Captain of Deccan Aces Kunal Patni Shares His Winning Mantra For the Pocket52 PSL Season 3 (Virtual)

The much-awaited Pocket52 Poker Sports League (PSL) Season 3 (Virtual) finally culminated on February 20, with the Deccan Aces captained by Kunal Patni (cover image) walking away as the champions!

A prominent name in the domestic circuit, Patni’s poker resume is dotted with multiple deep runs, both on the live and online felts. His personal-best live score came in January 2018, when he finished runner-up in the €1,500 No-Limit Hold ’em WPTDeepStacks in Berlin for $115,819. A former Adda52 Team pro, Patni also boasts an extensive online record that reflects ₹4.12+ Crores in lifetime winnings.

Patni’s poker journey took a serious turn about six years ago at the APPT Asia Championship of Poker in Macau, where he shipped the HK$2.5K NLHE Rebuy Championship for HK$176,200. Before becoming a full-time poker pro, he was a successful investment banker, having worked with top brands like Birla Sun Life Insurance, HSBC, and IIFL Wealth Management.

Patni’s skills as a poker player are well-known; he has now also proved that he is a competent leader as he has spearheaded the Deccan Aces to victory twice in the last four months. The team kicked off its winning spree even before the Poker Sports League Season 3 had begun by taking down the exhibition charity league, Virtual Poker League (VPL), last October.

The Deccan Aces lineup at Pocket52 PSL Season 3 (Virtual) comprised of:

> Vaibhav Sharma (Wildcard)

> Neel Joshi (Sponsored Player)

> Rajat Sharma & Abhishek Rathod (Pros)

> Chiraag Patel & Muskan Sethi (Hashtag Qualifiers)

> Myron Pereira & Dhirendra Kumar (Season 3 Online Qualifiers)

The team owned by Vijay Madduri and Sam Reddy started off well, placing second in the Team Rankings after Week #2 with 14,800 points. Even after Week 4, the team had retained its seat in the #2 position with 24,300 points. This ensured that the Deccan Aces and the Delhi Czars topped the team standings to directly enter the finals. The PokerDangal Kolkata Kings, Gujarat Falcons, MPL Mumbai Anchors, and Chennai Troopers were the other four teams to make it through to the finals.

The nearly month-long season culminated after Vaibhav Sharma of the Deccan Aces bested MPL Mumbai Anchors’ Akshay Nasa heads-up in the finals to secure his team the win!

PokerGuru caught up with Patni to discuss his experiences at the recently concluded PSL Season 3, the team’s winning strategy, and his plans for 2021.

The VPL Experience & the PSL Season 3 Team Selection Process

While it was the first time the PSL had donned a virtual avatar, the league did a test run with the Virtual Poker League (VPL) in October last year. Patni alluded to how the VPL acted as the perfect forerunner for PSL Season 3 (Virtual).

“The Virtual Poker League, which happened about two-month back, was like a test-run for them (PSL Team) to try and figure out if we can actually have the Poker Sports League Season 3 Virtual and how it would run. So, we had already got a very fair idea of the strategy during the test run that we did.”

He mentioned the issues that the VPL faced and how the team worked hard on resolving the glitches.

“There were some feedback and issues we had given to the PSL team, and they had obviously worked fantastically well on all the feedback and for them to manage to have such a successful PSL season 3 Virtual after that. It is the first of its kind in the world. Nobody in the world has managed to do this. And for them to pull it off, I think it’s just a great deed. You know, you can’t thank them enough for having the vision to do this and to pull it off.”

Discussing the team selection process, Patni reveals how he had chosen Vaibhav Sharma and Sriharsha Doddapaneni as the team’s wildcards. However, those plans were sent for a toss when the league was shifted online.

“As the team selection procedure goes, we were allowed to retain certain players, and we were allowed to pick up certain wildcards. The remaining players had to be chosen from a draft. So, the team strategy had to take this into account. When it came to retaining the pro, we had the option of retaining Rajat Sharma, who was the most valuable player in PSL Season 2. He did very well for us, and he has been fantastic on the online felts for the last two years.”

