India currently stands at a noticeable spot in the global poker scene, with many Indian poker players making waves in the prestigious tournaments at the international felts. As these poker champs put India on the world poker map, the popularity of the sport is also rising within the country.
Poker in the country is now being viewed as a promising career option, thanks to our poker champs breaking barriers and inspiring thousands of Indians to take up the game as a career choice.
One such poker champion that India has produced in recent years is Amit Kaushik.
Who is Amit Kaushik?
Originally from Kurukshetra, Haryana, Amit Kaushik is a Noida-based poker player with more than $435k in live earnings. This young talent is consistently climbing up the ladder and is currently ranked 22nd on India all-time Money List. Particularly in recent years, he has made a lot of noise in the Asian circuits. Kaushik has consistently made his presence felt on the virtual as well as live felts, making waves in the Indian and Asian circuits with excellent performances on both live and virtual felts.
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Amit Kaushik’s Poker Journey
Talking about his educational background, he did his postgraduate in Applied Mathematics from IIT Roorkee. He started his poker journey way back when he was in college. Initially, he played card games with friends in college. Eventually, his interest in poker started to grow. This led to Kaushik watching ‘Poker After Dark’ on YouTube religiously, which further grew his interest in the game. However, Kaushik began playing poker full-time only after taking a break from his corporate career in July 2020.
Climbing Up The Ladder
Since then, Kaushik has refused to look back. Transitioning from online felts to being a familiar face at the Asian poker events, he has quickly moved up the ranks, delivering some amazing performances along the way.
He first grabbed eyeballs when he secured his biggest online score to date in January 2022. The pro finished second at Spartan Poker’s India Online Poker Championship (IOPC) ₹1.50 Crore GTD Blaze, earning a massive ₹16,28,782.
However, this was just the beginning of his ascendence. 2022 marked a significant turning point in his journey. He made his first live tournament appearance in March 2022 at the Baazi Poker Tour. In his first outing itself, he claimed a 35th-place finish at the NLH BPT Big Bounty Event pocketing ₹25,800.
Just a few weeks later, he went on to ship his first-ever live title at the coveted Deltin Poker Tour (DPT) NLH ₹5K Bounty to add ₹5,34,140 to his bankroll.
Exploiting the Asian felts
Following his success on the home turf, Kaushik began to grind outside the county. He was seen grinding at multiple live events while also exploiting the online felts. He debuted into the Asian poker circuit with a bang after shipping his debut tournament. He took down the No Limit Hold’em – Deep Stack Hyper Turbo (Event #18) at the Asian Poker Festival – APT Summer Festival Hanoi – VSOP 2022, Hanoi in July 2022 for $2,163. Later, he finished third at the very next event of the series.
He later recorded many other cashes at other series including Asian Poker Tour – APT Vietnam Ho Chi Minh, World Poker Tour Prime – WPT Prime Cambodia, Phnom Penh, World Poker Championship – SEAPT Hanoi in 2022. He continued his streak in 2023 with notable cashes at WPC Hanoi, Hanoi, World Poker Tour Prime – WPT Prime Cambodia, Asian Poker Tour – APT Phu Quoc, WPT Prime India, Asia Pacific Poker Tour – APPT Cambodia, World Poker Tour Prime – WPT Prime Vietnam, Asian Poker Tour – APT Summer Series Hanoi, World Poker Championship – WPC IV Hanoi, Asian Poker Tour – APT Summer Series Da Nang, USOP Ha Noi, USOP Da Nang, APT Hanoi Billions, and Asian Poker Festival – APF Hanoi.
2024: A Year To Watch Out For Amit Kaushik
Coming to 2024, Kaushik is showing no signs of stopping. He has already posted seven cash finishes, including a 5th place finish in January 2024 at the WPT Cambodia Championship Main Event where he secured $118,906, his biggest score to date.
He started this year with the Hanoi Series Of Poker – HSOP Grinder Series in January, where he secured the 38th position in the Kick Off event. He then competed in the WPT Cambodia Championship in Phnom Penh later that month. He started his campaign with a 12th place finish for $ 5,092 in the Championship Warm-Up event. Subsequently, in the 8-Max Survivor 2k Bounty event, he secured the 48th position for $ 1,257, which he followed up with a 3rd-place finish for $ 8,125 in the Megastack Action Clock event.
Kaushik’s success in Cambodia reached new heights when he secured a fifth-place finish in the WPT Main Event, where he earned a career-best $118,906. His journey in Cambodia concluded with an eighth-place finish in the Superstack Turbo event. March saw Kaushik competing in the U Series of Poker – USOP Da Nang Part 1 in Vietnam. Despite facing tough competition, he secured notable finishes in the Mini High Roller and Main Event, finishing 10th for $ 2,129 and 155th for $ 2,377, respectively. Most recently, he recorded four cashes at the Poker Dream 9 Malaysia, including a 7th place finish in Event #34 Mini High Roller for RM 18600 and a 171st place for RM 12,700 in the Main Event.
Career Graph
Within just a matter of over two years, Kaushik has accumulated $432,880 in total live earnings. Kaushik currently ranks 5th on the GPI Rankings for India with 1,685.09 points, which is an incredible feat given his short span of playing the game professionally.
His GPI rankings skyrocketed in 2022 and since then he has refused to bow down. In July 2022, his GPI rank was around 32,972. By August of the same year, he had made his place among the top 10,000 with a rank of 5,678. Currently, he is among the top 1,000 poker players around the world, with a rank of 772 as of April 4, 2024.
Talking of his online exploits, he has over 226 online title victories and over ₹7.3 Crore in online winnings to his name. His most recent online titles include PokerBaazi’s NPS#131 Marathon 15L GTD where he triumphed over 481 players for INR 2,01,392, and Saturday Smash PKO – 5 Lac on Spartan Poker for INR 1,26,791.
With such impressive stats already making his poker resume shine and stand out, Amit Kaushik is truly a rising star in the Indian poker circuit who continues to rise higher and higher. Given his current form and his talent, it won’t be surprising to see Kaushik overtake fellow Indian poker players in terms of ranking as well as earnings in the coming months.
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