One PocketFiver has been on a tear in live tournament play over the summer. In May, he finished fifth in Event #1 of the 2008 World Series of Poker, the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em Championship. He cashed for a healthy $198,528. Last week, he was the runner up in the World Poker Tour’s Legends of Poker event, banking $563,320. His name: Amit amak316 Makhija, an online poker aficionado who has made a highly successful transition into live play. He has well over three-quarters of a million dollars in live tournament earnings in recent months and spoke with PocketFives.com to reveal what’s been behind his phenomenal success.
The Legends of Poker tournament featured a roller coaster ride of a heads-up match between Makhija and John “The Razor” Phan. Entering heads-up play, Makhija held a chip lead of 6,440,000 to 4,760,000. Ten hands into play between the two, Makhija was one card away from taking down the Legends of Poker event. He held pocket twos against Phan’s A-K. His hand held until a king hit on the river, doubling Phan up. Fifty hands later after a see-saw battle of momentum, Phan emerged victorious and won $1.1 million. Makhija commented on his emotions after the tournament concluded: “At first, I was very disappointed to get second. I really pride myself in my heads-up play. After being one card away from the win, having to watch someone else take the title was disheartening. Now, I’m now pretty happy with the accomplishment.”
Several lead changes characterized play down the stretch, making for a wild experience for everyone in attendance. In one hand, Makhija hit a runner-runner straight with 9-6 of spades after flopping a flush draw to double up, pushing his chip stack back to the level it was when heads-up play began. There were big double ups, bluffs, and a bevy of showdowns, all filmed in front of the WPT’s television cameras. All told, Makhija claimed, “Heads-up play was great because of the drama and length. In general, the WPT structure heads-up is very shallow. There were a lot of interesting post-flop hands and the all-ins were very dramatic. It seemed like the short-stack won every time.”
He’s dominated live play over the 2008 summer and told PocketFives.com that his style is more suited to live poker than online poker: “I’ve always been a below average multi-table player online. Playing a ton of tables doesn’t interest me and my mind wanders. Also, the stakes usually don’t keep me that interested. Live tournaments have deep stacks which favor my cash game background and I’m a very patient player, which is rewarded by the structures in live tournaments.”
Makhija started playing on now-defunct Tropics Poker. He won $100 in a freeroll on the site and then transferred his bankroll onto PokerStars. He grinded away at $5 sit and go tournaments and then moved up to $2/$4 limit. Eventually, he found himself playing $10/$20 no limit. When asked what part of his game still needs improvement, Makhija responded, “I work very hard at my game. I’m constantly asking hand history questions to friends, analyzing all parts of my game, and watching videos. That said, I’m nowhere near perfect at poker, but I feel like there are no glaring leaks that I need to work on at the moment.”
After a grueling heads-up match and enormous payday, Makhija took away some important lessons from the Legends of Poker: “The tournament basically reinforced a lot of things that I already knew. It’s good to get some experience with early, mid, and end-game stages on the live scene, as well as playing a big stack. I think I played every stage of the event very well and was comfortable despite the media circus that follows when you’re deep in a major.”
Online, he won the Full Tilt Poker $100 cubed tournament (one rebuy plus one add-on) three weeks ago for $19,300. He also took fourth in the PokerStars $100 rebuy in August for $14,196, a tournament that he’s won on several occasions. He also holds a second place finish in the UltimateBet $200K Guarantee for $27,000. He wanted to “thank everyone who has talked hands with me over the last few years and has helped me reach a level that I could only dream about a few years ago: SCtrojans, Atimos, Stpauli, BrynKenney, psyduck, mrbigqueso, apestyles, and many others. They all have helped tremendously and their friendship and input has been invaluable to me throughout the years.”
Finally, if you read any recap of the Legends of Poker tournament, you’ll note how deliberate of a player Phan is. He often takes a significant amount of time to make decisions, which has the potential to disrupt any momentum a person can gain. Makhija critiqued, “Phan is very unorthodox and tough to play against. His game is based on putting you in awkward situations. He knows how to manipulate stack sizes so that you can’t do anything unless you have guts. He also has some minor leaks on a shorter stack, but in live major events, he’s certainly a great player.”
Congratulations to Amit amak316 Makhija on his second place finish in the Legends of Poker. Relive all of the action at PocketFivesLive.com, your home for WPT coverage of online poker players.
Canada
United Kingdom
Costa Rica
Australia
Mexico
Denmark
Russian Federation
Sweden
Brazil
Germany