“In the qualifiers, we had Chiraag (Patel), who I had in our team in Season 1 and retained him for Season 2. I have full confidence in him, and I know he’s a great player. So, I retained him in the qualifier category for Season 3 also.”

“In the wildcard category, initially, we had concerns whether we were allowed one or two wildcards. I had selected Vaibhav (Sharma) and Sriharsha (Doddapaneni) to be our two wildcards. This was when PSL Season 3 was supposed to happen, the actual one. It’s about six, seven months before the pandemic started. I had already spoken to both Sriharsha and Vaibhav and already told them that it will be a wildcard. Fortunately, or unfortunately for us, Sriharsha was already chosen as a mentor for the Delhi Czars after the VPL. So, he was out, and we had to choose one. I remained with my choice of Vaibhav as our wildcard. We went ahead. “

“For the remaining team selection, frankly, what I do every time is I speak to nearly each and every one of the qualifiers, both the online and the offline qualifiers, irrespective of whether had been a qualifier in an earlier season. I spoke to all of them to get a fair idea of how each person is, their understanding of poker, how passionate they are about the game, how much they are willing to learn, and so on. It’s not only about whether the person is ranking in the top five or the top ten. Because that is not an indication of how good the person could be. So, I’ve spoken to nearly everybody on the qualifier list and created my own ranking for the qualifier list based on that. And thus, I went ahead with the selection. The pro selection was a slightly easier process because we know most of the players in the pro category,” Patni added.

On the PSL Bootcamp Experience & Decision to Let Abhishek Rathod Coach the Team Qualifiers

Patni explained that the PSL Bootcamp was a much smoother process for him this year because of Abhishek Rathod, one of the country’s most sought-after poker coaches.

“Thankfully, for me this time, the PSL bootcamp was a much easier process compared to the earlier ones because we had Abhishek (Rathod) in our team as one of the pros. Abhishek Rathod, as all of you know, is probably the number one coach in India. He has been coaching people over the last few years and doing a fantastic job of it. So, when Rathod was there as a part of the team, one of our major decisions, which we had taken earlier, was that Rathod would be the one who would be doing the coaching for the players. I had spoken to them (the team), and he (Abhishek Rathod) graciously agreed to do that. So, Rathod was the one who took care of the complete bootcamp and the coaching for the team.”

“One thing about our team is that we did not have anybody who was relatively new to the game. The other players in our team, including even (Neel) Joshi, Muskan (Sethi), Myron (Pereira), Dhirendra (Kumar), all four of them, have been playing the game for a few years. So, there was nobody who needed to do the basics of the game. And Rathod understood where our team stands, and accordingly, he did the coaching for everybody, which really helped all of us compete better. Hence, the bootcamp was totally Rathod’s baby, and I hardly had anything to contribute to that,” he confessed.

The Season 3 Experience & Winning the Championship Trophy

Sharing his experience from PSL Season 3, Patni stated how his team was off to a good start right from the get-go.

“The whole season has been excellent for us. We have been super- consistent throughout. We obviously started off with a bang, right at the takeoff event and getting some crucial points for the team, right in the beginning. Post that, if you see our run during the four weeks of the league events, you will see we were consistently in the top-two positions across the league stage. So that just speaks about the fact that we got some points every week to ensure that we have comfortably stayed in the top positions.”

