Team Pro Ramdin Enjoys Multi-Table Runs Online and Live at PokerStars Festival NJ
Those who know Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin know two things about the man: He loves to play poker and he's always up for a good time.
It was more than fitting then, that he was able to do a lot of both in Atlantic City Monday, multi-tabling both Day 2 of the $500 PokerStars New Jersey Championship of Online Poker Main Event online and Day 2 of the PokerStars Festival New Jersey $300 PokerStars Cup opening event live at the Resorts Casino Hotel. Running deep in both, Ramdin was really having a great time.
"The best part of the whole thing is that I'm in the U.S. of A playing online poker, and I'm in New Jersey at Resorts playing a PokerStars live event," Ramdin told PokerNews. "It's really twice as nice."
The Guyanese-born New Yorker was certainly busy with both running simultaneously, but took it all in stride.
"You just have to do your thing," he explained. "I'm a live player, but I like playing online as well. It's tough to multi-table both sometimes, but I'm enjoying it. Why not, right?"
Fellow Team PokerStars Pro and good friend Chris Moneymaker has been crushing NJCOOP and PokerStars Festival New Jersey since it kicked off and was also deep in the live event as Ramdin multi-tabled Monday. Sitting at opposite ends of the final two tables at Resorts, Ramdin was constantly shouting updates of his online play over, until one unfortunate situation occurred.
With 16 players left in the NJCOOP Main, a relatively short-stacked Ramdin got it all in with kings versus nines for a pot that would catapult him into a spot among the leaders. He also had a big stack in the PokerStars Cup and happened to be in a hand. It was heads up on a jack-high flop when Ramdin's opponent checked to him.
"I'm all in, Chris," Ramdin blurted out, referring to the online game.
His live opponent called, however, and unfortunately, with the action on him when he said it, the tournament staff was forced to hold Ramdin to his words.
"I was wrong," Ramdin explained. "There is no argument. In the excitement, I made a mistake. The online tournament is a little more lucrative and I was pumped because I was about to double up and I said the words all in. I never should have done it. It's simply that I got excited."
Ramdin did double up online. In the live game, however, he was caught with very little in terms of holdings and left with even less in terms of chips when his opponent ultimately doubled through.
"I'm out of line; there's really nothing I can say, but if I was the gentleman who called there, let's just say I would never have called there," he said. "I would never want to do anything like that, but again, rules are rules."
Ramdin went on to finish 10th in the PokerStars Cup for $720, outlasting 11th-place finisher Moneymaker, but essentially bubbling the final table. Online, he did make the NJCOOP Main Event final table, but ran out of steam in eighth for $4,500, missing out on the event's almost $40,000 first-place prize, an amount even greater than the entire PokerStars Cup prize pool.
But no matter how you slice it, Ramdin had a blast and is looking forward to more of the same with PokerStars back in New Jersey now and momentum for both its online and live events clearly building.
"The biggest thing for me is that I've run pretty good through the years in PokerStars events and so I'm happy that they're back and I hope they have many more tournaments coming up," he said. "I hear there's another one coming up this spring so I'm certainly excited for that. The turnout has not been that good so far, but you have to consider it's Halloween weekend and we've had some of the nicest weather all year. I mean, it's 70 degrees out and people are out and about."
He hopes that the tide will turn in the future.
"I think eventually the word will get out. PokerStars tournaments are very well run and you get a special group of people that come out for their events," Ramdin said. "You want that to attract the recreational players and I think eventually they will."
