In Conversation With Shashwat Agarwal – The Man Behind The 1 Crore GTD Mahjong Aquarium Poker Championship

Shashwat Agarwal
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  • PG News January 21, 2017
  • 4 Minutes Read

Despite the fact that it had legal sanctions for poker, Kolkata has always accommodated the sport thanks to intrepid entrepreneurs such as Shashwat Agarwal, who is also a player himself. In fact, in March 2016, he won the first-ever Kolkata Poker Championship (KPC) after defeating a player-field of 58 runners for ₹4.35 Lakhs.

Shashwat has been behind one of the city’s oldest poker rooms, BG Poker Room, which he later re-launched in mid-2016 as the Aquarium 7 Poker Room. He was also one of the key people behind the inaugural Rounders Poker Championship in October last year, collaborating with Mayank Agarwal and Manish Jhunjhunwala of the Chambers Poker Room. The festival was a hit with record turnouts and all guarantees expanded.

Now, Shashwat is readying for his latest venture – the Mahjong Aquarium Poker Championship that will run from January 25 to 29 at the Mayfair Resorts and Casino, Gangtok (Sikkim), with a massive ₹1 Crore in guarantees.

This time around Shashwat has Team PokerHigh Pro Kanishka Samant and Purba Rinzing of Casino Mahjong, along with Mayank Agarwal as partners and already the upcoming event has created a buzz among players, with the series already looking to break all previous records for any tournament ever held in Eastern India.

PokerGuru caught up with Shashwat to learn more about the new Mahjong Aquarium Poker Championship, and about this avid poker-entrepreneur – what brought him here and more!

 

Hi Shashwat! Not many people know how close you are to your family. Tell us about them.

I would start by saying that the biggest and the strongest pillar is my life is my mother. It is the support and confidence that she has shown in me that has helped me reach where I am today in this industry (with a long-long road ahead of me).

I was an average student with an average life style, I started working at the age of 16 years, and tried my hands at various fields and industries – worked with my uncle in his timber mill, wholesaling of clothes, opened my own shop, dealt with property, trading of leather etc. I struggled to find anything concrete for myself but I always had this urge of doing something different, something that brings a twinkle to my eyes and the thing that makes me stop and say, “This is it.”

I love my wife, Mridula, and son, Samridh who bear with me in the odd hours & my irrational behavior at times. It is the support of my family and friends that will take me ahead and make me reach where I want to be.

 

How did you come across the sport of poker? Please take us through the journey starting from being a player primarily to venturing in the industry as an operator.

While working at my shop Mushroomz, end of 2007, I started playing poker on Zynga Poker. Soon I started playing the game on a regular basis to an extent where I was buying and selling ‘play chips’. A few of my friends who knew about my inclination towards the game told me about games running at Spring Club in Kolkata. I started playing these games on a regular basis, winning and losing with it. After a couple of years i.e. mid-2010, I started renting out my apartment to players for playing and charged them ₹3,500 per day. The day my son was to be born, I was in need of money, which was the first day I ran my own ₹1K game, the support of the players (especially Varun Agarwal and Siddharth Nahata) helped me get through this difficult time. There my journey an operator began!

 

Your poker room was among the earliest rooms in Kolkata to host big guarantee events and it’s been more than seven years with different ventures and partnerships over the years, including your stint at the Amator Poker Room. Then you started with BG Poker room, which got re-launched as Aquarium7 Poker Room and now the launch of Aquarium Poker Championship. Please take us through the journey.

In order to know about my journey as an operator, you have to know about the guy who taught me all this, Diddy Thackker. Diddy used to run games in Spring Club, when he got to know that I had rented my apartment to players for playing, he approached to rent my apartment, at that time I had another spare flat, which I rented to him for his games, and that was when my real journey as an operator began.

I started following Diddy on a day-to-day basis and learnt a lot from him about the game and the business of running a successful poker table. A two year learning curve with Diddy made me witness a lot of ups and downs, after which we were approached by Vipin Chowdhry (owner of the first poker club, in Kolkata, AMATOR) to help him run Amator successfully.

Vipin was a man with vision; it was he who opened my eyes to the opportunities in poker, in 2013. He had told me where poker in Kolkata would reach and where he wanted to see poker at, it was he who broadened my perspective about poker, and today I can see it reaching there.

At Amator we planned for the first cash event festival in Kolkata, for which I decided to visit Gangtok, Mahjong Casino, and there I meant Phurba Rinzing Sherpa. Meeting Phurba was an experience that I will cherish always, just seeing him run events at his casino gave me so much insight as to how the events can be run and how important is it to pay attention to small details, this insight gave me an advantage to run not just one but three successful cash game events in Amator.

