In Conversation With PokerGuru Ambassador Laksh Pal Singh, Spartan Poker`s IOPC – The Crown Champion!

26-year-old Laksh Pal Singh has been the most-talked-about player in the community this week and for all the right reasons. The PokerGuru Ambassador netted a career-best ₹51.81 Lakhs on Monday after coming out on top of the most-massive online tournament of the year, Spartan Poker`s ₹3.5 Crores GTD IOPC – The Crown! Singh also won a diamond-studded 18K Gold Crown and the 18K Gold IOPC Badge for the win.

A career-defining victory indeed! The whopping cash prize also helped push Laksh to the top of the annual leaderboard, very much like Anurag Srivastava, who had won this tourney almost a year ago and came out to be one of the top winners of 2020.

But for all the stardust that this Delhi-based player gathered, he is surprisingly unfazed by the enormity of the victory. Singh maintains that the best is yet to come, and it’s more important for him to stay grounded, continue learning, and focus only on taking his game to the next level.

Even though we have the backstory of Laksh`s poker journey – he is one of our team ambassadors after all – such a significant score was reason enough for us to try and dig a little deeper for more details. Speaking to me from Delhi, Laksh told me that he first learned about poker in school, but it was only after graduating from the prestigious Sri Ram College of Commerce that he crossed paths with the game again. He worked as a Financial Consultant with Grant Thornton when Sahil Mahboobani – his friend’s cousin who stayed in the same building as him – gave him his first lessons in real-money poker. Through Mahboobani, Laksh met Sumit Sapra, another top online reg he credits for helping him in his poker career by staking and coaching him.

Inspired by reading about the success stories of the PokerGuru Ambassadors on PokerGuru, Laksh reached out to PokerGuru Staking. Even today, he considers being accepted in the stable as the turning point of his professional career. It`s been over two years since he`s been a part of PokerGuru Staking, and he claims to have found his poker family in his mentors and teammates.

There are many other facets to Laksh`s poker journey, and you can read all about it in the excerpts of my conversation with him below.

At the age of 26, you have no less than 53 titles to your name and just clinched an event as prestigious as the IOPC – The Crown. How does it feel?

It feels terrific, to be honest, taking down a title like IOPC- The Crown. This is my biggest win and a very prestigious event, so a pretty significant achievement. So yeah, it feels really good!!

The first thing I did (after winning) was called up my dad and told him about it. I told him “thank you” for supporting me to pursue my career and follow my dreams. I got a bit emotional at the time. My dad was like, it’s a big achievement. Everyone is really happy at home as well.

Now that the euphoria has settled down, how significant do you feel this win is for your poker career?

To be honest, I have won quite a few big tournaments before, but on a monetary scale, this is one of the biggest tournaments I’ve won. Winning a tournament like this definitely does boost your bankroll. So yes, the win is very significant and definitely one of my biggest wins, and I’m pretty happy with the same.

How was your run in IOPC – The Crown leading up to the FT?

The tournament went on for almost 8 to 9 days, with many (eight) starting days. I had made Day 2 with six stacks, and Day 2 was quite a swingy ride. There were around 700 players on Day 2, and since I had six stacks, I pretty much focused only on this tourney. By the time there were about 100-150 people left, I had just one stack left – I had busted the other five stacks. From thereon, I was just trying to maneuver my chips well, and luckily it worked well for me. It was quite a long grind on Sunday, but the FT was played on Monday, which gave some time to rest and recuperate.

You entered the IOPC – The Crown FT third in chips and maneuvered through the levels to take it down. How would you describe your run in the FT?

First of all, I really liked the concept of the final table being live-streamed. It gave the feel of a live final table in a way, so that was good on Spartan Poker’s part, an excellent concept.

Looking at the FT composition, I felt that there were only a few pros. I knew ‘McFly,’ i.e., Yudhishter Jaswal, Anant Purohit, and ‘tathagat’- Raman Gujral. The others were likely amateurs or recreational players and kind of unknown to me, and I figured they were mostly looking to ladder up the pay jumps, which allowed me to apply a fair bit of pressure.

My strategy was to play aggressively, and that worked out in my favor. I chipped up early, after the start of the FT. The turning point came when the FT was down to the final five, and I won a massive pot with pocket queens against pocket kings, which made me an overwhelming chip leader. After that, it was pretty much smooth sailing, and I never looked back.

