Rohit Begwani, The MoneyMaker speaks about his MoneyMaker 6 experience

We present an inside scoop of the sixth edition of Pokerbaazi’s grand tournament- The MoneyMaker, and how ‘ChubbyGhost’ capped the finals with over INR 29.65 LACS in his kitty to light up his Sunday.

One of the biggest online poker tournaments in India, the MoneyMaker 1 CRORE Guaranteed tournament featured a jaw-dropping winning amount of over INR 1.16 Crores on July 22nd. The winner, Rohit ‘ChubbyGhost’ Begwani went home, richer by over INR 29.65 LACS. He was closely contested by the first and second runner-ups- Lokesh ‘Pucha’ Meena and Sirjan ‘Believe’ Singh who won INR 16.86 LACS and INR 11.57 LACS respectively.

Famous for taking-off in super drive mode, the MoneyMaker is a flagship of India’s most trusted poker website- Pokerbaazi.com. It features one of the highest prize pools among its contemporaries because of its eight-figure prize money. This was its latest iteration and it accounted for 609 entries and 554 re-entries.

The night belonged to Rohit ‘ChubbyGhost’ Begwani who won nearly INR 30 LACS in the grand finale. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate him and all other contenders who helped us create history. We are also presenting some sections of our interviews with two other contenders- the second-placed Lokesh Meena and the 12th place finalist, Nand Kishore.

Rohit Begwani- turned it around from a dead end

The Managing Director at Cosmopack Pvt. Ltd., who earlier used to coach GRE and CAT aspirants, Begwani is a poker pro with around ten years of experience. He took the game as an inseparable part of his life after he accidentally had fractured his leg three years back. As he lay in bed nursing his leg, he used to play different hands and come up with unique strategies for each of them. Who knows, he crushed the finale because of the same godsend?

With his unusual knack of playing at least six tables online, Begwani happily exclaimed that he got a dream run in last half an hour of the tournament. He said, “I had a monster Chip Lead making it to FT but every time I was opening, someone would come in to jam me. So I had to resort to Fold even with hands like 88 and JK.” Once he was through the Flop round, it suddenly became a joy ride owing to the optimum stack sizes.

Lokesh Meena- building up the steam

The first runner-up, Lokesh Meena, too had his own share of interesting stories to tell. He is a Jaipur-based engineer who has only two years of poker experience- but he did make it count by ousting several pro players and coming up so close to winning the title for himself!

On being asked how he built his bankroll, Meena told us that he used to play VIP Freerolls like 20K Freeroll on PokerBaazi and had subsequently won Real Cash Bonus of INR 3,000. He used this money to play Friday SuperStack and won another INR 31,000- a sum that he eventually used in MoneyMaker.

Nand Kishore- so near and yet so far

Then we have a queer case of 12th ranked Nand Kishore. He was so close to winning against Rohit Begwani until he ran out of his luck after his seemingly invincible combination of Quad Aces were defeated by Rohit Begwani’s perfect Royal Flush. It was a battle between two of the best possible hands that were face-to-face in a poker tournament, and a lot was at stake.

Poker is a cruel game but this kind of an insane game is perhaps only possible either in WSOP or on PokerBaazi. How could someone get so close to win and still end up losing? If it hadn’t happened for real to Nand Kishore, most of us would have misunderstood for the plot of Hollywood blockbuster.

You could be the next in this list!

Poker is a skill-based mind sport that takes years of practice to perfect. You too can be a winner if can put in the hard work and are willing to go the distance. We would love to see you succeed and would be excited to cover your story in a similar article someday. You only need to get started, and the best time is now!

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