Working for PokerGuru and seeing the journey of numerous poker enthusiasts and pros, I’ve sometimes been envious and uncertain. However, it has also been one of my biggest motivations to persevere despite losing considerable money.

I was on top of the world after scoring a career-best payday (3rd in PokerStars India’s Master Minds [8-Max] for ₹89,125) in November 2022, and it was smooth sailing for some time. January and February were drastic months for me as one thing led to another, and I went bust before realizing it.

On the other hand, March was a harbinger of new opportunities. Although I have much to learn, I was asked to stream for PokerGuru under the ‘SharmaJI’ moniker, one of the most exciting challenges I’ve ever been issued.

On March 30, right after reaching the PokerGuru HQ, the usual work continued, with everyone pitching in for the Daily Majors report. I was writing about a few of the ongoing NPS and ITM events, wondering when I would get to take down an event.

Around 6 PM, I started grinding on PokerStars, playing the ₹375 buy-in, ₹50K GTD Super Stack PKO 8-Max. Only fifteen minutes into the event, I busted out once, and in hope and desperation, I fired my second bullet, which did the trick for me. Moving one step at a time, I was doing everything quite cautiously and built a decent stack before the close of late registration. The next step was to wait for the money bubble to burst, which was a task. Somehow, I reached the money and entered the final table as one of the shorter stacks.

On the FT, I worked my way up before a misclick of folding pocket aces once. Lady luck smiled upon me, and I found a double-up with pocket jacks. The game continued, and at the time of three-handed play, I was again the shortest stack before jamming jack-eight suited (diamonds) from the button and finding a double-up from another runner who held ace-king suited (spades). After that, I had the chip lead; from then on, it seemed like a cakewalk. I eventually shipped the tournament for ₹12,154.

What made March 30 even more memorable was my getting to the final table of two more PokerStars India tourney’s ₹1 Lakh Gtd Ultrasonic (4th for ₹7,754) & Late Night Last Chance [Hyper-Turbo] (4th for ₹1,089).

This is a start, and I feel blessed to be part of a community that is so supportive when at the end of the day, we are all competing against each other at the tables.

Also, a big shoutout to all who have been tuning into my streams. I hope to see you all on my next stream very soon.

The post Memoir by SharmaJI appeared first on PokerGuru.

Last year was very good for me as a player as well as a commentator, I managed to work in almost all big live events whether it be Baazi Poker Tour in Goa, IPC in Jhapa and did some offline work for Adda52. Not everything was good, though, I got the news at the start of the year that my mom has stage 3 Ovarian Cancer so I knew that playing Poker won’t be a thing this year since I wanted to be there for my mother. But call it destiny or luck, I kept on topping my biggest scores this year. I was playing maybe a day or two a week, whenever I could honestly, and got super lucky.

One of the big scores and my best score at that time came in March when I won Super High Roller, which I registered at 30bb and bluffed for all my stack in the very first hand, luckily, I didn’t get caught. It was actually on the night before my mother’s first chemotherapy, so couldn’t wish for a better time. That win allowed me to take a little break from playing poker, but I made sure that I was studying on the regular basis. I studied a lot during that time because that was all I was doing.

Almost 6 months passed, and I hardly played 50 tournaments in total but decided to do a live trip to APPT Cambodia, my second time going there and a month still left for the treatment. Not many Indians this time there, and I was let down by the numbers of side events. But I was determined to make the most of it, and boyyyy we did that. From bagging 30bb on Day 1 of the main event to being in the top 3 stacks on day 2 and eventually finishing runner up in the main event for my career-best score.

It’s 31 December today, and mom is well, thanks to all the good wishes and hard work of doctors and my super strong mother. The plan is pretty simple for 2023, and I am going to share that with you all in a moment.

I am going to do half-half this year; what does that mean? Well 150 days of live poker, 150 days of online poker, and 65 days of holidays. I am very glad to share that we have been approached to do commentary for an international brand, fingers crossed that it turns out to be great. Also, I want to be more regular on the blogs, so will aim to push one blog every month.

