Heads-Up Feature: Poker High`s partypoker Main Event Package Winner Rajat Sharma Talks to Us About His Poker Story & More

Rajat Sharma
  • Profile picture
  • PG News May 15, 2017
  • 5 Minutes Read

Rajat Sharma (cover image) will soon be attending his second international series thanks to the mega satellite hosted by Poker High in association with King’s Casino Rozvadov for the PartyPoker Festival Main Event, €1 Million (7 crores approx) guaranteed event. The satellite was hosted on May 7 and included a ₹2.1 Lakhs worth package covering one seat worth ₹80k for the Main Event, 5 nights stay in the King’s Hotel, international airfare, all transfers along with visa fees and all meals.

PokerGuru spoke to Sharma who shares his poker journey, his views on the promotion and much more.

Here are the excerpts of the interview:

 

Hello Rajat, congratulations for winning the satellite to King’s Rozvadov 1 Million Euro GTD event. What are your plans for the trip?

I will leave on the first (June 1) morning and will fly back on June 6. June 2 is the Day 1C, next is Day 1D, on 4th June Day 2 will be played with the final table commencing on the fifth (June 5). (Day 1 A & B have already taken place on Party Poker online). It’s only one event with a massive 7 crores guaranteed, 1,100 Euro buy-in and you can fire unlimited bullets.

 

Please tell a little bit about yourself.

I am an MBA from Narsee Monjee, Mumbai and I have been working in private banking for more than a decade now. I was born and brought up in Calcutta, where I did my primary schooling & graduation. I shifted to Mumbai for my MBA & since then have worked in various cities, Allahabad, Agra & now based out of Delhi. I majored in marketing while doing my MBA and by chance got into private banking. Having worked with Kotak, RBS & IIFL, I am currently employed by Edelweiss in their wealth management practice.

Poker is something, which I play when I have time or rather I take out time to play poker.

 

How did you come across the sport?

I started how typically most players start poker in India, one starts off with Zynga Poker and then you graduate to house games with friends. I came across a tournament, which was supposed to happen in Deltin JAQK in September of 2014 they were providing free accommodation and tickets for people who are interested in playing so I just travelled to Goa. It was my first tournament experience & something that I will remember for a long-long time, the sheer thrill & excitement. I hardly knew anything about poker at that time. I played two events in that series and stone bubbled the Main Event.

It is obviously disappointing when you stone bubble an event but then I decided to take it as a positive with that and decided to put in some hard work to improve my game.

Soon enough came another opportunity to try my hand at live tournament poker in Dec 2014 in Bangalore with the Tilt Poker Series where I ended up winning the Main Event, So that’s how my journey started and I thought maybe I can make some money playing poker and doing what I love (Chuckles).

Now I play almost all live tournaments in Goa. I think I have played all IPC events in 2015-2016 Final Tabling 3 or 4 Main Events in that period and final tabled one BPT Main Event which also happened in Goa, though I’m still looking for my first big live score. Maybe the Party Poker Main Event can change that. (Chuckles)

Online tourney I have been fairly successful where I have won multiple events on multiple websites.

 

You are primarily an active tournament player and have notable scores both live and online. Do you just stick to tournaments or play cash games as well?

Cash games – I have a bunch of friends who get together once in a week to play some social/fun poker. I play some cash games online as well, primarily Pot Limit Omaha, but I have not been able to put in volumes because honestly, I don’t have time. So even though I would like to put in long hours the only day when I put in the grind is on Sunday for various tournaments I play across various sites.

 

What do you prefer, live or online and why?

I prefer live games because not only they are very fun to attend but you also get catch up with players whom you are otherwise only connected by Social Media. Even though I prefer playing live you cannot take away the fact that the amount of volumes you can put in as an online player. Hence every Sunday I put in hours and make sure that I’m grinding all the tournaments that have good value.

