From Bad Beat to Good Run

Championship Event
$3300 + $200 NLChinmay Patel - Player ProfileWhen Borgata implemented the Bad Beat Jackpot in early 2009, officials knew lives would change, especially with potential jackpots totaling more than $300,000.

As a player and witness to the casino's second BBJ in February of that year, Chinmay Patel's windfall was "only" $11,000, but he used it as a spring board for a professional career.

"It helped me out a lot," says the 24-year-old from Philadelphia, "I started playing 2-5 and 5-10 (no limit cash games), was on a nice rush and got a bank roll."

The success prompted Patel to quit his job with a pharmaceutical company and pursue poker full time, something that wasn't an easy sell to his family. "You have to understand I come from a strict Indian background," says Patel, who's parents left India for the United States in 1990.

"Both my parents have college degrees and my dad has a master's as a civil engineer. Telling them I was quitting my job to play poker didn't go over very well."

Piyush and Jayshri warmed to the idea after he assured them that he had his Penn State biology degree to fall back on if poker didn't work out. That, plus a solid resume after two years in the work force, helped the Patel family to reluctantly support their son's decision.

One year into his new career, Patel is finding most of his success in the Borgata high stakes cash games ($10-$20 NL or higher), and is still fine-tuning his tournament play.

"I'm learning to get used to the blinds, and how my stack compares to the blinds and to the other players," he says. "Everything's standard in cash and I know what a big bet is. In tournaments the blinds go up and players adjust their betting, so I just need to keep getting more experience."

Patel picked-up some "on the job training" Thursday in the satellite qualifier for the Championship Event after not finding any cash games he liked. He was one of seven players to earn a $3,500 voucher after only paying $390 to enter the tournament.

Now that he's in the field for Day 1A, it's been a roller coaster with his stack ranging anywhere from 15,000 to 50,000 chips and he ends play slightly less than his 30k starting stack. "Up and down, a few bad beats, but nothing terrible," he says.

And it's so far, so good on the career change. Patel's picked up a couple of cashes in Borgata deep stack and daily tournament play, but the bulk of his success comes from the high limit room.