Playing for love

June 12, 2019 in News

Let me begin by introducing myself, I am Kshitij Jain, a husband, a father & a poker lover. People call it a player but I like to call it a lover. I have been playing poker for 10 years now. The 1st time I ever played was on Facebook, though I love the game I’m not a regular player. I used to play with friends at home, and then one day, a friend of mine introduced me to online poker. I was skeptical about it as there was money involved here, but because I loved the game and wanted to learn more about it, I started playing small tournaments online as when I got time from my work… On holidays whenever there was a casino, I tried paying some live games.

It was always fun, and gradually, my interest in the game kept increasing. Since the past 2 years, I have been quite keen on mastering the game, so started learning about it online, through books, through video tutorials, by watching other players etc. I started following a few players online and was fascinated with how they won big tournaments.

I used to read poker blogs, which instigated a feeling in me to play live tournaments and make it big some day just like them!

I shared this with my wife one day, and I told her, “One day I will also make it big in poker and like I read other players interviews, people will be reading mine.” Then she immediately said “if you think you can play why don’t you give it a try.” She knew about this tournament happening in Goa and asked me to go for it. I was shocked because I didn’t think she would take it so seriously. But now I had to do it for her & for my love for the game, so I went for it.

I was a little nervous as this was my first-ever live tournament, but at the same time, I had confidence in me as I had studied the game well.

Now was the day of the tournament and I got busted in the very first hand! I had pocket tens, and the flop was 10 high, but the other guy got better with a flush. This was enough to break my confidence but not for very long. I got up, took a fresh breath, and returned with even more confidence. I registered myself again and played some solid poker, and at the end of the day, I was the chip leader with only 26 players left out of some 250. My name came on various poker news sites, my wife saw that and was overwhelmed. She said, “see I told you that you can do it.”

This was like a boost to me + that put some pressure of standing up to her expectations. The day was well spent. I went to my room, and a had a good sleep. So the next morning I got up super excited and couldn’t wait for the game to start. I reached the venue 2 hours before the game started and in the 1st few levels of the tournament I had lost half of my stack, and I realized I am not playing to the best of my abilities.

I got up from the table to take a 5-minute break and spoke to my wife for a bit. I wanted to give her hints that maybe I won’t win today, but the confidence she had in me didn’t let me tell her that.

So I went back to the game telling myself that you have no option but to do well, and after that, I slowly managed to build my stack, and once again I was the chip leader.

At the final table, I knew I had to play really well as the other players were solid. I played and busted many players, and finally, it was only me, Anand and Siddharth Karia on the table. I knew they were outstanding players, so I tried to be aggressive whenever I was in a hand with them and did well to make them fold couples of times.

During the break, I had a word with Anand about the deal, and he agreed to it so when we three were left, we made a deal. The game went on, and I was the runner up in my 1st ever tournament. I was happy beyond imagination.