My 2023 Goals are as follows :

1. Put Volume – Simple
2. No interviews, no matter how big or small I win
3. Reduce my social media time, sadly no vlogs in 2023
4. Be in a better shape
5. Launch my Podcast

My advice to all the young and crushers of India are as follows

1. Get yourself out of any reporting site; it harms you more than it benefits you
2. Get in a peer group and study at least once a week.
3. Plan your live trips in advance to save any cost you can.
4. Be involved in a community

On the ending note, I will be taking my databases from all the reporting sites, (PokerGuru reporting, sharkscope etc) to protect myself, and I will always be available on discord for anyone who wishes to reach out to me. Good luck and I hope 2023 brings you happiness and luck.

The post 2022 – A Year Full Of Fight & Luck appeared first on PokerGuru.

There are some unethical practises happening within the Indian industry that should be openly talked about in order to disincentive unethical people from taking advantage of the lack of policing within our community. In this post I would like to out Sahil Chutani aka “$lim$hady19” for cheating the community doing the following scummy things:

1) Ghosting two of his mtt horses before I joined BTR stable. $lim has admitted to me on a phone call right after I joined BTR that he had been involved in the biggest scores of two of his horses. I restricted everyone from getting ghosted after I joined. The horses also wanted to do everything ethically and wanted to stop this bs that $lim was doing.

2) Collusion in cash games. There have been instances where $lim and a cash game horse of his have been sitting in a NLHE cash game and shared their hole cards. I did not speak out against this cash game collusion as there’s a limited mental energy I have and I want to allocate that towards improving game integrity in MTTs.

Some allegations told to me about $lim by well-respected regs in the industry that I do not have any evidence for:

1) ‘SiValee’ is a 2nd id of $lim

2) A bad reg from BBZ(Stable that used to back $lim before he started playing on his own) is playing on the id ‘bluechipp’ that has been given to him by $lim. This is really hypocritical as $lim has been the one that speaks out against foreign ids playing on Indian sites the most.

3) After I left BTR , $lim ended up shutting down his stable and is now demanding that his horses pay him back 50% of their MU. Which is outright scamming imo, the community is free to debate on that.

I encourage everyone to speak out about malpractises going on in the industry if we want poker in India to be a clean sport with high game integrity. Currently the cheaters have it too easy as there are no repurcussions for doing so. At the bare minimum, $lim should be made to release a public statement about all of these allegations and how he is going to improve his behaviour in the future.

If this post has any positive impact towards improving game integrity I can start an initiative where I take in emails from people in the industry and speak out against shady practises being performed by players/sites if there’s conclusive evidence in the email ofcourse.

Another change that I would like to see happen is pokersites making it against ToS to use preflop/ postflop solvers to help players make their decisions in-game. Once they do that we can police it within ourselves to diminish the use of s/w aid in-game and make online poker as pure as possible.

The post Outing unethical people in the industry appeared first on PokerGuru.

It`s been some time since I last blogged since I was busy travelling and went to Mexico after WSOP to chill for a few weeks.

In this blog, I want to talk about the WSOP Circuit Ring I won online on WSOP.com while in Las Vegas for the 2022 WSOP. It was one of the most bizarrely-amazing experiences that I ever had playing poker!

All of this happened around the end of the WSOP. The Closer event at the WSOP was going on, and I was simultaneously playing the WSOP Circuit online event on my phone.

I was on the event’s final table with a decent stack. Probably four out of eight players. But my stack was pretty decent compared to the second and third guys. At this point, I saw four or five people running, and one fell down, seeing as some people started laughing. I was trying to grasp the situation when suddenly, I saw hundreds of people running in my direction while shouting. When I heard someone say, “just some armed guy outside the room and trying to enter,” that was when everyone panicked. Everyone just started running in the same direction.

People just pushed others over, trying to escape. I just held onto my phone and left everything else. My bag had everything: my passport, my cash, and everything. I just left everything on the table because there was no time to pick things up. I started running, trying to get out of the cardroom. While all this commotion was on, I was still playing the circuit event, and poof, the WiFi signal suddenly dipped, and I started getting disconnected.

