In recent years, poker has gradually gained popularity in India, capturing the interest of the general public. Many Indians have embraced the game, leading to the emergence of new poker stars who excel in both national and international competitions. Some of these players have dedicated themselves to honing their skills and making crucial decisions at the poker table.

The poker trend in India has been growing rapidly, with players eager to learn through accessible tutorials, convenient gaming sessions, and 24/7 availability, all complemented by live poker tournaments.

Let’s dive deeper into the details of the Top 10 Indian Poker star Players, their backgrounds, how they started playing poker, and their achievements.

Top 10 Players in India Poker List

1. Santhosh Suvarna

Santhosh Suvarna who is a successful business person is a professional poker player who has harvested big amounts of money in high stakes poker events and his monetary earnings equal $5.7 million from live tournaments. His biggest achievement in 2023 was at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Monte Carlo.

While Suvarna was further behind in the chip count at the beginning of the final table, he managed a come from behind performance, which positioned him for another shot at a Triton title. Although he had to sit out the previous round because of bad luck, he was able to come third and won $1.77 million. This great achievement not only gave him the record of the highest-earning Indian title in live poker for the given year but also ranked second in the largest live poker win in India in history after Rajkumars’s 2019 Triton Million for Charity event.

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2. Ankit Ahuja

Ankit Ahuja, had earned more than $2.1 million, as of October 2023, in tournaments played live. He had his big break in the 2023 European Poker Tour Cyprus where he emerged winner in the $1,100 Eureka Main Event thus bagging the biggest cash to his career $362,365.

Ahuja has always proven himself in various competitions consistently and ranked 34th position in the 2023 WPT world championship, $132,500 in the cash prize.

Other achievements such as finishing in the money in the 2023 Merit Poker Gangster Series and finishing 44th out of 470 entries in the 2023 PokerStars EPT Barcelona High Roller also prove this. The interactive and fierce nature of the poker circuit that Ahuja has offered to the Indian poker community justifies his importance of being ranked among the most important players in the global poker platform.

3. Kartik Ved

The Asian poker community has especially benefited from helpful inputs from Kartik ‘TheInternetKid’ Ved, a famous person in live and online poker. Ved began with a cash at the IPC in August 2015 and the poker player has participated in many international poker tournaments. His big break for the WSOP happened in 2019 at the 50th Main Event in Las Vegas the poker player placed in 51st and bagged $173,015. Ved’s proficiency in the poker world is evident in other niches like WPT and APT, among others, and his online results.

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4. Abhinav Iyer

One of a kind poker player that hails from Mumbai is named Abhinav Iyer, who scored India’s first individual World Series Of Poker (WSOP) bracelet at the 2019 WSOP in Las Vegas. Specifically, he won The Closer competition and can confidently say that he had some success in his poker experience. As of now, Iyer has a total live earnings of $1,607,796, his biggest single cash coming from the WSOP where he cashed for $565,346. His impressive adventure includes 43 victories for the celebrated tournament, WSOP, making him a dependable poker star in the global poker economy. However, besides WSOP, Iyer has showcased his skills in other tournaments from around the world including APT, APPT, WPT, and EPT, as well as Indian tournaments including DPT, BPT, WPT India, WPT Prime India, as well as IPC.

5. Amit Koushik

Among professionals, Indian poker player from Kurukshetra, Haryana – Amit Kaushik was emerging as among the best of this game. Kaushik turned pro in poker, after he quit his corporate job back in July of 2020. He started his live tournaments in March 2022 of Baazi Poker Tour, played NLH BPT Big Bounty Event at 35th position and won ₹25480. A month later he triumphed on the Deltin Poker Tour (DPT) NLH ₹5K Bounty and cashed around ₹5,34,140. None of the tours provided a live cash as big as the one he got in May 2023 at WPT Prime Vietnam, in the VND 16,500,000 NLH 8-Max ME Warm Up. He came out as the winner and got the prize of VND 1,006,000,000 ($ 42, 915).

6. Nishant Sharma

Nishant Sharma is one of the luckiest Indians to be playing in the USOP Hai Phong 2024. He didn’t register any cash in the series prior to today and he made a Final Table of Event #39 VND 88 Million Super High Roller, and he finished in 5th position. Sharma was engaged until he was withdrawn from the environment.

7. Nipun Java

Some of them are Sangeeth, Mahesh, Nishant, Amit, Maze and Nipun Java who is one of the best known Indian Poker stars who participate and win many Poker tournaments in India as well as international ones. He partnered with Aditya Sushant and clinched the gold bracelet at WSOP 2017. Nipun Java completed his BE in electronic engineering from NSIT, Delhi and then shifted to L.A, later. He has spent his past year and a half, 12 years to be specific, in the United States of America. He started playing poker on the Internet and with friends at home only to have fun. He was then able to join real professional live Poker games and tournaments after going through some achievements.

8. Vishal Ojha

Vishal Ojha has achieved a significant accomplishment by triumphing over a record-setting group of 1,336 opponents in the VND 12 Billion GTD Event #23: VND 25 Million Main Event and he will go down in history as the first Indian to triumph in the USOP Main Event. India has registered three victories in the current series of USOP.

Ojha took his third victory in the series and his total winning amount became equal to VND 6 Billion. Ojha underlined his preliminary potential as well as desire on the last table of the event. He started with the fourth largest pile and went on to use quite good poker hence gaining more chips and went on to win the event after a small heads up duel against Vietnam’s Bien Mai.

9. Guarav Sood

Guarav Sood has been making a big impact in the online poker world ever since. Located in Gurgaon, Haryana, Sood discovered poker in 2013 during his college days. He got his big opportunity in the sport when Abhishek Goindi invited him to join his PSL team Punjab Bluffers in 2017. Even though he is considered one of the most intimidating online competitors today, Sood is actually a newcomer to the world of live poker.

In 2019, he achieved his first live score by coming in second place in a PLO Hi event at the July 2019 edition of the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Vietnam, earning VND 110,000,000 (~₹3.25 Lakhs). After that, he has obtained six additional cash prizes, two of which were achieved at the 2019 World Poker Tour (WPT) Cambodia in November. He currently has about ₹15 Lakhs in live tournament winnings. With close to ₹2.77 Crores in online winnings accounted for, Sood is certainly one of the most promising players in the current circuit.

10. Aditya Agarwal

Aditya ‘Intervention’ Agarwal is a poker player who contributed prominence to poker in India for more than ten years. Agarwal, one of the early entrants to the WSOP (World Series of Poker), enjoys seven victories in the WSOP Main Event in a space of 13 years and is poised to supplant Berry Johnston’s record of ten Main Event cash finishes. The excellent performance record of this experienced player in both national and international poker events proves his ability and unmatched commitment to play poker. Considering recent play at the 2018 WSOP, his total earnings from the series of tournaments has risen to $558,720 (₹3.84 Crores).

Summary

The top 10 Indian poker players display outstanding skill, determination, and strategic awareness in the poker world. Their accomplishments not only showcase their personal skills but also add to the increasing recognition of India in the worldwide poker community.

With the growing popularity of poker in India, these poker stars are establishing themselves as role models and sources of inspiration for future generations of poker enthusiasts. Their accomplishments showcase how anyone can succeed in the competitive realm of poker with dedication, practice, and a deep understanding of the game.

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