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Pen To Poker: Walking Into Poker, One Word At A Time

Hello everyone and welcome to my Ted talk! Just kidding! This is really a piece about my journey in the poker industry and you are welcome to read it. Why should you care about my story? I don’t really know, but I still want to share it. I’m Donna Amo by the way; you might have read some of my articles in Gutshot Magazine (if not, I’ll just link a few of them here). I will try my best to keep it interesting. So read on! 😊

I’m not a poker player… but I do write a lot about it. Since I first stepped into the world of real money gaming, things have been a little wild. Who knew that Indians loved playing poker? I certainly didn’t, especially when I joined Gutshot Magazine as a writer last year. Now, I can see it everywhere. Like most common folks, poker to me was some card game that required money to play. In my mind, until that point, anything that needed money to play was in short ‘iGaming.’ It was for this reason that I stayed away from all forms of card games.

Well, that misconception was quickly thrown out of the window. My first assignment, even before I joined Gutshot Magazine, was to write about what poker meant to me. To be honest, my first reaction upon hearing the term poker was—what can I possibly write? For me, what I knew about the game and the assignment didn’t fit together. However, considering that there may be a point I’m missing, I gave it a shot.

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I did a bit of research, discovered that there was a whole other side of poker that I didn’t even think about. Even during that short period, I learnt a lot. I completed the assignment, and the rest is history. From that moment, I sort of knew that my perception was quickly changing. I’m glad I gave it a shot because the time I’ve spent working in the real money industry has not only changed the way I look at the game but has also helped me grow as an individual.

The first person I interacted with at Gutshot was Dwayne Fernandes. Acting as a mentor from the moment I joined, Dwayne helped me through my initial days in the company. From explaining how the dice rolls to helping me get acquainted with the poker comrades, this ball of energy did it all.

While writing was something I loved, writing about poker required me to understand at least the basics of the game. Through a bit of guidance and teaching sessions, I was able to get them right. But there was a long road ahead of me. I struggled a bit when I first started playing poker. Memorizing the hand rankings, learning when to bet, how to bluff, etc. were things I had to pick up on. While the game seemed daunting at first, after a few online poker games and freerolls, I enjoyed the game. With poker, practice is an important part of the process, and I definitely needed a lot of it (still do).

It hardly had been a month since I started working at Gutshot when the first edition of the Final Table Series (FTS) had kick-started. This was when I accumulated more knowledge and was introduced to a host of other terms and concepts of the game. Every live stream was like a poker lesson, and I was adamant to learn as much as I could from it. FTS was an exciting time for me, mostly because I talked to players and looked at things from their perspective; heard their stories and then wrote about them.

ALSO READ: Final Table Series 3.0 Is Here With 12 Crore GTD

My poker journey is just beginning, and I am so grateful for the path that led me to it. I had just left my previous job when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and things didn’t exactly look bright, with so many businesses shutting down. But everything that happened eventually led me here, so things did work out for the better. I look at my time here as a blessing and I am looking forward to contributing more to this amazing industry. There are so many stories to tell, but until next time, adios amigos!

For more interesting content on poker and all things gaming, keep reading  Gutshot Magazine. If you’re on social media, then follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, and Twitter!

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