In Conversation With FTS 2.0 Main Event Champion – Young Gun Siddharth Karia

Siddharth Karia
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  • Namita Ghosh March 23, 2021
  • 5 Minutes Read

29-year old Siddharth Karia is the most recent in a growing legion of Young Guns to hit a massive score relatively early this year. The Bengaluru resident pulled off a stunning victory in the FTS 2.0 Main Event last week, where he ran past a stacked 622-entry field to win the most coveted of all the 18K diamond-studded Champions Medallion awarded by Spartan Poker at the series. Not to forget the whopping ₹32.26 Lakhs cash prize that he bagged after striking a heads-up deal with Avinit Bagri!

This MBA graduate from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, is surprisingly unfazed by all the attention he is getting after the win. As he admits himself, there was a time when he was “in the race” to “not miss out,” but not anymore.

The last time we did a cover feature on Karia was his Young Gun story in June 2019. We had touched upon several chapters of his life then, but what stuck out was his professional sports background. Karia has represented Gujarat in the state-level cricket tournaments, both in the under-15 years and under-17 years category. While his cricket aspirations didn`t prosper, poker is an altogether different story. Circa 2019, Karia was not yet a full-time poker pro but was close enough, displaying all the telltale signs of becoming one. He finally made the switch in November 2019.

Usually, this paragraph would not make the intro, but I will slide this in being the TV buff that I am. Everyone in the poker community knows Karia by his online moniker “schemer,” but if you didn`t notice, he won the FTS Main Event under another screenname, ‘Ari Tibbiani.’ I would venture a guess that it’s a combination of his two favorite TV show characters, Entourage’s Ari Gold and Friends’ Joey Tibbiani.

This exuberant young “schemer” is also a dreamer and has dabbled in creative exploits like poker streaming. Poker is not the only passion he intends to follow; for him, the canvas is wide enough to chase other dreams. Will that be cricket coaching or starting a new creative outlet for poker?! With his penchant for being instinctive, Karia will likely surprise us.

While it was tough getting in touch with Karia (which explains the delay of this interview) after his win, our perseverance bore fruit. I had a long chat with him to fill in the details of all that he has been up to since the last time we spoke. The conversation obviously steered around his FTS 2.0 Main Event victory, his immediate plans, and his poker streaming exploits. Here are the excerpts from our conversation.

 

Winning the FTS Main Event

Karia’s FTS 2.0 Main Event victory had to be the starting point of the conversation. The seven-figure score pushed Karia to the top of the weekly charts while helping him crack the top-five on the March leaderboard. I was taken aback when Karia told me that he initially couldn’t muster enough motivation to grind the entire series.

Siddharth Karia
Siddharth Karia

 

Emphasizing his lack of motivation to play, Karia said, “I decided not to play till I feel hungry.”

The first FTS 2.0 tourney he registered for was the FTS Head Hunter on Saturday, the same event he had won at the series’ inaugural run last year. A deep run in the Head Hunter warmed him up nicely for the Main Event. He played Day 1A but couldn’t advance. Coming back for Day 1B, he made it through as one of the top stacks.

Elaborating on his Main Event run, Karia said, “I was lucky enough to be consistently in the top 10 on Day 2, and actually started focusing more when I made it to the final two tables. I knew that there’s going to be a mad rush to make it to the live-streamed FT, so I tried to take advantage of that.”

Karia netted a jaw-dropping ₹32.26 Lakhs for the win, but he has already set his sights on bigger goals. “It definitely feels terrific to have won a major title but to be honest, I’ve undergone a major mindset change in the past couple of months, where I’m focusing more on enjoying the game and playing it my way than worrying about racking up scores. I’m happy that it’s a box ticked, but then there’s another box and a bigger score I’d like to be chasing soon.”

 

FT Run and HU Showdown With Avinit Bagri

Karia entered the FT third in chips, and the extra day for the live-streamed FT gave him the breathing space he needed to ace the tourney. Hinting as much, Karia said: “Usually, you don’t get the time to think between a tournament and a final table, but because the final eight were going to play on Monday, I got thinking – we are 3 of 8, what if we end up winning the tournament? It was me just thinking it through, so I sort of played it out in my head before the FT started, and when it happened, it wasn’t very overwhelming.”