As for the opponents, I found the start-of-FT chip leader, Saurabh Jain, tricky to play against and a little unorthodox. But otherwise, the player I felt I had to watch out for was Yudi. We started the FT with Yudi on my left, having around the same amount or more chips than me. He’s a pretty decent player, and he played quite solid, so he was the one I didn’t want to play a big pot against.

Coming into the heads-up against Avijit Jaiswal, how did that go?

We started the heads-up with a pretty even stack, but one thing I had noticed when I had played against him on Day 2 was that he was a little bit on the tighter side. So, for the heads-up, my idea was to run over him with aggression. We started off pretty well in the heads-up getting a 3 to 1 lead, and there was a sick hand where I held a straight against his flush, and then we became even-stacked again.

Post that, the heads-up continued for 15-20 minutes, where I continued to put the foot on the pedal and stay aggressive. I think it was pretty much in my favor. I ran pretty-pretty good as well. On the final hand, I hit trips against his top pair, and that was the end of the tournament.

What are the key takeaways from your run in the IOPC series?

To be honest, I did not have a great IOPC, to begin with, until the Main Event. Winning the Crown kind of came as a saving grace! But that said, the key takeaway is to improve my stamina and get a little fitter so that I can enjoy the long grind and can perform at my highest level during such a long series.

Let’s talk about your poker journey. We know already that you started playing poker as early as in Class 9. When was the turning point when you realized that poker is what you want to pursue as a profession?

I had a very small stint in Class 9 when I had played poker just once, but after that, I never played the game even once until 2015. I was working with Grant Thornton in Delhi as a Financial Consultant. At this time, I was introduced to the game by Sahil Mahboobani, who was my school friend’s cousin and also stays in the same building as me. Then I started playing a lot of poker and became quite intrigued by the game.

I had already played a little bit online; I was grinding a lot on Spartan (Poker) and PokerStars.com, playing smaller tournaments up to $11. Sometime around 2018, I realized that the corporate side is not for me. I was very interested in poker, and I was very inspired by all the sickos in India who were crushing, and I used to read all the PokerGuru articles.

To be honest, when I decided to go pro, I didn’t think I was skilled enough to take that decision. It was more a leap of faith, but luckily I met the right mentors along the way. At this point, through Sahil, I met Sumit Sapra. He has also shaped my career; he mentored me and staked me for six months. He also had an important role in the early stages of my professional career. Without “mrgr3333n,” there’s no way I would’ve had the confidence to go pro.

You credit Sahil Mahboobani for introducing you to the real-money aspect of the game. Tell us more about your association with Mahboobani and the role he played in your poker journey.

Yes, there have been several people along the way who’ve been influential in shaping my poker career. Mahboobani is a dear friend and the person who introduced me to poker and MTTs. When I wasn’t playing full time at the start of my career, Mahboobani used to stake me in some tournaments and guide me as well. Not just back then, Mahboobani is still my go-to guy for motivation during downswings, etc., and we are always there to lift each other up.

What made you join PokerGuru Staking? Talk to us more about the impact that the stable has had on your game?

When I was playing under the mentorship of Sumit Sapra, I was also a full-time player. I then saw the PokerGuru Staking guys crushing and getting the best results. I saw Ashish Munot, Kartik (Ved), and I wanted to learn from Adi (Aditya Agarwal) because I’d heard so much about him. Ashish Ahuja’ Rocky’ was, at that point, probably number 1 in terms of results, and that inspired me.

So, I decided to end my agreement with Sumit Sapra and join PokerGuru Staking. I was lucky enough that my application was accepted. Since then, I have been mentored by Kartik (Ved), Maddy (Madhav Gupta), Lungi (Vikram Kumar), and Adi – the entire PokerGuru team. I pretty much owe my entire career to them.

The stable has definitely had the most significant impact on my career, and I’d not be where I am today without them. The stable has pretty much given me everything in terms of staking, coaching, etc. It has shaped me as a professional.

They have the best management in terms of Kartik, Lungi, and Maddy. I have so much respect for them. Kartik takes care of you, he manages everyone, knows your potential, and is also an exceptional professional player at the same time. We’re all are one big family within the horses and the management.

How far would you say ‘Adi’ helped you grow your understanding of the game, and in what ways?

Adi, of course, has been the most significant influence in my life. I mean, he’s been more than just a mentor. He’s family to me. I treat his son as my own nephew, so yeah, I have a fantastic relationship with Adi and even Shuchi (Shuchi Chamaria). I’ve stayed with them for long periods, and I feel blessed to have a coach so chilled, who I could spend so much time with and learn so much from.

