Interview with Ket Nathwani

Like many of the pros you’ve read about before on LP, here comes another success story with some Starcraft roots. Starting from the ground up, Ket Nathwani has been crushing cash tables and quickly moving his way up the ranks to become a powerful force at the poker table. Lucky for us he took some time out of his day to answer a few questions for us!

LiquidPoker.net: Hello sir! Care to tell your name, age and location?

Ket: Ketul Nathwani, 23, London UK

LP: Sounds wonderful! So tell me, have you lived there all of your life?

Ket: No, I was born in India and came to England when I was 6. I moved bunch of times all around the country and eventually moved to London 4 years ago when I started uni at Imperial College.

LP: So, we already know of your interest in poker, would you like to share some of your other hobbies with us?

Ket: I used to have more hobbies before poker. I went to some sweet gigs, listened to lots of music and roller skated lots along with the usual college drunkenness and hilarious pranks... of course poker was also a big hobby then. Not that I don’t love poker anymore because I totally do, but you can’t call it just a hobby anymore, more like a degenerate life-consuming compulsion as well as a profession. Well nowadays I'm making some effort to regain life balance like regularly playing badminton, fitness and reading.

LP: Can you take us back to when you were first introduced to poker, when it was just a hobby to you?

Ket: It was actually a combination of 3 things happening all roughly around the same time which made me get into poker. The first was a News post made on TeamLiquid forum by the legendary Rekrul where he was talking about how poker is an amazing game that keen Starcraft players should try out, with various links to learn the rules of NLH and to some site called Poker Stars where you can play for just play chips.

The second was seeing Rounders and thinking it’s the coolest film ever and thinking being a “rounder” would be the most awesome cool fun lifestyle ever.

The third was a Poker Society was just starting up at my uni, and a couple of guys on my course that I sat with in lectures were keen to join it asap since they were already somewhat into poker, so I started going with them.

LP: Do you think you could imagine where you would be and what you would be doing today had those three events had not occurred?

Ket: I'd probably have worked my ass off in final year to bring back my sub-par degree to something respectable and gone on to work 9-5. I had a summer job 3 summers ago doing some really interesting computer simulation/programming work at BAE Systems which is a UK company that makes naval warfare ships and underwater weapons for the Ministry of Defense, and they wanted me back to go full time there after I finish my degree. I just imagined I'd work there after I graduated.

LP: Sounds like an interesting career. Are you glad for the way things have turned out thus far?

Ket: Yeah fairly happy although I can't say for sure the way things turned out were 100x better than I ever imagined. Maybe only 1.5x, money isn't everything.

LP: You mentioned earlier that poker was a big hobby of yours. At what point do you think it turned from being a hobby to more of a career choice?

Ket: Probably about 16 months ago halfway through my final year at uni when I almost quadrupled my online roll from about 17k to 65k in 1 month of grinding party 3/6nl. Some time during that month I thought to myself "Hey wait a minute......"

LP: That’s quite the accomplishment for one month. Given how poker players in general have progressed over time, do you think that is something that could be duplicated today?

Ket: Sadly the games are very different now to what they were back then even though it was only a little over a year ago. The party games before the UIGEA act of last October were absolutely ridiculous. I actually had a 20-buyin downswing at 3/6nl during that big month, and I'm pretty sure I didn't play that many hands since I was never playing more than 3-4 hours a day.

I don't quite think you can really do something that huge anymore because of how much harder it is to make money, but that's not to say you can't still do really well. It's all relative; poker is still really profitable just not quite to the insane extent it once may have been during the crux of the boom.

LP: How does most of your family and friends outside of poker view your career choice to play professionally?

Ket: My immediate family was initially in turmoil thinking I was throwing away my life but have long since come to accept and be awed by my choice and its outcome to date. Same with my friends and I guess they're also a little envious, but understandably so since the amounts of money in poker are so big compared to regular everyday standards

LP: Do you have any close friends who also play poker professionally?

Ket: Yeah, Tom Bentham (tjbentham on stars/teej1985 on LP) was one of the guys I shared a house with during 2nd year uni and we started getting into online poker together since it was a fantastic way to goof off studying. As well as my bestest online friend that I had previously been playing Starcraft with for years, Jon Heath (TwistedEcho).

Actually he got into playing online poker before me and Tom started and spent lots of time showing me the basics and how to play tight and which book to buy, and gave me 15$ to start grinding 60 cent buyin SNGs with. So much <3 to him for that!

LP: Do you think having these friendships helped propel you to become a better player?

Ket: It definitely helped my initial improvement to have some friendly competition among peers. I'd always try to catch up to Jon's bankroll online and always try to get the better of Tom and my other college housemates in our small stakes home games.

LP: You mentioned that you were grinding the 60cent SnG's, but now we all know you are a very strong cash game player. When did you make the switch, and why?

Ket: I’ve always wanted to be playing shorthanded nlh cash games, since that’s what my poker heroes Rekrul and Nazgul were playing on stars so that’s what I figured was probably the best way to become a superstar.

