Why Gujarat Acers' Bhavesh Nainani quit his Rs 24 lakh per annum job to become a professional poker player

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Hailing from a traditional Sindhi family in Ahmedabad, Gujarat Acers’ Bhavesh Nainani’s infatuation with card games began at a very young age. The family traditionally played “Teen Patti” through the night during the festive season and Bhavesh would join in as an avid youngster. While poker was never played in the household, Bhavesh, by the time he reached middle school, had developed a keen interest in gaming as well as cards, which inevitably led to him playing poker in his schooling days.

The Ahmedabadi’s poker journey has been a long-winding one with many obstacles in between. He initially started out in school, playing small Rs 10-15 hands. He says, “What started out as a pastime soon became a hobby and I became an avid poker player in school.” His first tryst with poker was a short-lived one; he had to quit the game as the dreaded board exams had to be dealt with in tenth grade.

After completing his schooling, the poker player in Bhavesh lay dormant for a few years as he dealt with the twin prospects of further studies and graduation. He soon moved to Mumbai to pursue his MBA from the reputed Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS). It was in Mumbai that Nainani pursued poker more seriously, and eventually, it started interfering with his studies and he started having attendance issues among other problems which led to him quitting the game once again.

He eventually managed to graduate from NMIMS with a dream Rs 24 lakh annual package at a firm in Bangalore. Nainani's poker days seemed to be behind him as he moved towards a corporate lifestyle. But, the Graden City had a surprise in store for Bhavesh.

Speaking to Sportskeeda, Bhavesh said, "I was placed at Bangalore and it turned out that the city was one of the three places in the country which had legal poker rooms."

Being the poker enthusiast that he is, Bhavesh could not resist walking into one and as it turns out, he won the first hand he played in the room. Walking out a winner, Bhavesh's passion for the game had been rekindled and his free time was now productively spent playing poker for hours in Bangalore's poker rooms.

What had started out as a pastime and become a hobby had now become a full-time obsession which had serious monetary benefits where he earned an average of Rs 10,000-15,000 a day while losing only around Rs 10,000 a week. As he says, “While playing Playing poker only on weekends, I was now making double the money than with my corporate job. In my first year, I made around 50 lakh while after two years, I had more than a crore just by playing middle-stakes poker.”

Bhavesh decided to quit his job after doubling his income playing poker on weekends

Realising the business opportunity he would have by following his passion, he decided to quit his job despite being persuaded to stay by the CEO of the firm. The decision to quit formal employment had not been easy.

There was a lot of deliberation involved and the decision had been taken after a lot of consultation with his data analyst father who would help Bhavesh by studying his patterns and streaks. Bhavesh explains that the initial decision was to play poker for a year and see how things progress but now he wants to be in it for the long haul.

Showing a desire to grow in any field, he says, “Whatever I do, I want to be good at it and grow further.” He applies the same philosophy to poker, saying, “I was only playing mid stakes poker but I wanted to grow and play high stakes poker and so I’ve started playing a few a high stakes tournaments across the world”.

He admits that in the high stakes leagues, he is not the same dominating opponent but only an average player but he wants to train himself to be a good high stakes poker player.

Bhavesh’s drive for improvement and perfection saw him being picked up by the Gujarat Acers franchise for the ongoing Indian Poker League as the only native Gujarati in the team. Initially, in the bottom throes of the league, the Acers have shown resiliency to fight back and are now in the top five teams in the league on the basis of points scored.

This has largely been due to the smart strategy employed by Bhavesh’s team. The Ahmedabadi sounds confident about his abilities as he explains his strategy saying, "Even though he (the opponent) was getting lucky, I knew the way to beat him was to play small hands as I would lose less and win most hands because I had the skill edge." Such words at India's highest level of poker indicate a level of self-confidence which comes with the ability that has been evident in all the decisions he had made in his poker career.

Luck may desert him at times but Bhavesh retains the skill edge over his opponents

Speaking to Bhavesh, it is evident that the Gujarati entrepreneur within him is very much alive and kicking. Apart from harbouring dreams of travelling the world playing high stakes poker, Nainani’s bucket list includes becoming a successful restaurateur. These days, Bhavesh also doubles up as an in demand investor for various projects in the country.

He says, “It is great to meet new people and hear new ideas where I can invest. I would love to become a part of the management of the company involved in strategic decisions.” He also adds that he would preferably not like to be involved in the operations part of the firms as he would like to dedicate the time to poker.

Formal poker and gaming are a relatively new phenomenon in the country which is only now catching the attention of the general public after some big ticket investment in the sector. Playing in India’s premier poker tournament at the young age of 26, Bhavesh seems to have a bright future ahead of him. When asked about his prospects in the game, he said, “I initially decided to play poker formally for a year or so, but seeing the prospects now, I’m in it for the long haul and want to play high stakes poker across the world."