Internationally, I have only played one event that was APT Cambodia. This will be my second international tournament like I have never been to any Macau or Manila tournaments the reason being that if you want to attend such a series, you need to take out 10 to 15 days from your schedule that I really can’t afford. Those are slightly longer series and I can’t manage to take that much time for playing poker. If I am able to take a 10-day off then I will prefer to spend it with my family for vacation rather than going somewhere to play poker.

 

What are your views on the structure and format of the Satellite hosted on Poker High? How was the experience?

I have been playing for a while on Poker High and in fact I final tabled the 1st or 2nd Remonetizer tournament as well and I think their structure is just amazing. Like even in the late stages of the tournament there is so much of playability left in the game, it doesn’t get very shallow and be like push/fold like the other tournaments on other websites. In terms of structure, I think Poker High is much better than what we have been getting in India so far.

I had a great experience playing the satellite. I think in the tourney I picked my spots quite well. In one of the key hands on the final table I got a massive double up from the chip leader with top set vs top pair. It was when I realized that I am in a good shape to ship this baby.

I think such satellites are great for the game of poker in a growing ecosystem like India as it allows the player to rub shoulders with the best in the world at fraction of cost, something which otherwise their bankroll would not allow. In terms of learning it is a huge opportunity and I thank Poker High for providing us with one.

.

What are your plans for the event in Kings Casino? What are your expectations from the event?

Well in short I hope to win it. The idea will be to play solid poker and hope for the positive side of variance because in tournaments variance can be a killer. If I play good poker and remain on the positive side of variance then I see no reason why I can’t win it. I’m planning to fire maximum three or four bullets. So, one buy-in is covered under this promotion and maybe two more if required.

 

What’s your grinding schedule now?

There is no fixed grinding schedule as such, so once every week or once every 10 days I along with my friends play some cash games. They are not regulars but the games are still very competitive with a lot of fun & beer. Ha Ha.

Maybe twice a week I will grind online playing some tournaments or cash games, the biggest part of my schedule or the biggest day is Sunday where I make sure that I am playing all the good events on Indian websites and probably if I can manage time the next day then I probably play the PokerStars Sunday Million. I normally start playing at around 8pm when the tournaments start and then play the whole schedule starting from anything like 5000 buy-in to like 11,000 which is I think is the maximum buy in tournaments on Indian websites unless there is a special event. There is no fixed schedule as such apart from Sunday, so wherever there is no family event, I grind the entire schedule.

 

Please tell us about your family’s understanding of the game.

Well my wife is not very fond of me playing poker but she sure is very understanding. Whatever little success I have is because of her support. When it comes to my parents, I will share an interesting story so when I won the Tilt Poker Main Event in Bangalore and I came back with a decent amount of cash so my mom told me that you’re going to Bangalore to gamble what are you doing in life, but now they have also come to the terms with the fact that Poker is not gambling and there is a certain element of skill that is involved along with luck. So now when they are reading about interesting things like PSL which will glorify the sport at the same time, they do realize that this is definitely a game of skill and not gambling and a lot of hard work goes into it, So from being skeptical they have become quite encouraging.

 

How do you go about improving your game?

I take advise from a lot of good player like Abhishek Rathod, Arsh Grover, Sharad Rao, Sahil Agarwal. I do put in a lot of effort in reviewing my hand history where I try to analyze the spots which did not work for me and how I could have improved and made a better decision. There is a lot of self-assessment that goes into the game.

 

What are your future plans? Any set goals?

When it comes to poker, the answer will be no as I like to take each day as it comes and there is no set goal that I want to earn this much or something. So, there is no particular goal but yea I will keep taking out time to play and try to play the best I can. Maybe try to play these kinds of satellites and maybe take a trip to that particular event but for now poker is not the priority and whatever time I get after my job and my family responsibilities, I devote to poker.

 

Any parting words or anything you would like to add?

May the flop be with you. Good Luck & see you at the tables.

0 0 votes
Article Rating

Related Players

Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Top Online Poker Rooms

Top
PokerGuru