PokerGuru Blog Feature – Year End Blogs by Pros

Blogging is therapeutic, fun and a great way to share our thoughts and opinions. Blogs are a direct connect with audiences, who get a chance to read the minds of eminent professionals and learn from them. For our aspiring Indian players, following pros online and reading up about their exploits is an excellent method of learning and catching up with all the latest from the pro poker scene.

Among the most avidly followed pros is PokerStars India Team Pro Aditya Agarwal. The end of 2014 and the beginning of the new year, 2015 saw several pros blogging on PokerGuru. “Adi Agarwal,” as he will now play as well as pros such as Aditya ‘donkaB0mber’ Sushant, Amit ‘bblacklegend’ Jain, Sahil ‘antilog’ Agarwal and Danish ‘danish7’ Shaikh all have something to share.

All the above names have been making news for some impressive scores in 2014 and in their last blog posts, have voiced their thoughts about the past year and their hope for the future. We have also added the posts of PokerGuru members Sabyasachi ‘Infusion_Leo’ Chakraborty and Saurabh ‘Donrulz’ Thapar for their great inputs.

These posts make for excellent reading about how the minds of poker-obsessed professionals work, their ambitions, goals and yes, also their overall approach to life in general.

Here, we bring you a condensed round up from the blogs of the above pros….

Aditya ‘Adi Agarwal’ Agarwal

2014 had Aditya globetrotting for various tournaments from Macau to Vegas to London and in his last post for the year; among other things, he mentions that he missed the online felts.

Speaking about it he says, “Poker has been lot of fun recently, one of the biggest difference between cash games and tournaments is the variance, playing soft live cash has taken my confidence to new level, over last 6 weeks don’t think I have had a losing a week, which is very different than what I am generally used to.”

Talking about his results at live tournaments, Aditya adds, “Busting 16th, 30th and 35th in big field major tournaments is pretty frustrating, but I did ended up profiting overall, so its aright, live tournaments are pretty expensive considering the traveling cost from India and other expenses, so making money in them is always good.”

Aditya is looking forward to attending the Aussie Millions and MPC end of Jan to mid Feb and announces that this time it’s going to a really big Indian team participating. He adds that he is looking to play as many live tournaments he can to keep his game sharp.

Aditya also mentions the upcoming tournaments in India and states, “I will be playing the next big tournament that is held in India, as long as I am in the country, it’s been quite a while since I met up with the Indian poker community and I do miss the good old Goa tournament days. I did try to go for the TILT series in Bangalore but ended up going to Sikkim. It’s good to see the tournament scene getting revived in India and I do hope we have big series sometime soon even if it is with 30% TDS.”

Aditya will be attending the Aussie Millions as PokerStars India Team Pro, so here is rooting for him all through this year and more.

Read Aditya’s blog here.

Aditya ‘donkab0mber’ Sushant

Sushant created a record, when he ended 2014 to become the first Indian to final table the Sunday Million twice. Talking about 2014, Sushant ruminates that the past year was a mixed bag for him. He feels that he did well in parts, saw a bad downslide and again bounded back towards the year-end.

Sushant writes, “I had a swingy 2014. I started out good, hit a rough patch, had a great Aug/Sep, then what was probably my biggest downswing online for almost 3 months and finally managed to close the year strong. I won the big 109 and big 162 in a span of 3 days. I final tabled the 5M Sunday Million and finished an agonizing 9th. That one’s gonna haunt me for a while. I’m sure I’ll have many more chances in the future so I’m just gonna stay upbeat and trod on.”

About his first WSOP sojourn, he adds, “I was in Vegas for 1 and a half months or so. It was my 1st time playing the WSOP and even though I was in the red at the end, I had a blast. It was a great experience and one I’ll definitely remember forever. I’m hoping to do it again this year although I’m probably gonna take a different approach this time. I did well live in Ind. I shipped the THOS event in Mar and ft’d 2 Tilt events in December. I feel like I played the best I have in ages at the Tilt series and I’m gonna try and maintain that same level of focus every time I play live in 2015.”

In a candid note, Sushant admits his weakness for not sticking to goals and concludes, “I’ve got some goals/resolutions in my head for 2k15. My history with goals/resolutions isn’t the greatest but I’m hoping I can change that this year. Most of them are lifestyle related. Those of you who know me well know I have some very big life leaks. My main goal right now is WSOP 2015 and everything from here on will be part of my ‘Road to Vegas.’ I need to constantly keep reminding myself that which in turn will ensure I stick to my resolutions.”

Read Aditya’s blog here.

Amit ‘bblacklegend’ Jain

Jain is another of our Indian pros who has done exceptionally well this past 2014. He begins his blog with a chart of his poker graph and the first thing he mentions is poker-study, which he has indulged in a lot. Amit says, “I’ve learnt a lot about poker this year coz I’ve been studying a ton (watching videos, discussing hhs ,taking coaching amongst other ways of learning) and I genuinely feel like my poker game right now is at a very good level and the best part is I can actually see myself getting better and learning more every week.”

He adds a crucial line, “I feel like the only ways to success in poker are volume, study and game selection and of course fitness”.

Discussing his past year, Amit says, “my volume has been top notch too for a mtt player as I’ve managed to achieve 2x supernova this year (got a sweet 2.6k$ bonus for getting there) and I’ve played 353 days out of 361 days which again is something that I can attribute my success to. Having said that I don’t think I’ve made good amount of money for the time and effort that I’ve been investing through the year.

Amit also mentions ABI (average buy-in`s) and states, “Danish and to some extent Sahil are best examples of controlling ABI and good game selection and this is something I’m surely gonna learn from them and I suggest you guys should too if you are or if you intend to get serious about poker.”

