fundoopoker.com

23/10/2011

Bharat Agarwalla is the Director/Owner of India Poker Series & Ways2Events. He has been playing poker for the past 20 years and plays cash games in Kolkata and Goa. His continuous efforts and hard work has made poker popular in India. India Poker Series is the first Indian Poker tournament organizing company started by him in April 2010. IPS tournaments are held every alternate month. Here is an interview with Bharat were we got to ask him about the much awaited IPS Main Event of the Year which is in November.

Fundoo Poker : What are your expectations in terms of field size and player talent from IPS 9 ?

Bharat : Field size on an average has been side ways in 2nd half of 2011 because the number of tournaments have more than trebled since last year. This means that the number of players have increased over all but have got distributed over the various events. Also just before IPS 9 is the APT which will draw some of the crowd. Even then we are certain that our numbers would not diminish and would surely be average or above average. Last IPS we had an average of 60+ players on each of the 4 days (incl the Thursday and Sunday which are otherwise weak days). We are confident that even this time we shall have as many if not more.

Fundoo Poker : APT Asian Series is from 8-14 November, so its few days before your tournament. How do you think APT will impact on IPS 9 and also how it will effect the whole poker scenario in India as its a big international event ?

Bharat : APT will surely hamper our numbers. For a lot of people it will be the APT experience or an international experience so they would attend that and skip IPS. But then some still like our tourneys and would attend both APT and IPS. Also the POY LeaderBoard would attract a few of them who wish to retain their ranking at IPS and also those who want to race for the top. We think that the numbers will average out and wont see a negative impact.

Fundoo Poker : How this IPS 9 different from all the tournaments you organized before ?

Bharat : IPS 9 is our Main Event for 2011. The main 2 highlights are the Champ of Champs event which will have winners of IPS 5 to IPS 9 participate in it and also the "Challengers" who can buy in their entry into the IPS CoC 2011 by paying 25K and the second highlight is the Ladies of Poker which will be a new thing at IPS and will have a 100% pay out and no admin expenses would be deducted. We expect healthy participation from the Ladies.

Fundoo Poker : What's the interesting/special thing about the main event "IPS Champ of Champs 2011" of 25k ?

Bharat : IPS Champ of Champs 2011 as said above has winners of IPS 5 to IPS 9 participating in it, plus last years IPS 2010 Main Event winner, plus a couple of others who have already got their berth in the the event. The event is an "open event" and others can buy their way into the tourney by paying 25K which is the Buy In amount and they become the Challengers to the Champs. It would be the first of its kind event in India.

Fundoo Poker : Will there be satellites and freerolls for IPS 9 both online and live ?

Bharat : Yes we have lined up Free Rolls which are online plus other promotions as well. Live Satellites shall also be held at the venue. We are working on sponsors for the Free Rolls. Online Satellites may also be held though we have not as yet worked on them.

Fundoo Poker : Can we expect any surprise at the IPS 9 event ?

Bharat : No surprises are yet lined up for IPS 9. But you never know, we at IPS have always sprung surprises at IPS. May be the number of Free Seats thrown in would be a surprise. Keep watching our Facebook page for more on these. We are going to be tight lipped till we start the promos.

Fundoo Poker : What advice you would like to give to new players who will be coming for the first time to play live in goa for your tournaments ?

Bharat : I have only one piece of advise to the first timers. I would suggest to them to make the most of the trip. Play the tourneys on all days, preserve the cash for the tourneys by buying in on the first day for all days, play the satellites to try and get a few cheap seats, play the cash games but conservatively so that energy is saved for the tourneys and also that they should take some time out for the beaches as the season for tourism shall be picking up.

Fundoo Poker : Tell us something about your game as a poker player because you personally like playing poker ?

Bharat : My game is primarily for cash games. I am not a tourney player as such. I infact did not play my own IPS for almost a full year since April last year and it was only in March this year that I played my first tourney. Since then I have 3 Final Tables to my credit and 2 close misses to the FT. I am ranked 14th on IPS LeaderBaord for 2011 and had I not had those misses then Id be around the 5th 6th.Even then I feel I am better at the cash games. My strong area is not Texas but is Omaha. I love playing Omaha High Low which is not played at the Casinos so I have to be content with PLO (Pot Limit Omaha) which is a a high only game. We have some excellent Omaha players building up in the country now. Incidentally I have been playing poker since 20 years now. When I learnt playing poker in 1991, we used to play the 7 card studd and the 5 card stuff and Omaha, I learnt Texas just 3 years back. I was taught poker by a very close friend of mine Dev Saharia who himself learnt it when he was in the states for graduation that time.

Fundoo Poker : What are your future plans as a tournament organizer ?

Bharat : Our future plans are very simple - we wish to keep expanding to newer venues while continuing at the current venue, plus we want to bring in more and more newer players to the field which we are instrumental in doing so each time. Infact we are the only tourney organiser who brings in new faces each time. We maintain that WE HAVE THE BEST HAND !!!!