Abhishek Goindi – A Poker Pro, Industry Insider And Mentor!

Abhishek Goindi doesn’t need any formal introduction.  At the age of just 17 when most of his classmates were watching ‘Pokemon’, this talented pro was busy honing his skills in poker. He is one of the earliest Indian pros who have been making news on the global poker circuit. Ranked among the top pros in India with a hefty $299,399 in live cashes, the Punjab Bluffers Captain has also played a key role in promoting poker in the country by mentoring new kids and preparing them for the game.

A common man, who did his graduation from Christ College, Bangalore, also worked in a bank for some time. Soon he realized his passion for the game and the result can be seen now as he is considered as one of the best Indian poker players. Mr. Goindi won the first Indian Player of the Year (IPOY) award in 2011 and since then there has been no looking back. He has been consistently performing and his consistency can be judged by the fact that he finished in the money more than 10 times in the IPC. This was by far the highest number of ITM finishes ever for any player in the IPC.

His journey began from the very first IPC edition in December 2010 when he started playing poker professionally. He finished 6th in the 25k Main Event and earned his first points on the leaderboard. He started FT as the chip leader and seemed to be quite disappointed by not performing well. However, he did not let his morale go down and the things also favored as he preceded his journey from one edition of the IPC to another, scoring deep finishes and finally bagging the IPOY Award.

Goindi, COO of the Poker Sports League (PSL), made big headlines in 2012 for winning the India Poker Legend (IPL) ME for INR 12.50 Lac at the Deltin Royale, Goa. 2012 was a break-out year for him as he won 5 live tournaments and scored over a half dozen FT finishes. It was the same year when he finished 2nd in the MPC Red Dragon Event for HK$1,056,500 ($136,303), his best live score till date.

In his career so far, Goindi has won over a half dozen tournaments. However, he is known for his High Roller wins, both in India and abroad.  Just this year in February, he won the Adda52 65K High Roller at the DPT February 2019 for INR 14,50,000. His biggest High Roller cash had come when he won the ₱ 100,000 + 8,000 buy-in High Roller for $39,773 at the APT Manila in 2012. The same year, he had also won the INR 1 Lac buy-in India Poker legend tournament for INR 16 Lac, apart from finishing 2nd runner-up in the 50K buy-in 6-Max High Roller of PokerGuru Season 2. Starting 2019 on a strong note with a win in the DPT February 2019 65K High Roller and recently finishing 52nd for $ 3,606 in the $ 600 PLO DeepStack at the WSOP, the ace player is now looking forward to playing the last DPT of 2019 where he will be up against India’s top pros to defend his High Roller title.

Goindi has mentored and helped kids throughout his career. The captain of Punjab Bluffers (PSL) has gained a lot of respect in the domestic as well as the international circuit due to his humble and helpful nature and he is a great adviser to many. He is one of the few players fighting tooth and nail to get poker legalized in India. In 2017, he along with Aditya Wadhwani made a case before the Gujrat HC judge that poker is a game of skill. Responding to the same, the judge eventually heard the pros and watched the poker videos presented by them as an evidence that poker is a mind sport.

Goindi is a very creative and content-loving pro and has produced a lot of videos to help people understand poker in a better and easier way.  His contribution to the game has been immense. Those on Instagram can show some love and follow him on https://www.instagram.com/asgoindi/.

Here is a quick look at some of his notable scores over the years: