Taking the hot seat in this Monday Motivation feature is Anand Babu Pallikona. A circuit regular, Pallikona began February on a high by shipping PokerBaazi’s The MoneyMaker. Traversing the 1,017-player field, Pallikona took down the country’s longest-running 1 flight ₹1 Crore GTD tournament for a career-best ₹12.53 Lakhs.

Pallikona, who transitioned from online rummy to poker, has been playing the game since 2015 and had several reasons to celebrate the win. The MoneyMaker was his first title victory of 2023, and he couldn`t have asked for a better way to get started, for the top score was almost 2X his previous best finish. He currently boasts ₹2.28 Crores in tracked online winnings and ₹50.99 Lakhs in profits.

A player deeply entrenched in the game, the quiet and unassuming Pallikona, who currently resides in Bangalore, is a huge fan of Aditya Agarwal, who he says he would like to be mentored by someday.

That said, he has gained a lot of insight into the game from HIG head Alok Ranjan, who coached him last year. He has recently started the advanced course of Abhishek Goindi’s Poker Bootcamp India.

While Pallikona constantly observes and follows some top poker pros and their gameplay, he is particularly impressed by how Sriharsha Doddapaneni plays. He also credits his good friend Sriharsha Boneni for being his staunch supporter through the ups and downs of his poker journey.

Online poker may be more accessible, but Pallikona is craving more live poker action and plans to make it to a few live stops this year, including a couple of Asian Poker Tour events.

Watch all this and more in the complete interview below.

Here is a timeline of the interview highlights.

0:44 – Pallikona admits The MoneyMaker victory gave him a confidence boost since 2022 was a rough year for him poker-wise.

1:08 – Recalling his tournament run, Pallikona confesses he only remembers a little from the early stages of the tournament but was around the average stack throughout. He entered the eight-handed final table ranked #3 in chips, and a few hands that stood out were all standard all-in shoves against top players.

1:47 – Pallikona remembers there were two players better than him on the FT, but since both of them were short-stacked, they busted quickly.

2:34 – Pallikona shares he has invested one-fourth of the prize money in the stock market and the remaining into his poker bankroll. He lets out that he invests about 20-25% of his winnings on average.

3:38 – When asked to share his playing experience on PokerBaazi, Pallikona admits his volume on PokerBaazi is relatively low and plays only 1-2 tournaments on the site daily. However, he was all praises for the tournament timings, especially during major events, with the last event also starting around 9:30 PM.

4:34 – Pallikona narrates his poker journey and how, around 2015, he was an online rummy player. By chance, while searching for videos on rummy strategies, he stumbled upon a highlight video of the Poker Superstars Invitational. Intrigued, he started learning about poker rules and began playing the game.

5:22 – Speaking about his past mentors, Pallikona said he was earlier coached by Alok Ranjan – head of HIG – who helped him by honing his poker strategy and mental game. He is currently mentored by Abhishek Goindi under the advanced course of Poker Bootcamp India.

6:57 – Regarding his interest in live tournaments, Pallikona says he likes playing tournaments in Goa and has played anywhere from 20-25 tournaments in the coastal state. He is looking forward to attending the upcoming IPC and WPT India festivals.

7:38 – When asked to choose between live and online poker, Pallikona says he prefers live but calls it negative EV because of the limitations of not being able to play many tournaments at once

8:14 – Discussing his circle of poker friends, Pallikona speaks of his good friend Sreeharsha Boneni for being with him throughout his poker journey and seeing him through all the ups and downs

8:52 – As for players he looks up to in the country, Pallikona says he follows all the PokerGuru Ambassadors closely and tries to learn from their gameplay. He especially likes Sriharsha Doddapaneni`s game. From the international circuit, he is a fan of Michael Addamo.

9:42 – Saumya puts Pallikona on the spot by asking him if given a choice of which Indian player he would like to get coached by. He names Aditya Agarwal.

10:22 – Touching upon his poker plans for the year, Pallikona admits he has to put in more time to study than he is currently devoting and fix leaks in his post-flop game. He would also like to attend a few Asian Poker Tour stops.