Ram Vaswani

	If he has an achilles heel, it’s that he can be too fearless – Dave Colclough

Ram Vaswani is the charismatic star of London poker quartet The Hendon Mob, who on his day, even fellow Mobsters (Ross/Barny Boatman, and Joe Beevers) acknowledge, is the best of them and one of the most feared players on the European circuit, perhaps in the world.

Vaswani produced one of the most electrifying performances I’ve ever seen at a poker table. It was in the qualifying heat of a televised event last year. Vicky Coren, who was there for the filming and witnessed not only the 45 minutes we saw, but the whole six hours, says, ‘I always knew he was good, because he’s got the moves and he’s got the gamble and he’s smart, but this was unbelievable… for the first time I felt myself in the presence of genius.

‘Seeing him in a 45-minute show, people think he’s a nutter because he’ll stick his chips in on what appears to be an unlikely hand, but if you watch him over a period of time he doesn’t do it indiscriminately. At his best, his timing is impeccable and in this event it was eerie… it wasn’t a sixth sense he had – it was like a 12th sense.

‘There was a hand when he made a creative call while playing an internet qualifier and it was the right call because he was proved to have the best hand. And the commentator Lucy Rokach, who I really admire, said it was a bad call under the circumstances, but I thought, “You know what? There is actually no one who can comment on what’s happening here. He’s not calling because of any logic we can understand, he’s calling because of something he senses about where he is in the hand that we simply can’t see.”’ Ram is a slightly contradictory combination of cool and gamble – someone who (Action Jack will be pleased to hear) does understand the importance of odds. ‘You’ve got to know the odds,’ says Vaswani, ‘especially when you’re putting someone on a hand. You have to know the odds on every kind of hand.’

Crazy talk

After talking to him it comes as something of a surprise that, for a gambler with the nickname Crazy Horse, he talks a lot of common sense. So how did he get his moniker? Because, having calculated the odds, he is totally and utterly fearless about putting every chip on the line. He doesn’t consider the value of the bet in monetary terms, believing passionately that if you’re worried about the money you should take a job in a bank. ‘If you have the ability to make the right decisions you have to back them up with money. If you’re worried about the cost you’re either playing in a game that’s too big for you or you shouldn’t be playing at all.’

Probably the reason that money is not a factor for Vaswani is because he knows that if he loses it today, he really will – not possibly, but definitely – win it back tomorrow… or, at least, the next day. Yes, he’s a gambler, a rollercoaster gambler, the ultimate gambler. He’s rarely far away from a Racing Post and bets frightening sums of money on horses, often throwing away on a donkey the fortune he made the previous night playing for high stakes on the internet. But he’s a gambler who’s proved to himself that in a life of ups and downs he has what it takes to be up when it matters – at the end of the day, week, year, or whenever the bills have to be paid. Joe Beevers has seen him swing from having £100,000 in his pocket one minute to being completely broke the next. ‘But it never fazes him – it’s extraordinary,’ says Beevers.

No fear

Of course, you can be too brave. That’s what Dave Colclough – a Ram admirer – thinks. ‘If he has an achilles heel, it’s that he can sometimes be too fearless. He may try a bluff or a wild raise once too often when he’s on a big stack. I think in the last year he’s gone to the final table three times and not closed it because maybe he raised one hand too many.’ But, Dave adds, ‘That’s the way he gets his chips and I wouldn’t dare criticise him. In any major tournament I wouldn’t back anyone ahead of Ram.’

Fellow Hendon Mob player, Barny Boatman, also believes there is a patience problem. ‘Ram is the ultimate risk-taker. He loves to push and push, but he has a terrific sense of when to do it and it’s remarkable the number of times he gets away with the plays he makes – all because of his timing. But I think he sometimes plays too fast, lacks that extra bit of patience that you need in fouror five-day events. You don’t often see him getting there, but, of course, when he does he has a hell of a lot of chips.’

Like all the top players, Vaswani is a superb reader of others at the table. Barny says he sometimes takes his reads off Ram. ‘If I’m on the same table, I’ll watch Ram assessing a player and may well take my lead from the way he plays him.’

Mob backing

In his earlier years – if you can use such a phrase about a 34-year-old – Ram was a brilliant snooker player but, he decided, not brilliant enough to reach the top. So poker took over. He met Joe Beevers, a former Blackjack counter until he was banned from every casino in London, and now a poker player, and they formed a partnership running a spieler in Hendon. There they met Barny and Ross Boatman and they all became friends, travelling together, until they became known as The Hendon Mob. Of the four, Vaswani probably benefits from membership most, relaxing in the stability and support system it offers.

His considerable achievements (over $2m in tournament winnings, and heaven knows how much on the internet, albeit shared with various bookmakers) and the Mob’s sponsorship, first with Prima and now as partners with Full Tilt, adds to that stability and enables him to relax, play less, and revel in being a father for the first time.

He also draws on the strength of being, as they say, ‘comfortable in his own skin’. He’s not like most gamblers I know – he doesn’t have mood swings from optimism to pessimism; you never get the sense when you meet him of a man living on the edge. This man is relaxed when he shouldn’t be.

‘I lost £120,000 on one hand on the internet last night,’ he said to me cheerfully. I don’t know what was more stunning – the money involved or the casual way he said it. It just wasn’t a big deal.

He’s equally comfortable in his game. ‘Of course, it’s not a game that’s exactly the same all the time. You always have to adjust to circumstances… the other players, chip stack sizes, and so on. I’m forever mixing it. But I’m happy with the way I play. I don’t plan to change the basic approach.’

But if a happy home life and lack of financial pressure mean he’s more relaxed, does that mean his opponents can relax too? I don’t think so. My guess is it will make him even more formidable, a frightening thought for those facing him in years to come.

Career highlights

Tournament winnings: $2,378,257
25/10/05: £6,000 William Hill Grand Prix – 2nd, £95,000
23/7/04 £5,000 VC Poker Cup – 2nd, £125,000
18/5/04 35th WSOP; $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em – 2nd, $143,740
9/2/02 €5,000 European Hold’em Championship, Paris – 1st, €107,500