Siddharth Karia
Siddharth Karia

 

“Aatman’’ (Anujkumar Kodam) was the chip leader, and he’s a reg, so I was kind of focusing on him, assuming that he might open a little more. “Nkush” was another one to look out for since he was unconventional. But then the stacks got very shallow very quickly, and I mainly was trying to navigate the depth of the stacks.”

He was a considerable underdog to Avinit Bagri when the heads-up began, but Karia was unfazed. “I’m not a very good HU player, but over the last few months, I have FT-ed a bit and played heads-up, so I was confident of my heads-up game. Plus, I had nothing to lose since I started out with only 10-12 bigs – he had way more chips.”

The prize money aside, there were other considerations as well once he reached the heads-up finale. Underlining them, he said, “The diamond medallion plays a big role since it has value and comes into the ICM consideration as well. Things started flowing for me after a while in the heads-up.”

Karia closed in on Bagri’s commanding chip lead in record time, but the latter was still chip leading when he asked Karia to check the numbers. The heads-up went on for a bit before the duo locked in a deal.

 

“Schemer” Loves Scheming

Karia was introduced to poker by his elder brother while still in school. However, he started playing the game more seriously only in college while completing his BBA at Symbiosis (Pune). It was the scheming and strategy aspect of poker that intrigued him the most.

Leisure trip to Jibhi, Himachal
Leisure trip to Jibhi, Himachal

 

“I feel I’m now going back to the basics of what had intrigued me about poker. When you scheme in life, play mind games with others, it’s not really considered an ethical thing to do in life. But here’s a mind game that involves you playing with yourself and against people using strategies, a sport where your job is to scheme. That’s what attracted me at the beginning, and it is what fascinates me about poker even today.”

 

Turning Full-Time Pro – The Switch

The last time we spoke to him in June 2019, Karia was a serious poker player but not a full-time pro yet. And no, he didn’t wake up one fine day and decide to go pro. But if he had to give a date to when he made the switch, it would be the November of 2019.

“While I was juggling multiple other things around that time, I was probably devoting more time to grinding and studying the game. I treated poker as if I was playing for a living and was getting good results. The November of 2019 was when I stopped all my other ventures and decided to only play,” he says, remembering that for him, the transition was very smooth.

“I was already in a good space in terms of poker. It turned out to be a good decision for me.”

Turning away from his family business was tough initially, but his parents have been supportive of his decision.

“I think it’s important for players to keep their parents in the loop. I’m proud of the fact that I constantly discussed my plans with them through the process of considering to play full-time to actually turning into a full-time poker pro.”

 

Poker During the Pandemic

Apart from missing his regular coffee-shop hangouts and traveling, 2020 was fantastic for Karia.

Ski trip to Gulmarg
Ski trip to Gulmarg

 

“I have been blessed in a way. Every year I have peaked and gone better. And 2020 was no different in that way, but at the same time, great things happened in my personal and professional life.”

Always the sportsman, Karia used to play squash regularly before the pandemic. He started home workouts during the lockdown and moved over to cycling in the winters. Recently, he has been meditating and occasionally gymming.

Unlike most other regs, Karia intentionally chose to sidestep the mad rush of tournaments during the initial lockdown months. “It was a year when I decided to slow down the pace of life. Because I was focusing on my personal life, my mindset for poker wasn’t there at all. I was grinding, but I wasn’t putting in mad volumes.

“Whenever any major tournament series starts, I felt the pressure of playing more. However, I soon realized that my focus should be on enjoying the game I play and not pushing too many events in my week.”

 

Working on His Game & Grind Schedule

Even though Karia has gone through some of the paid strategy subscriptions like Raise Your Edge (RYE), he prefers self-study.

