For the best Rail in Poker: Gen P of Poker- Vivek Rughani

Log on to any online poker community/forum and start a discussion. You are sure to get a smart reply from Vivek Rughani. Mention that you are playing 1/70 in a particular tournament in a online poker room and he will rail you till you make the final table, irrespective of the time of the event. Such is the enthusiasm of this underachiever of Indian poker.

Everyone always features the poker players who win tournaments or make big cashes, but no one ever notices the young guys who are trying to make it big. No one documents the struggles that a poker player has to face in their tryst to glory. We at Onlinepokernews.in started a column for the New Crop of Indian Poker which is making inroads in online poker. The Gen P Of Poker features the young names of poker in India and this time we bring to you Vivek Rughani who though has little poker earnings to boast of but has all the enthusiasm and vigour to make it big in the leagues of poker. He sits happily rallying for his contemporaries as they win the 5 figure Dollar payouts and cheers those on struggling.

The coy Rughani who prefers to remain on the sidelines and spread the good word of the poker game was surprised when contacted for an interview for this column. He claimed he didn’t have the earnings to boast of. We told him he had the poker passion to be proud of and thus was the perfect fit. We present a chat with Vivek Rughani- the ever smiling poker player and enthusiast from Ahmedabad.

Q 1 Hi Vivek, Thanks for taking out the time to speak with us. To start with, can you tell us when you started playing poker? Basically your poker journey till date…
VR First of all thanks for considering me for the Interview .Basically I started out with a home game with cousins with play chips. They taught me the rules and I ran hotter than the sun. I was like asking them which hand is better and kept getting them in the same manner. That one session got me glued to the game and they told me about facebook poker. I started practising my game on Facebook and used to play poker for 10-12 hours daily. I even made some money selling fb chips. I got to the real money adventure pretty late and have spewed a lot at start because of not following a good bankroll management strategy. But now I have learnt from my lessons and taking it slow and steady. I do hope to strike my golden moment soon.

Q 2 How much poker do you play?

Ans I was studying till now so had lots of free time and used to play anywhere between 6-7 hours on an average

Q 3 How does your family feel about you playing Poker?

VR I never confessed to my family about my poker love but if I would have won some good amount I would have told them. As I got married recently to my girl friend she knew about it but she also thinks that its gambling and to prove her wrong I need to win and make a lot of money consistently.Keeping my fingers crossed for the future.

Q 4 Are you working somewhere?
VR Not yet but now I wont be playing poker for a living. I will continue to put in same amount of hours and will have to get a regular job.

Q 5 Have you ever participated in any live tournaments in India or Internationally?

VR nope not yet

Q 6 Who do you idolize in Poker, both in India and Internationally?

VR In India as with everyone else idolize’s I also follow Aditya ‘Intervntion’ Agarwal. To me he is like The Sachin Tendulkar of poker. Then I would say Aditya ‘donkabomber’ Sushant. When I started playing I used to dream of winning the Sunday Millions and always wondered if any Indian can do that which donkabomber chopped last year. He has been on my facebook list long time back when I saw some news of him winning a live tournament in Goa.  Recently I have also started following Sahil ‘antilog’ Aggarwal because of his sick grinding ability. Other Indian poker players I admire include Amit ‘Bblacklegend’ Jain and Danish Shaikh,

Internationally I would say Dominic Panka ,Calvin Anderson and Iamlegend11 amongst online players.

Q 7 Who are the 3 names, according to you, who can make it big in International Poker Community?

VR Intervntion, Antilog and Sameer rattonsey.

Q 8 We have always observed you contributing news articles, railing players on their tourneys etc. How do you get this enthusiasm to contribute to poker?
VR I was always an addicted gamer and going semi pro in various online games so always used to follow each and everything about the game. When I started playing and following poker, I followed the same trend. About railing, I love it Indian poker players make good scores or win tourneys. It gives me hope that maybe someday I will reach there.

Q 9 What do you do when no playing Poker?

VR Play league of legends ,watch football and surf the net.

Q 10 What is your one Poker dream?

VR I wont say winning the WSOP main event is my dream because it seems a bit exaggerating so I would say that I just want to play it for a living online first make decent money than try the live felt.

Q 11 What should be done to promote poker in India?

VR Poker in India needs to reach the masses first. There are like millions of facebook poker players who play it well but don’t know there are such platforms to play for money. Perhaps more freeroll entries to big events will also promote the amateurs to play more and help it grow.