Like many other businessmen in the country, India’s ace player and Adda52 Team Pro Amit Jain from the commercial city of Mumbai has a deep love and passion for the game of poker. Playing poker for the last 8 years, he has several big wins and cashes under his belt across prestigious domestic and international poker events. He travels to various parts of India and the world to compete in various acclaimed poker festivals such as WSOP, WPT, APT, APPT, MPC and DPT Goa.
Amit fetched his career’s best score $38,840 by winning the recently held 75K High Roller at DPT September 2017 in Goa. Before this, he finished 14th for$ 27,714 in $ 1,111 No Limit Hold’em Little One for One Drop at 47th WSOP 2016, Las Vegas. He gained huge media attention in 2015 when he won a No Limit Hold’em Event at APT Philippines, Manila. His 75K High Roller victory at DPT Goa was by far the biggest win and has taken his total live earnings to a respectable $206,581.
OPN India had an online interview with the ace poker player – Amit Jain wherein he shared his feelings about his win in DPT High Roller, overall poker experience and future plans.
Here are the excerpts of Amit’s interview:
1.Hello Amit, first of all congratulations on winning DPT High Roller Event September 2017! For our readers, please tell us when you did you get into poker and how did you make your first bankroll?
Amit- Hey thanks. I have been playing poker for the last 7 to 8 years and professionally since the day I got the Adda52 sponsorship deal around 3 years ago from now. At the start, I never really made my bankroll from poker. I was a businessman fish who was fascinated by the game and lost regularly, if you see my sharkscope graph. I lost close to 40-50K USD off the bat, but I kept learning and improving my game and soon tables started turning for me. And now if you see my graph, it’s beautiful.
2.Coming back to DPT High Roller, how does it feel after shipping such a big event after a long time?
Amit- It was for sure a very special moment to win a live MTT after almost 18 months (after Manila). It was a relief. I was never really under too much pressure to get a win or something because I have become a full time cash game player in the last 2 years and play tournaments only during DPT and WSOP events. To be honest, it feels more of a relief for the well wishers around me- my friends, my fellow pros and of course my wife. They all have been supporting and motivating me really hard.
3.Please describe your journey through DPT High Roller. Any special and key hands?
Amit- I think, the journey was surprisingly smooth. I went pole to pole from the start till we got 3 handed and then it become very swingy, but I was lucky enough to win the important flips.
The most interesting hand was against Sahil where he limped from the small blind and I checked with 10–2 off in the big blind on flop 10-7–2. He bet and I called. The turn was 10. Now he checked but I picked up a physical tell that he was strong. I thought maybe he had some over pockets or something big, so I over-bet the turn with a full house and he called. The river 9 he checked, I jammed 560K into 500K and he snap called. He had a 10. It was a cooler for him but I did well in picking up the tell.
This hand is available on the final table stream and I would recommend people to watch this final table replay, as there were some very good players like Danish Shaikh, Sahil Agarwal and Jaydeep Dawer on the final table and that is why I think I played close to my best in this tournament.
4.What do you think was the toughest hand in this tournament?
Amit- When I opened with A–K and Jaydeep Bhaiya 3bet at the final table. I was the chip lead at that time and was opening a lot but Jaydeep Bhaiya was perfectly capable of putting reverse pressure on me. So, that was like the toughest spot I had to face. I was not able to decide whether I should 4bet to get it in or just flat and take it from there. Fortunately, I decided to flat and I check-folded on Q-7–7 flop. He had Q–Q.
5. Who do you think was your toughest opponent at the final table?
Amit- It was definitely Sahil Agarwal by far-the guy is just too good. Danish Shaikh could have been a tough opponent too but fortunately he never got things going his way on the final table.
6.You beat Sahil Agarwal in heads-up battle. Can you describe your heads up game play?
Amit- Well, heads up lasted one hand. Sahil had 15BB and we got it in with 22 vs k10o and I held.
7.Do you have any rituals the night or morning before a tournament?
Amit– To be honest, not too much but one thing that I make sure is to eat very light during a tourney breaks. I think that’s utmost important because you want to keep your focus 100% on the table to pick up spots or pick up tells. You cannot afford to be lazy or too full during a tourney.
8.Who are the best live poker players in your opinion and why?
The list is pretty long and most of them are my closest buddies, but I will put my top 3 here:
- Aditya ‘intervntion’ Agarwal
- Aditya Sushant
- Raghav Bansal
I think Raghav’s game has improved drastically.
9.How do you spend your time when not playing poker?
Amit- I spend time with family. Mostly, it’s shopping with them or playing cricket with my son.
10. What are your future plans in live and online poker ahead?
Amit- Focusing on online cash games for now and then WPT India followed by WPT Berlin.
11.Finally, any advice or suggestion for the aspiring poker players in India?
Amit- Study. Study. Study.
Thanks for your time and good luck for the rest of tournaments in DPT and WPT India ahead!