Somehow, I tried connecting to a different WiFi so I could keep playing the event’s final table because that really mattered a lot to me. Everyone dreams of getting a gold bracelet, but the circuit is the second-best thing you can win, if not the bracelet, right?

I was trying to stay focused in the middle of all this chaos. I was playing on the phone while standing in the back alley of the Valley’s Casino when I realized that things were safe. At this point, the event was down to the last three players. I played my best in the middle of all this mess.

And I finally got to ship that event, which gave me immense pleasure because it’s an achievement, right? I was in the middle of an apparent life-or-death situation. People play such events easily on their laptops from the comfort of their homes, and I played this while running, trying to save my life, and I probably got rewarded for it. It’s a bittersweet story – like I got rewarded for all the hassle I had to go through.

This was super traumatic for everyone. Muskan (Muskan Sethi), who was on my table as well, was taken aback by the incident, and when I met her, after like 30-40 minutes, she was out of her wits. She even tried to help someone who fell down during the unrest but to no avail due to the enormous crowd. I saw many people on my table and in the room who had bruised knees, broken ankles, or some other injury after coming back. A lot of people got injured because of the stampede.

When people were in shock and trauma because of the incident, I hardly felt anything at that moment because my adrenaline spiked after winning the WSOP Circuit ring. I honestly didn’t feel the gravity of this incident at that moment because I repeatedly tried to reconnect my phone to WiFi.

After all, WOSP required all the Circuit online event players to play only using the Nevada location, so I had to be on the WiFi to play that event. I tried to hide somewhere, even in a cupboard, trying to reconnect to the WiFi, as I kept getting timed out and again. Maybe my focus on trying to connect to the WiFi allowed me to stay aloof from the fact that there was a potential shooter outside the casino.

But as they say, all`s well that ends well. I am just happy that no one got seriously injured or worse, and I got to bring home a WSOP Circuit gold ring.

The post Winning the WSOP Circuit Ring Under Bizarre Conditions appeared first on PokerGuru.

WPT generally gets big numbers but good thing to see was that everything started on time and people wanted to play from Level 1. I made sure that I was on the tables as soon as they started to get the best out of the fun players other the Main Event, where I had a different strategy. It was great to see people going all in for 200 Big Blinds with top pair. I knew that these games were going to be juicy. I started the series with a bang, making the final table of the first event along with my friend Anmol and ex-coach Ashish, both fierce competitors. I got pretty lucky in the start, making hands and also getting paid for them. Unfortunately, we had to settle for 4th.

Halfway through the series, I registered for a Superstack event with a buy in of $400 and was average stack throughout the event but picked few key hands in the later stage and built good stack to reach the final table. Had a fun player on the final with 80% chips who was calling a lot preflop, I waited for a good opportunity and picked up QQ facing an open shove from the chip leader and poker god made sure we won that hand. Down to 4 players, I was third in chips with 15bb and blinds were only 30 minutes so decided to do ICM chop and decided to play for the trophy. After making the deal, I basically knocked out every one on the table (guess It was my sun run time) and secured my First Ever Live Trophy. What a feelinggg it was. Overall had a blast in Cambodia and would love to go back soon.

Onwards & Upwards

The post First Live Trophy! appeared first on PokerGuru.

I have been a part of PokerGuru Staking since the start of this year, and I can tell you that it’s been the best decision I’ve taken thus far in my short poker career.

My Introduction to Poker

I was introduced to poker in college. Back then, we would play small stakes house games amongst our friends, and it was all about enjoying and having a good time.

Soon after my introduction to poker, I was enthralled by it and became a regular at some poker clubs in Bangalore, where I would grind 50/50 cash games. I was really fascinated by the game and would use a lot of my free time to watch live streams of cash and MTTs, streamers’ play, and other free online content to better my game.

