richest man (at the
time), Mukesh Ambani, online
gaming could be the next big
thing here. Reliance Industries
chairman Mukesh Ambani in
conversation with Microsoft
CEO Satya Nadella said there’s
huge potential for gaming in
India. “For many of us who
don’t know what gaming is,
it is very hard to imagine,
but gaming will be bigger
than music, movies and TV
shows put together.” Google,
Microsoft have plans of online
gaming and if Jio enters the
frame, there’s a possibility of
users having access to several
options in India.
MS Dhoni signed as PokerStars India brand
ambassador
aptaining India to 3
international trophies
including 2 World
Cups, breaking individual
records, and proving
his intelligence
every single time,
MS Dhoni has
achieved almost
everything at
the highest
level. Initially
brand
Kunal Patni ends
5-year relationship
with Adda52
oker pro Kunal Patni took
to social media in April to Nazara
announce the end of his
buys stake
worth INR
relationship with Adda52, one
of 5 years! Looked up to by
hundreds of upcoming poker
14.6 Crore
in Halaplay
players in India, Patni left his full-
time banking job to turn to poker,
after which he earned $460k+ in
P
live poker. “Guys just wanted to eople all around
share some development. I have the world are
been fortunate enough to have turning towards
been signed as one of the first online gaming,
Adda Pros when they started especially after the
the program and continued COVID-19 lockdown.
being with them for 5 long years. One such gaming
However, all good things come company, Nazara
to an end and it’s time now for Technologies,
us to part ways. It’s been an acquired Kae
absolutely amazing journey for Capital’s stake worth
me and I was blessed to have INR 14.6 Crore to
been with Adda for such a long become a majority
time. Wish them all the very best stakeholder in
for the future!!” fantasy gaming
platform Halaplay.
Comprising of
fantasy cricket,
kabaddi and football
leagues, Halaplay
ambassador of fantasy sports rose quick in the
operator Dream11, MSD took industry and is a
them to new highs and in April brand to look out for.
2020, he was signed by “The company has
leading poker website now gone ahead and
PokerStars India as their bought Kae Capital’s
brand ambassador. As stocks in Halaplay
per reports, the official making it the
announcement was majority investors in
delayed because of the fantasy sports
the postponement vertical,” a statement
of the Indian by Nazara read.
Premier League
(IPL).
GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0 07
 I PC AWAR DS

IPC Awards 2020 -

Night of the Stars

S
tars in the back-
drop of this breezy
night in Goa.
Guests seated on
the deck of Asia’s
largest offshore
casino. A red carpet rolled out
for the celebrities and best
performers of the year. You
could’ve easily mistaken this
for a high-profile film awards
night. But this night was about
the beautiful game and the
India Poker Championship
Awards left no stone unturned
to make sure they put together
a night to remember!
It was 2017 when IPC first
decided to come up with an
awards night. With players
performing well in online and
live poker across the country,
it only made sense to call the
best performers and felicitate
them every once in a while. The
first edition was in Bangalore’s
Sheraton Grand Hotel, the
second in Sahara Star Hotel in
Mumbai and the third on board
the Big Daddy Casino in Goa!
Apart from being a glamorous
night, IPC Awards focusses on
bringing to light the achieve-
ments of our hard-working
poker players, and it’s the only
one of its kind in the country
right now. Celebrities from dif-
ferent fields were at the latest
edition in Goa, while India’s
best poker players and other
top entities of the industry were
also present.
For the first time, IPC collabo-
rated with a number of domes-
tic online brands like Spartan
Poker, 9stacks, PokerDangal,
FTRpoker and PokerHigh,
who were invited to grace the
event and also present a set
of awards to their respective
best players. TV celebrities like
Anita Hassanandani, Karan
Patel, Shruti Sinha, Basheer Ali,
Suresh Menon and others were
part of the guest list while there
were some scintillating perfor-
mances as well.
An awards ceremony is noth-
ing without its hosts and that’s
why IPC picked two of the best
in their fields in Abhishek Goindi
and Gursimran Khamba. Part
of the now-disbanded All India
Bakchod (AIB) group, Khamba
is known as one of the top co-
medians in the country and he
was there to set the mood for
the night while Goindi is nothing
short of a celebrity himself in the
poker community.
Players to be felicitated
included IPC September 2019
winners, IOPC July 2019 win-
ners and the most consistent
performers across other online
platforms as well. To spice
things up a bit, Goindi also
announced his own set of
fun awards called the ‘Machli
Awards’. Of course, WSOP
bracelet winner Abhinav Iyer
was also felicitated towards the
end of the night for his historic
bracelet winning moment at
WSOP 2019, where he became
the first solo bracelet winner
from India!

