39-year-old Asalie Peseyie has become a poker millionaire from Nagaland by winning INR 11,85,000 in one of the biggest tournaments in the Final Table Series called “Titan” which was hosted by Spartan Poker and featured many professionals including the top players of India on Sunday, March 12.
Asalie is an entrepreneur, the founder and CEO of Infinity Inc., an independent record label based in Dimapur, and also the creator and host of Shout Out Podcast.
Amongst other hobbies, poker is one of Asalie’s favorites who believe that “Poker, unlike other card games, is considered to be a game of skill and not gambling” for there are many international tournaments and leagues that are regularly organized all over the world.
“I also consider poker to be a game of skill and not so much as gambling, although there is an element of luck, but that exists in every sport,” he added.
Online Poker in India is legal and it has increased in popularity since it began as a recreational activity to a widely popular global sport now, both for participants and spectators, including online, with many professional players and multimillion-dollar tournament prizes.
In fact, the poker boom in India is so big that there are many professionals who have a successful career, some even in the international arena.
“I’ve been recreationally playing poker for over a decade but I don’t consider it a career of any sort although nowadays I see many people seriously taking it up as a career choice. Like all other sports, it is not easy to make into a successful career so I look at it as a hobby which I enjoy occasionally,” he said.
With tons of online tournaments that are happening on various poker websites, Asalie’s big win came on Sunday at the usual website he plays – Spartan Poker website when he entered one of the biggest tournaments in the Final Table Series called “Titan” which featured many professionals including the top players of India.
“After a grueling 10 hours of play, I won the tournament which saw 317 players register,” he said, adding, “The prize money for 1st place was INR 11,85,000 and the entry for the tournament was INR 11,000 but I got into the tournament for just INR 1650 by playing another tournament where the prize was free entry for the Titan tournament,” he narrated.
Speaking about the feat, he said, it was a huge achievement for him personally as the tournament included some of the biggest poker names in India.
“I’m very happy with the way I played and obviously with the prize money!” he told Mokokchung Times after his big win.
On being asked what his advice would be to many who may get tempted to follow him after coming across his big win, he said, “I guess many would be tempted but my genuine advice is not to blindly get into it and think it over properly first. It takes years of experience, learning and even losses for one to become successful at Poker. If you are still interested, start very small and take time to learn,” he said, and shared a famous poker maxim, “It takes a day to learn and a lifetime to master.”
I appreciate, cause I found just what I was looking for. You’ve ended my four day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a great day. Bye