Life at PokerGuru Staking – How I Joined & My Current & Future Plans

I got into PokerGuru Staking through Laksh Pal Singh, who, as we all know, is a legend in the Indian poker circuit and an absolute crusher. I was fortunate enough to receive a text from him asking me if I was interested in applying to PG to get staked and coached. It didn’t take me much time before I submitted my application to PG, and I was lucky enough to be accepted by Kartik Ved, Laksh, and the management into the stable.

Settling into PG wasn’t a challenge as everyone here is extremely supportive and helpful.

Currently, I am being coached by one of the best players in the country, Mithun Mahesh. Seeing his drive, passion, and dedication to the sport inspires all of us; it’s just a surreal feeling to learn from and be surrounded by the best.

My plan in the near future is just to improve my game every day and learn to the best of my abilities from Mithun. My main focus currently is to put a lot of work off the tables and make the best use of the resources available to me in terms of MTT and mindset courses, software, coaching, etc.

I consider myself lucky to be a part of this wonderful family, and I am excited for this journey in the years to come.

Thanks for reading, and good luck on the felts! Till next time..

The post My Icebreaker on PokerGuru appeared first on PokerGuru.

To be able to reach the top in poker or any other endeavor, having structured systems for putting the hours in and scheduling it efficiently is absolutely essential. I consider two major systems that comprises of all areas we focus on: macro and micro processes; I strive to be stern with myself over the non-negotiable routines (macro processes) I have but I have also been guilty of being too hard on myself at times; indulging in self depreciating behavior after making a mistake or a chain of few mistakes (micro processes). As I have progressed in my poker career, identifying some patterns in this journey till now, I have gained more clarity and begun deliberately shifting my focus towards macro processes from the micro ones. I have constantly tried to be readily forgiving to my own self after committing errors and make certain to not slack with the work that needs to be done to move an inch closer to where I would want to be. It’s a sweet spot between being too harsh on yourself and being complacent and lazy. It’s a long journey ahead and the goal is to use as much of my time, energy and focus on ensuring the macro processes are in place rather than worrying or cribbing about the micro processes — an infallible way to make the journey worthwhile too.

It’s been a little short of four years I’ve turned professional playing poker and playing the game for a living has been an extremely humbling experience for me. A major factor being the innate nature of the game; even if you’re the best in the world, you still have to be extremely good at losing as it will still happen ridiculously often. There will be plentiful sessions when winning plays will lose you stacks because of some uncontrollable factors. Some of my worst sessions comprised of committing a mistake early on in the session and then often what happened was the first mistake created a spiral of repeated mistakes that followed. I have seen myself playing my A-game when I have embraced the chaos in my head and let it take it’s course while doing what I know to the best of my knowledge. There will be countless spots where you would think you did the right thing just to realize after going through the hand in depth that you weren’t even remotely correct about your assumptions in game. I find these hands everyday, and that’s what reminds me of a hilarious tweet from the legend Erik Seidel which says: “It’s funny being considered an expert about a game which confuses me every single day.”

Incompetence will result in indecision and inaccuracies, which would give rise to curiosity and that’s how our mistakes would become the building bricks to our wall.

The game tickles with multitude of emotions inside us which can be overwhelming for anyone. While tackling with those ebbs and flows of the game, I often realize how beautifully it teaches you invaluable life lessons. This is one of the most significant lessons poker has taught me in life; having a harmonious relationship with committing mistakes and viewing them in good light as they catalyze our growth in the game and in life, likewise. It’s crucial to realize that in this game; the learning never stops and you will always be a work in progress. The objective is to be cognizant of your flaws, work on them diligently to become a better equipped player, and start being kinder to yourself when you commit errors. As I look back at the last four years, molding myself in the game, I truly resonate with this quote by Seneca: “What progress, you ask, I have made? I’ve begun to be a friend to myself.”

The post A friend to myself appeared first on PokerGuru.

I have predominantly played live through my career, but the last three years have been quite different after the pandemic forced live rooms to shut down, and most of us spent all our time playing online.