08 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0 09
 INTERVIEW
Nikita Luther is now
a Spartan Team Pro!
D
ubbed the
Superwoman of
Indian poker, Delhi’s
Nikita Luther now
reps the Spartan Poker
brand. She speaks to Gutshot
Magazine about her latest
partnership…
Nikita, tell us how you view
Spartan Poker as a brand?
Spartan Poker is an energetic,
dynamic and exciting brand
that has always been at the
forefront of innovation. Be it
record breaking live events
(IPC), unique tournament
formats, massive guarantees,
celebrity associations,
female representation, award
functions, owning a leading
Poker magazine or just pure
style and glamour - they
are hard to keep up with!
They’re tirelessly in pursuit of
growing this beautiful mind
sport of Poker. Partnering
with Spartan was a natural
progression for me and so
far, it has been a delight. The
team is very enthusiastic,
proactive and efficient.
The brand is sure to scale
unprecedented heights and
I’m happy to be part of this
journey, contributing to that
growth and growing with
them.
Any personal goals you
wish to accomplish as
10 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
Spartan ambassador?
One that has always
been close to my heart
is encouraging female
participation in the game.
There are a lot of women
that love playing but do so at
a recreational level. They’re
holding back from taking the
plunge into turning pro. If I’m
able to represent women well
under the Spartan Poker
banner, I’ll be able to help
more women find the courage
to consider going pro. I hope
to be able to inspire women
to be unafraid to break
stereotypes in any field of their
choice.
How are you personally
dealing with the COVID-19
situation?
With online poker
skyrocketing, players are
keeping extremely busy. I’m
playing online quite a bit and
when not playing, I’m studying
- learning new things every
day is extremely interesting
and enjoyable to me. I’m sad
that live stops are cancelled
but it’s an opportunity to
better my online game.
It’s hard to say when the
live scene will improve but
casinos around the world
have started opening up
with extra precautions and
hygiene protocols. I’ll remain
optimistic and hope things
start returning back to normal
towards the end of the year
when the spread of the
disease is under control and
risk is minimised.
Words of advice for
Gutshot Magazine readers
I feel the following are
sacrosanct in poker:
• “Poker takes a minute
to learn and a lifetime to
master”. No truer words were
spoken. Being the best at
poker is a long commitment.
Be prepared for it.
• There are no two ways
around it, you only get better
at the game by studying.
Study as much as you can,
whenever you can.
• Trust the process - there
will be downswings and
there will be bad beats but
know that as long as you are
making correct decisions,
you will make money in the
long run.
• Follow principles of
bankroll management
strictly.
• Maintain a solid mindset
- control tilt, no ego plays
and let go of toxicity and
negativity towards others, in
as well as out of the game.
 INDIAN NEWS
YOU’RE
ALL
(NOT)
INVITED
TO
KITTY’S
GAME!
‘F
ull time pro poker
player, I love traveling,
drinking, challenging,
don’t like be a normal
girl, try to be special
one’. That’s what you’ll read
if you stumble upon her
Instagram handle,
@kittymstar. Truly, she’s a
star in every sense of the
word, having accomplished
so much over the years, and
becoming a highly rated poker
player in the process. Add to
that good looks and a witty
personality too!
We’re talking about
Taiwanese pro Hui Chen Kuo,
better known as Kitty Kuo,
who has been playing poker
since over a decade now. Her
skills at the poker tables have
earned her much respect
over the years. She’s had
deep runs in Macau, Taiwan,
Las Vegas, England, Aussie
Millions, EPT stops across
12 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
Europe and much more,
while also bagging titles like
APPT Macau (Nov 2015), APT
Manila (Apr 2012), Macau
Poker Cup (Oct 2009) and a
WSOP Circuit Ring at Caesars
Palace, Las Vegas (Apr 2010).
These add up to live earnings
of over $2.3 million!
A familiar face in live events
across the globe, Kuo settled
in Las Vegas to pursue her
love for the game. When I
spoke to her for this feature
though, she was in Taiwan
because there wasn’t much
live action happening in Vegas
(thanks to the coronavirus
pandemic), so she chose to
spend some time with her
parents, sisters, and sister’s
kids in Taiwan.
With a Degree in Electrical
Engineering, perhaps even
she wouldn’t have seen a
career as a poker professional
coming up. She made trips
to Vegas during her studies
every weekend where she
played Blackjack a lot. Yes,
EVERY WEEKEND! There,
she discovered poker and her
love for the game and soon,
Kitty shockingly revealed to
her parents plans of moving
to Vegas to be a full-time
poker pro! I can’t imagine
their reactions but “If you give
her $1 to play poker, we’ll
get divorced” said by one
parent to another is enough to
gauge the tensions in the Kuo
household at the time. Her first
year in USA was especially
tough since her parents
weren’t talking to her for 6
months!
“If you give her $1
to play poker, we’ll
get divorced”
A member of the esteemed
Natural8 ‘Team Hot’, Kitty is
not one to back down from a
challenge. “4 years ago, when
the Natural8 boss contacted
for becoming a Team Pro, he
mentioned the common goal
of making it the most famous
poker site. I’m not a fan of big
companies. I prefer joining
small companies and making
them big. This was more
challenging. But if I’m valued,
I can join any company, it
doesn’t matter,” she said to
us about her association with
Natural8.
Kitty claims to be a
bookworm and a nerd when
she’s not travelling the world
for poker, so the COVID-19
lockdown didn’t hurt her
schedule much. However,
not being able to go workout
was one part of her routine
which was majorly affected.
Her poker plans too, were all
altered. “All my WPT live tours
and EPT stops have been
cancelled. Most of the time, I
travel every 2 weeks, but now
I guess I can take a long break
from the live poker tour.”
2012 was Kitty’s first time
in a WSOP Main Event and
she was very nervous -
OBVIOUSLY. In one hand, she
folded with top pair over a
bluff. Pissed about it, she said
to her opponent, “You play
like a fish.” Six months later,
she had the same opponent
on her table in a Main Event in
Australia. “Do you remember
me?” he asked, and her
answer was an outright “NO”.
That was Russell Thomas
and today, the two are happily
married with funny tales to tell
about their first few meetings!
Kitty, what does the
game of poker mean
to you?
For me, winning a title is
more important than winning
1 million at a cash table. If
I just want to make money,
I’ll run a business. I started
poker because I enjoy reading
and bullying people at poker
tables. And of course, it feels
good when I win a trophy!
Do you receive
any coaching or
mentoring?
Darren Elias (1 year) and
Steffen Sontheimer (3 years)
both coach me right now.
They show up every week for
2-3 hours, one for cash games
and one for live tournaments.
They are poker geniuses and I
am so lucky to have them.
Tell us about Kitty
Kuo off the felts…
I only like shopping and a
massage or two when I have
additional free time - very
expensive hobbies.
If you were given $5
million to never play
poker again, would
you accept?
That’s a right amount, yes. My
parents offered me 2 million
a long time ago and I thought
the price is too low. Now
poker is tougher, so 5 million
and I will quit haha!
At 4th place on the Taiwan
all-time list for winnings in live
tournaments, Kitty Kuo proves
those wrong who say poker
is a male-dominated sport. It
was a pleasure speaking to
Kitty who on a parting note
said, “I wish all my poker fans
come to my site Natural8 to
play poker with me, and also
support all the female players
in the poker world.”
- With inputs from Dwayne
Fernandes, Gutshot
Magazine.
GUTSHOT
INTERVIEW
RAPID FIRE:
Russell or you – the better poker
player?
We’re different. He’s smart and
I’m a hard worker. Both good
poker players, but I’m better like
51-49%.
One goal you want to achieve in
poker?
Winning a WPT title is the next 5
years goal. And I want to become
Molly - all businessmen playing
at Kitty’s ‘Invite Only’ game.
Night of online grinding or night
of clubbing?
Night of online grinding 99%. As I
said, I’m a nerd.
Favourite Team Hot member?
Dong Kim because he’s a
handsome man.
Favourite sport apart from poker?
Table tennis.
Top 3 favourite female pros
Maria Ho, Kristen Bicknell, Kitty
Kuo.
Taiwan or Las Vegas?
Las Vegas 99%. My parents pay
too much attention to me when
I’m in Taiwan, so no freedom.
Live or online poker?
Live poker for sure. I like staying
in different cities every month.
Biggest fish in international
poker?
Kitty Kuo.
J U LY 2 0 2 0 13
 INDIAN NEWS
IOPC Jan
2020:
A Booming
Success
As the Jan-Feb 2019 edition of India Online Poker Championship (IOPC) came
to a close, Anurag Srivastava won the Main Event and walked away as the
happiest man in the country, for sure!
I
n a poker series, the Main
Event is always the biggest
attraction - whether live or
online. In India too, we have
plenty of highlight events
in poker series but no one
has more bragging rights
than the Main Event cham-
pion. Such was the case on
Spartan Poker too, when
they successfully hosted the
India Online Poker Champion-
ship (IOPC) between 24 Jan
– 9 Feb 2020, with an INR 16
Crore guaranteed prize pool up
for grabs.
Right through, Anurag Srivas-
tava hadn’t really caused major
issues for other competitors
but he brought his A-game
on the final day of the series,
16 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
beating a field of 3,400+ en-
tries to ship the most coveted
Millionaire Main Event INR 3
Crore GTD title, which was the
biggest ever tournament on
Spartan Poker yet.
With the buy-in at INR
11,000, the prize pool was
smashed and inflated to INR
3.49 Crore, which only meant
more prizes for all, especially
Srivastava who played under
the username ‘Norman Bates’
and defeated ‘PokerBadger’ in
heads-up to collect INR 59+
Lakh from the tournament
prize pool, making him India’s
biggest online poker winner
at the time, until his record
was broken a few months
later by Abhishek Maheshwari
(read that coverage here).
430 players were paid and it
couldn’t have been an easy
final table to get past, with the
likes of Kanchan Sharma aka
‘Bubblegum’ (5th), Sriharsha D
aka ‘Fish2050’ (6th), Sandeep
Varma aka ‘effuno’ (7th) and
others on it!
You think this achievement
was impressive?! Well, we
did too, until we went over to
Adda52 to realize he had also
taken down the AOPS Mil-
lions INR 30 Lakhs GTD on
that platform to claim another
INR 8.92 Lakh in prize money.
We’re still trying to fathom what
it must’ve felt to be Anurag Sri-
vastava that night! He showed
pure analytical skill, compo-
DHRUVIN
KOTHARI
sure, talent and well, there
must’ve been a teeny-weeny
slice of luck too, maybe! We
asked him what was going
through his mind at the time
and he was clearly short of
words, saying, “It’s just a surreal
moment at 5:15am in the morn-
ing. It’ll probably take some time
just to digest it. I owe all my
success to my coaches in India
Poker Pros (IPP).”
The best part about IOPC is
that it’s not a situation where
one winner takes all. Everyone
has the chance to win big and
that’s exactly what happened.
Winning an IOPC title in India is
super prestigious and no one
is going to forget you anytime
soon, especially if you take
down one of the features.
No, it’s not a typo that has Dh-
ruvin Kothari’s name up there
twice. Some players were ex-
ceptional right through the se-
ries and he was certainly one
of them. In the past, Kothari
has won massive on Spartan
Poker, once even winning a
stunning new Mercedes Benz
last year and his love affair with
the platform surely continued
earlier this year! “The SHR win
was even more special as the
player pool was small but very
tough. It also validated the fact
IOPC Jan 2020 biggest
winners:
• IOPC Millionaire ME
– Anurag Srivastava
• IOPC Highroller
– Manoj Pentakota
• IOPC Millionaire Legends
– Dhruvin Kothari
• IOPC Super Highroller
– Dhruvin Kothari
• IOPC PLO Highroller
– Gaurav Sood
• IOPC Leaderboard
– Amit Sur
that the Millionaire Legends
win was not a total fluke. Thus,
it was even more special,” he
said after winning his second
major of the IOPC series!
The most consistent of
them all - Amit Sur
17 days of intense poker action
on Spartan Poker and at the
end of it, Amit Sur aka ‘Immor-
tal Killer’ topped the IOPC Lea-
derboard (LDB). Just to give
you some perspective into how
tough it must have been, a total
of 4,749 entries were recorded
on the IOPC Leaderboard and
Sur topped them all, finishing
in the money in 57 different
tournaments and also bagging
two IOPC titles along the way,
racking up a total of 11,637
IOPC Leaderboard points.
Just to refresh your memo-
ry, Sur is no one-time won-
der, having also grinded right
through the IOPC July 2019
series, where he narrowly
missed the top spot on the lea-
derboard, finishing second to
Neeraj Kumar. But this time,
there was no stopping him as
F E AT U R E
AMIT SUR
he won a swanky new MG
Hector, and a lot of respect
from the poker community as
well.
“Being runner-up in the last
IOPC was very heart-breaking.
But yes, it did help me as I had
the experience of chasing the
TLB and grinding 14 hours a
day for 15-17 days. And it’s be-
cause of this experience from
last time that I was able to build
a stronger strategy this time
to win the IOPC TLB,” he said
after the series ended and he
was announced LDB winner!
Overall, INR 20+ Crore was
given away in that edition of the
India Online Poker Champion-
ship but Spartan Poker is al-
ways raising the stakes, having
introduced the July 2020 IOPC
edition with a record-breaking
INR 25+ Crore series prize
pool. Never before has such
an amount been given away
in online poker in India and it’s
going to be absolute madness
once it kicks off on 9th July.
Read more here!
GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0 17
 INTERVIEW
SAY HELLO
TO THE
‘END BOSS’
T
he ultimate. The
supreme. The
legend. The
showstopper. The
one who goes
down in Indian poker history.
The END BOSS!
Between 15-19 April 2020,
India’s biggest ever online
poker tournament called
End Boss was hosted
on PokerBaazi, where a
whopping INR 5 Crore GTD
prize pool was advertised, an
amount which was unheard
of and quite frankly, we didn’t
expect the poker industry to
reach here quite so soon. It
was an ambitious effort by
PokerBaazi but they managed
to pull it off, breaking the
guarantee to create INR 5.85
Crore in prize money over
multiple starting flights and a
18 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
total of 5,847 entries.
The coronavirus pandemic
surely helped their cause as
almost everyone across the
country was at home but
let’s not take anything away
from what was a historic
achievement, a tournament
where the top finisher would
go home with a minimum
prize of INR 1 Crore! By the
end of the 5-day event, it
was Pune-based Abhishek
Maheshwari who took away
this spectacular prize and
grabbed the most coveted
title of End Boss!
As the tournament reached
the business stages, there
were plenty of known names
in the running but when the
final blow was dealt, it was
Maheswari a.k.a ‘Human_AI’
who was declared champion,
and the community went into
a frenzy trying to figure out
who this then-anonymous
player was. There was plenty
of speculation but it only took
a few hours before the secret
was revealed and Maheshwari
was showered with praises
from top players from across
the country. What a difference
a day makes as Maheshwari
was relatively unknown in this
industry. 24 hours later, he’s
the latest hero on the Indian
poker circuit.
In fact, as soon as the
tournament ended, it was
known pro Goonjan Mall who
posted on The Players Group
where he said that this was
equal to the 2003 journey of
WSOP Main Event champion
Chris Moneymaker, a feat
which revolutionized the
game of poker in USA. This
statement was made because
like Moneymaker, Maheshwari
also sattied his way into End
Boss and went on to claim this
life-changing title. He deposited
5k, won a satellite, and went on
to win the End Boss too!
Maheshwari was introduced
to poker by one of his friends
in 11th Grade after which he
used to play house games
occasionally. However, it was
much later in around 2018
when he started figuring
out the strategies involved
in the game, which led to
him beginning his journey of
grinding low stakes on online
poker websites.
In the early days, the End
Boss claimed that he used to
play poker like Teen Patti, i.e.
like a gambler. He claimed to
have made a lot of mistakes
but his game started getting
better as he watched more
videos and poker content on
YouTube. “My passion for poker
made me go through a lot of
content on YouTube. I could sit
through 12-hour videos of EPT
(of course, with a little bit of
forwarding). There’s so much
quality content online for those
who wish to learn!”
Maheshwari named Phil
Ivey as his number #1 role
model while also mentioning
Daniel Negreanu as one
of his favourites and more
recently, Garrett Adelstein too.
No one reaches such highs
without a lot of hard work
and overcoming difficulties.
Similarly, our winner said, “The
biggest challenge I faced was
tilt. Many a times, I felt like
punching a wall and lost money
because of a bad beat in the
previous hand. I knew this
couldn’t continue and started
practising meditation, which
helped me overcome tilt to a
certain extent. As you learn the
game more, you realize bad
beats are a part and parcel of
poker.”
Abhishek, we’re going to
ask you the most cliched
question - How did it feel to
go down in history as India’s
biggest online poker winner?
The feeling was super
overwhelming and not
something I couldn’t express
in words. As soon as I won it,
I couldn’t believe my eye and I
couldn’t breathe. Varun (Ganjoo,
Marketing Director of Poker
Baazi) called to congratulate me
and I said, “Dude, I might just
puke right now.”
Any advice to poker players
who aspire to become the
next End Boss?
My advice would be to learn
the game before playing
online or even live. In the early
days, I used to put in Rs. 500
and 1,000 and blow it away,
gambling on the tables. I’d
suggest you start with a plan
and maintain a dairy if needed.
People have got their “Indian
Moneymaker” story and are
going to enter the circuit
hoping they get lucky and win
big too. What they don’t realize
here is that I did study the
game for a long time, and the
learning is something that never
really ends. It’s a continuous
process. Don’t get into poker
hoping to just get lucky! I
myself wish to start learning
better bankroll management.
I’ve got a head-start that most
can only dream of, so I wish to
make the most of it.
Winning a prize like INR
1 Crore in online poker
is something no one had
done before and it’s a
milestone moment we won’t
be forgetting anytime soon
either. Being a massive
sum of money, Maheshwari
mentioned that he’ll be
donating around 10% of his
winnings to the noble cause
of helping migrant workers
who were suffering during the
initial phases of the lockdown,
trying to make their way back
home. Congratulations to the
End Boss!
GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0 19
 INT
DEI A
RVN IN
EWEWS
BOOT CAMP
COULD BE THE MONTESSORI
OF POKER IN INDIA!
“W
e believe that
playing poker
is a life skill,
much like
swimming and driving, and
in teaching you that life skill.
Once learnt, you can swim
and drive, and likewise play
poker correctly for the rest of
your life. However, that doesn’t
ensure you’re Ian Thorpe
or Michael Schumacher. It
ensures that when you get into
a pool or sit in the driver’s seat
of a car, you’ll know what to
do. If you want to excel after
that, it’s totally up to you. Our
goal is to make sure you can
play poker for the rest of your
life. Wherever in the world you
go, you will be comfortable
to play poker and will know
the best approach along with
winning strategies. You can’t
become a Schumacher if you
don’t know how to use the
20 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
clutch, accelerator and brake
in sync. Similarly, we don’t
promise that you become
Daniel Negreanu, but that
you make money out of the
game, which facilitates your
move towards becoming a
Negreanu. We’re focussing on
teaching people the process,
indicators, approach and
factors - stuff they won’t learn
otherwise. Welcome to Poker
Boot Camp India!”
That introduction says it all
about the Poker Boot Camp,
founded mid last year by
Abhishek Goindi and Tanay
Hargunaney. Focussing on
beginners and intermediates,
they want to help grow
and build the Indian poker
industry, teaching newbies
how to take on the game
and sustain over a period
of years and possibly even
decades. Goindi obviously
needs no introduction - poker
pro, commentator, host and
now coach who has $300k+
in live cashes along with a few
titles like the DPT Highroller
title in February 2019.
More recently, he’s made a
smooth transition to online
poker, with quite a few wins
there as well. Hargunaney
himself is an accomplished
poker player. He completed a
degree in Computer Science
from IIT Patna, and it was
during this time in college
that he discovered the
game, combining analytical
and math skills to outwit all
opponents. Together, they
started the poker boot camp
which has received a fabulous
response over the last year or
so. Dwayne Fernandes from
Gutshot Magazine spoke to
Goindi to know more about
the boot camp, which is the
first of its kind in India.
Abhishek, what does the
boot camp do differently
from other coaching set-
ups?
The regular coaches teach
you how to 3-bet Ace King
and how to play with 30-40
Big Blinds. What we teach
you along with this is how to
be a profitable player - that’s
the main aim. By teaching the
core skills involved in poker,
you’ll be able to play anywhere
in the world - online and/or
live. Like I mentioned in the
analogy above, I’ll teach you to
swim. Once you learn that, you
can choose if you want to do
100m, 500m or whatever else
to take it to the next level. But
if you come to the boot camp,
one thing we’re assuring you is
that you’ll know how to play for
the rest of your life. You won’t
be in a situation where you
won’t know what to do next.
You’ll know the concepts,
which games to play, when
to get out of a game, when to
up the stakes, how to find the
sucker on the table, how to
manage your bankroll and how
to apply yourself. If you want
to be the next big star, you
can go to Doug Polk or Phil
Galfond, but they won’t teach
you concepts - they’ll assume
you know these concepts and
they’ll make you better from
there. We’ll be the Montessori
and high-school of poker. You
can’t write a sentence if you
don’t know ABC. We’ll teach
you the ABC and how to string
sentences, and you’ll survive.
You want to go do a Masters
or PHD after that?! Go ahead!
One might argue that you
don’t need to go to school
to learn English. However,
the ones that do have a solid
fundamental approach and
can snowball from there.
Same with poker – you can
learn the game without being
trained and stuff, but…
If you play the game without
learning it, you’ll probably lose
a few lakhs, say “F*ck this
game” and not return. That’s
not what I want and that’s not
what the industry wants either.
Our idea of the bootcamp is
to help create longevity and
ensure playing poker becomes
a life skill, rather than just a
phase of a few months.
Where did the idea of the
boot camp come from?
What was the initial
response?
When I was younger, I played
a lot of sports and believed
in coaching my teammates
to help them get better, while
learning from them as well. I
noticed that model of teaching
having great success over
the years. As a poker player
too, I didn’t get coaching or
mentoring initially but as I kept
getting coached, I saw my
game getting better. Similarly,
we saw drastic improvements
when we taught others. We
wanted people to fall in love
with the game, and it has
worked so far.
I always wanted to get into
the poker coaching sector.
One day, Tanay approached
me regarding content on my
social media. We spoke a lot
and I realized he wants to do
something. I had a lot on my
plate so I wasn’t committing to
anything earlier but as I kept
speaking to him, plans started
getting more concrete.
We initially thought of
targeting players coming down
for IPC (Sep 2019). We did it
and realized that we may need
to run separate workshops in
Delhi, Mumbai and other cities
too, rather than just Goa. It
would give us better footfall
and better revenues. There
was a crazy response and
 INTERVIEW
they all suggested we come
to their respective cities. The
initial batch in Goa left the boot
camp with 100% satisfaction.
We changed their perception
towards the game.
What can students expect
from signing up to the boot
camp?
You can’t write essays if you
don’t know the alphabet, and
the first 4-5 days of the boot
camp is ONLY for explaining
the most basic concepts in
poker – positions, stack sizes,
hand ranges, math. Students
have doubts and we try to
clear these doubts for them.
We give them information
on how they need to think.
Example: It’s not just about
thinking that your opponent is
bluffing you. It’s about putting
him on a range of hands and
then narrowing down to what
he could be bluffing with.
What are the reasons for
betting in poker?
1. Bluff
2. Value
3. Eliminate your opponents
4. Hand protection
These are the only 4 reasons.
There’s nothing outside
this. So, we try and teach
these basic concepts. If your
opponent gives you a fifth
reason, you know what to do!
The two of us split it up:
Goindi – Mindset,
profitability, approach,
longevity, how to
look at poker
as a business
– Holistic
approach
22 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
Tanay –
Technical
aspects – nitty
gritty of the
game.
Give us some insight
into the kind of training players
receive in the boot camp...
Education and awareness
are the shortcomings of this
industry. We instil the concepts
and then tailor programmes
based on your strengths and
weaknesses. We also do a
lot of experiential learning.
We play games and discuss
every hand. The game ‘Guess
the hand’ helps understand
each other’s thinking. We
focus primarily on the thought
process. We do live stream
training too. I live stream my
playing sessions and then
run the students through my
hands and decision making
while playing.
Different players want
different takeaways from the
industry. So, you have to ask
yourself – “What do you want
out of poker?” Fame, money,
sustainability? If you want
ONLY fame, don’t come to us.
If you want sustainability and to
make profits from poker, come
to us. Fame is a by-product
of everything else. Currently,
with the coronavirus lockdown
in place, learning to play and
make money from poker
seems to be the right way to
go about things!
Clearly, there’s much to gain
if you sign-up to the poker
boot camp and you can get
all details of the courses
available on their website.
You can sign-up and get
access to a webinar and a
FREE kit and you can choose
from paid courses as well:
• Hello Poker - Live
Interactive Coaching –
INR 24,999
• Think Like a Pro –
INR 24,999
• Hand History Discussion
– INR 11,999
Rs 24,999
PRICES
SLASHED
Rs 2000 Off
CLICK HERE TO AVAIL
THIS OFFER.
SUBSCRIBE NOW!
Rs 22,999
How can one improve their MTT play?
M
any players are hooked on to tourna-
ments from the second they try this for-
mat, yet struggle to excel in this game.
If you ever wondered how you could improve
your play, I will try to answer this question
today. If you are ready for the hustle, you can
reach a lot on your own by playing and learning
alongside.
Learn the math
It is essential to understand concepts such as
pot odds and equity to make the right deci-
sions in poker, and you especially want to avoid
costly errors in MTTs.
Overfolding from the big blind is one of the
most common mistakes.
When antes are in play in later stages of the
tournament, you are getting ridiculously good
odds to call small raises and see the flop, so
should do it with any even remotely playable
hand. Even 62s will have more than enough
equity to make a profitable call, so make sure
not to overfold in these situations.
Practice ICM
While early MTT stages are very similar to cash
games, you have to consider pay jumps and
stack sizes when making decisions later on.
This is where the Independent Chip Mod-
el (ICM) comes into play, and it helps you to
understand your chip’s real-money value based
on your stack and payout structure.
Without going into complex calculations, the
main takeaway here is that chips you lose are
worth more than chips you gain, so sometimes
you have to fold even in a positive chip EV
situation.
Without understanding this concept, you will
have a hard time beating MTTs, so use avail-
able software to study ICM and keep practicing
it at the tables.
Review your sessions
When you have these fundamentals, you
should start playing more often. In the end,
COLUMN
there is no substitute for
your own experience.
However, only playing
is not enough, and you
should spend some time
reviewing your sessions.
Many players like to review only big pots or
hands where they lost the tournament, but
that is just not the best option. If you commit
to reviewing your session, review it from start
to finish, and I am sure you will see things in a
different light when not playing. You are likely to
notice small mistakes that can cost you a lot in
the long run, and that will be time well spent.
Form your network
Like in all fields of life, having a strong network
of like-minded friends in poker can massively
boost your progress and results at the tables.
Most professional players constantly discuss
hands, various situations, and learn from each
other, so you should also take advantage of this
option. Form a study group with your friends or
find poker enthusiasts online, and you will soon
reap the rewards.
Author bio:
Tadas Peckaitis is a professional
poker player, author, and poker
coach at MyPokerCoaching.com,
where he helps other poker players
to excel. You can follow him on
Twitter and Facebook.
Top 3 inside tips from a poker coach:
• Early stages – Proper hand selection and patience can take you
very far. Instead of playing random hands, target weaker players,
and try to play more pots with them.
• Mid-game – Start stealing more blinds when antes are intro-
duced in the game and attack shorter stacks who are afraid to bust.
• Late stages – one of the best ways to build your stack is to tar-
get players who are opening too much by 3-bet shoving over their
raises. This is a point where you have to take some risks.
GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0 23
 F E AT U R E
WSOP Goes Online and
Now Everyone has a
chance at a Gold Bracelet!
COVID-19, what have you done? The WSOP moves online for the first time
ever in 2020 but the possibility of live action hasn’t been ruled out yet!
Y
ou’re sitting at a table
where seven, eight
or even nine others
are seated, and there
are hundreds of similar tables
to your left, right, front and
back. Such is the setting at the
World Series of Poker (WSOP)
which takes place each year in
Las Vegas – undoubtedly, the
most prestigious annual poker
event across the planet.
When you look at a sport
like tennis, there are only one
24 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
or two competitors on either
side of the net, and in games
like football and cricket, we
have a maximum of 22 play-
ers on full-size grounds at any
point of time. With the WSOP,
hundreds or more likely thou-
sands of people are at the
same venue at any given time;
all from different parts of the
world, using different transport
systems to get to Sin City.
So, if the Indian Premier
League (IPL) and the English
In the case of Wimbledon,
it was the first time the tour-
nament was cancelled since
World War II. That’s how grave
this COVID-19 situation is, in
case you didn’t already know!
As for WSOP, it’s the first time
in the last 16 years that the
series stood postponed. It was
in 2005 that the series had
a different start month and a
fall schedule could be the first
ever in WSOP’s 51-year his-
tory, since Johnny Moss was
declared world champion in
1970.
Those who realize the seri-
ousness of the situation know
that they can not only contract
the virus but can be a vehicle
for its continuous spread too.
WSOP Executive Director Ty
Stewart mentioned the chance
of the series being hosted
online, which was probably be
the best solution for everyone
involved. Right enough, the an-
nouncement of shifting WSOP
Premier League (EPL) were
suspended in cricket and
football, and Wimbledon, the
world’s oldest tennis champi-
onships could get cancelled,
there was no question about
the WSOP being cancelled, or
at least postponed. Officials
said they were studying the
coronavirus situation since as
early as January 2019, and it
was in April when the official
decision finally came around -
WSOP 2020 POSTPONED!
2020 online
“Bright light city gonna set
my soul, gonna set my soul on
fire, there’s a whole lot of mon-
ey that’s ready to burn, so get
those stakes up higher. There’s
a thousand pretty women just
a-waitin out there, and they’re
all livin’ devil-may-care. I’m just
the devil with a love to spare.
Viva Las Vegas. Viva Las Ve-
gas!” Lyrics from King himself,
Elvis Presley, perhaps the most
apt description of the spectac-
ular city, one which is always
buzzing and up to some mis-
chief. Yet, Vegas looked noth-
ing less than a ghost town after
being hit by coronavirus:
50 bracelets waiting to be
won on GG Network!
Postponement or cancella-
tion! These were two solutions
for live sporting events when
COVID-19 first struck. The
Summer Olympics takes place
once in 4 years and the up-
GUTSHOT
coming global event was post-
poned to July 2021. For an
annual event like WSOP, being
moved a year ahead is as
good as being cancelled. Over
the last few months, plenty of
live poker brands like Asia Pok-
er League (APL), Asian Poker
Tour (APT), Triton Poker and
others cancelled one or more
of their events immediately.
If a short-term problem, it
makes sense to cancel your
tournaments. Now, consider
that fact that we haven’t yet
found a cure for the virus.
World governments are pre-
paring their citizens to learn
to live with the virus, just like
we do with dengue, cancer or
even AIDS. Yet, did you believe
that cancelling is still the best
option?!
It made sense for brands to
turn to their focus to the online
business. World Poker Tour
(WPT) partnered with party-
poker for a couple of online
J U LY 2 0 2 0 25
 F E AT U R E
events, APL luckily launched
their online platform just before
the virus went widespread, and
most recently, APT hosted two
online series on the GGPoker
network.
“It wouldn’t be Summer
without WSOP. While we are
thrilled to be reopening our
venues and optimistic about
future offline events, we
couldn’t be more excited about
deepening our relationship
with GGPoker and watching
some history unfold online this
summer,” said Ty Stewart after
announcing that WSOP 2020
will be moving online. After
offering a whopping $100 mil-
lion in the WSOP Online Super
Circuit on GGPoker, they were
the favourites to host this event
and what we assumed came
true eventually.
A total of 85 bracelets will
be awarded online which has
never happened before in
the history of this series. The
event begins on 1st July on
WSOP.com and between 19
July – 6 September, at least 50
gold bracelets are waiting to be
won on the GG Network. While
this was the best possible
solution, it’s going to have its
share of problems too. Players
from around the world will have
to login at different timings.
1pm in Las Vegas is like 6am
in Melbourne and these erratic
timings may not be fancied by
everyone. Additionally, WSOP’s
highest attendance comes
from America themselves.
How do they then participate
when only few states across
the country are allowed to play
online poker in USA?
26 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
Can India’s dream run at
WSOP continue?
2017 - ADITYA SUSHANT
There’s Milkha Singh’s gold
medals at the 1958 and 1962
Asian Games, Prakash Padu-
kone winning the All England
Badminton title in 1980, India
winning the ICC World Cup
in 1983, Leander Paes and
Mahesh Bhupathi reaching
the men’s doubles finals of all
4 Grand Slams in 1999, and
others that go down as historic
moments in India’s sporting
history. Aditya ‘Sushi’ Sushant
winning India’s first WSOP gold
bracelet with partner Nipun
Java is right there in that list!
2018 - NIKITA LUTHER
The following year, it was Del-
hi’s Nikita Luther who went
on to win top honours in Las
Vegas, shipping the same Tag
Team Event that Sushi was
successful in, with German
partner Giuseppe Pantaleo.
She was India’s second overall
and first female to triumph at
the WSOP.
2019 - ABHINAV IYER
WSOP 2019 saw the most
recent champion in Vegas and
India’s first winner in a solo
tournament. Iyer shipped
Event #84 The Closer, which
was also the title of the last
edition of Gutshot Magazine.
Winning over half a million
dollars, Iyer has inspired thou-
sands of young Indian poker
players since then!
A hat-trick of gold bracelets
is what we’ve achieved so
far, and India will be eyeing
its fourth consecutive year
of success. Whether live or
whether online, we have plenty
of contenders gunning for gold
whenever and wherever WSOP
2020 does take place. In a
recent survey conducted by
Gutshot, the community voted
Sriharsha Doddapaneni as the
best all-round tournament
player in India. So, he’s
surely a contender. However,
we won’t be surprised if desi
players end up capturing multi-
ple bracelets this time around.
Remember, Indians have way
more experience grinding
online than live, so ‘WSOP
Online’ may definitely work in
our favour
Did You Know?
One of the premier tennis
events in the world,
Wimbledon cancelled its
2020 edition to collect
on pandemic insurance!
After the SARS outbreak
of 2003, Wimbledon’s
governing body, the All-
England Lawn Tennis
Club, inserted into their
insurance contract a
global pandemic clause
for which they paid an
extra $1.8 million every
year in premiums totally
$31 million from then
to now. By cancelling
the Championships, the
organisers were able to
collect close to $124
million in claim damages!
COMBINING GTO AND
EXPLOITATIVE STRATEGIES
TO WIN AT POKER
A
fter AI called
Libratus went on
to claim victory in a
poker match over
some of the best
players in the world
in 2017, a growing interest had
sparked in using computers
to find answers to poker
decisions. This landmark event
coincided with the release of
affordably priced poker solvers
such as PIOSolver, leading
to a lot of players developing
an infatuation with GTO.
Unfortunately, despite some
of their best efforts, many
GTO enthusiasts found that
adopting a GTO approach
to the game didn’t ensure
winning results or even at
times a significant edge over
their rivals. These players were
left scratching their heads,
thinking, “What do I need to do
to beat the games I’m playing
in?”
Whilst use of a solver fits
nicely into a poker learning
Pro Jack Sinclair says
his success started after
taking the PokerNerve
course
“What do I need
to do to beat
the games I’m
playing in?”
regime, it certainly isn’t the
be-all and end-all of poker
learning. “Students of the
game shouldn’t rush into using
solvers and model their game
around the solutions they
generate,” says 2018 WSOP
Europe winner Jack Sinclair,
well known for his creative
poker play. “The basic idea
of GTO, or an equilibrium
strategy, is to play an optimal
strategy that can’t be exploited
in any way by an opponent
also playing a ‘perfect
strategy’. But more often than
not, players at the table are
making sub-optimal decisions.
After all, they’re only human!”
A lot of the players have
never used solvers or are
GUTSHOT
F E AT U R E
even trying to implement
a steadfast set of rules for
hands they play. Some
players might have read a
poker strategy book and have
a starting hand chart they
refer to; others still might have
played around with solvers.
It’s this mix of recreational
and pro players that creates a
swirling sea of possibilities at
the poker tables.
Here’s where those seeking
answers from solvers tend
to struggle. Applying an
approach that assumes your
opponent is playing perfectly
when they aren’t results in
a lot of missed value at the
table. Whilst you can try to
customize solver settings
to reflect the play of a hand
and a specific opponent’s
strategy, it’s generally a
painstaking process and if not
done meticulously, can result
in inaccurate data.
Although poker game meta
seems to be slowly evolving,
by no means are we close to
the point where we can simply
rely on a GTO playing style
to make maximum money.
The top players are still using
human brains as best they
can and making a ton of
money in the process. This
always trumps GTO strategy
in the majority of games
people play. It’s part of what
J U LY 2 0 2 0 27
 F E AT U R E
makes PokerNerve’s Road to
Success Course so effective.
It doesn’t drop players in the
deep end. It starts off teaching
core fundamental knowledge
and then expands to more
advanced concepts, enabling
students to become smarter
all-around players, equipped
with the skills required to out-
think their opponents, without
relying on memorizing data
outputs.
We’re not saying solvers
aren’t useful. In fact,
PokerNerve’s strategist Kelvin
‘Acesup’ Beattie uses
solvers and is a PIOSolver
specialist. Students who enrol
in Road to Success can gain
a lot of familiarity with the
software, learning not just
how to efficiently use it, but
importantly how to get the
most out of it.
Poker solver GTO outputs
allow students to see how the
game would look when played
perfectly. This can serve as
a reference point or ‘baseline
strategy’, helping players better
understand the game. When
these players detect their
opponents are deviating from
the baseline, they can adjust
their strategy accordingly to
take advantage. It’s difficult
to know how much to adjust
your play without having
the baseline as reference.
Example: If a player should
c-bet 50% in a given spot but
we suspect them c-betting
100% of the time, it leaves
them vulnerable to counter
plays such as check-raising
and calling more than normal.
Executing these adjustments
makes all the difference when
28 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
it comes to beating the game.
Implementing a purely
GTO solution doesn’t take
advantage of opponent
mistakes and effectively leads
to a lot of players playing
defensively by not trying to
‘give anything up’. This is
where Acesup feels many
players are currently failing
and Gutshot spoke to him
for further insights. “The best
approach is to stay offensive
and look for opponent
weaknesses to attack. Solvers
can help clue us in on how to
do this by highlighting where
your opponent is deviating
from an optimal strategy,
but ultimately, it’s up to the
player to be poker savvy. They
need to be prepared and
able to adapt to the myriad of
decision-making spots that
come up in the game.”
It’s this integration of solver
solutions with lessons like
Multi-level Thinking, Piecing
Poker Information Together
and Poker Psychology that
give PokerNerve a depth no
other poker course has, giving
its students an edge on the
felt. Combining what AI has to
offer with the human element,
Acesup has developed an
excellent recipe for beating the
game. This galvanization of
GTO with exploitative strategies
gave players like Jack Sinclair
We had some more stop learning. strategy material rise to the
questions for Kevin ‘Acesup’ top.
Beattie… You’ve been in the industry
20+ years now… Any experiences with
Kevin, is your course the I remember holding a hand Indian players at the
only one a player will need? ranking chart in the casino to tables?
‘Acesup’ believes Indian players It really depends on what see if a flush beat a straight I’ve played online with Aditya
have an excellent mindset for poker
your goals are. I’ve personally back in 1999. I was fascinated ‘Intervntion’ Agarwal quite a
done every course online. At with the game but basically bit and also Raghav Bansal
the skills required to achieve PokerNerve, we believe we’ve a fish! So, I got a couple of and Kunal Patni in live
great tournament results. put together the best course poker books and that helped events. In Macau and more
He used the knowledge he for aspiring poker players a lot. The game started to recently in Cambodia, there
acquired to obtain some very - strategy content that can get easier and I was winning. were several Indian players
impressive results. help you reach an extremely Back then I never thought I’d at my tables. The thing that
Now, with 4+ million dollars in high level of play. If you want go on to win over $5,000,000 stands out to me is their
live poker winnings, Jack said, to compete regularly at the playing and have students win temperament. They seem
“The Road to Success Course highest level, being open to over $1,000,000 in a single to have a great mindset for
was life-changing. Within 2 whatever quality information tournament! But the trick was the game and constantly
years, I went from a low stakes you can access is going to be a just to stay a student of the be ‘locked in’ to what’s
grinder to playing competitively plus. So, I always recommend game. I really can’t stress that happening at the table. And
in some of the highest online going back through the course enough for people trying to away from the table they’re
and live games against the several times and then trying excel at the game. Everyone always friendly, so it’s a nice
very best players. For such other courses because in loves to play but those who environment. I hope poker
a small investment, getting poker, you can never afford to spend time studying the right continues to grow in India!
the Road to Success course
was a no brainer. I wouldn’t
be where I am today had the
course not helped me get the
skills I needed to compete at a
high level. Huge thank you to
PokerNerve!”
For those interested in
improving their tournament
poker game, like Jack, Gutshot
highly recommends the
Road to Success Course.
It’s comprehensive and we
particularly liked the semi-
bluffing, stack size, donk
betting, lead betting, over
betting and small blind play
lessons. We went on to
negotiate with PokerNerve to
bring you the course at a very
affordable price. Using code
‘GUTSHOT’, you’ll receive a
flat 25% discount! Be sure to
take advantage of this offer
today!

