Piyush Gupta in on the final table of APT Poker Weekend Series Manila Main Event. He’ll start 2nd in the chip count today when the game resumes at Casino Filipino, Waterfront Manila Pavilion Hotel and Casino. The Australia-based Piyush has several cash finishes in tournament poker which includes 8th place finish in the World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific (WSOP APAC) A$ 1,100 No Limit Hold’em Accumulator event.
Piyush will be vying for the APT title against 7 other players which includes two-time APT Player of the Year Sam Razavi. Before he takes seat at the final table, OPN spoke to Piyush about his run in the tournament and his career as professional poker player so far. Here are the excerpts of the chat:
Q1. You are second in chip counts; do you fancy your chances of shipping this event?
Piyush – I am in a very good position at the moment and I think that I have more experience than most of the players from grinding a lot of hours online. So, I would think that my chances of winning are decent with a bit of luck on my side. But, it’s poker so anything can happen.
Q2. Is this your first APT outing?
Piyush – Yes, this is my first time travelling to the APT circuit. I was in Thailand before this so it was easy to make the trip here.
Q3. Two times APT player of the year Sam Razavi is also on the FT! Is that intimidating considering his huge APT experience?
Piyush – Sam Razavi has been crushing the live circuit as of recently. I have played with him quite a bit online. So, I wouldn’t say I’m intimidated, but he is definitely my toughest opponent to deal with.
Q4. There aren’t any Indian players in the field this time. Have you played with any Indian players in the international circuit?
Piyush – Yes I have played with quite a few of the Indian crushers in Macau and sometimes in Australia. Shout out to the true heroes donka (Aditya Sushant), inter (Aditya Agarwal), bblack (Amit Jain) and antilog (Sahil Agarwal).
Q5. Could you share your poker journey with us? How did it start? Would your poker path be any different if you were based in India and not Australia?
Piyush – I was born and brought up in India and grew up there for 16 years before my family made the move to Australia. I finished High school and went to University in Australia. Like many other people, I started off playing some home games and Sit n Gos with friends before transitioning into online as I was really interested in learning the game and getting better.
I have been playing online since 2011 and have played a few live tournaments in Australia and in the Asia pacific region. I think at that time in India Poker was not as mainstream as it is now. So, I would have found it hard to even be exposed to the game living in India at the time. I’ve always loved card games and been competitive so I think Poker would have found me at some point in India although it would have been a lot later. But, poker is becoming huge in India now so I plan on moving back sometime soon. Poker is a great game for all types of people and is a very fun socially so I hope its popularity just keeps increasing leaps and bounds.