Avneesh Munjal

Playing Outside the Box & Shuffling the Deck to Poker Stardom
An exclusive conversation with the December 2024 India Online 2024 Leaderboard Topper
“Every poker player, like every fisherman, needs to have a story in a box, and most poker stories are completely uninteresting.” — Jason Alexander

Definitely doesn’t fit right for Avneesh Munjal!
At 35, Avneesh Munjal’s life reads like a never-ending thriller that compels you with its strands of passion, brilliance and love. Love for life, family and poker. In September 2021 this former Assistant Vice-President of Citibank who hails from Bhiwani and currently lives in Gurgaon, set the chips of his corporate career aside to take the bold leap and pursue his true calling.

Munjal’s decision to play poker professionally has paid off in extraordinary ways.

In just 3+ years he has exploded into the Indian poker terrain with a distinctive style and unmatched skill. With three prestigious live titles in Asia and multiple cashes at top international destinations, including the iconic World Series of Poker (WSOP), his journey has been nothing short of remarkable.

2024 alone was life-changing for Munjal. After topping the National Poker Series (NPS) Leaderboard in 2023, he delivered a solid performance at NPS 2024 with four medals (including 1 Gold), finishing second on the Leaderboard.

While he also shipped two Asian events, it was his December run at the World Poker Tour (WPT) India Online Series that truly set the stage on fire!

Like a thriller movie without intermission, Munjal descended the WPT India Online tables, achieving what many only dream. He played nearly every event of the schedule over two weeks and collected a staggering 61 cashes, bolstering his bankroll by an astounding 56.03 LAC.
Along the way, he claimed three titles:

• WPT#87 Championship for 17.28 LAC
• WPT#73 Bounty Hunter (KO) for 11.37 LAC (16,000 in bounties)
• WPT#31 Bounty Hunter (PKO) for 14.54 LAC (3.29 LAC in bounties)

It was no surprise that Avneesh Munjal stood tall as the Player of the Series, dominating the WPT India Online Leaderboard and walking away with an additional 10 LAC.

Behind his remarkable success is a strong support system, including his parents and his wife, Nalini Singh Siwach, a pro-golfer who is following a corporate career. Also smiling along is their four-year-old son, Kabir who is proud and loves to tell everyone he meets that his dad plays poker for a living. With their unwavering encouragement, Munjal approaches every hand with an unmatched passion, both on and off the tables.

PokerBaazi sat down with Avneesh Munjal to discuss his unforgettable WPT India Online run, the evolution of his poker career, and his future plans.

Let’s go back to the beginning. A Chemical Engineer by qualification – finance whiz by profession and a poker player by choice! How did poker find its way into your life?
It happened during my Engineering in NIT Warangal. I started playing 1-2 cash games in college with my batch-mates. Later poker continued very recreationally as I worked for a company in Tamil Nadu, later completed my MBA (2015), and took up a job with Citibank in Mumbai.

I played cash games whenever I’d get an opportunity to play live during work trips to international destinations like Singapore, the U.S., and Europe. Initially focused on cash games, I moved to tournaments in 2019. This year, I posted cashes in Las Vegas and soon attended various domestic poker events in locations like Goa, Rozvadov, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

Was moving to poker full-time a difficult choice?
I was already playing a lot of poker. My father is a financial advisor and he has instilled financial discipline in me, so I was checking the boxes in terms of savings. That said, when I was on the verge of going pro, I did find it a bit challenging. I knew that if I don’t succeed I can always fall back to my corporate career. But for nearly six months, I kept mulling over when to put up my papers. And then one fine day it happened!

Your best and worst poker moment would be?
A memorable moment was during the WPT Prime Vietnam Hanoi 2023 Main Event – I finished 11th. Throughout the day I was feeling great. It was a beautiful day. I was just grinding it out and though I didn’t finish where I’d have liked to finish, it ended nicely.

My worst poker moment was during the APT Ho Chi Minh back in 2021. This was when I was on my first live trip for poker after turning professional.

In one event, I had a 100 big blind stack on Day 3. With the final 150 people left, I was among the top 5. But the next day was a big disaster. I lost my entire stack in a matter of 30-40 minutes. I lost flips, but I was in a tilted mindset and did not make very rational decisions. However after that I wrote down a few things that I didn’t like and decided that if I want to do this for a living, I have to be disciplined in life. Definitely, while it was a bad day, it really helped from future perspective.

How do you approach downswings in poker?
I think to approach downswings you need to have the right mindset – I can’t tell myself that I’m going through a downswing. Obviously cards don’t care about your emotions, what happened in the past. The math will always precede your feelings. Just understand that you’re running a marathon.

You have to train your mind that you’re not the only one going through this, everybody is going through this. You give some you get some, it’s just a part of life, so chin up and be ready for it.

I try to calm myself that these are bound to happen and it’s not happening at the WSOP Main Event final table, so if you ever reach that point, give the suckouts that you’re meant to give there.

