For the Love of the Game Ft. Meherzad Munsaf

And we are back with the fourth edition of our special feature – ‘For the Love of the Game.’ By now, readers know that this editorial feature is our way of celebrating the poker journey of players who have been a part of the Indian poker circuit since the very beginning. This space is dedicated to players who have an undying passion for the game that transcends monetary gains! And this time, our guest is Meherzad Munsaf (cover image)!

A self-proclaimed recreational player, Munsaf is possibly one of the most large-hearted poker lovers of the industry. Many in the industry genuinely wish for the game to flourish in the country and are or have worked towards achieving that goal; however, what sets Munsaf apart is that he is possibly among the very few who believe in whole-heartedly supporting up-and-coming talent.

The 43-year old’s poker journey began in London back in 1998. This was the beginning of a lifelong passion superseding all others. In 2011, his friend and veteran pro Jasven Saigal introduced him to live poker tournaments, and there has been no looking back for him since. Today, Munsaf is a prominent presence in all major live tournaments held in India. Even though he is not a poker pro, Munsaf’s passion for live poker has taken him to several poker destinations like Vietnam and the Philippines.

Currently, Munsaf is a Director in his father’s company, M Corp Realty & Financial Consultants, and aspires to pursue poker professionally someday after he hands over his professional responsibilities to his nephew.

He’s also perhaps one of the very few old-timers who hasn’t been involved with the industry’s operational side. That said, he has staked players on many occasions, even at the risk of getting his fingers burned.

While Munsaf does find the lack of a regulatory body monitoring the industry quite alarming, he also believes that the game can teach many positive virtues to players, such as patience and mental strength.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane with Munsaf.

Life Before Poker

Munsaf came to Mumbai from Panchgani for his education but soon joined a boarding school since his father frequently traveled. Later, he completed his schooling at Heritage School of Hotel Management in Agra and eventually returned to Mumbai to figure out what he wanted to do with his life next.

“I was not sure at that very moment of time of what I wanted to do, and dad wanted me to get into the family business. At that time, he was into real estate, venture capital, and renting properties. Around 2000, I joined the Heritage School of Business Management and Hotel Management. I just kept on adding degrees. I was still not sure about what I’m going to do.”

Since his father wanted him to join his family business, Munsaf got himself an MBA degree from SP Jain in 2005. “I joined the publicity side of the company, and we ran the company called Instant Publicity Private Limited. Then finally, in 2012, I joined my dad’s company, which is M Corp. Reality and Financial Consulting.”

The company was engaged in acquiring properties from banks and loan acquisition departments that would seize the properties of people who could not repay their loans. The business soon expanded its operations to the middle-east, covering Bahrain, Dubai, Sharjah, and even Hong Kong. “We would purchase properties like business hotels, corporate and boutique hotels, and commercial premises, refurbish them and rent them out to multinationals.”

Introduction to Poker

Munsaf’s first brush with poker happened in London with a few corporate friends. “We used to play poker with these taxi drivers with fish and chips. It was like a ten to one game, sit and go. I used to play all these fun games, and that’s the time I developed an interest in poker and started playing in casinos.”

He admits he didn’t completely understand the game then, but it still excited him. Soon, he began hopping from one casino to another to get a sense of the game. “As I saw the game develop, I also came to know that my good friend Jasven (Saigal) had become a professional poker player. I was once in Goa, and we connected, and he said, you know, why don’t you come and play a tournament. That tournament was organized by Golden Aces.”

During his early days in poker, Munsaf met many other players. “I went really deep into the game. I was fortunate. I didn’t know anything about poker at that very moment. But obviously, I knew the basics through a little online research. And then I started frequenting Goa, and that is when I got introduced to Philip Sanders, and others like Raju Philip, Jim Ramm, and Deepak Sithlani, and I started playing small cash games. I even used to play at Maddy’s (Madhav Gupta) poker room at Casino Pride, and that’s how I started developing my poker skills.”

This helped him get an insider perspective of the game and the industry. “At that time, it was not big numbers. Poker was a very small community back in 2009-10. That’s when my passion took off. PokerStars was still accessible, and it was a different group of poker players in action. We had pros like Dhruv Dhawan from Delhi. Sameer Rattonsey was one of the guys who won back-to-back tourneys. Obviously, (Aditya) Agarwal was one of the leading guys at that time.”

Apart from poker, Munsaf also loves playing roulette and is hugely passionate about horse races, which his dad introduced him to. In fact, he still remembers the first race that he won through his horse ‘Sailaway’ at the Pune Turf Club who beat the tote favorite ‘Mountain Bear.’

