Nadeem Basha

So Far So Good…

November 6, 2019 in Uncategorized

Ok. So this is my second attempt to write this down and it might be all over the place.

I would sum my year in one line – Life can get tricky, but fortune favors the bold.

I have been playing a lot of online MTT’s lately. One can say that I am putting in the full schedule of all the major online MTT’s happening in the country.

As for live, it has been a little off but still. The good news is that I managed to do quite a few chops recently and cleared a big makeup. Not that there was any pressure per se, but makeup can really affect one’s mindset even if you are staked. But being coached by the best in the industry helped me get through it all.

Adi has been spending hours with us in coaching sessions, and we now have a session almost every day. Whether it’s theory or hand history review, we are doing it all. There is much more and all this has helped me a lot.

I have got more refined, and I have started studying at least an hour or two on my game every day without fail.

Last weekend turned out to be a nice one at the end as I finished 2nd in the PokerBaazi BSS SuperStack on Sunday. The one which Jasven bhai shipped.

For now, the plan is to keep putting in the volume. I have seen how the boys have been killing it both online and live. I mean, everyone knows about Ashish Munot shipping the WPT Main and even the epic run of Ankit Wadhwan. When efforts convert into results, it is a great motivator, and hopefully, we too will bring some shipments soon!

Until next time…

Nadeem Basha

Off to a Great New Year!

January 3, 2020 in News

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years celebration and here’s wishing everyone a great year ahead. My last blog was in November, and as per my commitment and plan, I was able to put in decent volume in MTT’s. But I have only played online, and for a while now, I have been off from playing live games.

The year has started on a good note for us as we made a few deep runs this past week. We shipped the Destiny where we went heads-up with Rajat Sharma. It was a long heads-up grind as he had the chip lead, but we sucked him out in a hand, which gave me a decent lead to win the tourney later on. Last night, we shipped the High Roller on PokerStars and finished 3rd in the Summit. I was waiting to bag a title on stars for a while, and HR was the perfect one, I guess. The final table was pretty smooth, we had the clear chip lead, and it was a smooth sail.

FT of Summit , on the other hand, was a tough one. We had some of the top pros in it. And we had 4 PokerGuru Ambassadors on it. Apart from me, Ashish Munot, Laksh Pal Singh, and Ankit Wadhawan were there, so the final table was pretty intense. It also is a testament to how good Adi’s coaching is. We have had regular sessions almost every day, and it is reflecting in our scores too. Adi is an excellent coach, and I would like to thank him and PokerGuru Staking team for helping us get here.

Also, I have sattied for almost all events for both the upcoming Baazi Poker Tour and India Poker Championship, so I am looking forward to crushing both the series. Hopefully, we make the right moves there too.

Gonna end this blog here by saying that this has been an excellent start to the new year, better than I could expect, and it’s just been 2 days. There are 363 more days to go, so hopefully, we make it the best year ever!

From 500 – 2.2L, just in a day.

May 5, 2019 in News

The importance of volume in Multi Table Tournaments (MTT) is often understated. At least, il admit, in my playing career, i was often guilty of neglecting it. Being used to playing live cash games, it was difficult to wrap my head around both live and online games concurrently.
However, this changed a while ago. I was going through a bad phase in my game and the wild swings every player experiences had gotten me rethinking my profession. It didn’t help matters that many close friends and acquaintances, asked me to consider giving it up. “Why don’t you consider a regular job?” they said.
But I always came back to the one basic canon: that i loved playing poker more than anything else. So i ploughed through. I am fortunate to be one of the lucky few to be coached by the best in the game. Kartik Ved and Lungi, have helped me out several times. As a stable, they didn’t just give me a bankroll to play. They helped me out as mentors and sometimes even as family members when needed. (Now how many other professions offer this kind of package?)
I’d like to recall one eventful night. Kartik had been advising me to start investing more time and volume in MTTs, even the smaller ones. One night he told us to play Midnight Rush on Stars which was ₹500 buy in with a 50k GTD. Incidentally that very night, i had exhausted my balance on Stars and was down to just Rs. 500 – essentially i had just a single bullet for the kill!
Well the bullet worked! I shipped that tourney that night with a 10k uptop which gave me enough to fire for HR satty+ take a bullet if required. I then went on to ship the stars high roller, winding up that night at 2.2L. This shows how every mtt is equally important, and i eventually ended up re-strategizing my approach to the games. I now play a well balanced mix of MTTs. It just goes to show that no matter how many years you have behind you, the game always keeps you learning!