In case you’re not in the right mind-space to grind, don’t go for it, because it’s going to end up as a bad day for you.

When you started to play the WPT India Online tourneys, what were your thoughts? What strategy did you follow given the competition and the WPT title on the line?
I don’t look too far ahead, just focus one hand at a time. Slowly and steadily it all adds up. That’s how I have always approached such long series – that you have to be consistent every day. Day in and day out you have to deliver, you have to show up.

With PokerBaazi-hosted series, right from the NPS to WPT India Online, I believe that consistency matters a lot. I kept a very tight grip on my micros, even kept my diet pretty much the same. I worked out, took cold showers to keep my focus in-line. In fact, I have found cold showers very effective – I followed this even during my November trip to play in Poker Dream Malaysia – the temperature was 5 degrees at the time, but I realize this works to clear my thoughts and sharpen my focus.

Sixty-one cash-outs, three title victories, topping the Series Leaderboard! Tell us about your surreal WPT India Online run.
I had a very good run through the WPT, and I’m very grateful that I ended up on the right side of variance. During the NPS I had journaled a lot and one of the points I had noted down that mindset is something you need to take power of, and then everything will fall into place. Since then I don’t have tilt issues in general. Even if you have bad beats, you also are giving some.

Which of the three WPT India Online tournaments that you won were the most exciting and why?
Every deep run you make is special, though some tournaments give you the right kind of return in terms of money. The first tournament I shipped i.e. WPT#31 went very smooth. I carried the chip lead when the field was down to the final 100, and carried the momentum to the finish line.

The victory in WPT#73 was significant from the Leaderboard perspective. At this point I was third or fourth on the Leaderboard but after I won this tournament, it propelled me to the top of the Leaderboard.

The third was a Championship event, which carries a superb, a deep structure, and it went very well.

In November 2024 you won your third live title. How do you look at yourself as a player considering your past achievements in poker?
As a player I feel I’m nowhere near where the goals are and what all I want to do in life. I am highly ambitious, but at the same time I’m very happy where I’m in life, in terms of the family support I have, from my wife and son – so I’m quite content with where I stand.

From poker’s perspective, I just t want to continue to perform well throughout as long as I can.

Last few years I have been trying to mix live and online poker both and this is how I want to approach the game in future as well. While online poker is bread and butter, live poker adds spice and a different mix to things. You have to add in factors like the presence you carry to the table, as well as the other players you are competing against, to read weakness and understand strengths in opponents.

Poker has taught me a lot of intangible things, the psychology of money for instance.

I strongly believe in focusing on the process of being a sportsman, rather than thinking of the results. When I’m playing I’m out that to perform, not to worry about whether I win or lose.

I really liked my heads-up games in terms of the last few tournaments that I have won. I now carry more confidence in my game when I do heads-up than earlier – I’m able to grind it out so that I have recently felt proud of.

You have been playing poker actively from 2019 and professionally since 2021. What drives you to continue pursuing the game?
I feel if you have the right mindset, you bring in the hunger to the tables. You want to ship tournaments; you want to run deeper in tournaments. You have to keep going. It’s all about how badly you want to do well in what you are doing in life.

Of-late I have realized that taking unscheduled breaks, even on the days I want to play is helping me. You come back with more hunger, with more ways to win.

A great way to stay motivated is to have a study group or a coach. Poker is a very evolving sport, and you can never master it. But the hunger to play will remain if you keep motivating yourself and continue to learn.

When series like the WPT India Online run alongside the usual schedule it helps add a sense of purpose to things, which again translates into the hunger, and the motivation to keep playing.

I just want to keep learning, focus and channel my mental energy into the right space of things.

Looking ahead, what are your plans for 2025? What can we look forward to seeing Avneesh Munjal achieve in poker?
My goal in life is to have freedom in what I want to do, be it a Sunday afternoon or a Monday. Poker gives you that financial freedom to do what you want, to live your life and helps you become a better person.

I just want to keep going, keep putting in more volume and plan the live trips very wisely and very carefully.

In the past year I have been a little less cautious about bankroll which is something I’d like to improve in 2025 and onwards. I plan to keep a good check from the selection of tournaments perspective. Live series are very heavy in terms on buy-ins, stay etc., so I just want to have a good grip on bankroll management.

At the same time, I just want to flow, and enjoy life.

Playing poker for a living can be tough and is definitely an unorthodox choice. What does your family have to say about this?
Poker is a skill-based game, and I don’t want to keep it a taboo from my son. He knows as much as he can know at his age – He is four years old. He is super proud that I play poker, and if you ask him, he’d say “My dad plays poker. He goes on trips, he gets trophies!”

He is fascinated with trophies, and is very fond of animals and he was very happy when I brought the APT Golden Lion trophy home.

Cards sharpen your brains we have started playing a bit of card games with him, to keep the brain active.

Clearly, Avneesh Munjal is just getting started. His rise, along with others like him, has the potential to push the game to new levels. We wish him ongoing success, not only in poker but in all his endeavors.