Initially I just took after what my mentor Jon was playing. When he was playing sngs, I played sngs too. When he switched to limit hold'em cash games, I started playing limit. When he was playing mtts, I played some mtts. Eventually when I finally got to a $1k roll after nearly a year of grinding up that initial 15$ during times when I had a bit of spare time to kill, I decided I was finally bored of SNGs so I went out on my own to 50nl 6max with a little bit of help and advice from another Starcraft friend Luke (AlcateL).

LP: What kind of advice did Luke (AlcateL) give you, and how was it helping you manage your transition to a cash game?

Ket: Actually he didn't tell me a huge amount, he just said to go to 6max 50nl on Partypoker and play only subtly looser than you would at full ring but still a solid tight game and the money will come pouring in from everyone's spewy over adjustments. That combined with the 'proof it works' in seeing that he was doing very well for himself was enough for me to be convinced

LP: Most of us are familiar with how quickly you moved up in stakes, so would you care to give a quick break down of your bankroll management while moving up stakes?

Ket: Back then I followed a 20 buyin rule because I heard pretty much everywhere this was standard. Every time I built up to 20 buyins for the next level I'd not waste a minute moving up, and I'd drop back down if I went below 15 buyins. I followed this rule all the way up till 3/6nl where I waited for 30 buyins, and 50 buyins for 5/10.

I quit uni in my final year just as I got to 5/10 after that huge 3/6 month. After that it all changed and became real, I stopped treating poker like a video game where the dollars in my cashier were points and climbing stakes was like reaching the next level in the game. I didn't make my first significant cashout until I had over 100k bankroll, but from then on I cashed out regularly and started saving up for my house, and became a bankroll nit that never moves up.

LP: What is the most common problem you see holding low stakes grinders back from being big winners?

Ket: It's usually just a big weakness in at least one (but sometimes more) of the several areas you simultaneously need to be strong in, in order to have big poker success. Off the top of my head and very simplified these areas are something like:

- The basics like recognizing absolute and relative hand values, understanding odds and expectation, having a good feel for the math, and a grasp of basic game theory concepts. Mainly stuff you can learn from poker books.


Then more advanced stuff that still falls under overall technical playing ability such as

- Hand reading and being able to pick up on betting patterns and other tells which requires a sharp memory and good on-the-spot recall.

- Psychology and being able to work out and understand the way in which your opponent thinks so you can predict his thought process and manipulate him into drawing incorrect conclusions that are in your favor.

And other vitally important areas that are not directly related to technical ability such as

- Emotional control. Everyone's judgment and confidence is going to be negatively affected during times they're running bad and some people have the discipline and sense to deal with it to minimize the damage much better than others.

- Picking your spots and having just the right level of "gamble". Risk-averse people with too little "gamble" will never reach their maximum potential of poker ability because they'll be too nitty with their bankrolls to ever give themselves the chance to.

I believe anyone who follows ridiculous bankroll requirements like 100 buyins and seldom takes controlled shots at games out of their comfort zone they're not technically rolled for falls under this category, and I myself have been guilty of falling under this category in the last year since after I first started winning at 5/10nl.

Whereas people who love the action of gambling and take too much thrill and pleasure from risk will usually go broke before they can reach their maximum potential, and several times too, and so end up wasting way too much time rebuilding their bankrolls at much lower stakes than they can currently beat.

The most successful players have a perfect in-the-middle approach that's neither too nitty nor too reckless. I believe this is one of my big strengths that got me to where I am today and will continue

- Game selection, which should be self-explanatory

- Self-education and the way you go about trying to improve all aspects of your game (including everything like tilt control and game selection as well as direct playing ability). Some people are much better at it than others. It takes some skill to just be able to recognize what you're doing wrong and where you're going wrong, and discipline to fix it. You have to know yourself and be realistic with yourself to be able to recognize and admit when things you're doing are a leak. It's usually hard for people to be able to do this and all sorts of things could hinder them, for example their own ego and refusal to admit there could be another reason than luck for why they haven't been winning

Usually it's very hard to be hugely successful if you're very weak in even one of these areas even if you’re strong in all the others, and you have to be at least 'OK' across the board

I could write a lot more about things about like since I've spent a lot of time contemplating and thinking about them, but I'll keep it short and leave it at that since I’m lazy and you're probably bored by now. If you found any of what I was talking about interesting then I strongly recommend you read Barry Greenstein's Ace on The River. Especially if you've been playing professionally for a while it's scary how relevant some of the things he talks about are and how much insight he has into what it takes to be a big success

LP: Well that was very informative! Now back to you, given that you have played such a vast majority of game types, what would you say your favorite and least favorite are?

Ket: Actually I can't really say since I never played anything other than shorthanded NLH cash games at any decent level. When I was playing limit hold'em and sngs I had a sub-1k roll and was playing microstakes.

If you were to ask me that now I would say SNGs are my least favorite because the depth of strategy is extremely limited in comparison to deepstacked shorthanded cash games, which obviously makes the shorthanded nlh my favorite. But back then it was all good and extremely fun, new and exciting, and having a taste of a lot of different game types was better than sticking to only one.


LP: Given how much more difficult nlh has become lately, have you put any time into developing a different variant of poker?