After years of enjoying live poker more, this time at the BPT/DPT, which were also the first live events I played as an MPL Poker Team Pro, I found myself realizing the joys of online thanks to a bunch of reasons, be it the absurdly slow pace of play, lack of skilled dealers, and the amount of effort it takes to get on the boat. I think it’s totally fair to assume that so many new players have been added to the pool who haven’t really played live and so can naturally find it challenging to deal with the mechanics of playing live.

So here are some suggestions which I feel can improve the quality of play and make it a more enjoyable experience for everybody involved.

1. Stacks of 20’s

I think players should be stacking in stacks of 20’s with big chips clearly in front instead of making random dirty stacks. I think if you decide to stack in 10’s that’s fine too, but it is very tedious to keep asking for a count when stacks are in random numbers. If stacks are in 10’s and 20’s, the opponent can usually get a basic count of the stack himself.

2. BB Ante

The BB ante is so crucial to speeding up the game, but I keep seeing dealers and players just taking the entire amount instead of separating the BB and the ante. For e.g., when BB is 500 (500), then it’s important to pay the ante separately as 500 and then the BB. Otherwise, it often ends up looking like a min-raise and wastes more time that can be spent playing. I think the onus lies on players to get the change to correctly post BB antes as their BB approaches.

3. Calling clock

I think we really need to normalize calling the clock on people. There is such a stigma attached to calling the clock on people, and players tend to take it personally. Of course, protesting an unjust clock call is fine, and I personally try to give each player one long tank before I start calling the clock, but if you think someone takes an unreasonable amount of time during decisions or is deliberately slowing down the action then start calling the clock on them. There is a reason this provision was provided to us by the TDA.

4. Shot clocks

I think it’s time most events employ the use of shot clocks. There is widespread debate about how to implement shot clocks correctly, but the point is you get time banks that you can use for your tough decisions and then a set amount of time to make your decisions otherwise. The moment you exceed said time, you will need to give a time bank chip to extend your clock. It sounds tough on new players etc., but I genuinely believe this will help make the game more attractive to recreationals. Nobody wants to see hands that last an average of 8 minutes….

5. Be nice to the dealers.

I have honestly seen some terrible dealers and some great ones, but the truth is shouting at someone while they’ve already made a mistake doesn’t usually create positive results. The dealers will make mistakes just like anybody else, and I find it best to help them while being stern without being an asshole.

Essentially, anyone reading this is playing poker pretty often, and all these measures help you play more hands per hour, which any decent player would want. These were just thoughts off the top of my head, and I’d love to hear if any of you can add more ideas to help in this regard.
Inversely, I’d be more than happy to hear counterarguments.

Some thoughts for organizers-

I know the biggest challenge you face is a lack of space and trained dealers, but please, can we start some sort of pre-online registration where I can receive an electronic version of my seating card and head straight to my seat. This seems more feasible now that we can register through our poker clients. Let’s also start diversifying schedules with a couple of different formats and more bounty tournaments as they help us save tax.

We have a lot of live poker coming up this year, and I don’t see why we can’t make this an experience that both recs and professionals can enjoy!

On a side note: If you haven`t signed up on MPL Poker yet, do sign up here and get ₹500 in rewards after completing a few simple tasks. If you are already signed up, refer your friends to win up to ₹1 Lakh in cash. Download the app now!

Good luck out there!

The post Live Poker – Thoughts appeared first on PokerGuru.

So I’ve been reading this book called ‘The Mental Game of Poker‘ by Jared Tendler, and one of the first things he tells you to do is to be aware of your emotions and reactions during a session – while involved in big crucial pots, or after a bad beat, after sucking out or taking down a big tournament – you gotta reflect on how you felt in these moments so you can then work on the undesirable reactions/emotions like tilt/frustration/entitlement, etc.

This is one of the things I’m trying to imbibe in my game. Today’s blog will be about what went on in my mind during a relatively big Friday session – with NPS SHR and other high-value tourneys being on the schedule besides the regular ones.