KID POKER IN
IN CONVERSATION
CONVERSATION
WITH GUTSHOT
WITH
H
ow does it feel to have
conquered Mount
Everest?!
You’re literally
on top of the world and
there’s not much more to
achieve, is there? You know
you’ve scaled these heights
because of struggles, hard
work, determination and
perseverance – this applies
to every field of life, and the
formula doesn’t change when
it comes to poker either.
How does one feel when
they’ve been at the top of
the All-time poker list for over
a couple of years, with 36
WSOP Final Table finishes,
6 gold bracelets, a best live
score of $8.2 million, total
live tournaments earnings of
$42+ million, WSOP Player of
the Year awards in 2004 and
2013, and an induction into the
Poker Hall of Fame in 2014?!
It could get boring at the top,
right?
I sometimes think there’s
nothing left to achieve in his
career but American poker
30 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
MAGAZINE!
pro Daniel Negreanu
thinks otherwise. Having
accomplished almost
everything in the poker
world so far, he still has
unchecked boxes on his
bucket list. “The WSOP Main
event, while a long shot, is
still the tournament to win!
Secondarily, I would say the
Poker Players Championship
which is also a WSOP bracelet
event. Finally, the Super High
Roller Bowl - I came second
just a few years ago and
would like to add that title to
my resume.”
Gutshot caught up with
none other than ‘Kid Poker’
Daniel Negreanu, who is often
considered the best poker
tournament player in the world,
currently #3 on the All-time
money list after Bryn Kenney
and Justin Bonomo, arguably
the biggest ambassador of
the game over the last decade
or so. His achievements are
abundant and is a hero to
every college kid wishing to
become a poker pro one day!
2019 was the year of
massive change for Negreanu.
He had 12 years of being a
PokerStars Team Pro, growing
together across the globe.
However, he decided to call
it quits on this super long
association in search of a
new challenge. A week before
that decision in May 2019,
he got married to long-
time girlfriend, Amanda
Leatherman. He dared to
make the call of switching
from a global leader to
GGPoker, a newbie in the
industry. However, GGPoker
is slowly but steadily rising
and making its presence felt
around the world.
“We’ve raised $277,000 for
COVID-19 charities, aligned
with the WSOPC, all kinds of
freerolls and promotions for
new players, but if I had to
pick one thing, it’s definitely
the software. It’s focused on
fun! It’s customer-focused,
creating an experience that is
like nothing else you will find
anywhere. All the added bells
and whistles set it apart from
anyone else in the industry,”
he said about the move to
GGPoker and what he loves
most about the relatively
fledgling brand.
It was a massive decision
and somewhat a risk to
shift alliances to a new
company, so Gutshot wanted
to know more about this
move. Mentioning the major
differences in the two global
poker brands, DNegs said,
“Obviously, PokerStars is
a very large company that
ultimately had a very corporate
feel to it. With GGPoker, they
really take risks when it comes
to innovation all in the name
of bringing poker back to its
earlier years, where it was
seen as a fun, friendly social
game rather than a cutthroat
game for professionals.”
Name some tough
opponents from the old
school generation and the
newer ‘internet generation’.
From the old school lot, hard
to believe he is old school
now, but my good friend Phil
Ivey. He is still as tough as they
come. Scott Seiver has also
been tough to play against
and he is a bridge between
old and new. From the new
school, I would say Adrian
Mateos is a guy who I think is
very talented.
In your opinion, how do we
get more women to play
the game of poker?
There is no secret formula
for this, but there are things
that we can do. Primarily, get
women playing online first. It’s
far less intimidating, and if they
are introduced to software
like we have on the GGPoker
platform, most importantly,
they will have fun because it’s
so engaging.
Tell us your favourite and
most obnoxious purchases
with your poker earnings.
Favourite - In 1999, I was in
Atlantic City looking at this
SOME THINGS NEW
PLAYERS SHOULD KEEP
IN MIND, PARTICULARLY
THOSE TURNING PRO?
Have a backup plan! There is
luck in poker and sometimes,
no matter how good you are,
the cards can turn against
you for long periods of time
and if you aren’t careful with
your bankroll you could find
yourself going broke despite
immense talent for the game.
Take it slow and play stakes
you can afford. Thank you!
INTERVIEW
Mickey Mouse purse covered
in diamonds. I wasn’t really sure
what it was, so I asked, “What
is that?” The lady said, “It’s very
expensive.” The next day I won
the US Poker Championship
for $210,000, went back to the
store, pulled out bricks of cash
and bought it for my mother.
It felt like my ‘Pretty Woman’
moment.
Most obnoxious - I would say
the professional golf green with
a bunker in my backyard as
well as the state-of-the-art golf
simulator I had put in the house.
How’s married life? Can
we expect lil’ Daniels
or Amandas in the near
future?
We’re working on it! We
are planning to adopt first.
We both had planned to,
then we watched the movie
Lion together and that only
inspired us to do it even
more.
You’ve been a great
ambassador of the game
over the years. Who do
you think will take the
torch ahead?
Guys like Jason Somerville
and Lex Veldhuis have done a
great job creating a following
while being entertaining too,
so possibly these two.
Any plans of visiting India
to play poker, or even for a
general trip?
Of course! Unfortunately, any
travel plan is put on the back
burner right now while the
world deals with COVID-19.
Once the world gets better,
we can start planning again!
GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0 31
 COVER STORY
“My
mom was
watching the
live stream
back home and she kept
texting me, which I checked
during breaks when allowed
to use my phone. She didn’t
realize that the stream had a
10-minute delay and when I
called her after winning, she
thought I busted. I told her
about the delay and that I
won, and she burst out crying,
in happiness. She woke my
dad and sister and they were
all very excited at like 5:30
am!”
Professional players not
allowed to use their phones
during a game; parents
jumping in joy at their child’s
success at the highest level;
media houses present at
the spot to capture the live
coverage. Sounds much like
what we’ve grown up seeing
in cricket, football, hockey and
the likes, right?! Well, we’re
talking about poker, a sport
which is not behind the rest in
any aspect, with India Poker
Championship (IPC) being the
top poker brand in the country
currently.
When he stepped off
the plane in Goa, Rubin
Rubin Labroo:
Labroo didn’t really picture
himself winning the IPC Main
Event title. In fact, he was
experiencing a prolonged
India Poker
downswing in the game.
Usually a crusher in online
poker, he was short of major
scores and he bricked the
Champion 2020
Baazi Poker Tour (BPT) too,
which took place just before
IPC. He even held the chip
lead on Day 1B at BPT, but
would end up busting before
32 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
the money!
Here’s the story of what
happened a couple of days
before his victory. After a
runner-up finish in Vietnam in
September 2019, Rubin wasn’t
doing all that great. “The day
before the IPC Main Event
began, I booked my flight
back for Delhi. I went home,
slept for a few hours and told
my friends I’m leaving in the
morning. All I got in response
was an ‘Are you crazy??!’ in
chorus. I wasn’t going to have
any of it but they managed to
talk me into staying because
of all the value IPC had on
offer and I cancelled my flight.”
Little was he expecting to
beat 693 entries (Day 1A –
360, Day 1B – 330) to win the
IPC 50k Main Event, while
also becoming the 2020
India Poker Champion – a
title awarded after a gap of
3 years! Gutshot had a long
conversation with the winner,
who took home a career-best
INR 45+ Lakhs top prize after
a 4-way deal on the Final
Table on board Goa’s Big
Daddy Casino, the host venue
of the championships. We
spoke about his poker career,
life off the felts, his strategies
used to win (which he does all
the while) and his magnificent
journey to being crowned the
India Poker Champion.
Rubin, walk us through
your game-plan for Day 2
of the Main Event…
I bricked 1A and qualified in
1B, that too with a small stack
of like 12-13 Big Blinds. On
Day 2, I had absolutely no
expectations. The problem
GUTSHOT
is always expectations (I had
to add, “Even in life”). Here,
I’d lost so much already that
I said “Fuck it, kya hoga?” I
played without expectations
and started making small
moves. I ran good that day.
Obviously, you can’t just say
I played perfectly; you need
to run good as well. But I felt
the focus build in me too. I
was in the zone, and wasn’t
just fiddling with my phone
and stuff. I noticed every
player and slowly, started
making myself a stack. Once
I reached around 550k, I was
confident - not yet of winning,
but that I could play from
there. I was chip lead when 40
were left and don’t think I lost
it after that, except maybe for
a little bit on the FT.
Were you not intimidated
of the high-quality players
on the FT?
They were good players and
I was hoping they’d get a
suckout. In 4-way, we had to
make a deal because there
were really ONLY good players
left. I was most worried about
Pradeep Sharma. I’ve played
a lot with him online and he
can do a lot of creative moves.
He’s played and run deep in
several highrollers and he’s not
much worried about money.
Such players, you should be
worried about.
In 4-way, Pradeep took the
chip lead and we suggested a
deal. Pradeep said no, waiting
for another knockout since
the shortest stack was around
12-13 Bigs at the time. But I
sucked out on Pradeep and
then, he agreed on the deal.
J U LY 2 0 2 0 33
 COVER STORY
The prize pool was split and
we then had to play for the
sponsorship, watch and of
course the title and trophy.
FINAL PAYOUTS:
1. Rubin Labroo –
INR 4 5.34L ( deal)
2. Siddharth Mundada –
INR 37.72L (deal)
3. Alok Birewar –
INR 36.21L (deal)
4. Pradeep Sharma –
INR 34.26L (deal)
5. Jagdeep Singh –
INR 15.64L
6. Mubeen Saudagar –
INR 12.48L
7. Manish Gandhi –
INR 10.34L
8. Alexandr Moiseev –
INR 8.23L
9. Abhishek Katiyar –
INR 6.18L
I considered the possibility
of winning the title on the FT
but I’ve played enough poker
to know it wasn’t over until
I closed it. I’ve lost a poker
tournament from a 200:1
chip lead as well (!), so I’d
only celebrate when I won.
K7 diamonds vs 99 in the
final hand and the flop opens
AQJ with 2 diamonds. 1-over,
gutshot, and flush draw for
Siddharth Mundada and it
goes brick, brick. I breathed
a sigh of relief but the win
doesn’t hit you then. You get
34 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
exited but you don’t know
how to channel it. I realized it
the next evening and thought,
“Fuck, I just won a lot of
money.”
The 32-year old is a regular
winner online as well as live.
Having done his Computer
Engineering from Manipal
University, his parents (like
most others) weren’t happy
about him wanting to take up
poker as a full-time option. In
fact, he moved out of home to
be able to study and pursue
the game in peace. A few
years later, the same parents
who didn’t approve of poker
are now crying tears of joy
because he was crowned
India Poker Champion, at
an event where the crème
de la crème of India’s poker
fraternity was present.
Poker can often be a
rollercoaster of emotions, and
who would know that better
than Rubin himself?! We all
know there’s tons of variance
involved in poker and here’s
a prime example. One minute
he’s winning every online title
possible, next minute he’s on
a downswing and the minute
after that, he’s on top of the
world again. Talking about his
attitude towards the game
after a big title, he said, “You
need to take a break for a
while, after a massive score.
You can face the problem
of desensitization to money
and will find it tough to play
10L guaranteed tournaments
and stuff. You need to hit the
RESET button after you win
big - take a break and when
you’re ready, go back in with a
blank mind. Or else, you play
with pre-conceived notions
and the idea that you deserve
to win.”
Mind you, Labroo isn’t
a newbie to big wins. In
July 2018, he bagged the
PPL Main Event title on
PokerBaazi where he earned
INR 35L. You can add several
online titles to his list of
achievements as well. “Once
I’m in the zone, I’m good. I
think my late-stage game is
pretty good. Initially, I fire a
lot of bullets and when I have
a stack, I can dominate. My
game is aggressive late stage
and that’s the reason why I
have so many deep runs. But
again, aggressive can’t mean
senseless aggression. The
balance is very important and
that’s something I think I do
well when in the zone. When
not, I end up spazzing out.”
For those who don’t know,
it wasn’t just the massive
prize money up for grabs.
Once a year, IPC crowns the
India Poker Champion and
this time, there were benefits
galore as Labroo walked
away with the hefty trophy,
an INR 20L pro sponsorship
deal with Spartan Poker and
“My
Hyundai i10
downstairs is
less expensive
than this
watch!”
a stunning Panerai Luminor
MS Dhoni Edition watch. “My
Hyundai i10 downstairs is less
expensive than this watch!”
exclaimed Rubin’s father when
he was gifted the watch by his
son!
How would you describe
the IPC brand?
It’s amazing! As mentioned
before, I planned on skipping
it but my friends convinced
me to stay because the
value addition is insane. After
winning it, I think about it and
realize that even aspiring to
win the IPC title is crazy. It’s
anyway a huge event that
promised 60+ Lakh up top
– some people work their
entire lives to earn that kind
of money. IPC promotes
themselves really well too.
They have a lot of celebrities
coming in and playing which
is important for the game. I
think there’s no comparison
with IPC and the other Indian
live poker brands, in terms of
promoting and organizing.
And how excited are you
about being a Spartan Pro?
People used to joke about
me being a Baazi Pro
because I used to win big
amounts there, but I never
really thought about being an
ambassador before. However,
I spoke to Amin (Rozani) and
Rajeev (Kanjani) at length and
now that I’m a part of this,
I feel it’s a brilliant platform,
especially to be able to
promote poker – something
I’ve always wanted to do.
When I meet people and
explain the game to them,
GUTSHOT
they’re always so amused.
When I was coming here
(Mumbai – for this feature), I
got a very chatty cab driver
and he was really inquisitive
about what I do. Initially, I lied
and said I’m into trading. But
he kept asking questions so
I finally told him I play poker.
He was so interested and
obviously I had to explain to
him it’s not ‘juaa’ and not
Teen Patti, because people
automatically relate card
games to Teen Patti in India.
There’s so much more skill
and control over the game in
poker and I was explaining
that to him, and he was very
fascinated especially since I
told him I go to Goa to play
often. It’s that awareness
that’s lacking in India - the skill
in the game separates it from
gambling and that awareness
I’ve always wanted to spread,
among the general masses.
Luck, skill and how disciplined
you have to be – people
should know this. Being a
Spartan Poker Team Pro
is a crazy opportunity. I can
play for free and it’s a chance
to make myself a brand now.
I’ll be doing social media
posts, panel discussions and
stuff for them, but said NO to
speeches as public speaking
isn’t my thing.
What kind of coaching
have you taken in poker so
far?
None. No coaching at all.
I used to watch a lot of
videos on YouTube and Twitch.
I’d watch it like a movie, all
day. Not even advanced stuff,
but more of the basics. This
J U LY 2 0 2 0 35
 COVER STORY
was earlier but nowadays,
our players are so good - the
stable players especially.
They know so much, so just
a regular stream won’t help
as much anymore. We need
to go more in-depth and I’ve
started doing a little bit of
Raise Your Edge (‘Gutshot
readers get up to $150 off
on each course:’)
Tournament
Masterclass Experts:
“GUTSHOTEXP”
Tournament
Masterclass Apprentice:
“GUTSHOTAPP”
Bounty Beast:
“GUTSHOTKO”
Unchained: A
Powerful Mindset:
“GUTSHOTMIND”
and RunItOnce, and watching
hand history reviews to try
and fix plugs in my game.
I’ve been a bit lazy about this
so far but I want to do more
going forward. When you’re in
a stable, you have to do it. It’s
like school homework, where
you just have no choice, no
excuses. And they’re clearly
getting the results. I was
thinking of getting one of
the foreign coaches - BBZ,
Bencb and others – they’re
36 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
expensive but really worth it.
Just having an opportunity
to resonate your ideas with
someone at that level is
a good thing. The game
obviously evolves and you
have to get better on a
regular basis too. I also need
to do a bit of meditation
and mental training. I’ve
done meditation before and
Rubin Labroo
16 February
I have had tilt issues forever and I’ve said unwanted things to people on
tables online and live. I feel terrible about it. I am weak, temperamental and
trying to work on these issues. Heartfelt apologies to anyone I’ve hurt with
my words. Hoping this situation does not arise again.
You, Muskan Sethi, Kunal Patni and 139 others
Like
I’m procrastinating to do it
now again, but I’ve seen
results when I’ve done it in
the past. I recently started
a Bencb course called
Mental Mindset and I feel
that everyone should do a
course like this. Everyone
tilts – the difference is the
level and intensity of tilt. But
everyone goes through it, so
it’s a good course for all.
Here’s something Rubin
Labroo posted to social
media a few months back
about tilting. “The problem
with poker (like most other
sports) is that when you’re
running good, it gives you
the feeling of invincibility.
You feel there’s no one
better than you. But when
you’re one a downswing, it
can be very humbling. That
balance is very important in
poker.”
If you had to choose
between live or online
poker, what would it be?
I feel that my live game is way
better - there’s only one table
in front of me and I’m more
focussed. Online, there’s
more money to be made
and if you find that discipline,
it’s a gold mine. You can hit
big scores but discipline is
16 comment
Comment
SUPER important. When
you’re playing 7-8 tables
online and you run bad in
three, the others get affected
and that’s something which
can be the biggest problem
when playing online. Overall,
it’s more lucrative and if I had
to choose, it would be online.
Your feedback on the
recent live poker scene
and where do you think
our industry is headed?
The growth is ridiculous -
players are getting better
and the drive they have these
days is amazing. Professional
players are joining stables,
the recreational players
are getting better and the
turnouts at live events are just
insane. The poker websites
are the reason for this growth,
promoting the game very
aggressively and doing a
lot to increase the inflow of
players. Plus, the guarantees
are so big online and almost
every Sunday, you find a 1 or
1.5 Crore GTD tournament on
either of the sites. Spartan
Poker specifically, has been
doing well in this regard.
Every Sunday feels like a
Main Event now. I don’t think
any poker player misses a
Sunday these days, especially
after COVID-19 struck. Even
recreational players don’t miss
Sundays and that’s probably
just because of the thought
that you can make 20-25
Lakhs in one night! The idea in
itself is crazy. There’s definitely
growth but I’m fearful of the
market drying up from here. I
think the guarantees need to
slow down a little bit – multiple
re-entries and stuff in a 5CR
game - people could go bust.
We’re going to keep growing
but my only worry is that the
industry doesn’t swallow itself.
Legally, I understand that
some states are banning
the game to protect their
own interests but I feel the
category of poker needs to
change. It can’t be classified
as gambling and be put in
the same category as games
like Blackjack – that’s just
ridiculous. Once awareness
comes to people about the
skill involved in the game, we’ll
be on the right track. Just
because people can go broke
in poker, it’s not gambling.
I’ve seen people go broke in
the stock market as well but I
don’t see that being illegal.
Do you think you could be
playing poker when you’re
60 too?
Why not?! I mean, Doyle
Brunson is still playing poker!
I’ve been playing for 11 years
and professionally, 3 years
now. I love the game. Too
much of anything can make
you sick and lead to burnout,
but the passion and the
love shouldn’t go. The drive
shouldn’t go. It’s not about
how much money you make
but more about playing to win.
Money is just a by-product
of your drive to keep getting
better and winning. If you’re
playing only for money, the
drive could go!
As the new India Poker
Champion, do you have any
advice for upcoming poker
players?
Bankroll management. I
can’t stress too much on its
importance. You can’t play
outside your bankroll. You can’t
have a 15L bankroll and decide
to go to WSOP – not at all. Of
course, you can be a one-hit
wonder story, but you need
to understand that chances
of that happening are super
low. You can take the shot but
you need to realize that the
chances of coming back broke
are way higher. If you’re buying
in to the Main Event and stuff
at the WSOP, I think you need
a bankroll of at least 1 Crore.
When you look at all
of India’s top feature
tournaments – online and live
– you see so many familiar
faces on the FTs. Why?! That
in itself should tell you how
much of skill is involved in
this game and Rubin Labroo
GUTSHOT
is an example of the same.
He’s always at these final
tables, with the best in the
business. Surely, he’ll be
looking at defending his title
of the India Poker Champion
when he takes his seat at
the next edition of the IPC,
this time playing with the
Spartan Poker patch too!
- With inputs from
Dwayne Fernandes
RAPID FIRE
>>>>>>>>>>>
> Best friends in poker?
Mahboobani, Nasa, Chiggy,
Lakshpal
> Top Indian pros?
Sushi, Adi Agarwal, Sahil
Agarwal, Mahboobani,
Sriharsha
> Favourite food? Steak
> Favourite singer/band?
Korn (Duh!)
> Favourite sportsperson?
Virat Kohli
> One thing you can’t leave
home without? My wallet
> If not a poker player?
Script writer, director or
studying psychology
> Someone you’d like to play
poker with? Phil Ivey
> First purchase after the
win? Beers for everyone at the
casino!
> There’s an IPC tournament
in 2025. How many entries
would you guess? 1,400!
> Do you see yourself
winning WSOP bracelets? I
haven’t pictured multiple but a
single bracelet, yes.
J U LY 2 0 2 0 37
MAKE
POKER
GREAT
AGAIN