At the end of 2014, I started BG Poker Room; it was the first time I was running everything on my own, the dos and don’ts and the yes and nos. Running games on an everyday basis and trying to give the best facilities and environment to the players. In order to provide the best to the players I renovated BG Poker Room and re-launched it as Aquarium7. It was under the banner of Aquarium7 where I did an event The Greed, ₹10 Lakhs guaranteed event, which opened many more doors for me.

 

Your tournament journey skyrocketed with the Rounders Poker Championship, which was a resounding success. How has the experience been?

After Greed, and the response from the players, I thought, this could be made bigger and better. During an informal and healthy conversation with Kanishka Samant and Mayank Agarwal, this thought became more of a reality, with their help we launched Rounders, and tried to make it a success.

 

You, Kanishka Samant, Purba Rinzing of Casino Mahjong and Mayank Agarwal, with the Mahjong Aquarium Poker Championship announced the massive INR 1 Crore guaranteed prize pool. What roles do these other partners play in the venture?

The four of us are running a very effective collaboration, effective so because, we get the inputs from all the verticals of the industry, Kanishka and Mayank give the players’ perspective, Phurba highlights the Casinos’ point of view, and me being a player-cum-operator can understand both and bring it all together.

Let’s just say that we are four like-minded people, with different attributes, and a common goal, to see poker in India reach heights that it can and one that any sport or a game of skill deserves.

Kanishka Samant, Phurba Rinzing and Shaswat Agarwal
Kanishka Samant, Phurba Rinzing and Shaswat Agarwal

How is the collaboration with Phurba Rinzing of Casino Mahjong? Please elaborate.

As mentioned earlier, Phurba and me, we go way back, and it was back then, when we decided that we will do something big, so here it is, Mahjong Aquarium Poker Championship, 1Cr guaranteed prize money.

 

What are your expectations from the event? How many players are you expecting and how many have confirmed their plans?

We expect this series to change the face of poker in India; a minimum of 120-125 registrations is expected of which we have already received confirmation for over 100 entries.

 

The Mayfair Resort is a luxurious property – why did you choose Gangtok as the next destination for poker tournament? What are the other fun activities to do at the venue and in Gangtok?

I have always had a very close association and liking for Gangtok (Mahjong Casio), and having organized events at this venue a number of times before, I share a very high level of comfort for this venue.

 

Any other locations planned for Aquarium Poker Championship this year? Will we see this stop travelling to other locations in India/abroad?

It’s for us to know and you to find out J

 

You travel frequently with regular pros and friends to play in several venues. Any key takeaways from playing in different venues? Does that help with choosing your ventures and destinations and deciding structures/format?

Travelling with different people from the industry has made a big impact in my thought process. I have met Rajat & Aditya Agarwal, Kanishka Samant, Ugen Ladaki, Mithun Rebello, Jasven Saigal, Vikram Verma, and other such Pros of the industry while travelling for the games and their inputs and understanding has helped me understand the game and the industry better. The knowledge I get during these trips is priceless.

I would also like to thank Shawn Chatterton, Anil Adiani, Sailesh Lohia, Aditya ‘Bitti’ Agarwal, Jacky and Arjun Singh for their valuable guidance and support! My life is a lot easier because of Nikhil Jalan and Roshan Jain who now look after the cash games at Aquarium 7 Poker Room, giving me the freedom to plan and promote the upcoming MAPC.

Shaswat Agarwal with Roshan Jain
Shaswat Agarwal with Roshan Jain

What key differences do you find in tournaments organized in international and domestic circuit?

Bigger crowds, bigger guarantee and better professionalism.

 

Online poker has been flourishing in the last few years in India with several operators entering with their platforms. What’s your take on it? Do you plan to venture into an online venture anytime soon?

Online Poker has a huge scope ahead, and with demonetisation more and more players will turn to online gaming, it is the future. As far as me venturing into online is concerned, I don’t think it’s the right time to talk about it, with time we will see.

 

Please tell us your views about the current scenario of poker in India? How do you see the future of poker in India?

I think slowly poker is being accepted as a game of skill and is not socially downsized, and in future I think it will be accepted by all as a sport and played by all without any hurdles.

 

PokerGuru wishes Shashwat and the team behind the Mahjong Aquarium Poker Championship a great run and as official media partners, we will be bringing you all the updates from the series right from ground zero. Stay tuned for exciting announcements and more updates!

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