I did a small warm-up for the session (also something I am trying to adopt, started very recently), wrote down some thoughts and goals for the session, took a few deep breaths, put on some music, and jumped into my first few tables. Within the first 30 mins, I was on 2nd/3rd bullet in a bunch of these tournaments and was down to half SS (starting stack) in the SHR after losing a few 75-25 situations in very big pots. 3-6 months back, this would’ve been enough to tilt me/emotionally charge me enough to ruin my whole session effectively. I would probably play my B/C game and expect to keep losing high equity pots, flips, and whatnot, and I would unconsciously already write this session off as a bad one.

However, this time I didn’t let it affect me for more than 5 mins. I took the 9:25 PM break to regroup, refocus and completely reset.

“Half SS in the SHR was still 40-50bb, and that’s more than enough to work with. It is early days in the session, and it’s far from over. Having a negative reaction to losing high equity pots is normal as a human, but it’s your job to control how long that reaction lasts,” these are some of the things I told myself.

I was operating at my personal peak levels the next few hours, with almost 0 tilt, a 100% focus, and fully zoned in, in the ‘flow state.’ And personally, results good or bad; this is where I love being at. I spun stacks everywhere and took a moment to tell myself I did an excellent job by controlling my emotions and getting back in the game.

Then I busted the SHR 43rd, w 36 paid. I took a spot against a reg, and it didn’t work out. But since taking that spot is profitable, the bust out didn’t bother me much.

However, soon after this, I was involved in a massive 200bb pot (when avg stack <40bb), 10-12 away from the money, in a tournament I was chip-lead all throughout. It was a tough spot. I had an overpair in an already huge 3b pot versus a good reg and was facing a jam on the river. I knew it was very difficult to have bluffs in that spot, and the villain would have it 9/10 times. But I also felt this particular villain was capable of finding creative bluffs. My gut was screaming fold, but I leveled myself into a call and couldn’t escape the overpair. Needless to say, he had it. THIS tilted me. I don’t tilt over bad beats nearly as much as when I make big mistakes that cost a lot of EV. And this was one of them. How was I going to get to world-class levels without being able to make these big folds, especially when I know I’m almost always beat?

Being deep in a few other places, I tried my best to come out of it and focus on it later and managed to make the FT of another big tournament. On this FT with 5 left, I made what was probably the biggest blunder I have made playing MTT poker professionally. And what’s worse, I was so confident my action was right that I didn’t take more than 10 seconds before going through with it. It wasn’t right. It was so wrong that I’m tilting writing this a day later. And that was the final straw, thankfully, it was also my last table, so no games suffered because of my reactions, but I was really pissed w myself for doing this.

Felt like a massive punt. I couldn’t sleep till like 9 AM. Funny how a profitable session can be one of your most painful ones, more than when you lose heaps, lol.

And funny how the significant chunk of this session I played well and felt good; I felt proud for getting back in it after a rough start. But by the end of the session, I was feeling horrible about myself.

That’s sometimes the roller coaster of emotions this beautiful game can take you on.

Anyhow, after sleeping it off and having some time to think, I decided writing about it would help, and so here we are, and it did! What’s done is done. What’s important is to learn and move on and make sure you don’t make the same mistakes again.

That’s it for this one. Good luck on the tables

The post Behind the Scenes of a Big Friday Session appeared first on PokerGuru.

So, what is Flow State, you ask?

“When you are giving your fullest attention to an activity or task that you are incredibly passionate about, singularly focused on, and totally immersed in, you may find yourself creating the conditions necessary to experience a flow state of mind. The mind’s usual chatter begins to fade away, placing us in a non-distracted zone. The feelings that would consume you under normal circumstances (inhibition, hunger, fatigue, or aches and pains) melt away, and all that matters is your dedication to your craft.”

Today I experienced a flow state while playing poker after a long time. The key was to focus on only playing poker and nothing else. (No YouTube, Twitter, Discord, Music, etc.). I also screen-recorded my poker session with the intention of reviewing it later in order to not get “bored” and try to play every spot to the best of my ability.

It’s as if the poker tables in front of me were the only thing that existed in this world. I genuinely believe maximizing our time spent in the flow state is the key to maximizing our potential as human beings.

