Spotlight: PokerGuru Online Champion 2014 – Vishal Surana

Vishal Surana
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  • PG News December 25, 2014
  • 4 Minutes Read

Vishal Surana claims ₹1 Lakh as PGOL Season 3 ‘Player of the Series’ prize money!

35-year old Kolkata born, Vishal “wishcool” Surana (cover image) topped the PokerGuru Online League Season 3 leaderboard on Adda52.com and was crowned the ‘PokerGuru Online Champion 2014′. Surana bags the prestigious title along with the mouth watering ₹1 Lakh cash prize, sponsored by Adda52.com.

Now in its 3rd year, this edition of the PGOL was by far the most exciting, with larger prize pools and huge turnouts. Keeping in mind ease of making deposits for Indian players, this season of PGOL was hosted on adda52, and every quarter had an additional ₹50,000 in prize money for the top performers of the quarter. Besides, a further grand prize of ₹1 Lakh for the PGOL Season 3 ‘Player of the Year’ Champion who would also be crowned as the PokerGuru Online Champion 2014.

Surana, now working out of Pune, joins Season 1 and 2 winners, Kolkata’s Shawn ‘slammyjammy’ Chatterton and Visakhapatnam’s Phalgun ‘Phalgun27’ Korikana on the PGOL history books.

PokerGuru had a small tete-a-tete with Surana, where he shared his experience. Clearly, Surana is one of those players, who strongly believe that skill plays the major role in poker. His answers about his performance in this tournament reveal, that he is a focused and strategic player. Talking about the last quarter, he mentions, how he tightened up his game and played steadily that helped his top the leaderboard.

Like most others, Surana too, started his poker journey with Zynga poker on Facebook and rues the fact that his parents are yet to approve of his passion for the game, which they consider as mindless gambling.

Here we reproduce the dialogue; we had with our latest winner…

 

Congratulations Vishal, on winning the PGOL Season 3 ‘Player of the Series’ title. How does it feel to be crowned the PokerGuru Online Champion 2014?

It feels really good to be the PokerGuru Online Champion 2014, and I really want to thank PokerGuru and adda52 for organizing such a great event, looking forward to the PokerGuru series in 2015.

 

Tell us a little bit about yourself…

I am 35 years old B.COM graduate for Kolkata, currently working in the BPO industry in Pune.

 

How did you get into poker and since how long have you been playing the game?

My journey with poker began when I first discovered this game on Facebook`s Zynga poker, almost 5 years back.

 

What was your parents’ reaction when you decided to play poker?

For my parents any card game where money is involved is pure gambling and they fail to understand the difference between poker and teen patti. So far, they have not been very supportive and happy about me playing poker.

 

Do you also play live poker? If yes, where do you normally play – homegames or casino, games/stakes and do you have a circuit of friends who play with you?

Yes, I love playing live poker, especially tournaments. I prefer playing at casinos in Goa and so far have played, only at the erstwhile Casino Royale. I have played IPS and the IPC tourneys in Goa.

 

What do you prefer – live or online poker and what is your preferred site for playing online?

I prefer playing live to online and I only play on Adda52 as of now.

 

Coming back to the PGOL, did you have any game plan or strategy during the course of the series that helped you win? Any particular player/s who you thought were a threat to you for the title?

I was at 5th position till the 3rd quarter, so I focused hard on the last quarter and played a tight game to ensure that I went deep in every tourney. The idea was to get consistently good scores in each tourney. Also, the rebuy and final add-on format helped me a lot. Two players who were really close to me were ‘Shaksam’ and ‘Dhanimadak’. Both are very good players and were a constant threat to me.

 

What do you think of the PGOL and the structure? Do you have any suggestions for us for the next Season of PGOL?

I really like the structure of PGOL and I hope the same one continues. The rebuy and final add on structure is really good, as it boosts the prize pool and makes the tourney a little deep stacked.

 

How do you think winning the PGOL ‘Player of the Series’ title will change your poker game? Do you feel more confident now playing online?

Winning this title has surely boosted my confidence and I am looking forward to playing more online as well as live tourneys and build a good bankroll for cash games.

 

Do you have a player you look up to? If you were given a chance to get mentored by a Poker player who would it be?

I really look up to Aditya ‘Intervention’ Agarwal. He is one of the best tournament players in India both online as well as live. It will be an honor to get mentored by Aditya Agarwal.

 

Do you believe luck is a factor in poker, and do you have any rituals to avoid bad luck?

Luck certainly has its role to play and that is why we get bad beats sometimes, but I would say it is only 20 % luck and the rest 80 % is skill. I have no rituals whatsoever.

 

Any parting words or any other comments?

I hope the PokerGuru series on Adda52 gets bigger and better, with higher guaranteed prize pool and more and more players joining in the action!

 

Congratulations once again, Vishal!

Heartiest thanks to all members for participating in the PokerGuru Online League and we will return soon with yet another exciting Season of PGOL next year!

Till then, good luck and keep winning!

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