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Gutshot Player of the Month Varun Meena Breaking The Shackles By Donna Amo Every month, the Advisory Board at Gutshot Magazine chooses the month’s best player from a list of nominees based on their online performances. With the online circuit filled with various talented players, for the month of August 2021, it was Varun Meena aka ‘Ganjababe’ from BLITZPOKER who was chosen as the Player of the Month. Hailing from the ‘Land of Maharajas,’ Varun is a 25-year-old Rajasthan-born poker professional. He made his decision to become a full-time pro player back in 2018 and since then has not looked back on his journey. He started as an MTT player and enjoyed a good run before turning his attention to Pot Limit Omaha (PLO). We spoke to Meena, who was excited and open to talk about his poker journey and the challenges he faced since becoming a professional. With an enthusiastic streak in him, Meena was surprised and happy about being chosen as the Player of the Month. Here is our conversation with this poker pro.
Congratulations! How does it feel to be chosen as Gutshot’s Player of the Month? I feel very honoured to be chosen as Gutshot’s Player of the month. It means a lot to receive this kind of recognition. Who introduced you to poker or was it something you discovered by yourself? I was introduced to poker during my IITB days in a hostel social event by some seniors. I found the game very intriguing from the beginning. Once I learnt a little more about poker, I started playing with my batchmates. My shift to online poker happened when my college had an event with a site called StarPoker, they had hosted a freeroll for the 24
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students and I finished in second. This gave me the confidence to play online and the rest is history.
The most challenging thing I experienced as a player was in 2018, when I finally decided to quit my job and be a full time Poker tournaments always run poker player. Apart from a few of late into the night; how do you my close friends, everyone lost keep your focus when pulling in their minds. But I was sure of my the long hours? decision and I can say that it has I have always been a night owl, been a good one. you could say that being an engineering student does that You once shipped an Ultimate to you. I have also adapted my 6 Card PLO tournament, how sleep schedule in such a way that was the experience and is PLO I don’t have any problems while your preferred poker variant? playing late at night. I sleep for at I absolutely love playing Pot Limit least 7-8 hours a day, you have Omaha. Firstly, there is never a to be well-rested to be on top of bad run in PLO, just variance. your game. If you don’t get frustrated and remain on top of your game What was the most challenging in the long run you will find thing you had to face as a success. I have shipped the poker player? Ultimate PLO tournament on 2021
