4 Minutes Read
In this edition of Then and Now, we bring you Prabhat Mukherjea, a name associated with some amazing poker scores in online and live tournaments, from 2011 to 2013. Prabhat’s is an amazing journey, from a law professional to poker pro, to a long-term trader today.
Born to liberal parents, Prabhat displays a mindset that is starkly different from the conservative outlook seen in most others. This approach differentiates him from most other people and provides an inkling of why he chose the road he did…
Prabhat had observed mates playing poker in college, but his own tryst began later. This Kolkata law professional, suffered a tragedy, just before graduation, when he lost both his parents. Around that time, he chanced to meet a poker pro, who asked him for advice related to poker legalities. The pro was so happy with Prabhat’s answers that he not only gave him some great tips but also staked his initial start on PokerStars.
A book lover, Prabhat immediately delved into the works of poker stalwart Dan Harrington and believed that the book helped him immensely, as he won several cash games in college.
Post-college, the bereft Prabhat joined a well-paying job but felt that “special” something missing in his life. The work, the atmosphere, the pay, and the hours; all were good, yet he felt a lack of freedom and excitement.
Prabhat made a decision and quit his job to follow his heart in poker. While his game had certainly improved, his bankroll had not and was down to almost single digits. He realized that money could be made at SnGs at PokerStars and soon collected a good amount. At this point, he chanced upon live tournaments at Goa, and believing that his online success automatically assured his win in live games, he headed south. He soon discovered that live tournaments are a different breed of animals and it took him 16 tournaments to win his first cash. Prabhat though had no regrets and was happy, as it was in Goa that he first met Aditya ‘Intervention’ Agarwal (who busted him in two minutes) and his cousin Amit Varma.
Eventually, Prabhat began to notch up the scores, which started with a 6th place finish in the 2011 IPC for a small sum of Rs. 26,000. This was akin to starters and soon Prabhat made 2nd place the same year at the Indian Poker Pros, 5K Double Re-Buy Tournament, taking home Rs. 1,85,000. He continued to make several final tables, deep into 2012, where he made his highest cash of Rs.5,31,000 in the APT 50K Main Event for 3rd place. A spectacular season at PokerGuru Tour in 2012 even got him the PGT Season 2 POY title where he outlasted Delhi`s Karan Jain in the heads up match for the title.
Online, Prabhat posted some equally great results, when he finished 2nd in the Hot 11, shipped the $8R 3x Turbo, and made 2nd place in the 8R on a consecutive day along with a string of equally impressive scores.
However, like all things good, the stream ran dry and Prabhat virtually disappeared from the scene in the second half of 2013.
PokerGuru reached out to Prabhat, who is currently running a successful trading business and looking to move to Delhi, from Kolkata. Speaking at length about his compulsions towards life and the move from poker to trading, Prabhat speaks about the philosophies that governed his decisions and his quest for quality not the quantity of living.
Talking about his departure from poker, Prabhat explains, how the stock market had begun to attract his attention…
“My exit from professional poker was a gradual process rather than a conscious decision taken at any particular point of time. The thought of moving on was already beginning to occur to me since earlier. Ever since I hit my peaks (result-wise) at poker, I started thinking about stock markets, something which did end up with me being very distracted and unfocused at times because I was trying to concentrate on too many things at the same time.”
Prabhat adds how after the initial poker thrill, the downturn and the strain began to wear him down,
“When you’re on a downswing as I was early in 2013, things tend to get less fun and it was no different in my case. I spent some time introspecting about where I wanted to be and tried to get my perspective. As much as I loved the thrill of going deep in tournaments, poker as a lifestyle was extremely exhausting in terms of the hours I had to keep and the mental stress involved.”
In a thoroughly practical mode, Prabhat speaks about the financial aspects capable in poker, as compared to the larger possibilities available in the stock market and his gradual decision to opt for greener pastures in trading…
“I began to realize that the scope for scaling upwards to make truly spectacular amounts of money wasn’t quite the same in poker as it was in the markets. An edge in poker was worth a lot, but it diminished as you played for more money, whereas the stock markets give one freedom to maximize one’s best edge and to be able to utilize it irrespective of one’s bankroll or account size.”
Prabhat explains that poker would never have given him the large financial returns that he could make in stocks. However, he states that making this decision was neither quick nor simple for him and that it took a lot of soul-searching for him to make the change. Prabhat also stresses that it was difficult to concentrate on multiple things and finally he chose trading to see what could be possible.
“It took quite some time and a lot of thought and indecision for me to reach this conclusion but I did eventually decide to really look deeply at the markets and take a good look at what was possible,”.
Speaking about how he came to this decision, Prabhat alludes to the doubts that arose in his mind…
“In the course of arriving at this decision, I spent a lot of what I would call background work. One of the first lessons you learn in poker is to think of almost everything in terms of EV and it’s something that catches on fast. One of the great ironies is that sometimes one begins to use the lessons learned from poker to question the choice to play it. It’s not uncommon for poker players to devote enormous amounts of time to game selection, maximizing $/hour and the like, and the logical next step is to begin thinking of whether poker itself is the right game choice!”
Prabhat continues to state that it was not possible to indulge in poker and other activities.