“I haven’t gone through solvers yet—most times, it’s self-study. I’m guilty of not reviewing many hands, but I do take detailed notes on the spot, on the players, and the hands played. With things related to mindset, I speak with my friend, Mahipal Vala.

He also feels interacting with different players has helped him grow as a player. “During my first PSL, I remember sending my hands to Vivek Rughani,he recalls. Karia has since then been interacting with many other poker players like Prabhat Mukherjea, Vishal Madan, and Joey Saha.

But the Young Gun has eased down considerably on his grind schedule. “Earlier it was Monday break – Saturday half-day, and grind all other days. Then there was a rush of mad scores. I played a lot, especially during the IOPC and the other big series.”

Now he prefers playing only a few days a week, including Sundays. “I prefer to go with the flow, make it instinctive, rather than forced. I feel that if you’re in a good mindset, that’s when you want to play, and the results follow automatically.”

 

First Brush With Live Poker & PSL

Discounting the random Goa trips when he hit the casinos with friends to play cash games, Karia’s first brush with live poker was in October 2016. He had arrived in Macau for a friends’ bachelor party only to walk into the casino (Grand Lisboa), hosting the Asian Championship of Poker (ACOP).

Poker Sports League
Poker Sports League

 

“We discovered that there were four hours left for the tournament to start, so we decided to come back, agreeing that if any of us cashed out, we’d give 10% to each other. I hadn’t played poker for a couple of years, but I ended up placing second!” This was the HK$3K NLHE Superstack tourney, and Karia collected HK$41,010 for his runner-up finish.

Karia’s first international poker outing turned the wheels for him. A few months later, he played the online qualifiers for PSL Season 1 and was drafted by the Goan Nuts.

My ACOP runner-up finish possibly had a major role to play in this, since till then I’d not even played online. It was as if it was destined to be.”

Karia has played for the Goan Nuts in all three PSL seasons and the inaugural Virtual Poker League. He credits the experience with shaping him into a better player.

“It’s an excellent platform which allows young players to rub shoulders with the best players in the world. It’s so well structured and competitive, there’s money in the game, and there’s so much fun while you scheme and strategize to win.”

 

Poker – Live or Online?

Karia enjoys live poker just as much as the online grind.

“Live poker is more entertaining and fun – you socially interact with others, one-table the event, there’s the tell aspect.”

But the online play is equally engaging, he adds. “You can play so many tables at the same time. The fact that the variance is so low online is what makes it a beautiful deal. Online poker could help you keep building the bankroll, play bigger games, and be a good gateway to live poker. Going forward, I’ll be focusing equally on live and online poker.”

As for his immediate live poker plans, Karia said: “Though I skipped the DPT Xpress, the numbers at the series were crazy this time! I’ll be there for the next Baazi Poker Tour (BPT) stop.”

 

Poker Streaming – A Fun Experiment!

Poker streaming became a rage during the lockdown, and Karia was among the many budding streamers to jump on the bandwagon last year. And Karia was a natural. He steamed PokerBaazi Tuesday MTTs diligently for several months.

“Streaming began for me as an experiment – just a fun, creative outlet during the lockdown months when online poker was becoming a little monotonous. I did enjoy my run in streaming, but now I’m not currently streaming.”

Even though streaming doesn’t figure in his immediate plans, Karia has other things in the pipeline.

“My (streaming) experience was wonderful. I’m now looking to exploring another creative outlet for poker, where I can create poker content involving me interacting to get non-poker players into poker. It’s still very early to give more details, though!,” he said, keeping us guessing on his next big plan.

 

Poker Goals

Karia doesn’t want to put a number or goal to his poker career, and we’re not surprised. Talking about his poker plans, Karia said: “Nothing is mapped out right now. I haven’t been goal-oriented, just want to keep scheming on the tables and enjoy the game. If the WSOP takes place, I’ll be chasing a bracelet win, though I’m still yet to figure out if I really want to go for it for myself or because everyone chases the bracelet!”

His final words to us were succinct – “One doesn’t “work” in poker even if it’s a career. After all, it is just a game, and games are meant to be fun! Cheers!”

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