PokerBROS is an online social gaming platform available worldwide and does not provide any real money service.
 GAME FAIRNESS
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Challenges faced by
payment gateways in India
P
ayment processing
and boom, it fails! |
Payment processed
and debited from your
account, but still not reflecting
in your gaming account | Gate-
way not accepting your mode of
payment
These and countless other er-
rors are sometimes seen when
transferring money in India
and trust me, it leaves you in a
heart-in-your-mouth, until you
see ‘Payment Successful’ and
that balance reflecting in your
account.
While paying your monthly
rent to your landlord or trying to
recharge your mobile phone or
even paying your girlfriend for
that dinner she bought you last
week, we’ve all faced transac-
tional errors. However, we’re
slowly but surely moving to a
42 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
more secure system and Reeju
Datta from Cashfree spoke to
Gutshot about some of these
challenges, and how we can
overcome each one of them.
My first thoughts went all the
way back to Narendra Modi’s
demonetization of November
2016, which forced our peo-
ple to adopt digital payment
options. Yet, I get the feeling
that we Indians are cash-loving
citizens and are slowly going
back to using legal tender
money as the primary method
of payment. Reeju gave me a
little laugh and brushed this off
as a complete myth. “Times are
changing,” he said.
“Every month, more than 1
Billion transactions are being
processed on UPI, up more
than 70% from last year, and
debit card transactions are
up by 23% (Feb 2020 vs Feb
2019). Demonetization has
pushed the bar and made
businesses accept digital pay-
ments. Just time travel 2 years
ago and ask a small kirana to
accept non-cash payment,
the answer would have been a
NO. Today we have QR code-
based UPI payments being
accepted widely at kirana
shops and roadside vendors.
The onset of the coronavirus
pandemic seems like a second
and possibly stronger catalyst.
We have a health incentive, in
addition, to an economic incen-
tive now. Since the COVID- 19
lockdown, most people have
been confined to their homes.
At Cashfree, we have seen an
uptick in online gaming, with a
spike of 50 percent though live
sport-related fantasy gaming
has taken a hit in the absence
of live-action.”
An online report released
some time ago stated that the
value of digital payments in
India was expected to hit $1
trillion by 2023, but we weren’t
too sure about how factual this
was. “Given UPIs mind-bog-
gling growth, we can expect to
surpass that number. In 2019,
UPI alone accounted for around
$300 Billion worth of trans-
actions and registered more
transactions than credit card
and debit cards put together,”
said Reeju, assuring us those
numbers are 100% true and
can be overshot too!
What are the current chal-
lenges being faced by the
payment gateway industry?
1. Processing refunds and
settlements faster - Settle-
ments need to happen within
the same day and not get
restricted by banking holidays.
Most payment modes take
more than a week to get re-
funded. Sometimes, refunds
get stuck at the bank’s end for
much longer.
2. Transaction failures - While
success rates have improved
over the last decade, there is
still scope for improvement.
3. Dependence on banks
- Payment gateways have to
work very closely with banks
and are effectively built on a
bank’s offerings. As a result,
deficiencies in banking in-
frastructure around handling
volume of payments, resolving
chargebacks, and speed of
merchant onboarding are all
affected by the SLAs of banks.
For example, onboarding a
merchant in the gaming indus-
try is often at the discretion
of the bank, even though the
payment gateway and the mer-
chant might want to take own-
ership of the risk involved.
4. Offerings for merchants
in new business models - Of
late, many new business mod-
els have started coming up like
gaming, vlogging, stay-at-home
reselling, influencer marketing,
etc. Payment gateways have
been trying to evolve their prod-
uct to tailor offerings for such
lines of business. At Cashfree,
we have built innovative prod-
ucts like Payouts that help next
generation business models
and innovative founders grow
fast.
What new innovations have
been introduced in the re-
cent past?
At Cashfree, we have always
built to solve the evolving needs
of modern businesses. We
launched Payouts to help busi-
nesses disburse money to their
users, instantly and 24x7, using
an API instead of uploading
complex files on their business
banking portal. This was very
well received by the gaming
industry. Starting with sending
money to bank accounts, we
added new payout modes to
send money to UPI IDs, Paytm,
Amazon Pay and even debit
cards.
Next, we launched Cashgram,
a weblink that allowed busi-
nesses to send money to users
without collecting their bank
details. This was well received
for processing refunds and also
for paying out rewards.
Cashfree’s bank account
verification API was adopt-
ed by unicorns like Zomato
for on-boarding new delivery
partners and also many fintech
companies as a part of their
KYC workflow.
How do you intend to edu-
cate those who aren’t well
versed with digital forms of
payment?
The entire Indian payments
system including government,
national authorities such as
NPCI, payment aggregators,
and payment solution providers
have done a commendable job
in creating awareness. To con-
tinue this, some measures that
can be undertaken are:
• Educating local influencers
- For example, if a wheat whole-
sale union market leader is
educated and is convinced, you
can expect the union members
GUTSHOT
F E AT U R E
to adopt it more easily.
• Thought leadership - Online
and offline discussion plat-
forms have opened up dialogue
on payments. As more such
platforms discuss business and
online payments, the percep-
tion about the need for online
payments can be expected
to change. We deal with real
data and we are always willing
to share the insights that help
businesses understand what
works best for their customers.
• Benefits over features -
People tend to show more
interest when problems close
to their life are talked about. As
we talk to businesses, we talk
about their unique business
challenges and how they can
use online payments as an
enabler.
Despite having reasonably
good internet, India still faces
transactional failures…
Most of the payments and
banking infrastructure involved
in a transaction is not cloud-
based even today. This is
the single largest reason for
payment failure. Transaction
success rates are prone to dip
during peak volumes due to the
inability to handle load. Banks
migrating to the cloud is the
ideal, but long due solution.
Connectivity infrastructure of
payment processors and card
networks with banks can be
overhauled to improve success
rates. Apart from this, payment
gateways optimise success
rates by having multiple rout-
ing options across banks and
payment switches to retry a
transaction.
J U LY 2 0 2 0 43
 S T R AT E GY
WANT MORE ‘UPSWINGS’ IN
CASH GAMES? READ THESE TIPS
Do you plan on playing a cash game anytime
soon? You’re in luck!
Today we’ll cover 4 fundamental tips that will help
you win more at cash games.
Let’s dive in.
1 AVOID BLOATING THE POT WITH MEDIUM-STRENGTH
HANDS. USE THEM TO BLUFF-CATCH.
When holding medium-strength hands, you should
usually play passively because they perform better
in small pots than they do in large pots.
These medium-strength hands will often be the
hands you use to ‘bluff-catch’ on later streets.
Here are a few examples:
• J♦ T♦ on J♠ 8♠ 6♥
• A♠ 4♠ on A♣ 8♠ 5♣
• 8♥ 7♥ on K♠ 8♣4♥♥
These are solid hands, but they shrivel up when
multiple bets and/or raises start flying into the pot.
Consequently, checking at least one street (often
the flop) is the best approach. If your opponent
shows weakness by checking back or checking to
you twice, that is the time to start betting for value.
2 BLUFF ON THE FLOP WITH HANDS THAT HAVE GOOD
BACKDOOR POTENTIAL.
When you have a hand with good backdoor (run-
ner-runner) potential, you should consider bluffing.
These types of hands work very well as bluffs
because they can turn draws and hit strong and dis-
guised hands on the river. Here are two examples:
• J♦ 8♦ on Q♦ 7♠ 5♠
• Q♣ 6♣ on K♥ 7♥ 5♣
Note that with these hands you will only continue
barrelling on the turn when you improve to an ac-
tual draw. Otherwise, you can waive the white flag.
3 CHECK THE FLOP A LOT IN MULTIWAY POTS.
The likelihood that you are up against a strong
hand increases as more players enter the pot. As
44 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
a result, you need to be selective when betting in
multiway pots. Consequently, you should:
• Check with strong top pairs and overpairs if the
pot has four or more players.
These hands have much lower equity in four-way
pots compared to heads-up pots.
• Bet small (1/4–1/3 pot) when you have two
pair+ or a very strong draw.
Betting bigger risks chasing away all but the
strongest hands.
• Fold most of your bluff-catchers, even against
small bets.
Your opponents are less likely to attempt bluffs
when there are many players to get through.
4 BE SMART ABOUT LOSING SESSIONS.
No matter how good you are at poker, you’re
going to have losing sessions. You may as well
handle them the right way.
A session Doug Polk played against Sauce123
in 2013. Things weren’t looking good halfway
through, but he stuck it out!
If you quit too quickly, you’ll struggle with vol-
ume. If you always chase your losses, you will
play some long and frustrating sessions that end
with an unnecessarily big loss. So, when should
you quit and when should you stay to fight it out
on the felt?
Doug Polk recommends asking yourself these
questions when you’re losing in a cash game:
1. Am I playing well? Be objective here and really
analyze the way you are playing.
2. Is the game still good? Sometimes there are
soft lineups you simply cannot leave.
3. Am I feeling up to the task? Sometimes your
head is just not in the game, and in those cases
it’s almost always best to walk away.
Want more? Get 8 more cash game tips here!
Author: Upswing Poker –
Among the top poker coaching
websites in the world.
 F E AT U R E
Baazi Poker
Tour welcomes
2020 with
a 7Cr series!
Y
ears down the line,
when you’re remi-
niscing about all the
happy times, you’d
want to leave year 2020 out of
your happy thoughts, because
you’ll get nothing but negative
memories here. From bushfires
to plane crashes to celebrities
passing away, we’ve had it all,
only halfway through the year
right now. And let’s not forget
about COVID-19, which saw a
billion people being confined to
their homes over the last few
months.
Negativity aside, let’s not
forget that the year started off
brilliantly for poker enthusiasts
in India, with international as
well as Indian domestic tourna-
ments scheduled in January.
Baazi Poker Tour (BPT) led the
charge, whipping up a massive
INR 7 Crore GTD series be-
tween 2-14 January, ensuring
poker players from across India
started the year on the sunny
shores of Goa...
BPT 10k Kick Off
While the series was inclusive of
BPT Online on PokerBaazi, the
action on the live felts began
on 8th Jan. 287 entries took
part on board Casino Pride 2 in
River Mandovi, beating the BPT
46 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
record for this tournament. The
prize pool was taken up to INR
26 Lakhs and when the clock
signalled the end of Day 1, we
had Sriharsha Doddapaneni
in the driver’s seat, leading 13
contenders. Among the known
names in contention was
PokerBaazi CEO Navkiran
Singh, but it was Ashish Ahu-
ja who went on to wear the
winner’s crown, adding INR
6,18,200 to his poker bankroll.
Ahuja came off a sensational
run at WSOP 2019 and it was
no surprise to see him recover-
ing from being 9/13 at the close
of the first day and overcoming
Sriharsha in heads-up, the
latter being one of the top pros
in India. Here, Sriharsha walked
away with INR 4,16,700 for fin-
ishing second.
Ashish Ahuja
BPT 15k Big Bounty
The buy-in rose for the second
tournament of the night, as the
Kshitij
Kucheria
crowd favourite Bounty format
event began and registered a
total of 193 entries - 27 less
than the last turnout in October
2019. However, the fun was 10x
that of the last one. The final
table kicked off on Day 2 with
Gangadhar Raaj in the lead and
Kshitij Kucheria in 5th position.
The latter crawled his way up
and eventually shipped the
tournament for INR 4,70,000
(including 8 bounties) for what
became his first ever live title.
Final tables were live streamed
and this was a particularly
entertaining one with Raaj,
Chirag Sodha and Deepanshi
Tomar playing pretty aggres-
sively. Tomar, incidentally also
General Manager – Marketing
of Pokerbaazi, ended a brilliant
run in this tournament in heads-
up, collecting a prize of INR
3,22,100 (including 4 bounties).
BPT 100k High Roller
It’s his own party where every-
one was invited yet he’s the one
who takes away top honours!
We’re talking about Navkiran
Singh who decided to jump into
the 100K HR after a deep run in
Navkiran
Singh
the opening event and he went
on to win this one, beating a
field of 125 entries which includ-
ed a fired-up Ashish Ahuja who
led 33 players overnight. Always
nice to walk away with the top
prize of INR 31,82,300 at your
own event but mind you, he did
have to work hard for it, beat-
ing Rohit Mishra in heads-up
and the likes of Raghav Bansal,
Abhishek Goindi, Romit Ad-
vani and others on the FT. “It
still feels very surreal…hadn’t
planned for this. So, I still don’t
know how to feel about this
because I’m not really a tourna-
ment player,” he said after the
win. This was Navkiran’s big-
gest live tournament cash and
second major title, winning a
DeepStack Championship title
in Las Vegas in July 2019.
BPT 35k Main Event
This was the one they all came
for! The Main Event is the
highlight of every poker series
and this 4-day event witnessed
a BPT record of 609 entries
which saw the INR 2 Crore
guarantee being surpassed
and the top 63 players receiv-
ing a piece of the pie. When 9
players were left in the running,
it was Mumbai’s Nishant Shar-
ma in the lead and considering
his experience, we had him as
favourite at the stage. However,
Sharma couldn’t get past Gau-
tam Sachdeva in heads-up, the
latter banking a massive score
of INR 43,21,600 while Sharma
bagged INR 27.28 Lakh. “Only
emotion is that it’s overwhelm-
ing! I was destined to ship this
tourney. I was about to miss the
BPT Main Event. I didn’t play
1A and 1B but played 1C. I fired
only one bullet, and now we are
here,” said the BPT champion
who went home as the biggest
winner of this series!
BPT 25k MegaStack
With 223 entries joining the
tournament, the INR 50 Lakh
guarantee was passed and
after 2 long days of play, online
crusher Devang Yadav went on
to bag his second live title for a
score of INR 12,65,500, beating
Sanchit Pande in heads-up.
“Feels great! Feels great to
finally get my second trophy.
Two titles in a week…insane!
My mother is so happy for me,
my younger brother is so hap-
py,” he said after the win. He
ran very hot at the time, also
shipping the BPT Online High-
roller a few days prior, so he’s
another person who would’ve
left Goa a much richer poker
player. Entering Day 2 of this
tournament leading the final 15
survivors, he took that lead all
the way till the end, finishing
as the last man standing. Pande
had to settle for the runner-up
cash prize of INR 8,87,200.
GUTSHOT
Devang
Yadav
BPT 20k PLO
The schedule of the Baazi Pok-
er Tour this year was such that
three events came to an end on
the final day. The last of them
to conclude was the PLO event
and while big poker events
usually tend to give Omaha less
importance, it was good to see
96 entries taking part in this
tournament, running alongside
the 35k Main Event. “It feels
great! This is my first trophy
Tanmei
Relwani
frankly, so it feels special!” said
Tanmei Relwani who walked
away with his maiden live
poker title and INR 5,80,000
in cash, beating industry veter-
an Jasven Saigal in heads-up.
Relwani kept his composure
throughout, beginning the final
table second in chips to Anmol
Srivats. It was a second deep
run for Srivats while Deepan-
shi Tomar made another final
table, impressing one and all in
this series and leaving people
Image Credits - PokerGuru
wanting to see more of her in
live poker!
With this, another edition of
BPT ended but poker action in
Goa didn’t, as the India Poker
Championship (IPC) kicked off
the following night...
J U LY 2 0 2 0 47
 F E AT U R E
CHIPS,
CHAMPAGNE,
CELEBRATIONS
AND MORE AT
IPC JAN 2020
A
s the glitz and
glamour of the IPC
Awards took place
on the deck of Goa’s
Big Daddy Casino, the 10k
Mega Satellite was hosted
simultaneously in the Spartan
LIVE poker room, where
players endeavoured to win
an entry into every tournament
that was to follow in the
series. Eventually, 174 entries
participated and 9 of them
grabbed these packages, with
a chance to turn 10k into big
winnings in the India Poker
Championship (IPC)!
4 tournaments were lined
up after that, much like
the schedule for the last
edition which took place
in September 2019. A few
changes were made in terms
of the blind levels, structures,
buy-ins and more. Of course,
there was a considerable
increase in the number of
celebrities walking around the
tournament floor as well.
In September, Dan Bilzerian
graced the occasion but
this time around, there
were several celebrities
in attendance. Anita
Hassanandani Reddy was one
48 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
TV actress who played every
tournament while some of her
actor friends like Karan Patel,
Aditi Bhatia, Shruti Sinha,
Basheer Ali and more were
also present. Rannvijay and
Harman Singha, Neha Dhupia,
Kunal Khemu, Minissha
Lamba, Dino Morea, Chetan
Hansraj and others bought
in to a tournament or two.
Here’s a complete look at what
happened at the prestigious
IPC earlier this year...
IPC INR 10k Freezeout
The total prize pool created
in the opening event was INR
30.55 Lakh with 315 entries
registering. Remember, there’s
no re-entry in this format and
VINOD MEGALMANI
only the top 37 positions were
paid. All however, had their
eyes on the top prize of INR
6,73,600, which eventually
had Vinod Megalmani’s
name written all over it. It
was Aditya Kesharwani
who led 22 players in Day
2 of the tournament and
he also led the Final Table,
but Megalmani got past
him and everyone else,
including defending IPC
Freezeout winner Siddharth
Mundada. The latter began
with a 2:1 heads-up lead
and was set to win back-to-
back IPC freezeout trophies
ANMOL SRIVATS
which would’ve been an iconic
moment in IPC history. But
Megalmani beat him on the
day, with his AK hitting a pair
of Kings on the river to beat
Mundada’s AT in the final
hand. Chinese player Patrick
Liang finished in 3rd place
while Deepanshi Tomar made
another deep run, ending 12th!
IPC INR 100k Highroller
Once again, the overnight
chip leader made a deep run
in an IPC tournament. Raag
Fernandes it was, leading
58 players in this biggest
buy-in tournament. He went
on to reach the FT and was
even part of the 3-way deal
that brought an end to the
tournament. When the buy-
in is so high, the prizes are
humongous and that’s why the
final few didn’t want to risk it.
Popular face Zarvan Tumboli
was third in chips when the
deal was struck but he finished
second in the event while
Anmol Srivats took home the
biggest chunk of the pie. 210
entries participated in all and
Srivats played fearless poker,
ran like God on the final day,
RUBIN LABROO
and eventually took home
the title and a whopping INR
39,37,812 in prize money. We
ran into Srivats at a club later
that night and the celebrations
were on till late. He was so
satisfied with his performance
that he didn’t turn up to play
any other tournaments in IPC
Jan 2020!
IPC INR 50k Main Event
Flip a few pages behind and
you won’t see any mention of
this man, as he bricked the
entire Baazi Poker Tour (BPT).
On a downswing in online
poker too, he hadn’t managed
a cash in IPC prior to this one
too. After deciding to book the
flight home to Delhi, his friends
forced him to stay, making him
realize the value available in an
IPC Main Event. And the rest,
like they say, is history. We’re
talking about Rubin Labroo
who came to Day 2 with a
decent stack and the next
thing you know, he’s the new
IPC Main Event champion!
We won’t say much because
he’s also in the cover story
for this edition of Gutshot
Magazine. Long story short, he
bagged a whopping prize of
INR 45.34 Lakh after a 4-way
deal with Siddharth Mundada,
Alok Birewar and Pradeep
Sharma. Surely, he wouldn’t
have regretted his decision
to stay back for the IPC Main
Event! Additionally, he was
crowned India Poker Champion
2019/20, a title given away
after 3 long years! In all of this,
let’s not forget the fantastic
run Mundada had, clearly on a
heater in that series. Runner-
up in the Freezeout and now
GUTSHOT
PRAJIT GHAMBIR
runner-up here too, claiming
INR 37.72 Lakh as his share of
the deal in the Main Event
IPC INR 15k Head-Hunter
As the name suggests,
you’re a bounty hunter in
this format of the game and
the more bands you collect,
the more bounties you’ve
accumulated. In all honesty,
this tournament went slightly
unnoticed because on another
table close by, the last few
men were still standing in the
50k Main Event. That took
a lot of pressure off some
of the players in the Head-
Hunter and eventually, it
came to an end with a 3-way
deal wherein Prajit Ghambir
ended victorious. Armaan
Kochhar and Vipul Tiwari in
2nd and 3rd place respectively
picked up cash prizes of INR
5 Lakh each while the winner
took home INR 6,15,400 for
coming out on top of a record-
breaking IPC Head-Hunter
field of 364 entries! It was
early in the morning on 20th
January when the winner was
declared and with that, another
edition of the India Poker
Championship came to an end
on board Goa’s Big Daddy
Casino. With the coronavirus
pandemic peaking a couple of
months after this event, we’re
still clueless as to when the
next edition will take place.
Fingers crossed it happens
sometime soon!
J U LY 2 0 2 0 49
 INDIAN NEWS
THE DILEMMA OF
LEGALIZING SPORTS
BETTING
I
t’s not just professional
gamblers who indulge in
sports betting. Mechanics,
waiters, plumbers,
actors, rickshaw walas,
shopkeepers, students,
teachers, businessmen,
housewives and everyone
else does it. Everyone wants
to know the ‘bhav’ i.e. the
odds, and place a punt on
a live sports fixture. “India
playing Australia? Sure, let’s
have a Rs.500 bet on who
wins tonight!” This happens at
home between siblings or even
at work between colleagues,
while some people take it up
more seriously as a primary or
secondary source of income.
Some even bet for recreational
purposes. Sitting at home
and watching a game could
get boring, so people add
monetary bets to make it more
interesting. And it’s certainly
not a modern trend because
reports suggest betting has
been happening since the
medieval times!
However, we’ve to be a bit
careful while doing it in India!
50 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
Everyone’s doing it, sure. But
remember, it’s not allowed by
law. Let me emphasize that a
bit for you. ILLEGAL. Sports
betting is something which is
rampant in India and we likely
have the biggest market for it
in the world. However, it is a
black market. Bettors will be
penalized and possibly even
jailed if they’re found engaging
in such activities in the country.
So, my question today is –
Why not legalize sports betting
in India?
People fighting against the
legalization of sports betting
say it shouldn’t be allowed
because it’s a social evil. They
say it could lead to bankruptcy,
broken homes, disruption in
mental health, addiction, and
much more. Arguments also
say it’s against our culture
and could end up ruining
our society altogether. To
this, a clear posit would be
that alcohol and cigarettes
are also classified under the
same category of so-called
‘social evils’, yet these two
commodities are legal. In fact,
they bring India thousands of
crores of rupees in revenue
each year. Why not sports
betting then?! India was all
over global headlines recently
for alcohol shops being
opened during the coronavirus
lockdown and people
stampeding over each other
to get their hands on some
‘stock’. People treated alcohol
like an essential in addition to
food, clothing and water. The
country has accepted alcohol
but worries about addictions
from sports betting?!
Heaps of Revenues
As per the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and
Industry (FICCI), it’s estimated
that around Rs.4 lakh crore
is exchanged each year in
sports betting. Need I say
any more? Look at the Goa
offshore casinos for example.
They pay Rs.45-50 crore only
in license fees each year,
bringing in loads of revenue for
the state government. FICCI
say that the government is
missing out on thousands of
crores a year in tax revenue
from sports betting, and that
should be reason enough to
want to legalize the activity.
Maybe next time we have a
global pandemic, we won’t be
worried about our economy as
much, and these revenues may
help migrant workers get back
home without the government
needing to rely on additional
funds and donations.
Vague online ww
The Public Gaming Act of
1867 prohibits gambling
in India but in 1950, the
Constitution gave the right to
every state to decide. Today,
casino gambling is permitted
in Goa, Sikkim and Daman.
However, betting is taking
place all across India, either
through international betting
websites or through tech-
A report by FICCI indicates
that if a 20% tax on sports
betting and gaming was
imposed, Rs.19,000 Cr can
be earned annually in India.
This too, was estimated
back in 2016!
enabled channels or through
the vast network of bookies we
have in the country. Bookies
aside, it’s common knowledge
that we have possibly 100+
websites open to accepting
bets from players in India. In
fact, the numbers have gone
through the roof ever since the
lockdown began, with millions
of people stuck at home
looking to earn a few bucks
whilst killing their boredom
playing online casino games or
sports betting. And technically,
we can’t fault these individuals
placing bets online because
there are no clear rules about
betting over the internet. The
federal laws suggest Indians
can’t operate online casino or
sports betting websites, but
offshore companies can (and
do) provide the same to Indian
players.
Already rampant
phenomenon
Because of these laws, every
operator is rushing to cash
in and gain from the Indian
market, making it a loss-loss
situation for us. Firstly, the
revenue from all these bets
go to the offshore companies
and secondly, if Indians are
scammed by non-trustworthy
websites, there’s no protection
for those players. This could
be a market worth Rs.30,000
Crore in a few years and
legalization seems like the
right step. Websites like 1xBet,
BetWay, BetWinner, LeoVegas,
RoyalPanda, and 10Cric are
some of the few brands that
have already established
themselves in India, offering
INR as a currency and some
even offering Hindi as a
website language option and
customer support chat option!
That’s how big the Indian
market is to them! They’re so
GUTSHOT
well settled that they’ve got
easy deposit methods like
Google Pay, PayTm, and some
even having their own agents
in India. One law passed in
favour of sports betting and all
of these companies could start
contributing to the government
coffers.
Employment opportunities
Because it’s such a massive
market, there will be lakhs
of jobs on offer. Walk on
the streets in UK and you’ll
be able to enter physical
establishments like Ladbrokes,
William Hill, Betfred, etc and
place bets in 9,000+ shops
across the country. Casinos
can add kiosks for sports
betting too. If ‘Make-in-India’
betting companies can be
set up legally, employment
opportunities will rapidly rise.
In fact, if there’s anything that
COVID-19 has taught us, it’s
that we should be stronger in
online businesses than brick
and mortar ones! Of course,
traditional bookies may lose
their jobs but countless others
who are involved in these ‘illicit’
activities can now be employed
in such companies.
There’s a flipside, of course!
Now we’re not stupid and
we know there are reasons for
the government not wanting
to regulate sports betting.
J U LY 2 0 2 0 51
 F E AT U R E
However, there are outlines
of plans that can be put into
place to nullify the threats and
eventually, the pros do seem to
outweigh the cons. Let’s look
at some of the reasons why the
officials don’t want to legalize
sports betting:
As per reports, the
gaming industry created
around 7,000 direct jobs
and around 3,000 more
indirect/ancillary jobs in
Goa and Sikkim.
• Economic troubles:
This is one of the major reasons
we don’t have legalized sports
betting in India. People may
end up spending more than
they have which could lead
to broken homes and broken
families. However, legalizing
it would only reduce this
problem. When you bet with
offline bookies, you bet above
your limits and go into credit.
When betting on an online
regulated platform, there’s no
such thing as credit and you
can’t bet more than what you
have - first deposit and then
play. Based on income levels,
limits can be placed on an
individual’s gambling spends
so as to avoid undesirable
outcomes like bankruptcy. That
way, no one can bet out of their
capacity.
• Problem gambling:
This is another major worry but
it can be tackled too. We’re
already aware of the concept
of Responsible Gaming and
this can also be promoted
52 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
on a large scale. Companies
themselves can take the
initiative to spread awareness
among their users on the right
gambling practices. Based on
KYC proof submitted, setting
limits on deposits is a way
to go about it. Teaching right
gambling practices could also
go a long way in resolving this
issue – understand games
before playing, don’t be
greedy, lose only what you can
afford, understand bankroll
management, don’t go chasing
losses, don’t gamble under the brands like Bwin, Casino Club
influence, and much more. and Ladbrokes. The regulation
of the sector will only help curb
• Integrity of sports: malpractices and frauds by
Match fixing is something bookmakers who try to alter
that has long plagued our match outcomes to suit their
sporting competitions in India, bets.
and across the world too. Shashi Tharoor introduced
Hansie Cronje, Lou Vincent, the Sports (Online Gaming
Mohammed Azharuddin, and Prevention of Fraud) Bill
and Mohammad Amir are in Parliament in December
among some of the big 2018 and he’s of the opinion
cricketing names known to that the legalization of sports
be involved in and banned for betting can help get rid of the
match fixing, which has led very reasons that have made it
to compromising the integrity a taboo in India, and that have
of biggest sporting events. prevented it from becoming
However, the government legal over the decades.
and sporting authorities can The Law Commission of
work together to ensure India (LCI) led by Chairman
clean practices are being Justice BS Chauhan in 2018
followed. “Positive conduct recommended that sports-
by athletes, administrators, related betting be legalized but
officials, supporters and other it was only a day later that there
stakeholders, on and off the was a complete U-turn made
sporting arena is extremely in their judgment. In May 2018,
important. This enhances the the United States of America
reputation and standing of the also legalized sports betting
sporting contest and of sports and while we still have a lot of
overall,” says David Foster, gaps to be plugged in India,
Head of Regulatory Affairs at we’re now closer than ever
GVC. This British company, to having a regulated sports
headquartered in the Isle of betting market as well. Fingers
Man, operates big betting crossed!
 F E AT U R E

