Poker News Daily: How did you get into poker?
Mohsin Charania: I never saw “Rounders.” I never saw poker on television. I was a junior in college [at the University of Illinois] and I went over to one of my friend’s places. He was going to play poker at a home game in a dorm room and I was bored, so went with him. That is literally what happened. I met Ravi “govshark2” Raghaven and some other people. I started playing $0.10/$0.25 and $0.25/$0.50 with them once or twice a week. Then, we started going every day making money and paying rent off these rich kids.
PND: You were paying rent off of a $0.25/$0.50 poker game?
Mohsin Charania: Well, we would play $0.10/$0.25 and buy in for $20 or $25 and there would be eight of us. There’d be $250 worth of buy-ins on the table and everyone would bust, so there would be $500 on the table. We’d be five- or six-handed and up it to $0.25/$0.50, then $1/$2, and then at some point, there would be two or three people who cashed out. Eight people would never cash out.
Then, I started playing $1/$2 with Faraz “The-Toliet” Jaka and Andy “BKiCe” Seth at this thing called The Poker House. At the time, I thought Jaka was some super-aggressive monkey, but then I figured out he was actually really good at poker. I don’t know, I just went to the home game and played.
PND: When did you start playing outside of the home games around campus?
Mohsin Charania: I turned 21, went to the casino, made a couple thousand dollars, and felt super excited. You don’t want to know how I lost $200,000 in my first three months playing poker, do you?
PND: Of course we do.
Mohsin Charania: That was in January of my junior year I think, 2006. That summer, I had a couple thousand dollar bankroll from the home game, went to the casino, and built it up to $10,000. I met this Asian kid at the home game who took me to Las Vegas for a week. I had $10,000, played $2/$5, and grinded it up to $20,000. Then, I played $5/$10 and grinded it up to $40,000 and then played $10/$20 and got it up to $100,000. Then, I started playing $25/$50 and $50/$100.
PND: You did all of this in the span of a week?
Mohsin Charania: No, we kept extending our flights because we were making so much money, so it was more like two weeks. After two weeks, I’d run a couple grand up to $180,000. Then, I lost two $100,000 pots and that was the first time ever that I was super tilted. I lost all the rest of the money. I had to use my mom’s debit card to fly home. Then, I got a credit card under my name because I was 21, deposited on Bodog, and won the site’s $100,000 Guaranteed. I got really lucky, I deposited $500, won that tournament, and then got third in it the next week.
PND: So you didn’t start playing online until after that ill-fated Vegas trip?
Mohsin Charania: Yeah. I was a live pro. I remember the pots I lost. I was sitting there with bundles of cash in front of me and I got it all-in with K-Q on an A-J-10 board. I remember telling the kid I had a straight and I was willing to take the pot right now. He said, “I’ll gamble with you,” and called with a set of jacks; the board paired on the turn.
PND: Were you playing $50/$100 with people you know?
Mohsin Charania: It was Brad Booth, Kenny Tran, and Mimi Tran. I want to say Jaka was there also, but I don’t know if he was in the game. I was crushing the game because I was running so good. I won a $50,000 pot when I had aces to kings.
PND: Did that trip teach you the importance of bankroll management?
Mohsin Charania: Well, I don’t really play cash games anymore. I play tournaments now. Online cash games are too hard. I used to play a lot of $5/$10 and $10/$20 on PokerStars. Two summers ago, I made $80,000 playing cash games on PokerStars, but then I started running really bad. I didn’t have the roll to play $10/$20 and I can’t play $5/$10 disciplined.
PND: Would you say online cash games are the toughest form of poker around right now?
Mohsin Charania: Oh yeah. They’re unbeatable. PokerStars $2/$4 – you have to be really good to beat that.
PND: You put off law school at Northwestern University to play full-time. When do you plan on going back?
Mohsin Charania: If I continue to struggle the way I have the past couple of months, I’ll go back.
PND: Do you like the idea of being a lawyer as much as being a poker player?
Mohsin Charania: Yeah, I hate being a poker player. Poker playing is very bipolar. I love it when I’m winning, but it is absolutely the worst feeling in the world when I’m losing. If you asked me the same question last January or February when I was crushing, I would have told you I was never going back.