Talking about his team’s unfortunate run during the Main Event, Patni said, “It was a little bit of a pressure situation for us when the Main Event, which is the final event of the league matches, was going on. Then, unfortunately, our team didn’t really do very well. It was only Chirag (Patel) who managed to get us some points. Other than that, none of us could actually get any points. Even though we were comfortably still placed second, it all came down to the heads-up between (Gaurav) Sood and (Abhishek) Goindi. Had Goindi won that event, we would have been pushed to number three. But since Sood ended up winning it, we still held onto the number two position. That was when we were rooting for Sriharsha (Doddapaneni) ’s team or rather Sood to win it, and that’s exactly what happened. Knowing that we will not be playing the semi-final and go straight to the finals was a huge relief. Because, even though you go to the semi-final with an advantage, if you are entering the finals in third place or fourth place in terms of chips, it is a significant disadvantage in terms of the number of BBs. So, our consistent performance throughout the series, the four weeks, really helped us a lot, and I was thrilled that we went straight to the finals as the number two team.”

Patni had been the most consistent player in the league, but still, he decided to have Vaibhav Sharma play the finals. Revealing the reasoning behind his decision, he said, “It wasn’t an easy decision at all, for sure. Given that I have been in a great form previously – I was the most consistent player for our team, getting the maximum number of points. I did pretty well in the VPL, couple of months back. I also played the finale SNG (VPL) and managed to win the finale SNG for our team. So, it certainly wasn’t an easy decision.”

“Moreover, in our team, we had players like Rajat Sharma, Abhishek Rathod, and Neel Joshi, so the decision was never easy about who is going to play the finale. I realized that one of my most important decision as a captain is to ensure that the best player plays for the team in the finale. And in my mind very clearly, Vaibhav (Sharma) was the better player, for sure, especially in the SNG format. He did well for us in the SNG also. He won one of the SNG that happened earlier, and we came third with the wildcard SNG that was the most difficult SNG in the series. For the last two years, he has been consistently doing so well. I just thought that I wanted Vaibhav to play for us, and that’s what I did. I asked him to play.”

“I had decided to take him as a wildcard about six, seven months back. That just speaks about the confidence that I have in Vaibhav Sharma. But the decision was a little surprising to a lot of people. I got a message from the owners (Sam Reddy and Vijay Madduri). They were like, why aren’t you playing. I explained to them – trust me and have faith in me. I have full confidence in this guy. He is the best person to play the finale. And thankfully, the owners have been wonderfully good. They didn’t put their foot down anywhere and had full confidence in my decisions, and gave me the flexibility. They basically told me that you are the captain; you know what to do best. So, we give it to you,” he added.

Having entered the finals with 75 BBs, the Deccan Aces were in a commanding position. Patni’s strategy for Sharma was to play his typical game but to grab the spots whenever possible.

“We entered the finals with 75 BBs. The shortest team came with 20 BBs. So, we had an advantage. Initially, we had that leeway to play slightly aggressively. Our plan was just to play a normal game and take the spots as and when they come. We didn’t need to go overboard. We knew that Gaurav Sood had the chip lead, and he was going to put a lot of pressure on us. Kudos to Vaibhav because he didn’t get into an ego battle at all. When Gaurav was the chip lead, there were a lot of times when Vaibhav opened and Sood 3-bet him a lot. We know how Sood plays. He is very aggressive, and he would not be betting lightly. But Vaibhav played very well throughout.”

Teams Contribution

Patni praised every single member of his team for contributing to their eventual victory. If players didn’t contribute by winning points, they stopped other teams from making headway.

“The way our team has played, Vaibhav, Rajat, Neal, Chirag, Rathod, Dhiren, and I, all of us contributed in terms of the number of points that we got for the team. Everybody got some points or the other. Muskan and the team owners might not have contributed to the points, unfortunately, even though both of them came so close on several occasions to contribute to the points. But they have managed to eliminate some of the other opponents and stop them from getting points, which is a huge, huge contribution. I’m very proud of every person’s contribution to the team’s win in his or her own way.”

“Unlike some of the other teams where one or two people got the bulk share of the points for them, only one or two players were scoring 80-90% of the points. In our team, 8 to 9 players all contributed to us getting so many points in the league stage, and then they were one or two people who unfortunately missed out on scoring points. They still have done fantastically well throughout the league to help us be there and make us a very strong team. That’s what I’m most pleased about.”

