So Sick: The Rajkumar Interview

By Martin Derbyshire Sep 21, 2008 | 4 months ago

Vivek Rajkumar wins the WPT Season 7 Borgata Poker Open

A sarcastic shout of "skill game" came flying out of Vivek Rajkumar's mouth seconds after he'd defied domination again to take down the WPT Season 7 Borgata Poker Open in record time.

It was a fitting analysis from the kid they call "so sick," considering the luck it took to wipe away five other WPT title hopefuls and win the $1.4 million first-place prize in less than 50 hands.

But the fact remains, you have to be skilled to put yourself in a position to get that lucky, and Vivek is certainly that. Moments after the biggest win of his career, Rajkumar sat down with PL.com to discuss a little luck, skill and how many more opportunities $1.4 million might buy.

Well, Vivek, that was certainly exciting to watch.

Yeah, I moved all-in probably like 20 times, all in the space of 48 hands.

Forty-eight hands marks the record for shortest final six at a WPT. Ultimately, though, it was decided in that one big hand between you and Mark Seif where you got it all-in pre-flop and hit trip tens against his pocket aces. Can you take us through your thinking in that hand?

Pretty much every time you play five- or six-handed you can't just raise-fold a hand like tens; because I'm also raising ace-ten in that spot, I'm raising king-queen, I'm raising seven-six suited. So if I raise-fold there with tens it's ridiculous. He can just three-bet me with any two cards he has and it's profitable for him.

Also, the thing about tens, it's probably going to be the best hand at a five-handed table. I went with it, I had about 40 bets, I think, before the flop and Seif had also played eights in a very aggressive manner. So I thought I may have the best hand against a smaller pocket pair or maybe be flipping against broadway cards, so I put it in. He had aces and he had my suits dominated and I sucked out. It was a gigantic suck-out.

Skill game!

When you saw the aces were you completely deflated?

I probably let off about 10 f-bombs and I didn't even realize it at the time. My friends were like "don't say the f-word on TV." But then the ten peeled off and it was such a good feeling.

I suppose you were just completely overjoyed?

Right. I was jumping up and down. It was probably ... It was a very happy moment.

At that point you had such a big lead - did you just switch to end-game strategy?

There is a gigantic pay jump between third and second. So I was putting a lot of pressure on them. I know Sang [Kim] wanted the $350,000 and I had nothing to lose; even if I doubled up Dan [Heimiller] or Sang, I would still have the big chip lead.

So I decided to put the pressure on and try to get as many chips as possible while we were three-handed, and once we got to heads-up I went back to tight mode, playing small pots ... it's very situational though.

You made some pretty sick bluffs throughout the tournament, including the A-T air-ball you showed yesterday. Do you just do that kind of thing for fun or what?

No. no, no, no, absolutely not. What happens is you have a range pre-flop, you have a range on the flop, you have a range on the turn and I though every single bet was profitable in that hand.

Before the flop I had A-T I raised. On the flop I figured if I bet, I can pick up the pot x amount of times. On the turn I pick up the pot x amount of times and on the river, I am representing such a strong range he can't call with one pair. That's what I thought. I put it in and luckily he folded.

So sick.

Then you showed the bluff. Do you do that to try and tilt an opponent?

No. I just want people to stay away from me and not go all-in on me. I want to be the one pressuring people and I want to show that they can't just call me once. If they call, they have to call multiple streets and possibly all the way to the end for all their chips. That's what I want to show with the bluff.

Things just really seemed to go your way from there, didn't they?

All the way from 10-handed to heads-up I just had a rush of cards. When I had the best hand I held up; when I had the worst of it, I sucked out. I tried to play as little as possible, but sometimes luck is on your side and you win.

So Vivek, $1.4 million - what are you going to do with the money?

Well mostly I'll just continue to travel around the circuit and enjoy life. It's been kind of a stressful year because I haven't had that many big scores before this. So I'll just take a moment to reflect on the glory of this.

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In winning the Borgata title, Vivek Rajkumar put on a display of epic suck-outs the likes of which PL.com has never seen. Yet through it all, the skills he has shone through. Sometimes people get lucky and make a big score in poker and are never heard from again. However, something tells us this isn't the last we'll see of Rajkumar.