“One thing that has influenced me is a lot of scientific research along the lines of Anders Ericsson and many others who have developed on his work. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that to truly master something one needs to spend about 10,000 hours of deliberately structured practice and learning. This is an enormous amount of time; although it’s safe to say that I did probably put in half that amount to poker. At any rate, accumulated time dedicated to any discipline brings its rewards, but at the same time one can’t spend such amounts of time on more than one discipline and I was forced to confront the fact that one can’t do everything and the effort to do so can distract your attention to quite disastrous consequences.”
Prabhat has a different take on how to approach professional poker and believes that to be a pro, one should have the ability to be detached from industry developments and only concentrate on one’s game.
“One piece of advice, I can give to any serious poker players or aspiring pros is to spend some time thinking about whether this is the profession you want to take up for good and whether you’re willing to go all-in on it. If yes, dedicate absolutely everything to mastering all aspects of poker until you’ve reached the absolute peak. The rewards in poker are at the top of the pyramid, and if you are a pro it’s imperative you have a plan for getting to the top. On the other hand, if you’re worried about PokerStars changing its terms or vanishing, games becoming impossible, the sudden impact of possible regulations, the stress caused by downswings or changes in Government attitudes then think carefully. Unless you can handle not being in control of these things, and deal with a variety of similar stressful conditions, you are better off playing as a hobby and getting a primary job or business.”
He stresses that these thoughts are what made him want to leave poker…
“To return to me even at my peak a lot of these things were worrying me enough that the game was becoming less enjoyable. It’s not very simple to realize this actually, and it took me quite some time while I was also doing other work simultaneously to pinpoint the source of my worries and decide what to do about it. My decision was made simpler by the fact that my decision to exit the regular job track had nothing to do with taking up poker, which came about a year after quitting my job; I didn’t have to deal with sunk-cost fallacies or feel as if leaving poker invalidated my other decisions.”
Talking about his status today, Prabhat informs us about his newfound trading profession and how it works for him personally…
“Having moved on from professional poker, I am now a trader. I had dabbled with this quite frequently for quite some time while playing poker, often unsuccessfully. It was quite natural that I should have had poor results initially since almost everyone does and I had begun without clear expectations or plans and made almost all of the most common errors, often despite knowing they were errors.
Fortunately, once I began to focus single-mindedly on trading, things began falling in place and it took surprisingly little time to form what I think is a very solid, detailed, and highly scalable plan which I’ve begun operating recently with excellent initial success. The planning process isn’t entirely complete and refinements to a trading plan are an ongoing process which needs to be constantly updated and refined, but fortunately, the nature of my trading gives me plenty of time to do that.”
Prabhat has a clear picture of his own nature and discusses how he prefers to work in a way that is best suited to him, admitting that speculation does not agree with him.
“I don’t day-trade, since I have neither the self-control nor the proper mentality for that. Wall Street has a saying “If you don’t know who you are, the market is a costly place to find out”. Over the past few years, I’ve spent a lot of time finding out things about my personality that only winning and losing money can teach you. One of these things is that I am quite unsuited to dealing with speculation that requires a high win-rate. It’s one of the reasons I preferred MTTs while playing poker; even with an abysmal ITM ratio of around 12 or 13%, I maintained an excellent ROI. Day trading requires constant attention, great nerves, excellent tilt-control, great software, and high win-rates. I trade on much longer time frames which eliminates a lot of the randomness and variance and allows me to aim for very high win size to loss size ratios. As such my plan enables me to profit even with a win percentage of around 10-15% and gives me a lot of freedom to research and think during quiet periods when the only thing to do is monitoring my positions and keeping a check on potential trades.”
Clearly, after work hours are important to Prabhat and he emphasizes about this off time…
“The time after the markets close is fully mine and once I committed fully to this career shift, I finally got extended periods of time where I didn’t feel obligated to be doing something work-related or being held up working during odd hours which can be very inconveniently and socially. Only when I made this choice and committed to it did I realize the degree to which I had been stressed out earlier and the extent of improvement in my quality of life.”
If at all Prabhat returns, he is sure that it will only be as a recreational player and is clear that professional poker does not appeal to him anymore…
“If I do return to poker, it will be recreationally, as I still enjoy the game, but the prospect of the poker grind no longer appeals to me the way it used to. Poker is a beautiful game but the honest truth is the initial allure tends to wear off a bit after hours of playing. The hours required are extremely taxing and there is a darker side to the game that other pros have alluded to at length, and I won’t say much more on the subject except that I agree with them entirely.”
He believes that playing without the anxiety of results is the best way to enjoy the game and strongly asserts that though he may not be in poker, he still operates in the big league, which makes him happy. He quotes fellow-player…
“Abhishek Goindi spoke in his article about wanting to return to a casino as one of the guys who didn’t have to care about the result in the least and that sums up my view perfectly. For now, I’m quite happy and as Harvey tells Mike Ross in ‘Suits’ (an absolute must-watch show) I may not be in the same game, but I’m still in the big leagues and the markets are about as big as it gets, so I’m very excited about the future and what it will bring.”
Few people are so objective about themselves and so dedicated to enjoying me-time, as Prabhat has been from the very beginning. We wish him luck in his endeavors and hope that he will still grace the felts, even if it may be as a recreational player.
Great article Prabhat!!! I want to go along a similar path… Is there some way in which I can contact with you so that you can share some of your wisdom regarding the world of finance?
Thank you