When asked who he would consider the standout performer from his own team, Patni named Vaibhav Sharma.

“It is difficult to name one as such, but if you put me on the spot and ask me to name one person, the standout performer has to be Vaibhav. I mean, the finale SNG was the toughest SNG during the whole series. And he is the person who was there in the finale. He played near-perfect poker and did not make any mistakes. I have so much respect for the game of Srihari Bang, Gaurav Sood, Akshay Nasa, Romit Advani, all of them. And if you watch the finale, they all played such a great game without giving any leeway to their opponents to take advantage of them. And in this tough finale, for Vaibhav, who had reached a stage where he nearly got eliminated with four people left, he bounced back from there. And then went on to win it. He is a standout performer for our team.”

When asked who he believes, the other teams’ standout performers were Patni named Srihari Bang, Gaurav Sood, and Akshay Nasa.

“Gaurav Sood, Srihari Bang, and Akshay Nasa, all these three. They have done extremely well for their team throughout the season and in the semi-finals. These three would definitely be my top three choices. They have done really well, and I have become a huge fan of all these three players while watching them play.”

On the Back-to-Back Victories For Deccan Aces

Patni attributes Deccan Ace’s back-to-back victories to good team selection. He said, “I would say consistently managing to get a good team – getting camaraderie in the team – everyone respecting each other in the team – getting to learn from each other at the right time. And just believing in ourselves and our ability to believe that we have it in us to go and win this. So, just all these things put together is, I guess, the reason why we managed to win back-to-back.”

The Upcoming PSL Season 3 Web Series & Expectations From the Next PSL season

Patni excitedly claimed that the PSL Season 3 web series slated to release in April will be great. “It’s going to be really huge. Whatever we’ve seen in terms of gameplay right now is only 30%, not the whole. The actual web series will have many more interviews, background stories, stories about poker players, etc. So, it’s going to be a lot of fun, and I am seriously telling all the guys who are reading this interviewed to wait eagerly for the PSL season 3 web series and watch it, as it’s going to be fantastic!”

Talking about his expectations from next season, Patni said that it’s going to be “even better.”

He further added, “That’s what the expectation is. That’s what PSL has been doing again and again from Seasons 1, 2, and 3, which have been getting bigger and bigger. Unfortunately, COVID-19 didn’t allow us to do that. So, they changed it to a charity event, and then PSL 3 was virtual. Next year, when things are going to be better, with no COVID-19 situation there, PSL season 4 will be back live, and once it’s back live, it will be more fun.”

Current Form & Plans For 2021

Discussing how having a positive mindset has helped him improve his gameplay, Patni elaborated, “I have been keeping a positive mindset over the past year, and not getting worked up too much by bad beats and coolers and tilting about it, etc. I actually got a mind coach (Karim Chelli) for myself recently, and that has helped. I have also been coached by Danish (Shaik) recently one on one. I’m no longer a part of IPP (India Poker Pros). In my mind, Danish is the best poker player in the country and a fantastic coach. And also, you know, better things are yet to come. I’ve had a decent last year. With Danish now coaching me, I expect better things in the next one year from my side.”

Talking about his future goals, “No set goals. I just don’t want to only be playing poker. I am already having a balance between my poker and breaks. So, I will be playing, taking more breaks than what I was doing earlier, playing three to four days. I just want to go and win some big titles, and I’m hoping to win. I missed out on some of the big titles even though I’ve won quite a few titles last year but maybe in the FTS series or a Millionaire or a Full House. I’m obviously keen to get my hands on one of those titles. I’ve come close to winning some of them and a lot of preparation but still managed it, and I’m hoping that that will change in 2021.”

“I’m just super happy about the fact that we won the VPL and then PSL series virtual back-to-back. For our team to do well and very frankly on both these occasions, our team on paper wasn’t recognized as one of the strongest teams. There were dark horses in both, and then just to come as a dark horse to win this, just give me a lot of joy and happiness,” added Patni on a parting note.