“Go steady. Give volume. Grind hard. Trust the process. Good Luck at the tables!”
₹15 Lac GTD The Mint was the marquee event on Adda52 on Tuesday night. Guruprasad ‘guruprasad_gupta’ Gupta decimated the field and banked ₹3.72 Lac after beating ‘Krifard’ in the heads up deal. We caught up with Guruprasad following his win.
Here are the excerpts from the chat session –
Hi Guru, a big congratulation on winning ₹15 Lac GTD The Mint. Tell us about the competition at the final table and how it all unfolded?
On the day of winning Mint tournament, the plan was normal like any event and it is to run as deep as possible and take spots wherever necessary. On FT, I wasn’t sure of winning as I was 2nd last in chips on the start of FT. I got lucky in hand 22 vs KK of I shove for 8BB and I hit quads. Then 3 way I won a major set hand where I had AA and both guys hold AK which busted 1 guy and making me massive CL in HU. The guy playing HU was too tight throughout so it was easy to make him bleed and make him short. Eventually, I won the flip with A10 when he had hardly 5BB left.
What impact does the lockdown has on your life? Most of the poker platforms have started various tourneys in the lockdown period to keep poker players busy. So, is it keeping you busy?
Obviously lockdown has brought many players on online poker platform. All those live grinders and recreational joined the online platform. In my case, I was busy before lockdown and after lockdown, I consider myself hardcore grinder online cash and tournament both. The only help lockdown has given me is more freedom to join late evening tournaments which I used to avoid before.
Online poker or live poker – which is more exciting?
Obviously live is always exciting as you get to talk and enjoy personal interaction with various people on the table. Always fun to play live as I am a very talkative player on the table. But being a family person I have to stick more with online as live poker is not always feasible. Online has a basic advantage of multi-tabling and more options. So, live is love ❤… Online is truth…!
You have been in the industry for quite a long time now. What are your views on the poker boom in India?
Obviously poker is booming in India but I think operators are still trying to extract poker players. Not many things are done nowadays to keep boom coming. High rake and too long late registration period to meet guarantees are drying up poker quickly in India. Poker is booming but getting killed up also fast. The big competition among poker operators is good for poker in India but it’s going other way round. Nowadays guarantees are not met and operators are trying various lucrative deposit schemes. The real truth is poker is drying up in India as per my opinion.
How do you prepare for a tournament? Is there any specific routine you follow prior to playing a tourney?
There is no special preparation for any tournament at all. Grinding, grinding and grinding. So, we are used to it.
How do you decide on a tournament? What are the factors involved in picking or choosing a particular tournament?
Generally, I avoid less buying tourneys as they don’t give value for time spent to play these long and tiring tourneys. So, I generally prefer to play events of buy-in 2k to 10k as even min cash u won’t mind. My logic is “Maal aaye to bada aaye.”
Who do you think is currently the best poker player in the industry?
There are many great players in India. So, can’t name one. Shriharsha, Sumit Sapra, Anant Purohit, Gaurav Sood, Arsh Grover, Anmol Mehta, Sahil Mahboobani, Sameer Tawanandi, Irshad Chaudhry, Rajat Sharma, Kunal Patni are a few gem players as far as tournaments are concerned. In my early days of poker, I was inspired by Aditya Agrawal, Sahil Agrawal and Aditya Sushant.
Which are the Indian websites you love playing at? Can you rank them in order?
I love to play on PokerBaazi and SpartanPoker basically. If I want to rank them in order, it will be –
I don’t play on any other sites.
At last, any tips for the young generation?
For the young generation, I’ll suggest sticking strictly with bankroll management. Don’t get fooled around by huge money winning posts. Every hard-working player will get there sooner or later. But, it will be a slow and gradual process. Don’t try big shot which will make u fall badly. There will be tough times in this field more often.
Go steady. Give volume. Grind hard. Trust the process. Good Luck at the tables!
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