The alarms blare or maybe the summer sun caught your eyes. You dreamily open them only to realize that you are on lockdown Day 30 something. *opens eyes*! Time to slay another day indoors! While your screens have plenty to keep you occupied with, we all need a break. Be it a hobby or treating yourself to a home cooked meal, playing poker online or just sweating it all out with your dumbbells, we all like to indulge in that extra something to keep ourselves positive and motivated during the lockdown.

For professional poker players, it’s probably the best time to be raking in all the money. With online poker games spinning around the clock with whopping guarantees on offer, the hours can be endless fun! After a great night of online poker, we thought we’d check in on the pros and what they are up to during the lockdown hours ‘off the felts’. 

Poker Players

VINOD MEGALMANI

This serial crusher is up to plenty off the felts! He loves his morning facetime calls with his adorable niece in Australia. Other than playing poker online, he’s an active investor in both the stock and crypto markets. So, he spends a good amount of time researching the markets. We also managed to sneak in some investment tips from him: 

  • One has to be patient when they invest in either of the markets. Rewards come to those who wait, he adds.
  • A big trading no no: Never buy on a green day and never sell on a red day.
  • Never listen to these guys: Goldman Scahs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase & Co and Mocho, he piped in boldly!
  • One stock you would pick up if given a chance right now: Tesla.

Vinod also spends a decent time shuffling between his favourite songs. His go-to channels are Cloudkid or Alex Cruzs’ podcast. Grabs a home cooked vegetarian meal for dinner and pines for his source of meat during the lockdown. But nonetheless, can’t be complaining; lights dim, zone in, grind time now!

AKANSHA SINGH

Akansha definitely has her hands full beyond online poker and is not letting this lockdown affect her. She indulges in a session of yoga and plans on mastering these skills during quarantine. The poker player believes it helps increase her focus and stay level-headed both on and off the felts of online poker! 

Akansha is also a Bollywood buff and fondly calls herself a ‘Bollywood Keeda’. The Keeda has definitely taken over with her and her husband making fun Bollywood videos. She posts the videos on facebook and instagram and is certainly getting a positive response! During a lockdown when everyone is stuck at home and thousands suffering depression and other mental illness, she feels such activity certainly helps lighten up the mood. 

This pro not just stays fit with yoga, but eats right too! She’s on no specific diet but does avoid fattening products. Adding to that, she believes boosting your immunity during this global health crisis is crucial and one must consume immunity boosters like turmeric, neem, giloy, tulsi, cardamom and Indian spices in their diet. Thanks for that health tip there!

Shows she recommends binge-watching: Special Ops, The Family Man and Money Heist.

Her go to tunes: Sucker for old classics like ‘Pyar hua ikrar hua’, ‘Aaja Sanam’, ‘Main zindagi ka saath’,’ Accha ji main haari’ Her message to everyone during the lockdown is to spend quality time with family and friends and channelize your energy towards self-growth to come out as stronger individuals. You go girl! 

ASHISH AHUJA

The name needs no introduction! We caught up with Ashish and he thinks this is a great time to be focusing on online poker. He’s definitely been devoting more hours to online poker because of the flashing guarantees and great numbers. If not caught up with playing poker online, he wishes he could devote time to learn French and pick up the guitar in the near future.

Considering his inclination for the guitar, we checked out his tunes: A mix of English pop songs and bollywood music hit this pro’s playlist. His current go to songs are ‘Adventure of a lifetime’ by Coldplay and inspirational Bollywood tracks like Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’s title track.  

Ahuja tries keeping his food basic and eats healthy. While the food might not be binge-worthy, his tv shows certainly are with Ozark S1 E9, Money Heist and time travelling with Breaking Bad!

On the fitness front, he enjoys taking a walk around the community block he lives in. He wishes to join a gym and get back in shape once the lockdown is lifted, hoping to make a good sweat a part of his daily routine.

Since its all guns on poker for this lad, we thought we’d get you a few poker tips and his advice for beginners:

  • A game of online poker is not easy as it looks, certainly requires a lot of hard work especially if you decide to play tournaments. 
  • It’s not like other online games where you can hit the pause button, he adds. A game of online poker can never be paused, you’re in it till you run out of chips, so be mentally prepared for 8-10 intense hours of this mental game. 
  • People need to understand the role of variance in poker. The variance is high and you have to keep that in mind while you play poker online and work hard to eliminate players. 

Here’s his mantra before an online poker tournament: “I take a couple of days off before any major online poker tournaments. Taking time off for myself and doing things that make me happy to keep my mind at peace. Whether it’s watching a movie, eating a good meal or listening to some music. Meditative music certainly helps me calm my mind too”. Invest in self-care folks, you heard it from the man himself.

Ashish practiced law before quitting to play poker professionally. “Both professions demand time” he said, “and you possibly can’t juggle both at the same time”. Well, the rest is history when we saw the rise of Ashish Ahuja as he blazed the felts with his dedication for the game.

Kudos to players of passion who are relentlessly working on their online poker games amidst the lockdown!

Who says only poker should have all the fun? By the looks of it, these poker boys/girls are having fun off the felts too! 

Poker Games