Playing A Hand With The Poker Queen Muskan Sethi

All-in, raise, under-the-gun, big-blind, show, fold, full-house and other new terms that I learnt in a poker game with Muskan Sethi, India’s first female professional poker player. Read on to know how I fared

- RahulPaul

Muskan Sethi would have been a very wellknown name in our country provided we didn’t consider poker a gambling game and gave it the respect that it receives in other countries. An international poker player, Muskan travels around the world to play hands with best of poker players in biggest tournaments with big money. Muskan is the brand ambassador of Pokerstars India, a website for playing online poker. She also heads the Delhi team of Global Poker League.

On the other hand, I belong to the section of people who are just not aware of poker at all. I shared the concern with Muskan and she was more than happy to teach me. So the table is set, of course we didn’t have enough players so we assumed some imaginary ones sitting along with us. The chips are distributed and Muskan begins to patiently explain how a dealer button is always on one of the players and the next two players automatically become the small blind and big blind and who places bet first. I asked Muskan who taught her the game so she says, “My dad used to just watch poker when I was little and I used to watch it with him. And my grandmother, whom I didn’t get to meet, was very good in bridge, rummy and other card games. I think it’s in my genes. Also my mother played a little bit of cards when she was expecting me.”

After some more conversation and few embarrassingly stupid questions, which I realise now after learning the game, we started to play a game without hiding cards. Muskan deals and I get a 5 and 7 of different suites and when another three cards are put on table, called a flop, Muskan says, “You have a pocket pair of 7.” After putting other two cards on table, turn and river, she exhales, this time a bit louder, “You hit trips on river and have a full house now.” Apparently that’s a big deal in a card game, which I understand now and proud of myself.