the wake of the pandemic. It surge in the

was growing by over 100% number of

How
How COVID-19
COVID-19 put
put the
the each year before this sudden
crisis struck. While the fantasy
segment has almost no
users during
the IPL 2019
season. In

brakes
brakes on
on aa speeding
speeding business now, the non-fantasy
and casual gaming segments
have seen a daily surge of
an interview
FanFight
founder and

fantasy
fantasy sports
sports train
train in
in India
India over twofold in the number of
gamers during the lockdown.”
Ratul Sethi, CEO of
Apne11, another start-up
in this industry with cricket
legend Kapil Dev as the
brand ambassador stated,
“Nothing really is happening
in fantasy gaming now. Amid
this global crisis, it’s not just
about one particular industry,
but a majority of things have
CEO Akhil
Suhag said last year that its
total user base reached over
3 million during the IPL 2019
season”. But with IPL 2020
delayed, and almost on the
verge of cancellation, fantasy
platforms had to come up
with different strategies and
marketing skills to tackle
this adverse situation. For
instance, BalleBaazi added
accordingly can be ahead of
their competition. This was
a great move to engage the
users while we all dealt with
the countrywide lockdown.
Through this, sports fans
could continue playing fantasy
sports contests while also
doing more research and
learning more about their
favourite sports.
A couple of months into the