Professionally Pursuing Poker

With more than ₹62 Lakhs in live tournament winnings, including a DPT trophy, and about ₹33 Lakhs in online MTT cashes, Munsaf’s poker resume is quite commendable. But he is candid enough to admit that he is just a recreational player who loves playing live tournaments.

“No, I wouldn’t call myself a professional poker player. I would say that I am a recreational poker player because I would never give my dedication and time to poker 24/7, 365 days. But I’ve always made it a point to travel for tourneys. I love to play tournaments – it’s just my passion. Poker is not my bread and butter, but I love the passion of the game. I love the way the industry works. They earn, they struggle, they build it up. That’s how it is!”

He continued: “I have traveled a lot internationally for poker. I’ve been traveling for poker since the inception of the Macau Cup. I have a lot of old poker friends in the industry, internationally too. I’ve got my experience by being there, playing a lot of hands. I’m not much of an online player, it’s not my cup of tea, but live, yes, I do have a lot of experience.

Talking about his other passions, he said: “I love playing roulette. I’m heavily into horse races. I was introduced to horse racing by my dad, and I got into it, but not from a gambling point of view. I have my passion for horses. It makes you learn a lot of things. The way they (horses) have that faith in themselves. They are silent dynamos. They don’t talk, but they have a more powerful sixth sense than any human being. I won my first race straight away in Pune about 5-6 years ago when ‘Sailaway’ had beat the hot favorite ‘Mountain Bear’. It is very close to my heart, and I just follow it. I studied it, and I do handicapping myself. I have many horses as well, in the western circuit and in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.”

While he calls himself a recreational player, he does aspire to turn his passion for poker into a full-time profession sometime in the future. “I see myself wrapping up and consolidating my business and handing it over to my nephew to handle. So, once he takes over, I am good to play poker professionally. There could be more than 90% chances of me playing professionally. For me, it’s more about enjoying my game. It’s more about loving my game, and I’m not here to gamble. I can gamble on roulette, but I can’t gamble on poker.”

Staking Players & Encouraging Budding Talent

Even though Munsaf is one of the Indian poker circuit’s old-timers, unlike all three previous players we have covered in this series, he has never experienced the industry’s operations side. He has, however, staked several players. “I have never ever dabbled with the operations part of the industry, but I have staked a lot of players. I have equivalently thought about starting a staking business, but it was not allowed by my company. They thought that it wouldn’t be good to diversify into something like this. But I wanted to have a professional setup of a staking house and hire a few people. Ultimately, it didn’t get approved by my company, so I had to drop that plan. After that, I thought individually as a sole investor, I would just start staking people and see how it works out.”

Explaining why he decided to become a sole investor, Munsaf revealed, “I love buying action of players. I love to see the passion in players, I love to see people with big hopes, big dreams, skills, attributes, and determination, but I don’t like players who just depend on selling action but do not work hard on their game. As I said, I’m an investor who puts my money where my mouth is.”

Discussing how he has refined his staking methods, Munsaf stated, “I don’t stake like anyone and everyone, but there was a time when I did do that. But thanks to the guidance of a few people, I now know whom to stake, what to do, and what not to do. I’ve had some good experiences with players whom I stake, some senior, as well as some young chaps who needed the money. At the same time, I’ve had some bad experiences too, but I’m not a person who goes on public forums and badmouths people.”

Evolution as a Poker Player

Munsaf’s first live score came in 2015 when he final tabled IPC’s ₹30K GTD Main Event Freezeout. He has picked up several more final table finishes since then, but a live title win had always eluded him. He finally got the monkey off his back when he took down the ₹50K GTD DPT Colossus Warm-Up Event in May 2019. He presently has about ₹62.06 Lakhs in live tournament winnings.

He feels that live poker has taught him a lot about the game in general. “I’ve had a couple of deep runs in Vietnam for the APT and Philippines in the past four years. I have had just two or three deep runs in the past few years. DPT, I’ve had a lot of deep runs. My personal poker journey has always been like when I run deep in a tournament, I try to figure out my way. I want to better my gameplay. When I hear about any tournament, I don’t worry about stakes, whatever it is. I just want to go and play it. That’s my passion. I just want to be at the table. That’s how much I love my live poker. I feel live poker is more about encouraging people. It’s more about showing people.”

“Live poker has taught me to be slower. It has taught me various hands, various beats, several things. It’s more about your mindset, how you stay strong and not get frustrated, and it’s more about how you control your temperamental issues.”

Shifting to Online Poker During COVID-19 Lockdown

It is a known fact that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, live poker across the world had come to a standstill. India was no different. Like many, Munsaf has dearly missed the live poker action. “I miss my live poker a lot. There are options to travel abroad, but obviously, I cannot because of family restrictions and other problems involving home. So, I decided to play big events, whichever possible, online. I started exploring games on GGPoker and now play a lot on that site. I have started playing a lot of cash on GGPoker, and it’s been a good experience. But still, I would not call myself an online player.”