Flow state IMO is another word for focussing entirely on the present. It feels incredible, and I would definitely try to incorporate mindfulness in my life through meditation, etc.

That’s it. That was the blog. Try cutting out distractions in your next poker session and see if you get to experience flow state :).

The post Experiencing Flow State appeared first on PokerGuru.

The post Training appeared first on PokerGuru.

Poker is still in its early stages, and training seriously like an athlete could fetch you exponential rewards. At the same time, unlike in other sports where we have to retire by a certain age, it is possible to compete and crush at the highest levels in poker at any age if you take this game with a serious mindset. (Eg: Sam Grafton crushing online poker at 56 years old etc.)

In fact, we can always keep growing in this game; for, e.g., if you ask Dnegs if he was a better poker player when he was younger or now, he would tell you that in the present day, he is the best he has ever been.

Poker is only going to grow from here. Anyone who takes grinding and training seriously has a really bright future ahead of them with trips to all kinds of international events and getting the opportunity to inspire aspiring youngsters through their poker skills.=

I am grateful for the love and respect I received from the community in the past couple of months. To honor that, coupled with my passion for this sport, I will dedicate myself to becoming a world-class athlete through a lifestyle of extreme discipline consisting of immense focus on my poker training, health, mindset, etc. I will also put in serious effort to become a person that aspiring grinders can gain inspiration from and try to grow this beautiful mind sport in my own ways.

I have gone from 75 kgs shredded physique (before poker) to 97 kgs out of shape currently and inspired by this interview from Virat Kohli: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOAOafJcB3U

I have decided to put my fitness as my top priority. To speed up the process, I have gone on a solo trip to a hill station. I would be trekking relentlessly every day and not returning home until staying active is my habit, and I’m happy with my weight. I am a little bummed not to be playing all the FTS and INCOOP events, but I will definitely be playing as much as possible soon and maybe check out the FTS replays of FTs of top regs.

Here are many positive things are happening in the Indian poker scene right now that deserve credit:

A. Indiandurr and Worm are consistently crushing at the high stakes internationally, showing us that the poker dream is still more than alive for people that approach this game with a serious mindset.

This has really inspired me to get back seriously into the study and poker grind. I will definitely be putting more volume on the international felts once I am back into the habit of studying the solver and ICMIZER content vids, etc., like I was in 2020.

B. Voot and PSL partnering up and showing us the journeys and hardships that poker pros went through. This really helps the aspiring grinders/audience feel like they are a part of your journey and root for you which is excellent.

C. PBCI guiding weak players to become pros.

D. The budding streaming scene really helping in growing the game.

E. Live Regs (especially the bracelet winners) adding fuel to the upcoming players’ WSOP dreams. Keep crushing guys, hope to see you getting more success on the international felts.

F. Mozzie and BigggTymer being great role models for youngsters and showing us the mindset of elite athletes.

G. Stables for providing a serious training/supportive environment for promising grinders and producing successful players. Please try to look out for and provide positive value to the struggling grinders and the non-regs in the community as well, guys. Once you are loved and respected by the community as a whole, your results and experience will be even better.

More content from grinders with a serious mindset would be great.

Let’s all create a happy, passionate, and inclusive community like Brazilians have and try to outwork every other nation (Germans, Americans, etc.) to take India to the top.

It’s going to take immense hard work and sacrifices, but the sport will reward those who put in the extreme work very well. The pleasures/successes of life will taste even sweeter after you have suffered immense hardship and given it your all-in in training.

There’s no happily ever after for me personally. I will always keep working hard towards something and enjoy the fruits of hard work and sufferings in small bouts periodically. That kind of lifestyle really appeals to me and suits me.

Also, instead of being so tightly-knit and creating an echo chamber amongst regs and optimizing for helping only our friends and group members, let’s try to be people that see and do everything with an objective point of view that even the lowest stakes grinders and outsiders can connect or relate with.

GL for FTS, INCOOP, and other MTTs everyone, let’s take this beautiful mind sport to the next level and enjoy the journey along the way

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