W
e thought that
fuel was the
most profitable
trade. We
thought
restaurants in the world can
never come to a standstill.
We also started thinking
the discovery of the fantasy
format of sports was an
immense success, with profits
for this stream growing day by
day. All our thoughts are now
proving to be mere failures
with the world kneeling
down to the globally spread
Coronavirus. The COVID-19
pandemic is continuing to
shatter human life as well as
our entire economy. With each
passing day, the numbers of
serious cases (and deaths)
have only kept increasing.
The aspiring fantasy sports
section of the online gaming
traffic in India and the rest of
the world has tumbled in the
last few weeks of March and
now almost entirely ravaged
due to the novel coronavirus
pandemic.
A report by KPMG
released earlier this year
had forecasted the Fantasy
Sports platform in India to
have a 22% growth between
the financial years 2018 -
2023 and it was expected
to reach a market value of
Rs.11,900 Crores by 2023.
The sudden postponement
and cancellation however, of
various sporting tournaments
and series throughout the
world went on to cause a loss
of profits to various fantasy
platforms, some even having
to shut shop altogether.
Dream11 is the market
leader, covering a major
audience of fantasy sports in
India, the official fantasy game
partner for all Indian cricket
events, tied up with the Board
of Control for Cricket in India
(BCCI), and the International
Cricket Council (ICC) itself,
while also partnering with Pro
Kabaddi League (PKL), Indian
Super League (ISL), National
Basketball Association
(NBA), International Hockey
Federation (FIH) and other
sporting leagues across the
world. Dream11 is also title
sponsor of organizations like
the European Cricket Network
(ECN) and others. However,
even Dream11 found it tough
to carry on business as usual,
with their website putting up a
notice during the initial stages
of the COVID-19 lockdown,
that there were no upcoming
fantasy matches in cricket and
hockey.
From the Horse’s Mouth
Yashashvi Takallapalli, CEO
of fantasy gaming and now
poker platform, Nostragamus
said, “Almost the entire
fantasy gaming business
came to a grinding halt in
come to a standstill and once
we’re out of this challenging
phase, things will spring up
back again.” Apne11 however,
couldn’t weather the storm
and had to shut down during
this period.
Paytm First Games,
which is an online gaming
and fantasy platform also
found difficulty during the
coronavirus pandemic time.
“With most of the popular
leagues and sporting events
having either been postponed
or cancelled, some of the
smaller leagues are gaining
popularity amongst fans of
fantasy sports, However, the
total number of users showing
interest in these leagues is
fractional compared to the
more popular leagues,” said
Sudhanshu Gupta, COO at
Paytm First Games.
Dealing with COVID-19
Many fantasy sports platforms
claimed that there was a 3X
more sports to diversify its
target audience, including
fantasy basketball and
baseball.
Other major fantasy
platforms like MyTeam11,
My11Circle and PlayerzPot
introduced sports-based
quizzes where their users
got a chance to show off
their sports knowledge, while
obviously also winning cash
prizes in the process.
Various platforms like
Power11, BatBall11, 11Caps,
My11Circle and others took to
organizing flashback matches
or past matches where they
reminded you of old iconic
games between various
teams, providing you some
details like the next match
is between SRH and RCB
(2015-2019), meaning it could
be any of their encounters
over that period of 5 years.
This meant that users who
guess the match correctly and
create their fantasy eleven
lockdown, there was a little
bit of positive news for fantasy
sports lovers as countries
which were well equipped
with dealing with the virus
were allowed to resume
sporting events. Closed
stadium matches began
in countries like Vanuatu,
Taiwan, some Caribbean
islands and also some parts
of Europe which means that
fantasy sports is likely to be
back gradually.
Several precautions
are being taken including
quarantining players before
tours, having empty stadiums
and more. Major football
leagues like Bundesliga, La
Liga and the Premier League
resumed in May-June while
the first international cricket
tour was announced with
West Indies touring England
early in July. Hopefully,
sporting life could be back
to normal in a couple of
months…

54 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0 55
 F E AT U R E
Industry Spotlight:
Playerzpot
Gutshot reached out
to Yogesh Doiphode
and Mitesh Gangar,
co-founders of
Playerzpot to learn
about the company’s
history and the
overall road ahead in
Fantasy Sports.
T
he growth of the
fantasy sports
business is on
the rise in the
number of sporting
events organized worldwide.
Technological advancements,
ever-growing demand of
OTT platforms, and the
availability of streaming
partners are further adding
to the growth of the fantasy
sports market. Moreover,
the urge to participate in and
engage with sports events
rather than just watching it
has also led to the growth
of this industry. Increasing
strategic collaborations and
partnerships with diverse
stakeholders, growing
advertising and marketing
spend, and rising interest
of millennials are the other
56 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
major factors responsible for
the increased growth of the
fantasy sports segment in
our overall gaming market.
The liking towards fantasy
sports has increased to such
an extent that people tend to
choose fantasy sports over
everything else. The surge
of competitions, the thrill of
creating and managing one’s
own team, and anticipation
for the reward have been
some of the reasons due to
which people cling on fantasy
sports over other forms of
gaming. Even though fantasy
sports is comparatively new
in India as compared to the
likes of poker and rummy, we
see people equally drawn to
it. Small investment size and
maximum rewards just some
of the key aspects. Millions
are made in this industry by
purchasing league entry fees,
commissioner’s services, and
publications. These games
give you a much-needed thrill
sitting indoors, while also
following the matches live on
your television screen or over
the internet.
Playerzpot is one such
online fantasy sports platform
developed and launched in
the year 2017. It provides a
fantasy gaming platform for
cricket, football, kabaddi,
Yogesh Doiphode
hockey, and basketball. In
addition to that, they also
launched a ‘Quiz’ feature
recently that provides users
another opportunity to test
their knowledge and earn
at the same time. The quiz
feature was introduced when
most platforms were trying
to deal with a decline in live
sporting events thanks to
coronavirus!
The main challenge for such
platforms is withholding their
places while competing with
other established platforms.
People nowadays want to
explore several options within
the same field hence, the key
lies in diversity. With more
exposure, people will start
choosing different options that
suit their taste and provide the
best deal on a particular day.
Hence, the issue is not really
of competition, but meeting
the public’s ever-changing
demands. Not even 4 years
since inception, Playerzpot
today ranks among the TOP
5 Fantasy Platforms in India.
It’s a multi-sport aggregator
platform that offers Free to
Play, Pay to Play, content,
commerce, and community
engagement for various
sports. With their customer-
centric approach, they ensure
the highest possible gain for
their customers in the easiest
way possible.
Yogesh Doiphode and
Mitesh Gangar are the
founders of the company.
Two avid cricket fans that
had just come out of college
back then had a dream.
They worked incredibly hard
until this dream turned into
reality and today, Playerzpot
is one of the most popular
platforms with the fantasy
audience. Gutshot caught up
with each of the co-founders
to know about the journey of
this company. “We two got
together and bounced ideas
off each other. It took some
time and consideration. We
thought we had a market and
Playerzpot was born. The
mission was to build not only
a fantasy gaming platform
but a place where sports
fans can have a holistic fan
engagement experience. We
approached it with a unique
marketing plan focusing on
peer to peer promotion. We
decided not to spend money
for promotion; the users
themselves should promote
the app to their friends,” said
Doiphode.
So, how did the idea of
starting a fantasy sports
website crop up?
“The 2011 World Cup
triumph was a turning point.
That combined with the
rising popularity of the Indian
Premier League (IPL), and
fans not being content as
just viewers. We somehow
wanted to be more involved.
And that’s how the idea for
Playerzpot came about. The
joy of seeing your knowledge
helping you predict correctly
and attain bragging rights
among friends and other fans
of the game is unmatched,”
said Gangar.
Although the fantasy space
has grown rapidly over the
past few years with many new
entrants, we asked them how
they compete with giants in
the industry like Dream11. “We
are not tackling companies
like Dream11. Even though
the market share of Dream11
is very high, the market is
still not mature. With more
exposure people will start
choosing for options and
that’s what will happen.
We want to have a duopoly
market with a better user-
centric experience. People
will use both the apps based
on which app provides better
services on any given day,”
said Doiphode.
Another crucial question
Mitesh Gangar
that has troubled industry
observers is how the
coronavirus pandemic
affected the fantasy sports
industry. Even though
fantasy sports is at the
forefront today, the outbreak
of pandemic affected it
as badly as it affected
most other industries. As
social distancing called
for shutting down of live
games, fantasy sports was
affected to a large extent.
However, Playerzpot and
other platforms commenced
diversification within the
fantasy segment, and have
now started aiming for real
money gaming. As a result,
the vision of the company
has now changed and
adaptability is the focus
from here on. They plan to
go ahead with this futuristic
approach and it’ll be
interesting to see how they
get along in the months to
come. Could we probably
see Playerzpot rummy and
poker in the near future?!
Stay tuned to Gutshot for
updates in the future.
GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0 57
 F E AT U R E
BLOCKCHAIN: THE
WAY FORWARD?!
E
veryone’s used to
logging in to their
favourite online poker
platforms, depositing
funds using traditional
payment options and getting
to the main part of the
process – Playing! With a
number of active online poker
platforms in the industry now,
players are spoilt for choice.
Depending on what best suits
their game, they can choose
from the various platforms
out there.
However, they all follow
What is bitcoin
mining?
A process
of adding
transaction
records to the public
ledger of Bitcoin aka the
‘Blockchain’. Additionally, it’s
used to distinguish legitimate
transactions from attempts of
re-spending money that has
been spent elsewhere already.
58 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
the similar concept. Deposit
using fiat currency and play
amongst other online poker
players in India. A couple
of members of this industry
thought it would be good
to explore options, thinking
it would be better to have
a blockchain-based poker
platform. Why, you wonder?
Gutshot caught up with Karan
Dembla, Delhi-based poker
player and co-founder of
crypto-platform ZoloPoker,
to answer some of these
questions…
P2P gameplay; uplifting
geographical barriers
Peer-to-peer (P2P) gameplay
automatically uplifts
geographical barriers as
centralized servers can be
restricted but P2P networks
can penetrate all geographies.
The same is happening
in the gaming industry
and we’ve tried this P2P
protocol for poker ourselves.
Anyone can connect to this
game from anywhere in the
world. Players can join from
regions where they can’t
join a game on traditional
platforms because they’re all
restricted, geographically. We
have different platforms with
.EU, .IN, .COM extensions
and in India too, because of
regulatory framework, you’re
asked to complete your KYC
to ensure you’re based in our
specific geography only. None
of the current websites can
entertain players from Nepal
or Sri Lanka or elsewhere, but
a P2P platform gets rid of that
location-based barrier, which
increases the tournament pool,
while adding to the charm
of MTTs and cash games.
People will play from different
communities and cultures,
making it a different scenario
altogether. We implemented
the same technology in
ZoloPoker, one which is used
in µTorrent too.
Censorship resistance
The game is not hosted on
a centralized server, so it
doesn’t fall under the radar
of the censor. In the current
scenario, players can’t offset
their losses when playing on
the traditional online poker
platforms. But because
of censorship resistance,
regulatory arbitrage is also
enabled on a P2P system.
If someone is playing from
India with Bitcoin and they
want to cash it back out in fiat
currency (INR), they can do so
and pay their taxes at the end
of the financial year. There’s
no upfront tax deduction like
what happens in the Indian
system, and like us, there are
28+ countries where upfront
taxation happens on gambling
winnings.
Liquidity
Apart from regulatory
arbitrage, more liquidity is
given to players too. Deposits
and cashouts are seamless
and can be processed in
a fraction of seconds. No
doubt, we have such kind of
facilities in almost all poker
rooms in India. A couple even
have an option of instant
withdrawal but most of them
take 4-5 hours or a couple
of hours on the same day for
the cashout to be processed.
In crypto, it happens in
an instant – varying from
a few seconds to an hour
depending on the crypto
you’re interacting with.
Distributed
cryptographically secured
RNG
There have been questions
about the transparency in the
game and how random the
Random Number Generator
(RNG) is?! I believe the
centralized platforms have
the same RNG but people
have the misconception
that gaming platforms have
access to the RNG. To be fair,
it has happened in the past
internationally where players
have been duped of millions of
dollars after their cards were
being accessed in advance.
Because of the crypto game
being P2P, the RNG isn’t
happening on a centralized
server. This clears out doubts
in the minds of players and
helps remove superstition.
A key is used to decrypt the
cards on the flop, turn and
river. Each player has a part of
the key and they can only see
the cards collectively. Until and
unless all players are involved
in the hand, the flop won’t
be shown since a fragment
of the flop generation is with
each player – this is what
‘distributed cryptographically
secured RNG’ is. The only
drawback here is that
since it’s P2P gameplay,
the moment someone gets
disconnected, the hand
cannot be completed.
When we bypass this issue,
decentralized poker will grow
at a rapid rate. Now, there’s a
justice node or a stellar being
developed which would have
a master key to the flop. In
the case of someone getting
disconnected, the justice node
GUTSHOT
What is peer-to-peer?
It’s a system or a network
in which every computer
can act as a server for the
others in the network,
allowing shared access to
files and peripherals, with
no need for a centralized
server.
will get involved in the hand,
put his master key and won’t
let the hand be interrupted. In
case you’re wondering what’s
in it for the justice node, for
every entry you validate on
the distributed ledger of the
bitcoin, you get a fraction of
that transaction like 0.1% or
0.5%, allowing the justice
node to profit from validating
transactions or completing
hands on the tables. It’s easier
to get it if you understand what
bitcoin mining means. But
there’s another catch to this.
Because they have the master
key and to avoid collusion,
the justice node will stay
anonymous and will be rotated
from table to table every
couple of hands. This is how
we can maintain the highest
levels of transparency!
This idea of a justice node
has been conceptualized and
we’re expecting Virtue Poker to
kick off this idea first across the
world. Hence, my assumption
that crypto-platforms are
probably the way forward.
Interviewee:
Karan Dembla:
Entrepreneur,
blockchain
evangelist,
design
enthusiast
J U LY 2 0 2 0 59
 INTERVIEW
Make
way for
the
Shahzzadi
F
rom watching her
friends playing
home games to
turning out to
be quite a talent
herself, actress
Disha Pandey talks about her
journey in poker so far.
It was towards the end of
June 2020 that we discovered
yet another upcoming poker
talent who shipped one of the
weekday features on Spartan
Poker called Mega Stack.
When Gutshot reached out to
congratulate her, she decided
to take the humble route and
say she lucked out to win the
tournament. However, she
outlasted quite a few known
industry names to get to that
title including Arsh Grover aka
‘BigggTymeR’ in heads-up and
other known sharks on the
final table like Manish Lakhotia
‘thekid’ and Arjanveer Chadha
‘bazzingaa’.
We’re talking about Disha
64 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
Pandey - model, actress and
poker player, who goes by the
name ‘shahzzadi’ on Spartan.
The 26-year-old has been
featuring in films of different
languages right since her
college days, having graduated
from Delhi’s Dayal Singh
College. In 2010, she debuted
with Thamizh Padam, which is
probably her biggest hit till date
as well.
Quite an all-rounder, isn’t
she?! Originally from Jaipur,
the Mumbai-based actress has
signed a few more Kannada
films that are yet to release.
However, with the lockdown
in effect and shooting being
cancelled in most places
across the country, it’s poker
that has been her primary
focus of late!
Dwayne Fernandes from
Team Gutshot caught up with
the actress after her Mega
Stack victory on Spartan
to know how she took to
SOME OF THE MOVIES
SHE HAS STARRED IN:
• Mayanginen Omg, they are sickos! I really
Thayanginen – Tamil
• Moksha – Telugu
• Jai Lalitha – Kannada
• Saare Jahaan Se
Mehnga – Hindi
the game of poker, which is
surprisingly very common
among those in the movie
industry. “My boyfriend Sujith
Sachidanand plays poker which
obviously made me curious
to know what this game is all
about. It’s been about 3 years
now that I’ve been playing
poker, but with really small
buy-ins, both tournaments as
well as cash games,” she said.
Interestingly, Sujith, a former
professional tennis player,
has in fact, an India Poker
Championship title to his name
having won the 10k Kickoff
event back in April 2015.
Pandey is clearly a major
sports fan, being a tennis
lover apart from enjoying the
mind-sport of poker. From
playing with her boyfriend
and their friends at home
to winning a major feature
online, she’s come a long
way. “When did I start taking
the game seriously? I don’t
really know. But I must say, it’s
quite a thrilling feeling when
you win, haha! I do have a
lot of fun – whether online or
home games.” Keep reading
for our complete chat with the
actress…
You beat several known
players to win Mega Stack.
What do you think worked
for you in that tournament?
don’t know how I won that
night. I definitely ran good and
it all worked out in my favour.
I’m still learning the game and
am way behind these guys
right now; hope to get better in
time to come.
Thousands of players in
India now consider poker
as a profession, with lots
of coaching and studying
taking place. Have you
taken any such training or
coaching? How have you
taught yourself the game?
I’ve not done any sort of
coaching or training. Over the
years, I’ve just watched Sujith
and his friends Kishan, Mukund,
and Adarsh play, and I’ve tried
to learn from them as much
as possible. I haven’t really
considered getting coached but
if I had to, I would definitely go
to Abhishek Goindi (read about
his Poker Boot Camp) for help
in my game. His content is nice
and simple!
How has life changed so far
for you since the COVID-19
lockdown came into effect?
Well, mostly we’ve just been
playing poker, which probably
worked well for me as I won
the Mega Stack; hope for a
few more wins (and bigger
wins) in the future. The routine
has been turned completely
upside down – play all night,
GUTSHOT
sleep early morning, wake up
in the afternoon!
But apart from poker, I’ve
been using this time to do a
lot of online Yoga and Kathak
sessions. Among my many
interests is Kathak too. Love it!
Prior to the lockdown,
have you ever been to a
live tournament in India or
elsewhere in the world?
I haven’t but would definitely
love to once the situation
across the country improves.
We play home games and
they’re super fun, so I can’t
even imagine how thrilling
these live events would be.
What do you think about
the number of female poker
players in the country?
I think having more female
participation is great for the
sport. I’ve checked out some of
the good female players (Nikita
Luther, Kanchan Sharma and
others) and it looks like they’re
crushing it. More power to y’all!
Like we mentioned at the top,
Disha was part of a final table
that included Arsh, Arjanveer,
Manish and well, you got my
point... She’s one of many who’s
proving that women shouldn’t
be taken lightly in Indian poker
right now. Clearly, she is a big
fan of Spartan and her boyfriend
winning the Millionaire in the
past probably cemented her
fondness for the site prior to her
own win, saying, “I love playing
on Spartan Poker” with plenty
enthusiasm. All you online
grinders reading this, watch out
for ‘Artemisia’ on your tables,
with Disha recently changing her
screen name on Spartan.
J U LY 2 0 2 0 65
 INTERVIEW

Bill Perkins on playing

It was Jeff Gross who below of a small summary
introduced me to Choker. from the Choker website itself.
He knows I love both games Additionally, you can get a

in the Challengers
(chess and poker) and thought complete under-standing of
I might enjoy the combination the game here.
of the two.

