Then and Now: Rajeev Kanjani, Cash Game Player and IPC Co-Director on His ‘Poker Journey’

The recent success of the IPC and the Deltin Royale takeover has left no one in doubt, as to the tremendous hard work put in by the organizers. Rajeev Kanjani, our candidate for today’s “Now and Then” is part of that organizing team, but few are entirely aware of Rajeev’s past and his initial stint as a poker entrepreneur.

Like many others, Rajeev began as a player, but one with no shortage of mean feats. To cover his poker playing exploits in two lines, between 2011 and 2012, Rajeev officially final tabled nine times, with his highest score being for INR 14 lakhs at the WGF Poker Festival in Goa from 3^rd place. He has been hitting Macau quite a few times recently and last year; he made a 9^th place finish at the APPT Manila Main Event for PHP 242,000.

PokerGuru caught up with Rajeev who immediately displayed his independent style of thinking and claimed it’s “My Poker Journey! In my opinion, a journey is mostly referred to a long series of events, which has come to an end. Not Mine!” That is Rajeev for you, not a man to follow standard categorization, but one to follow his one path. Today, we bring you Rajeev in his own words, how he began playing, the “Then” or the start of his poker journey, the interim and the “Now,” with of course a lot more to come!

Then

Rajeev was introduced to poker at a Macau poker room in 2009. He took quick lessons in the basics from the manager and began to play. He recalls, “Using a poker instruction booklet in my hand, I grinded for over 6 hours, and came out of the room – richer!” However, for Rajeev the thrill was not about the money gained, but the playing fulfillment he got from efforts well utilized and the game experience.

“At table games like roulette, I could have made or lost 100 times that amount in as many hours. What was different about this game was the level of satisfaction I experienced.”

Returning to Mumbai, Rajeev continued his interest for poker, “I read a lot about poker, Googled videos, looked up blogs and articles of pros etc … I then chanced upon a group of people playing poker at a nearby club. Once I joined them, then there was no turning back. I played almost every day making decent amounts, almost on a daily basis as well.

Rajeev became a regular at Goa casinos and on one such trip chanced on a poker tournament happening, which was the IPC. His first tournament experience was wonderful aided by the fact that he cashed in his first attempt and that began his tryst with tournaments. Though he self admittedly declares that tournaments were not really that fruitful for him, Rajeev hit it big at cash games. “Although I met with very little success in tournaments at that stage, in cash games however, I made a killing. Many a big fat uncle and diamond studded aunty have been kind in their donations.”

Rajeev began to enjoy tournament success, after starting his first poker venture – Aces Unlimited. He initially collaborated with Anand Banjara and after he opted out, Rajeev approached Jasven Saigal to join hands with him. The duo conducted many events under the Aces Unlimited banner and to his surprise; Rajeev found himself performing better at tournaments. “Coincidentally I performed better than usual in my own event and cashed in numerous tournaments. But, my biggest success came with a 3rd place finish at the World Gaming Festival. After that, as a player, there was no looking back.”

The entrepreneurial appeal of poker business soon lured Rajeev and to take things further, he joined hands with the biggest tournament organizers, IPC to form the Ultimate Poker Challenge (UPC). “We did a couple of events under the UPC brand, which were successful and eventually the brands merged into the IPC.”

Subsequently, taxation laws took their toll and poker hit a low in the country, so IPC decided to move its venue to Colombo. Rajeev recounts, “We did not have huge turnouts, but we did have a lot of fun, and met some amazing people outside India. Despite that, Colombo as a destination was very challenging and we knew that Indian players within the country had to be our primary target. Hence after that one-off, we decided not to organize any tournaments till we had a better opportunity in India.”

Despite being an organizer, the player in him was never far off and Rajeev recalls, “As a player, during this while, I was playing a lot of cash games, all over Mumbai and Goa. Those games and sessions were quite profitable J”

And Now

Sometime last year, the transition that took place to the “Now” began, when a friend discussed the possibility of operating a poker room in Goa. The idea took hold, germinated and sprouted with the taking over of the Deltin Royale poker room. “We loved the idea. Along with Sameer Rattonsey and Amin Rozani, we approached the biggest poker room in India, the Deltin Royale Poker Room and we came to an understanding with their management to operate out of that venue.”

“It has now been close to four months, since we have been running the room, and I must say, it is a venture we are very proud of.”

Rajeev Kanjani with fellow IPC Co-Directors celebrating the record-breaking attendance at IPC Jan Edition

Talking about the road ahead, Rajeev elaborates on the IPC’s plans to give India an international class poker room. “We have a vision for Deltin Royale Poker Room. We want to make this the most preferred poker room for all players in the country. We want to provide international standards of service in Deltin Royale and have already implemented a lot of changes in the room, with respect to VIP services, F&B, gameplay and overall management.”

Rajeev believes that the approachability of the IPC organizers is their biggest USP and says, “We are keen to get feedback from our players on any issues they feel strongly about and work to resolve them to the best extent possible. We want to be a ‘People’s poker room’.”

The success of the inaugural IPC series is open history and Rajeev humbly declares, “Having taken over the Deltin Royale Poker Room, it was always on the cards for the IPC to come back and what a comeback it made! We broke all attendance records for not just the IPC brand but generally for all poker tournaments held in the country. We did not anticipate the kind of rush we saw in January but we are delighted to see the poker explosion in India.”

The group has several things lined up for the future, but prefer not to reveal it before the right time and are keen to make Goa a global poker playground.“IPC has a lot of things planned, which we will reveal in due course. We want to reach a level, wherein international players will look to planning a poker trip to Goa to play in our events and I am sure those days are not too far away.”

Despite the success in business, the player in Rajeev is still active and hungry for more. He firmly states, “With all the above happenings, I must add that I am and always will be a poker player first! While I do not play poker for a living, the game just gets more and more exciting every time I play it.”

He admits that cash games give him a high with satisfaction, and fame and money automatically follow. Rajeev also recalls his playing scores and says, “I have had some very good scores in India and from my second international trip, I started make some scores. Not big ones, but reasonably good ones nonetheless, leading to every trip being a profitable one. The highlight of these finishes was of course the Asia Pacific Poker Tour event in Manila, where I reached the final table with my friend and partner Sameer Rattonsey.”

Rajeev has an extremely positive attitude when he says, “Poker has changed a lot since I started playing. Be it the number of poker rooms, stakes, number of participants, home games or even online poker sites, there is only one trend here – Upward.”

Talking about the current scenario, Rajeev affirms his resolve to continue to play and wishes he had more time in a day to juggle work and play.

“These are great times for poker in India. On a personal front, I intend to play more, of course in our room, and I am going to try and squeeze in some time for some international events as well especially in the Asian region. It is a bit of a juggle, as I also need to run my core business as well. It sometimes feels that 24 hours in a day is just too short. If it was up to me, I would love to do all of the above and spend more time with my family. I suppose it’s too much to wish for a day to have 48 hours J”

“I hope to see y’all at the tables soon. Now, let’s shuffle up and deal!” he signs off, in his inimitable style.

PokerGuru wishes Rajeev all the best and looks forward to hearing more of his exploits in the times to come.