“But online is getting more interesting, and it’s teaching me a lot about the different styles of playing. As of now, I sit out at home, and because I’m taking work from home, I do indulge in a lot of online play in the night.”

Development of Poker in India

Munsaf has seen the poker boom in India up close and opined that there’s a lot of scope for media and poker brands to grow the game. “PokerGuru has come up a long way in terms of developing the game. Getting the right news to the right people has helped immensely in the development of the game. Online poker sites have done a great job, but I have like diplomatic statements for that. They’ve done a good job, and also, at the same time, I don’t think they should encourage people to play poker who are students because I don’t think students should be encouraged to play poker. They should focus more on completing their education, then taking a chance on what they want to do.”

He even shared some experiences he had with some of the well-known regs of the circuit. “I remember Sharad Rao when I was on the IPC final table. At that time, he was just a simple guy who was just playing poker and winning. But now Sharad Rao has really gotten into the game. He got into a complete expansion of his game, his study, and he’s done something great for the game. He’s always helpful towards a lot of people.”

“So, a few pros like Dhaval Mudgal and Kunal Patni, they have been doing something good for the game. They’ve always been encouraging to newbies, and they’ve been getting some good stuff for the players. I think Abhishek (Goindi) is doing a great job by hosting these boot camps. The way they are passionate about their stuff, their games, their teachings, and online coaching, it’s so heartening to see. I think that boot camp is a big revolution which is going to take the game to great heights.”

Issues Plaguing Poker in the Country

The domestic poker industry has faced many hurdles over the years. Sharing his views on the matter, Munsaf elaborated, “To be honest, with the current scenario and governmental regulations, things have been going a little haywire here and there. I don’t think poker can grow as a sport. It can keep developing in India. It has huge potential to grow in the country. But it also depends on the operators, government, and depends on many other factors of how we need to save the sport. We need to get a governing body for the mind sport that will give proper answers to some of the burning questions plaguing the industry. I know there are many cases related to poker currently filed in the courts and that many people are fighting to get it legalized. We have to be careful and have to take remedial steps to save the sport in India, especially with this government.”

Munsaf observed that many newcomers don’t understand that poker is not like teen patti or rummy, mainly due to misleading advertising and social media. “Due to misleading advertising and social media, young players do not understand that poker is not like teen patti or rummy. They actually don’t even know what poker truly is. There needs to be an organization that can reach out to such players to guide them on the right path. What Indian players need is an online training poker school. They need the right kind of exposure.”

“The mentality that poker is gambling will never change in India because it is being portrayed like that by government officials. I feel like no matter how many years you take, they are not going to break the case in Gujarat or anywhere by saying it’s a game of skill. I think reaching out to the small towns is basically through a lot of word of mouth is the way to go,” Munsaf said regarding the masses accepting poker as a game of skill.

Despite the grievances that Munsaf has with the current state of the poker industry, he still believes that poker has many positive aspects. “The good aspects is that the sport is growing and it should grow in a healthy way. By encouraging and helping people and not just allowing people to just sit and gamble, we, too, can contribute to ensuring the game’s healthy growth. I feel the good side of poker is it enhances you it stabilizes your mental strength. It makes you strong in your decision. It helps you to stay focused.”

Talking about things that can be done to help in the industry’s progress, Munsaf suggested, “There should be group discussions. PokerGuru should start group, PG programs live. They should get players and have some discussions. You have to see the stability in this industry. If there is no stability in this industry, you’re not going to achieve anything.”

Poker Aspirations

“My poker aspiration is to support and encourage upcoming poker players who are really serious about the game,” says Munsaf. He explains that while he may not be able to offer to coach budding talent, he can guide them in the right direction.

He also aspires to better his own gameplay. “It’s just that you have to believe in yourself. We have to show that magic by learning something new. And you have to learn by yourself again and again. If you do not know how to stop your three-letter word called ego and be grounded, then you can never progress in anything in life.”

“So, basically, my dream is to help some outstanding players who will learn but honestly, the way the industry is going right now, I have taken a back step,” he added.

In conclusion, he had some wise words to share with the upcoming generation of poker enthusiasts, “I would just like to say that prioritize your education over poker. Get yourself educated. Let poker be a passion, don’t gamble on poker. Save your bankroll. Saving is very essential, and just support your family, love your family, work with them. Stay strong and move forward.”

A true lover of the game, Munsaf’s astute observations of the plight of the poker industry and desire to promote young talent is remarkable. We wish him all best and hope to see him on the live felts soon!