Choker Cup Any comments on your semi-

final against Alexandra Botez?
What went wrong there?
Three things went wrong.
First, she is waaaay better
than me in chess. Second,
there was a glitch when I had
a queen and couldn’t click
the button which cost me a
valuable pot. Third, there was
a misunderstanding and I
think something that needs to
change in Choker. Poker is a
chip and a chair game but in
Choker, if you have less than
the blind, you have lost. It
changes the previous betting
round’s strategy immensely
and unnecessarily shortens the
We continued our conversation
with Bill, the 51-year old
from Houston, Texas who
made a for-tune as an energy
trader. Now based out of the
US Virgin Islands, he often
appears on CNBC-TV and his
book called ‘Die With Zero’
releases by end of July 2020
too, which you can pre-order
here.
Tell us about the similarities
in managing a hedge fund and
playing high-stakes poker?
The two are very, very similar
except for the fact that the
variance in poker is generally a
bit larger.
poker yet?
There’s going to be a recency
bias but my Final Table finish
at Triton Millions has to be the
most satisfying. People bought
pieces of me and I love making
returns for investors!
Have you got any poker-related
items you need to check off the
bucket list?
This year was the year I was
going to do a majority of
WSOP events. I’ve never done
the month and want to do at
least 3 weeks of poker at the
WSOP. Hopefully, I’ll complete
this one day.

B
usinessman, hedge
fund manager,
venture capitalist, film
producer, author and
high stakes poker player. Put
all of these together and you’ll
get a certain William O Perkins
III, more popularly known
as just Bill Perkins across
industries. Friends with Dan
Bilzerian and extremely active
on social media, Perkins is
often looking for new business
opportunities, last year even
mentioning the possibility of
opening an India-based
streaming house. He
tweeted about it and re-
ceived immediate replies from
the likes of Aditya Agarwal,
Muskan Sethi, Goonjan Mall,
Aditya Sushant and others.
More recently however, his
focus has been more towards
chess, another one of his
many hobbies. It wasn’t really
chess per se, but CHOKER. In
case you’re wondering, we’re
referring to a new concept
called Choker, which is literally
Chess + Poker. Between 7
May – 25 June 2020, some
of the world’s best chess and
poker players got together
on a common platform to
play the Challengers Choker
Cup, and Perkins was a part
of it too. With $5.6 million in
total live earnings and a best
score of $2.6 million that
came in the Triton Million
for Charity Event last year
where he finished 6th, Perkins
was expected to be a strong
contender.
In his All Ties Straight Knock
Out fixture, his prowess was on
display as he beat Matt Staples
3-2 to set up a semi-final
encounter against American-
Canadian chess player
and Woman FIDE Master,
Alexandra Botez. However, his
run in the Choker Cup came
to an end here, with Botez
sweeping this game 3-0. This
new mixed-games concept
may soon become popular
among poker and chess
players across the world, as
the two games require a similar
skill set. Dwayne Fernandes
from Gutshot Magazine spoke
to Bill Perkins for a brief
understanding of the same…
Bill, tell us how you enrolled
into the Challengers Choker
Cup...
game.
What are the main similarities
between chess and poker?
Poker is chess if a portion
of the board was covered.
They are both very strategic
games and when you have
bad strategies, tactics arise to
exploit those bad strategies.
For those of you interested in
knowing how Choker works,
we’ve attached a screenshot
Your expectations for the post-
COVID live poker scene?
I think it will be slow to come
back. Poker is for all adult ages
and since risk is correlated with
age and other health factors,
different players will have
different attitudes with respect
to play-ing live. This will slow
the return to pre-COVID
land until a vaccine is out or
effective treat-ments equilibrate
the risks.
Any crazy prop bets you’ve
had?
None of note really, but I’m
trying to get Dan (Bilzerian)
to commit to climb Mount
Everest, then give a time to a
‘Get to Summit’ bet.
Your most satisfying moment in

66 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0 67
 F E AT U R E
Poker and
Investing
My personal journey
I
was involved in the family
business while completing
my Masters in Finance and
MCom. Ideally, I wanted a
job in the Equity Sector to
apply what I had learned along
with getting real world expe-
rience in the field. After a few
interviews with banks and in-
vestment firms, I took up a job
with India Infoline. The most
exciting part of it was getting
placed in their BSE Head Of-
fice at the Traders Desk which
was like a dream to me then.
It was 2007, and the stock
68 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
market August onwards was
touching new highs almost
weekly. Everybody wanted a
piece of it - people who hadn’t
ever invested before wanted to
jump on the bus and not be left
behind. I was never that active
in the stock market before, but
the energy was electric and I
was genuinely excited to be
in the thick of things. But who
knew we were going to get hit
by a light bolt?! The new year
came and with the subprime
crisis, the tables had turned.
Hard! The stock market from
a peak of 6,200 tumbled to
2,700 levels - a fall of over 50%!
I’m glad for that experience.
I took a lot of pointers from
there and moving forward, I
wasn’t deterred by the stock
market but rather cautious
about my entry investments
whenever I chose to invest.
I took up a few courses on
Technical Analysis along with
the Fundamental Studies with
the available data, applying
that to my personal invest-
ments. It was by chance I
stumbled upon Poker and it fit
right in.
I felt a lot of parallels and
wanted to keep on getting
better not just at my game
but at the overall approach.
The approach I adopted was
taking up poker like a job and
be aware of my shortcomings.
I was amongst the lucky few to
have become friends with Adi-
tya Agarwal in my early days of
poker and that helped me take
it up professionally, while meet-
ing awesome players along the
way and learning from each
one of them.
I am a Bankroll Nit, though
I wasn’t always one. After the
last time I went bust (towards
the end of 2014), I never want-
ed to get myself in that position
again. From there, I exercised
stricter bankroll management
than the average poker player
and kept saving up; that loop
has continued on till date. My
goal was to boost my sav-
ings without taking too many
shots and each to his own, this
approach has worked well for
me. Along with playing poker,
it incentivizes my interest of
putting in some work study-
ing about possible investment
opportunities too.
In the past 3 months, I was
lucky to be quarantined in
Goa - with a bunch of poker
folks of course - and amidst
the Corona misery and mar-
kets tumbling over 35% in a
span of a month, here was
an opportunity. I wasn’t sure
and for that matter no one
can really time the bottom-
ing out of the markets but
the valuations of some of the
blue-chip companies were too
lucrative to miss out on. Along
with investing in such volatile
markets, I’ve been working on
hedging my risk with dabbling
in options which is I believe is
as important.
Invest your money well
The only job of a poker player
is to improve daily, be ob-
servant of his/her game and
honest about his/her own
shortcomings, while taking
initiative to filling in those gaps.
Stay true and bow down to
that along with wise money
wagering towards buy-ins. This
approach is mandatory if one
is to call himself a professional
poker player. Giving yourself
the best chance for that big
score and boosting the fre-
quency of those are what we
need to do. Having said that,
when the big scores come,
managing the money is equally
vital. The hard work has paid
off and now it’s time to make
the money work for you!
The only raw material in pok-
er is money – keep enough to
play with and for other essen-
tial expenses and rest keep
aside as savings to be invested
smartly. It’s important to keep
our savings liquid and be pa-
tient unless it’s the right time to
invest. There will always come
an opportunity to maximise
returns and limit risks, so don’t
be hasty.
We need to stay vigilant or at
least speak to people who are
investing to understand or at
least get an idea of the sce-
nario. Personally I won’t invest
more than 40% of my savings
into MFs / Equity Markets /
BTC or any speculative instru-
ments unless we get in at the
right perceived bottom of the
markets or invest till the stocks
I’m looking to buy are val-
GUTSHOT
ued reasonably, having done
some study on them or their
respective sectors. The rest
of the 60% could be split into
Government Bonds and De-
bentures after evaluating their
Credit Ratings say a CRISIL A+
rated - yielding a higher return
than Bank FDs and are safe.
There are tax saving Bank
Fixed deposits available as well
by HDFC and ICICI banks and
various other monthly return
funds we can diversify into.
Manage your bankroll well
We are all entrepreneurs and
our own bosses and a certain
discipline comes with it. For
instance our learning curve
going hand in hand with the
buy-ins we chose to play - we
still can take shots and ac-
climatise ourselves to high-
stakes ecosystems by playing
satellites to those events or
selling action to accommo-
date our roll comfort, but it’s
essential not to get lured with
accolades surfacing almost
daily on media of the scores
and understand our unique
path of achieving them along
and staying inspired. As we
improve and those efforts
complement our roll, we may
not need to sell much or none
at all. Till that time, it’s essen-
tial to play within our limits!
Kanishka
Samant –
Professional
poker
player from
Mumbai with
IPC, WPT and
APPT titles to his
name
J U LY 2 0 2 0 69
 F E AT U R E
‘Piece of Mind’ by
Suited Connectors
M
ental health
is a widely
discussed
subject these
days. Even
though everyone knows about
it, not much is done about it.
We hear children, students
and famous people taking
their lives and then start to
wonder where we’ve all gone
wrong?!
Depression, stress, and
anxiety have become a part
of our lives like it’s normal. If
our computer has a virus, we
make sure to fix it immediately
but when our mind has one,
we don’t know where to go
and don’t want to discuss it
because we’re embarrassed.
We have to change this
outlook and take care of our
minds as much as we take
care of our bodies. It’s not
normal to feel depression,
stress or anger all the time.
These are signs of moving in
the wrong direction and if we
keep ignoring them, we could
head towards a psychiatric
issue or other chronic
problems.
70 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
The cause of mental issues
could be manifold. External
problems generally act as a
triggering factor and can push
us to the trap of depression
and without even realizing
it, one can sink in this
sand deeper than they can
imagine.
Even in the game of poker
there’s an upswing but
sometimes there’s a bad run.
At these times one shouldn’t
lose hope or try to succumb
to depression. With the right
approach, guidance, patience
and hard work, one can
achieve heights and even if
one is not as successful, there
are plenty of options in life…
the only option NOT there is
giving up.
Depression may not always
show on a person’s face.
A person could look happy
on the surface but still be
suffering deep within. We all
have a responsibility to look
out for friends, family and
people we know who may
be in need and are suffering.
If we ourselves feel that
negative emotions are taking
over, something doesn’t seem
right and there’s a possibility
that we’re moving into this
trap, then instead of denial,
we should seek help without
hesitation.
There are ways to keep
our minds healthy. Like we
take care of our bodies by
exercise, we can take care
of our minds with yoga and
meditation, which in our
opinion is the best medicine.
But if we feel that it’s getting
out of our hands then we
should look for psychologists
and therapists who can
help us with these problems
and save our sinking ships.
We need to find the right
approach to keep our minds
healthy rather than hiding and
suffering in silence.
We’ve to know that blissful
smiling and laughing is
the natural way of life. Our
bodies have the capability of
producing chemicals which
can make us happy or sad,
so it’s important that we keep
our chemistry right. We all
have a right to live happily and
for this, sound mental health
is a priority.
It’s rightly said that “A sound
mind in a sound body keeps
one in a happy state… And
he who has it, has very little to
wish for.”
Author: Suited
Connectors
are Dr.
Yuvraj
and Dr.
Akanksha
Singh
from
Mumbai
 D E S T I N AT I O N P O K E R
DIARY OF AN INDIAN
POKER PRO STUCK
IN MEXICO
M
exico, to most Indians, is like a
very distant cousin. You know he/
she exists but you have nothing
to do with their life or day to day
affairs. For most of us Indians,
the ‘West’ is just in relation to either Europe
or North America. Much like any other
third world country, Mexico has its ups
and downs too, but it’s nothing short of
beautiful. We’ve all seen the popular Nexflix
series around the Narcos in Latin America
and since the final destination is always
USA, Mexico for one reason or the other
gets involved.
When the poker Black Friday
happened many years ago, a lot of
American poker players decided to
move to various parts of the world.
From familiar surrounds in Canada
to across the Atlantic to Malta - all
choices were out there on the table.
Poker heroes Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan
moved even further to a small place
called Macau and resurfaced many
years later with tales of the big
games they had been playing all
72 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
the while. The poker dream had not died; it
had just relocated.
A lot of poker players moved to Mexico
as well, considering its proximity to
California. If you were entering from the
Pacific Ocean side, you could land at the
now online poker hotspots of Rosarito,
Tijuana or Baja California. And if you
wanted to enter from the Atlantic side, you
could land at the summer break cities of
Cancun and Playa del Carmen.
I live in Playa del Carmen because it’s
a beach town as compared to Cancun
which is a major city and a lot more
commercial. I got here on 10th January
2020 after playing live poker in USA for
around 2 months, thinking I could live here
on the 6-month tourist visa that comes
without any fee on having a US visa.
Initially, I planned to go to WSOP in Las
Vegas from here itself. However, things
didn’t turn out as planned and here I
am, 6 months later, still in Mexico!
Accommodation
Relative to India, the prices are
definitely comparable. I didn’t
want to stay very far from the
main hotspot since I only knew
one person in the city. I ended up
finding a nice studio apartment 50
meters away from the beach on tourist
street, for $700 or 12,500 Mexican Pesos
at the time of agreement. Later I was told if
I would even move only 400 meters away, I
could easily get something much cheaper.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic,
Mexican Pesos fell a lot and now,
my apartment costs close to
$500 (around INR 40,000).
Places to visit
There are a lot of islands, water
caves and heritage sites to visit in and
around the area. I visited the cultural city
of Tulum, Isla Mujeres, and another huge
island called Cozumel. They all are an
hour’s drive or just a ferry ride away from
where I’m put up. I also took a longer trip
of around a week to Oaxaca which is in
central Mexico and it was relatively half as
expensive there.
The poker scene
Online poker dominates in this part of
the world. You end up bumping into a lot
of poker players from around the world
in all places in Mexico. There is a very
big community of French, Spanish and
American players based here. Connor
Drinan just had a magnificent SCOOP
series on PokerStars and he has also
lived in the area. In fact, ‘Kid Poker’ Daniel
Negreanu recently tweeted regarding
moving to Mexico to grind the entire WSOP
Online 2020
There are a few live poker legal
venues but they only run a max
of US equivalent $3/5 games,
and that too only once a week.
There are also a few bars that
host poker nights where they have
low-stakes games without any rake. I only
went to play live twice when I felt bored of
online poker and wasn’t travelling around
elsewhere.
Culture, cuisine, cost of living…
It’s easy to get by here and foodies
in particular will enjoy, because any
cuisine in the world is available in this
place. However, the local Mexican food
has obviously been my go-to.
There are expat groups in each city
and they are all really helpful. The vibe
pre-COVID was amazing here but
unfortunately, the town has gone pretty
silent and prices of everything have
crashed. Overall, the price of living is
decent and with around INR 100k a month,
you could be living lavishly in this part of
the world. You can say I’m not too sad to
be ‘stuck’ in Mexico. Hope to see you guys
soon!
Author bio: Jaideep Sajwan - Nomadic
traveller playing poker professionally for
9 years
GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0 73
 F E AT U R E
RAISING
THE
CORPORATE
BUTTON
WHEN POKER MEETS
THE CORPORATE
WORLD
Firstly, I think it’s very critical
to first understand the take
of the corporate world as far
as the poker community is
concerned. Is there a merger?
Is there any other correlation
between corporate brands
and poker? Would they want
to come associate themselves
with a game like poker given
the fact that there’s been a lot
of stigma around it?
Brands are now evolving and
understanding the fact that
yes, poker is a game of skill
and that it’s not just another
regular casino game that
depends on the rolling of
dice or pressing of a button.
They’ve realized how big the
game is globally and watched
it grow over the last 7-8 years
in India too. They’ve started
believing that there’s a great
opportunity here. That same
thought was understood
74 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
and accepted by CNBC
and we were very glad to
get them on board for the
India Poker Championship
(IPC) in January 2020, now
also doing a television event
called Poker for People where
we’ve got the top corporate
boys like CEOs, executives
and people at different levels
of various companies to
come and participate. This
is a great step ahead and an
evolution for us to now enter
the brand phase for the poker
community.
LET’S GET
ENDORSED!
Is there a future for brand
endorsements for poker
players, just like in any other
sports like cricket, kabaddi,
tennis, and badminton? The
answer is definitely YES!
There’s a great possibility
of our poker players getting
endorsed by major brands.
There are a lot of factors that
will be considered before
associating with players,
such as intelligence, image
and recent performances.
Poker is not a common man’s
game, to be honest. It has
to do with intellect, lifestyle
and more, exactly what the
corporate world wants to
associate themselves with.
They definitely dig the growing
audience in poker; a gradual
and systematic growth in any
field is what usually catches
their attention. There are so
many pros in the country
playing actively and more so
during the whole COVID-19
lockdown over the last 3
months. I’ve been in touch
with corporates to understand
the way forward for poker
post COVID and I think it
will stabilize from here. The
YouTube space is going to get
populated at some point and
TV channels are also going
to be looking at getting poker
content, as this is a sport that
can be played indoors, sitting
in front of a laptop. I think it’s
a great opportunity especially
now because they’re looking
for quality content. Smart
content. The way I see it is
that it’s a perfectly laid out
buffet that anyone would want
to grab and eat. I won’t be
surprised if the top boys and
girls of the poker community
get endorsed by a corporate
brand in the next 6 months
to a year. It’s very close to
happening. There’s a great
future for all professional
players in India. Every
sportsman maintains their
social media accounts and
their image. All these things
need to be taken into account
as well, to ensure the player
grows along with the brand.
My advice to poker players
– bring your poker A-game
and also keep up your social
media game. If you need
advice, reach out and we’re
always willing to help.
POKER TALENT
MANAGEMENT
In India, the need of the hour
predominantly keeping the
players in mind is the need
to have an agency that can
handle all the poker talent
under one roof. I’m trying to
work on one myself where I
can get them endorsement
opportunities and the right
PR resources for them. I used
to work for a company called
Percept Management where
we had a whole vertical on
the PR front, for each and
every artist or celeb we
handled. I see no reason why
poker players should miss
out on a similar approach
towards their profession.
Such a management
company for poker in India
is missing right now, where
players can be handled more
efficiently and professionally.
We can get them an interface
which allows them to largely
focus on what they’re good
at - their game - and the
periphery around that can
be handled by agencies.
It’s difficult to crack the
right agent to get the job
done, requiring someone
who understands the game
and can relate to poker.
But it’s very much doable
and players have already
started taking their games
super seriously. Now, they
can take their social media
equally seriously because
brands are going to see
followers, interactions and
all the numbers if they
want to sign you. We’ve to
make sure it’s impactful,
justified and curated well,
so that the poker player can
define himself/herself in the
fraternity. I tried initiating the
same a year back with a few
players to make sure they
standing out from the rest
GUTSHOT
of the community and catch
eyeballs of the corporate
sector as well. This entire
social media saga is very
critical and the earlier that
poker players realize that, the
better as it will only benefit
them in the long run. We’re
almost there and I definitely
see a great future in this
regard.
Author bio: Mihir Ganatra -
Founder, The Green Room
The Green Room has been
involved with setting up of
major poker tournaments like
India Poker Championship
(IPC), Poker Sports
League (PSL), Deltin Poker
Tournament (DPT) and
more, right from ideation to
execution
J U LY 2 0 2 0 75
 COLUMN
BE YOUR OWN HERO
A
lot of mixed mindsets exist in the
game of poker. For some it’s a
gamble or a punt, for some skill,
for some passion. So, what is
poker actually? I’ve seen poker at
all stages since the very early days of my life.
I’ve played small, mid, high stakes and it all
depends on what you’re playing the game for.
For me, poker is a mix of a gamble and good
strategy, with your basic skillsets in place.
I’ve seen players come and go by the day,
and the ones who’ve survived are the ones
who understand their bankroll and their game,
and play stakes they can afford. In a world of
neighbour’s envy and owner’s pride, we are
too lost with the 3-letter word that wants us to
take that punt and give it a shot – EGO. But
I believe slow and steady wins the race, no
matter what the stakes are. Be sensible and
not penny-wise pound foolish. Understand
your roots, see where you come from, explore
the potential and don’t play the game just for
the sake of it.
I believe we’re a country of growing talent,
with well-groomed poker players who have
the right skills and attributes to become
world-class. However, for us to call ourselves
professional, poker pros have some rules to
follow:
1. Basic poker knowledge and a thorough
vision of the right process.
2. Understanding the math and the
calculations.
3. Watching hands and understanding the
various playing styles and levels, ensuring we
don’t follow our heroes. Situations in every
hand that you see differ across tables.
4. Learn to say no, swallow your ego, fold,
and be patient.
5. Don’t get intimidated and don’t bluff a lot
76 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
because a strong grinder and a by-the-book
player would not give up on you that easily.
6. Keep your fitness levels and your mind-
space clean, and there has to be a lot of
inner peace. Observe your opponents
on the tables. Let your subconscious
mind watch the moves, postures, facial
expressions, continuation bets, variances,
and don’t chase much.
7. Whatever you earn, invest it for the
future. Don’t invest the money for the same
purpose. 60% of your winnings can go
towards savings or towards your house, and
the rest can be re-invested.
8. Read good books on poker. This will
help you understand the elements of the
game, avoid mistakes, and build a strong
foundation.
9. Believe in yourself and your gut.
10 Do not underestimate a player or
make yourself bigger than someone. For me
you can be a good player with good/bad
luck on your side and vice versa.
Players who haven’t seen big money
tend to get lulled into a feeling that it’s
easy money. They leave their careers and
education to get into the game, but they
can’t handle success or failure. Be proud
of what you achieve but don’t forget your
humble beginnings, and where you come
from. If you follow this, you’ll definitely
remain grounded, play better and not lose a
lot.
Be your own hero, look up to yourself,
improvise your game, don’t let success
distract you or failure affect you. Remember,
you are magic and you own that shit.
Author bio – Meherzad Munsaf is a
poker professional based in Mumbai