Ket: I have probably played about 20k hands of PLO lifetime and I'm pretty sure I'm still a loser. I haven't put nearly as much effort into it yet as I should, but I definitely acknowledge the importance of knowing at least one other popular variant. The problem with investing time and effort into learning a new variant is the short-term opportunity-cost of playing what you're already good at, but as the online nlh games toughen it definitely becomes hugely beneficial to be able to play another popular variant.

Online high-stakes now is all about game selection since there are so many amazingly talented players and many fewer weak spots than before. To be proficient in another game effectively massively increases your game-selection opportunities. Plus I definitely think variety is important for anyone playing for a living and putting in many hours so you don't get bored and burnt out of doing the same thing all the time (especially if you're full-ring grinding or shovebotting in SNGs).

LP: Now for a few short questions! Favorite major poker event?
Ket: Grosvenor UK Poker Tour!!! Everything else is too far. Except EPT Dublin, that was pretty cool, and Guinness is good. I hate Vegas but it’s a necessary evil for the pursuit of mad monies.

LP: Favorite Live Pro?
Ket: Willie Tann. This guy's an elderly lagtard sicko hero from the UK. I played with him all through day 3 of the WSOP Main Event. He had the table gamboling it up on bubble day with 72o prop bets similar to the ones in HSP

LP: Favorite Online Pro?
Ket: p3achy_keen. A powerhouse of natural talent combined with absolutely monstrous work-ethic, all while being completely humble and having perfect sportsmanship with no trace or bragging or arrogance despite his awesome prowess.

LP: Favorite music group?
Ket: Dream Theater

LP: Favorite LP mod!?
Ket: Mig obv

LP: What is you're next major purchase going to be?
Ket: A car. Looking at BMW 3 series, don't want anything too baller since I'm pretty nitty, but don't want something that's just plain bad either. This car seems like the perfect in-between.

LP: Anything you’d like to say to the LP community?

Ket: Yeah and to anyone that plays poker and wins at it to whom this may apply:

You shouldn't have an ego and act obnoxious like you are great unless maybe you are winning at nosebleed stakes. Humbleness is a virtue. If you're a true student of the game you shouldn't compare what you can make playing online to 'real jobs' and think of yourself as superior to other people who are in good professions. It pains me every time I see some scumbag poker player think of themself as awesome and act condescending to people because they won lots of money in a short amount of time.

There are countless people much better and more talented than you. There are countless people who never got into poker but if they did they'd be better in 2 years of playing in their spare time than you'll ever be if you dedicate your life to poker. You look pathetic when you brag about how good you are and how much you owned other grinder regulars because the truth is you are both not that good. I'm not that good. Most people aren't. Just enjoy the competition, enjoy the game and enjoy trying to improve

LP: Thanks for taking the time to do the interview!
Ket: No problem!

Very good read I enjoyed.

great itview

I like the way Ket thinks, down to earth

Ket is my favorite mod.

very good read, my fav LP interview so far <3 ket

One of the best interviews so far.
Ket seems down to earth, and is doing great (mentally) out side of poker.

Really really really good.

should have used the pic from his epic blogpost where he has the big smile and huge chip stack

Excellent interview. I have much respect for your discipline. I actually realized certain things about myself from reading this.

yeah one of the best interviews on LP so far
very..uhm.. observant observations.

ket and me are getting married

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I liked Ket before, but it is reaching new heights.
Excellent interview.

great advice, was that most of what you were going to coach people on? cheers!

ket is def one of the sickest heroes ever

good interview, thx ket

you are a maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaajor asset to this community, and an outstanding gentleman in life. hopefully we are doing a great job of showing our appreciation!

vnvnvnvnvnvnvnvnvnvnvnvn

Ket is smart

i liked the last part, definitelly applies to many of us me included.

Nice interview.

Yeah, last paragraph is soo true and still hardly ever said.

Great interview!

On December 04 2007 22:10 MezmerizePLZ wrote: very good read, my fav LP interview so far <3 ket

agreed, words of wisdom by Ket.

It's just a shame you sucked at Starcraft, eh!

Although you making lots of money at poker makes up for it (I GUESS).

great read

maybe i shall stalk him when i come to london in april :o

very good interview thx

Such a classy guy <3 ket

restecp

Good stuff Ket !
I was an unknown to you but you helped me transfer money and gave me a few points when i started out.
Thanks.

Good interview, with what seems like a totaly awesome dude!

sick sick good ket

i think its my fav interview yet too

Coooooooooooool

nice interview! im so embarassed but...

epic interview. ket is so wise

Ket is my hero.

gj lp , great interview

gl ket

great interview, enjoyed reading.

Nice read, nice interview

SHIP IT RESPLENDENTLY GENTLEMAN

Ket made my panties wet :x

You are god

some good ol fashioned Indian wisdom with his own twist. I love it.

Man i fail horribly at the part where you need to not be such a degen gamboler to be successful ;(

nice itw ket
great advices.

ketul <3

very intereting read, and great advice at the end

Nice read indeed!
Dream Theater ftw!

I really enjoyed that interview. GREAT READ