Itching to Get Back to Regular Grind Mode

March 5, 2020 in News

Hello all, I am back to blogging after a long time. Actually, I am more excited to finally be back to my regular regime. I was not able to put that much volume in February since I was involved with a lot of family affairs and a couple of weddings. Due to which, I was not able to grind on Fridays and Saturdays, and since all the higher value events are multi flights these days, I missed out on a lot of value as I was only able to play on Sundays. I did make a lot of final tables in the past month but unfortunately could not convert them into titles. Most importantly, i did not get to do a lot of learning. Which is equally as important as grinding.

Now I plan to get back to do the regular grind, and March will be very busy as I will put as much volume as possible. I even plan to get back to live games and might travel to play some live games. Incidentally, I had planned my first international trip for WPT Vietnam but had to put it on hold due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

One great thing that’s a constant is that the coaching sessions with Adi are going very well. We have restarted the regular routine of at least 5-6 sessions in a week. That’s really helpful, and I am amazed that we are still discovering new spots that we can discuss. Every time we have a hand history review, we always come across a few spots which we were not familiar with.

Signing off now. Big grind Ahead.

A few tips for Dealing with Poker Downswing.

December 3, 2018 in News

Downswings in poker can be demoralising sometimes especially when it is your full time profession. But a good player always learns how to handle his swings. I have been on a downswing off lately but i have seen so many of them in the past that i know that it is just another bad phase which will pass. Downswings in poker happens to all of us.

Here are a few stuffs i like to do when i am on a downswing.

Taking some time off poker is the most important one. I have been playing live and online poker for almost everyday. But after a point of time when i feel i am facing a downswing, I like to take a short break from poker completely, especially when the Poker Gods are not in our favour. A long drive or a short vacation is the perfect solution to tilt and times when the variance hits you hard. Its always good to take such breaks off poker in these times and come back with a fresh mind later.

Persistence is the key in Poker. Staying on course with a firm mindset always succeeds in the long run. What really matters is how far you are committed to the game.

Focusing in game can get half your work done. Especially in live cash games. Observing and exploiting it to our advantage is how i have always made more money. I sometimes feel that during a downswing i tend to think a lot about my losses and dwell my mind on things off poker.That is when i need a short break. That’s how i figure it out.

Another important factor to take in is that often we miss out the leaks in our game and not work on it. For instance, i know i have been making blunders in a few spots which can be avoided completely. Working on my game everyday theoretically and not practically on a downswing is another better option.

Life in poker has been a grind. A long one.But i have just started.

In the end, as said, Poker is a hard way to make an easy living.

Shipping the Big Daddy After a Long Downswing

January 28, 2019 in News

As I mentioned in my last blog, I have been going through a bit of a downswing where I am cashing in a few events but a big score continues to elude me. It’s been a tough few months but I was persistent, committed and have been trying to fix my big leaks these past few months.

The recent Big Daddy win was a big score for me after a really long time and Adi’s (Aditya Agarwal) mentoring has definitely helped me a lot in getting there. I have been final tabling a few events but it’s been a while since I shipped a big tournament but I am on it now 🙂

The final table of the event was also pretty decent. We had 3 PokerGuru boys – Vivek Singh, Shashank Desai and me at the final table and incidentally all three of us took the top three spots.

My future plans (distant) now include traveling for poker, probably to Macau or Vietnam. I see that Abhinav Iyer has also shipped the APT Vietnam Main Event which is pretty huge thing for Indian poker players and I am really glad that he has done that.

For me, I am still working on my game and I am going to be playing a lot of live cash and online MTT’s for now. I am not planning to play any live MTT`s for the next few months.

Online Rankings

i Top Ranked Poker Players in India
Member Won
Member Won
Member Won
₹1,29,29,197
₹1,25,88,313
₹1,20,69,627
₹1,15,22,676
5.Vinay B Vinay B
₹1,14,52,995
6.M L M L
₹1,14,40,871
₹1,09,13,473
₹1,05,24,690
₹99,60,672
₹99,49,327
Member Profit
Member Profit
Member Profit
₹55,77,649
₹50,59,154
₹47,48,174
₹46,54,932
₹44,93,503
₹43,84,994
₹43,56,316
₹42,00,183
₹41,14,429
₹40,97,624
Member Points
Member Points
Member Points
42,268
35,945
28,827
4.N K N K
28,311
25,814
25,649
24,477
24,446
9.M L M L
23,604
22,922

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