I owe everything to Adi and PokerGuru. Not just the management, even the horses have always been a great influence. I also want to thank Ashish Munot and Vishal Bajaj, my core study group and who I’ve progressed with immensely in the past year. I also want to thank Doomie (Ankit Wadhawan) for being the pain in the ass he is and being a great friend throughout this journey.

A special mention to the stream rail, Chadha-ji, Rocky and Naresh mama, Chennai boys Gokul, Chhota, Mithun, Basha, and everyone else from the stable.

And lastly, I’d also like to thank some non PokerGuru people- it’s quite funny how I’m actually friends with almost all the regs, and each one of them has inspired me in some way or the other. So yeah, a big shoutout to some of my friends out there who’ve been constant crushers and a big inspiration- Iyer, Mozzie, Shardul, Harsha, Bansi, Kornkid, anzZ, bangbang, dirty, sushi, etc. all young guys with great potential. Keep inspiring and keep crushing, and good luck at the tables 🙂

You have already crossed ₹5.72 Crores in recorded online winnings. That’s a rich poker resume, already! With eyes to the future, what are the future poker goals?

Honestly, winning The IOPC- The Crown is great, but my goal remains the same: to continue getting better at the game, study the game, and get coached in terms of the volume. I feel that winning or a downswing should not change your goals or your mindset. So, I intend to keep working on my game, stay grounded, stay humble, and try becoming good to a level where I can compete with the best players in the world.

How did the COVID-19 pandemic change life for you?

I was in Goa throughout the lockdown. The entire last year, I was in Goa. In terms of poker, things were really exploding. There was a poker boom going on; guarantees were obviously getting bigger. Recreationals had more time to play, so guarantees were obviously getting way bigger. So, in terms of that, it was a perfect time to capitalize and spend more time on the grind.

Life otherwise was relatively chilled out since I was in Goa, and there were not too many cases there. Hence it was easy to move around.

Now that things are expected to open up slowly, what do you feel will be poker’s growth trajectory in 2021, both in terms of live and online poker?

In domestic poker, the trajectory is only going upwards, so the future is very bright for online poker. In terms of live poker, things are going to take some time to settle down. Once the vaccine comes out, we should see some live events in another 6-8 months.

I’m definitely missing the live events. Playing live kind of breaks the monotony from grinding online. You can travel for a series, play live, then come back and get back at the online grind. It’s a nice change. All the table talk, the entire atmosphere in the poker room is great. Hence, I am really looking forward to the next live series.

Tell us more about your current grind schedule.

I wake up, I try to exercise in some way or the other, but to be honest, I have been failing at that, so that is one of my biggest nightmares, and I look forward to getting fit. Other than that, we do have some coaching sessions where we grind as a team.

Pre-grind, I have an hour’s regime of meditation, and that’s my ritual. I start playing at around 8 PM, and it can go all the way up to 2 AM to 8 AM, depending on how deep I am running. I indeed try to take a day’s break in a week, and I don’t advise grinding 365 days. I feel you can be productive for 5-6 days a week. Usually, it’s Mondays and sometimes Saturdays that I take off.

COVID-wise, it’s quite okay now, and since all my childhood friends and school friends live nearby and everything has opened up now, things are good.

We know that you are big on meditation. Tell us more about that.

It’s only in the last 4 months that I have started meditating. This was something introduced to me by Ashutosh (Balodhi). Before I start the grind, I try to meditate & chant for a while. Usually, my practice lasts 45 mins. That definitely has made a difference in terms of the grind, peace of mind, all the distracting thoughts disappear, and I feel much fresher. As a pre-game ritual, meditation helps prepare your brain for the grind. However, I have been guilty of being inconsistent with my practice, and along with fitness, I want to permanently inculcate into my daily routine.

Coming back to the win, the ₹51.80 Lakhs you won in the IOPC – The Crown is your career-best payday, a life-changing prize! How do you plan to spend the money? Also, share your immediate goals for 2021.

Honestly, there’s nothing I have in mind. I’ll continue the grind, and maybe when things open up, I’ll take a lovely holiday. But other than that, I’ll probably just invest the money to grow my poker bankroll. For 2021, I’d say fitness is my first goal from here.

Any parting words?

I’d also like to thank my family for supporting my career path and my school friends, who I’ve grown up with who’ve shared every moment of my success with me. Love you guys!