Poker Player Files: Rounder’s Diary by Abhinav Aditya

abhinav-aditya-poker-blogAbhinav, a Bhagalpur native and a Manipal graduate found his passion in the game of poker in his college days. He landed up in a job in Bangalore where he continued grinding the cash tables and also transforming himself into a tournament player. Abhinav aims to win all fortune, glory and fame of this poker world. In the Rounder’s Diary, Abhinav will be sharing his experiences of grinding and balancing it with the professional life he lives by day.

Dated: 5th May 2015

Before even walking into the poker room, I knew the tournament line-up was pretty tough and it was not going to be cake walk for sure. I messed up in the beginning when I lost a sizeable pot second hand of the tournament holding queens, but I got back in the gear straight away with a big bluff risking almost my tournament life. Ya, sometimes you need to. And then, I played not to lose a single hand like I play in cash games. It was all about picking up my spots and putting short stacks to the test who didn’t want to risk their tournament life as it was sort of a big buy-in tournament. And then at the end of day 1, I found myself on the final table after grinding it for almost 7 hours. I was the 5th stack and I knew I was still far away from the title. I just kept myself calm overnight as I knew the big test of tournament skill was to come the next day. With a deep structured format and a number of tournament regs on the final table, it was going to be an intense one.

The final table went on very smoothly as the short stacks getting knocked out one by one. The real test was when it was three of us left – Jasveen and Dhaval and me. I was the shorter stack and they were tournament veterans who had a huge experience of this structure. The three-way game continued and no one was ready to give up. I aimed at not losing focus for a single hand as it could be devastating. I changed my style to pretty aggressive though careful at this point because that’s what you’re supposed to do when you are playing short-handed as no one generally gets a major hand. A double-up against Jasveen boosted my stacks when we both had flush-draw on the turn and I called his shove. The river completed flush for both of us but my Ace-high beat his Jack-high. Finally, I was heads up with Dhaval which started off with both playing hyper-aggressive. I got off lucky in a pot where I made a big move on Dhaval and peeled off an eight outer on river.

It was a great feeling. It boosted my confidence and that I was able to achieve what I was so stern on winning. What started off years ago in college as a casual play and shaped up into a passion through serious cash grinds at house games and cash tables in Bangalore and Goa. I am very thankful to my friends (all my college friends) and family for the support and the faith they have in me. My dad is a doctor himself but, he took the pain to research into the game as he was worried what I am up to when I am not in office and is ok with me playing after he felt it’s not gambling but surely a skill thing.

I will be playing a lot more tournaments both domestic and international. I had some personal issues this past one and a half years but now that it`s sorted, I am all the more focused towards winning more tournaments. I assure it`s just a beginning for me and I will give it my best shot. Winning the main event has definitely attributed in boosting my confidence. I will be playing most of the domestic main events and all big buy-in tournaments in 2015 and will give the international tournaments a go next year for sure.

Abhinav Aditya will be sharing his grinding experience on OPN in this blog. Keep reading in the same space.