POKER
ROYALE
If you’re into gaming and like poker too, read Aditya Wadhwani a.k.a
Adiwankenobi’s guide to crushing battle royale games using the power of poker!
I
’ve always been a competitive person.
One of the first things that made me fall
in love with poker was when I realized I
could use my skill to crush my opponents.
For me, MTT’s are the ultimate form of the
game. Outlasting massive fields to be the last
man standing is a rush that I’ve spent years
(and copious amounts of cash) chasing. So,
when I wandered into the world of Battle
Royale (BR) games, it was a match made in
heaven. The very first time I skydived into an
island with 100 strangers who all wanted to
take me down, I was nervous and excited
about what was about to unfold, but it was
a strangely familiar feeling. I had felt this way
before; I had felt this way the previous night;
hell, I’d felt this feeling for the last 15 years
every single time I registered for a poker
tournament. One 36-hour binge gaming
session later and it became clear. This isn’t
Battle Royale… it’s poker all over again! And
just like our favourite mind sport, getting
good at BR games took practice, patience
78 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
Droppin’ in with 100 strangers
and voluuuummmmeee! Although I won my
first game on Day 1 by literally lucking out and
mostly being carried by my squad, it would
take me 1200+ games to get my first solo
win at Fortnite. And another month after that
to start crushing consistently. Now before
you call me a n00b, I’d just like to say for the
record I was playing on a potato lappy with
200 ping, so that should really have been
shorter. That said the learning never stopped
despite all the losing. Sound familiar, poker
peeps?! So, if you’re a poker player interested
in playing a game that gives you the same
satisfaction as shipping an MTT and want
to get start (or if you already have started
but suck) here’s my “poker guide” to beating
Battle Royale games using the power of poker!
Follow these steps and you’ll go from whale to
warrior in no time!
Every BR game, whether Fortnite, PUBG,
Apex Legends or COD: Warzone is at its core,
the same as an MTT. There’s an early, middle
and end game phase of every match.
The Early Stage: Drop in and get in there and
gamble!
When you first start playing it can be
intimidating. There are better, more experienced
players everywhere who know all the tricks in
the book already. Most n00bs think the best
way to counter act this is to drop somewhere
safe, avoid fights and passively play their way to
the final circle. But ask yourself this… Have you
ever won a poker tourney just playing premium
hands? Of course not! Even the most talented
players know that you can’t build a big stack
by avoiding pots. Just like you can’t win a BR
by not killing players. At the end of the day you
want to be able to win majority of fights you take
in order to put yourself in the best position to
win it all. If you don’t win fights early, you don’t
get good loot, resources and most importantly
the confidence to take down the last guy. It
would be like trying to win a tourney by folding
your way to the FT and then going heads up
with a 10:1 chip disparity. Here’s what will
happen to you initially when you drop hot. You’re
gonna die… a LOT! Those psycho kids are
gonna smash you over and over again. They’ll
outplay and out aim you till you feel helpless.
And sometimes you’ll come across a weaker
player but the RNG on spawn doesn’t go your
way. You land and see a n00b thinking you can
beat this kid easily, and the next thing you know
all you can find is a pistol while the n00b picks
up rockets (see what I did there) and it’s back to
the lobby for you. Eventually though, you’ll get
used to the seemingly random madness of early
game. You’ll become sharper because you’ll
have more experience fighting for your life and
you’ll start to make better decisions to offset the
RNG. You will not be afraid of dying or going
bust anymore which is another familiar part of
poker. My point is it’s pointless to play it safe
when first starting out because you’ll end up
playing scared. Remember you can always start
again, and unlike poker, the next bullet doesn’t
cost anything :) Some games like Warzone
even have a re-entry style mechanic where you
get to return to the game after your first death
if you win a 1v1 in the gulag. I for one would
love to see poker take that concept and try it
out. Imagine you brick early and then instead
F E AT U R E
of paying a full price re-entry, you pay half the
buy-in and play a hyper turbo heads-up match
against another busted player, the winner gets
put back in the game!
So, you’ve made it through the early game.
Congratulations! You’ve just become average,
haha. So, what’s the next step? Do we continue
taking fights with every fish you see? NO! Just
like in poker, this is the time to change gears.
There’s no point running in the direction of every
shot you hear fired. Remember that there are
no extra points for killing players, and there’s no
min-cash so to speak.
Smart ass: But what about knockout tourneys
Adi?
Adi: This is a winner takes all event. It’s a satty
with only 1 seat GTD to a chicken dinner. Shut
your mouth and do as you’re told!
You just have to nit up here. Pick your spots/
fights sensibly from advantageous positions
only. Work towards positioning yourself in a
great place for final circles just like you would
work on consolidating your stack for the final
table. Do you really want to reach late game
with a bulk of your ammo and health depleted?
Do you want to FT with 5bb? Of course not.
Just be sensible and trust the process. Getting
eliminated at this stage is like bubbling, and
we all know that’s a big fat waste of time and
generally a crappy feeling. Even if someone
takes a random shot at you or won a small pot
or something, you wouldn’t just say F it all and
go full send just to get payback because you’d
be risking it all for nothing! What you can do
however is put pressure on the shorties by third
partying. That’s when you see other players
fighting and you can swoop in to pick them
both off as they will be distracted by each other
already and most likely be low on health. It’s not
a huge risk to take fights like this in the same
way as it’s not a risk to call off an all-in from
a 2-3bb stack when we have 100bb and are
holding 23 suited or something. Have fun with
it. Give it a spin. They mostly likely have Ax and
you’ll dog ’em anyway haha.
GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0 79
 F E AT U R E
Right then! We’re in the end
game now Tony.
We’ve run deep, and it’s the
last few players left. Like with
most FT’s the remaining field
here consists of a majority of
high-skilled opponents. Some
will be stacked, some will be
crippled but still dangerous,
and of course the occasional
fish who has been lucky till
this point will also be around.
If you manage to identify these
weaker players at this stage
by the way, you can use them
to your advantage. Let the
cripples and fishes make the
mistake of donking off their
lives. With every one that dies
you are one step closer to
getting that W! Think of it like
ICM. We are here to win this
thing; we didn’t come this far
to commit suicide. Best case
scenario, the fish gets lucky
and we go heads-up against
him instead of the level 100
beast, resulting in a win for us
9/10 times (always account for
variance, never expect to win
100% of the time). Whoever
your final fight is against, all you
have to do now is play to the
best of your ability. This is what
all that early game action has
trained us for. To be calm and
80 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
Side notes
and other 1 2 L A C S
similarities: LEADER PRIZES
• Tilt is very real in these
games too!
BOARD
July 2020
• Don’t be afraid to ask
for advice
₹
cool and win the fight. Pick a • Study the map like
good spot and rip! you’d study an MTT
structure
And that’s it! You are now • Win and lose
mentally prepared for the graciously. Don’t be GTD
challenges of Battle Royale toxic.
using your pre-existing poker • Have the right
skills. The rest is all up to you. equipment. Sure, you
Practice your moves so you can could play on mobile
execute them efficiently. Review but it’s never the right
your mistakes when you die and way to go.
learn from them. And of course, • Making the best
put in the volume. The win rate possible decision
for the average player is about at every junction is
1-4% so you really don’t have to critical. Get into the
stress too much when you lose habit of having a plan
as long as you learnt something for every fight before
along the way. Good luck out you engage.
there and happy slaying! • RNG is a bitch. Stop
complaining and deal
with it!
• There’s always a
better player out there.
Winning tilt is also very
real.
• Watch better players
on streams and
YouTube to raise your
edge
• IT’S JUST A GAME.
PLAY SERIOUSLY
Author bio: Aditya BUT HAVE FUN
Wadhwani, Poker player, DOING IT!
commentator, gamer,
Gooner, jedi, master
procrastinator.

Bringing the laughs
since 1993
Actor and comedian Suresh Menon talks to Dwayne Fernandes
about life, his career in Bollywood and of course, poker!
Suresh, tell us what drove
you towards comedy and
an acting career...
So, I grew up in a very con-
servative, middle-class family
with both parents working in
LIC and no dreams of being an
actor. The dreams were - get
qualified, get a stable job. I
worked at a couple of private
companies including the sales
team in Crompton Greaves
and the response team in
Times of India.
I planned to shift jobs and was
trying to get into story telling.
One day in 1991, my colleague
Javed took me to meet an
editor called Imran Merchant
and told him, “This guy is cra-
zy, he imitates everyone who
enters the office, and we have
an hour’s time pass because
of him daily.” Imran asked me
to try acting, in a movie called
Param Vir Chakra directed by
his friend Major Ashok Kaul.
My only acting experience then
was at Ganpati stage in Seven
Bungalows, Mumbai (laughing).
I was travelling back home in a
crowded Western Railway train
that day with somebody’s oily
hair and somebody’s armpit
GUTSHOT
INTERVIEW
near my face, and saw a car
going past. I looked at that
and went into my own fan-
tasy world, thinking of what
it would be to own a car and
never travel by crowded trains
again. I even thought people
had begun recognizing me
already (people staring at me in
the train) and I lived the life of a
superstar in that journey from
Churchgate to home. So many
years later, here I am!
What would be one of the
funniest Bollywood stories
that you can tell us?
J U LY 2 0 2 0 83
 INTEVEIW
People often ask me how I’m
so grounded. It’s because of
a lesson I learnt long back. I
was shooting for Fool N Final
(2007) in Dubai and a group
of people were watching the
shoot. A crowd came rushing
towards me and told me how
they’re big fans, saw me a lot
on TV and stuff. I was obvious-
ly very happy. I was surround-
ed by people though stars like
Vivek Oberoi, Ahmed Khan
and others were around. My
chest had inflated and this was
something I would go home
and tell my family. One person
spoke to me for a long time,
praised me to the skies and
finally while leaving, he said in
Hindi, “It was great to talk to
you. Khuda Hafiz, Sajid Khan
sahab.” I paused. I didn’t know
how to react, shattered for a
moment. But I didn’t burst his
bubble, said bye to him and
told myself I deserved it, for
thinking I’m a star and that
people would be interested in
meeting me. “THEY DIDN’T
EVEN KNOW YOUR NAME,
MR. MENON!” (laughing)
Any upcoming projects we
can see you in?
There’s this film called Utavle
Bavle directed by a brilliant
actor called Snehal Dabi who
you would remember from
the song Aslam Bhai (singing
tune). That should happen
when things normalize. Apart
from that, content is going to
rule the roost so I’ve been writ-
ing. I’ve written a fabulous sto-
ry on cricket and 2-3 stories in
the drama and thriller genres,
so that’s a small sneak peek
into what’s coming. We have
84 GUTSHOT J U LY 2 0 2 0
our own production house with
a great team in place, and my
wife has joined me too now.
We’re a one stop shop but
just looking for a few tie ups
and maybe some funding too.
Maybe if it happens, I’ll direct,
produce and act in my own
film (laughing). I’m working on
something called ‘Bollywood
Serial Killer’ – nothing to do
with nepotism but it’s about
someone so frustrated with
the lack of opportunities that
he starts killing superstars! But
yeah, we’re walking on some
projects and I’m thinking of
writing a letter to Jack Ma and
asking him to adopt me– I can
call him ‘Maa’. Lol.
What’s your take on the
whole nepotism saga?
Whether we like it or not,
nepotism is a part of every
industry, not just Bollywood.
A father will always make sure
his children are settled. Very
few cases I’ve seen this not
happening and one example
could be Jackie Shroff. His
didn’t produce anything for his
son. Tiger Shroff has come up
completely by himself, making
up for his acting skills in his
body and dance, and I just love
watching him. He’s India’s an-
swer to Chuck Norris. We can’t
really hold nepotism against
someone, but what we can
hold against them is groupism.
‘Outsiders’ like us have to
break all these barriers with
a lot of hard work and strong
will. People can’t achieve their
potential because of this stu-
pidity happening in Bollywood,
even those with extreme talent.
These cliques create a vicious
circle and we have to put to an
end to this, before more peo-
ple take drastic steps.
How did you fight against
such groupism?
Mentally, you’ve to be really
strong. I don’t know how to
say this. In my mind, I created
a bench above my reproduc-
tive organ and anyone who
messed with me, I placed them
there in my mind. Now you
translate that into Hindi and
understand what I’m referring
to. Every time someone did
something to put me down,
they might’ve felt happy but I
had an uncanny smile on my
face because I knew where
they belonged!
What’s your connect with
the game of poker?
During Diwali, someone once
said let’s play poker, and I was
never a fan of cards. I start-
ed playing poker (which I had
earlier only seen in movies) and
realized there were calculations
involved. I was fascinated.
I started outguessing play-
ers and people thought that
Suresh is either really good or
he’s a complete idiot – it turned
out to be the latter as I start-
ed losing a lot later haha. I still
play with my instincts but now I
know the terminology and have
a better idea of the game. I
play on the WSOP app, though
not for money.
You were at the IPC Awards
in Goa in January. How was
that experience?
One good thing is that poker is
no longer regarded as a game
of chance but a sport, much
like bridge and chess, using
calculation and deduction. I
was really surprised to see the
range of people at IPC – doc-
tors, engineers, professional
poker players and gentlemen
of other fields; a lot of gentle la-
dies too! Some were just there
to play poker and have fun.
The awards night was too
good and something like this
should happen every year. In
fact, we should get in touch
with sports authorities and try
to host such events on a big-
ger scale. To have our Indian
names popping up in various
sports is really important and
poker shouldn’t be left behind.
I was impressed at the IPC and
I believe channels should live
telecast these events to get
the word out. We don’t need
to wait for James Bond films
to hear about poker. I’m pre-
dicting an Indian will go on to
win the World Series this year
and I hope it’s one of the kids
I met in Goa! One day, I’ll do
an IPL of poker and we’ll call
it ‘Intense Poker and Laughter
Series’ haha.
What has been the best part
of the lockdown for you so
far?
Online schooling. I sit with my
11-year old for his 6th Grade
lessons and I’m happy I get all
the answers right! The boys
these days are into IGCSE
board which is quite tough, so
me getting the answers makes
me proud. Also, I’m planning
on writing to one of the OTT
platforms; I can do sampling
for them. I’ll sit and watch your
content all day and in return,
GUTSHOT
maybe just a monthly amount
of 5 Lakhs is fine. I won’t even
step out of my home!
Any message for Gutshot
Magazine readers?
Times are bad so hang in there
stick to your task. Don’t worry.
Things are going to only get
better but if it doesn’t, we’ve all
watched Walking Dead, so it
could only get as bad as that,
right?! Take one day at a time
and make sure you’re safe,
sane, and healthy. For all of
you who have spouses, you’ve
become immune to your hus-
band or wife by now!
RAPID
FIRE:
1) Favourite actor
Amitabh Bachchan.
Always.
2) Favourite comedian
Johnny Lever.
3) Your best movie/
project so far
Phir Hera Pheri.
4) Favourite holiday
destination
Goa and second,
Switzerland.
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