Over the last ten years online poker has grown in popularity in India. India’s huge digital user base is gradually being exposed to the excitement and rewards of online live poker games. The online poker scene in India has not yet reached its full potential, but a few Indian poker players have already started making some waves in the global poker community.
Let’s have a look at some of the top poker players in India. These players are some of the most well-known poker players and are known for their list of tournament wins and huge earnings from prize money.
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1. Nipun Java –
Nipun was born in New Delhi and started his poker career in the US online poker tournament circle. Nipun’s first major breakthrough win came in 2009 when he was placed fifth in the LA Poker Open Championship Event and walked away with $34,650 in earnings. The biggest win of Nipun’s career came in 2014 when he won a WSOP Circuit Ring for the No Limit Hold’em Main Event with a prize pool of $226,785. But the most critical achievement of Nipun’s career was when he and his partner won a WSOP bracelet as an Indian poker player in the 48th WSOP $1000 Tag Team event.
2. Vivek Rajkumar –
Vivek Rajkumar is now retired from poker but he is one of the highest earning players in India. Rajkumar’s total earnings are more than nearly $8 million. He started his career in online poker when he moved to the United States to study computer engineering. In the States his inclination towards mathematics drew him to online poker circuits.
Rajkumar soon became a strong competitor in the online poker circles. In 2007 he won five WSOP cash prizes. Rajkumar also won the No Limit Hold’em Event at the LA Poker Classic tournament and was able to walk away with around $113,425 in earnings. But the biggest win of Rajkumar’s poker career was in 2008 at the main event for WTP Borgata Poker Open where he won a hefty sum of more than $1.4 million.
3. Aditya Agarwal –
Aditya Agarwal is well known among Indian poker players because of his smart strategizing techniques. He has amassed more than $2 million in earnings from poker since he began his poker journey at the age of 21. But only $700,000 is from online poker earnings, the rest he has been able to gain by cashing out from live poker tournaments.
Agarwal shot to the limelight in global poker news in 2017 when he cashed out of the main No Limit Hold’em event of WSOP with $18,714. In 2019 Agarwal again made some big waves by cashing out at the Asia Pacific Tour in Macau. With a nickname of Aditya ‘Intervention’ Agarwal for his innovative cash out games, he is one of the major poker players in India to look out for in the next few years.
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4. Raghav Bansal –
Raghav Bansal is also a very successful Indian poker player. He has been able to accumulate $735,024 from his poker career. Out of this amount, $335,910 came from his live tournament wins. Bansal started playing poker in college and in 2014 he committed to becoming a full-time professional poker player.
One of Bansal’s strongest performances was at the Macau Poker Cup, where he won $25,000. Another one of Bansal’s notable wins was he won the No Limit Hold’em main event at the Deltin Poker Tournament in Goa. Bansal made $3,060,000 from his win at the Deltin.
5. Abhinav Iyer –
Abhinav Iyer is an Indian poker player based in Mumbai. Iyer now features as one of the top few names on all top 10 poker players in India lists on the basis of his more than $800,000 earnings from live poker tournaments alone. Iyer has participated in more than 38 poker tournaments. The biggest single win of Iyer’s career was when he walked away with $565,346 in earnings from an online live poker game.
Iyer was in the 73rd rank in the p 50,000 main event No Limit Hold’em in the Indian Poker Championship held in Goa in 2020. Iyer is one of the rising stars in the poker scene and is another one of the poker players in India to look out for.
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A few other common names in the list of top Indian poker players are Ankit Ahuja, Kunal Patni and Pawaan Bansal.
Online poker and live poker tournaments are not yet very mainstream in India. But a handful of poker players are now proving to the world that the Indian poker scene is an exciting untapped market of talent that can produce many brilliant players.
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