Looking forward, Amit has a list of goals for 2015 and these include

“1) get better at game selection and reduce ABI
2) make at least 100k in 2015
3) Get into top 20 rankings on p5s (currently 132nd) and maintain no.1 on India p5s
4) Try and not brick Macau again
5) Blog a little more regularly”

Amit signs off with “also 1 more thing I would like to thank PokerGuru for their efforts through the year …. these guys keep getting sickos from around the world for interviews and their weekly ”THIS WEEK IN POKER” where in we can easily get an overview of the most of the big scores that Indians get through the week also they keep trying new stuff to help/educate the Indian poker community which is really good to see.”

Thank you Amit, glad to be of help! 😉

Read Amit’s blog here.

Danish ‘danish7’ Shaikh

Danish featured at the top of our Online Scores List for 2014 and he has been the latest pro to blog.

Analyzing 2014, Danish says, “2014 was a solid year result-wise I experienced some absurd amount of + variance, that’s one good thing about mtt’s one big score can change things all around.”

Talking about adjusting to time zones, he adds, “last year I couldn’t play as much as I wanted mainly because of the time zone we live in its just awful. it’s really tough to play 6 pm to 8 am 4 days a week it hampers the body, I want to move to a country with better time zone so I can put my 100% but it seems unlikely…”

Danish mentions the help he received and states, “I definitely improved as a player made tons of adjustments thanks to Alex Carr who helped me grow as a player explaining every spot thoroughly.”

Looking towards 2015, Danish signs off saying, “Anyways plans for 2105 are very simple don’t spew deep in a tournament, value chips play solid be disciplined and keep improving as a player. I’m planning on going to Vegas this year so hopefully have a good shot at the bracelet.”

Read Danish’s blog here.

Sahil ‘antiloG’ Agarwal

Sahil is amongst the most vocal of players to blog. He seems to have enjoyed the travel of 2014 and says, “Last year has been a crazy one for me. I got the chance to make 3 international trips, 2 to Macau for red dragon and appt and one to the Mecca of poker, WSOP Vegas.”

He continues to share his experiences, talking about Macau first, he says, “Macau has been really kind to me as far as online goes. I got 2 of my biggest scores of the year there, winning the hotter16 in Jan and chopping the 320 sko in May.”

About his first WSOP visit he adds, “Vegas was the craziest experience… With so many options in front of you, I, like every other first timer, was so confused abt what to play and what not to. I ended up playing a bunch of mtts at Venetian and Rio other than the bracelet events. I played the Binions 1K main event as well which will stay in my memory forever.” He continues to give details and even shows us his poker graph.

Sahil ends up with discussing his newfound enthusiasm for live games and says, “Currently, I am giving in some time to live cash and I am trying to get better at it. I realized in Vegas how much better it is to be playing live cash other than all other mtts everywhere else other than the bracelet events coz of the 30% tax thing. Hopefully, I am able to build a bankroll again to go play the WSOP this year and become pretty decent at live cash till then.”

Read Sahil’s blog here.

Besides, the above 5 pros, we would like to share these interesting highlights from the blogs of two other PokerGuru members. The first is Sabyasachi ‘infusion_leo’ Chakraborty, followed by Saurabh ‘Donrulz’ Thapar.

Sabyasachi ‘Infusion_Leo’ Chakraborty

Saby has interestingly classified his post about 2014 as “The Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Plan!”

He begins with the “Good” talking about the long hours needed for online tournaments and says, “Focus for long hours is crucial to tournament poker. You can be the best at the game but after grinding for 12 Hrs in a large field MTT if you spew it off on the final 2 tables your results will be same as that of the biggest fish…”

Talking about the “Bad” Saby adds that he has developed a habit of considering poker as a distraction and in the “Ugly” he considers himself a ‘fish’. He says, “Man what a fish I am at live MTTs its embarrassing.” he also goes on to talk about his health and says, “My health I have dropped abt 9 Kgs this year to hit 55Kg atm which is bad need to get to peak health this year.”

Saby has many points listed in his ‘Plan’ and these include playing more live cash, improving his game. He states that he will, “look at poker as a job and not as a distraction or a hobby and get back the hunger to close things. Blog regularly. Learn some other forms of poker.”

Most importantly, he concludes with “lastly in 2015 I will decide if I want to become a poker player or be a salaried guy whose hobby is poker.”

Read Saby’s blog here.

Saurabh ‘Donrulz’ Thapar

Saurabh has just started playing poker in 2014 at Zynga on Facebook and shares his views. He discusses his poker initiation and says, “in November 2013, I got introduced to PokerStars. I signed up for bankroll promotion and made my 2 $ bankroll into 125 $ roll playing sng and cash games.”

Saurabh then goes on to explain exactly how the game progressed for him and his bad beats, and how he began to study the game.

He ended the year with almost nothing and adds, “my account starting January 2015 stands at 0$. In the end I must say I am proud of being able to cash out 3400 $ from 0 deposits reach coveted Goldstar vip level and final table and run deep in a few tourneys That’s my roller coaster 1st year in online poker from 0 to 3400$ profit! I am ready for my second year with more passion and zeal to grind back up from 0 to … lets see ) Wishing everyone a great profitable year ahead.”

Read Saurabh’s blog here.

Reading the above posts makes for an extremely revealing view into the journey of poker, from the early days to the hectic life of professional travelling. A lot is there for those who seek to learn and for those who live under the illusion that poker is easy to master. As the Zen saying goes, you can find all that you wish to find….

We wish all the above players and our readers a great poker year ahead! Happy Reading!