Abhishek Jaiswal - Poker Player

Author

Bhupendra Chahar

Table of Contents

Biography

Abhishek’s poker career combines hard work, grit, and perseverance. He topped the Poker Dangal’s race to the Ace 2.0 leaderboard and won over 15 lakh. He also finished 9th in the German Poker Days Main Event in Rozvadov and won over ₹3.51 Lakhs.

He also won the King’s Special Tuesday and Spartan Poker’s The Millionaire, taking ₹1.65 Lakhs and ₹25 Lakhs, respectively. He also won Poker Baazi’s summer PLO High Roller and took ₹6.33 Lakhs home.

Background

In 2014, Jaiswal graduated with a B.Tech in electronics and communication from VTU, Belgaum. After a year of graduation, he joined Ericsson in Gurgaon. His father once said, “It’s better you come to work with me than earn the measly ₹25-₹30K in the job you are doing now!”

His father has a retail garment business in Patna, which Jaiswal joined as he was not fond of the IT job he was pursuing. Once, while surfing the net as a pastime, he stumbled upon poker, which he used to play in college.

Abhishek Jaiswal Poker Career

He started playing ₹5/₹10 cash games daily while simultaneously working for his father. The games helped him learn the fundamentals. He had no money when he began; his brother, Manish Jaiswal, gave him ₹10,000 and a desktop. He says he started with small stakes in MTT and used to play daily at 7 PM. Within a week, he could return his brother’s money and make a bankroll of ₹1.50 Lakh.

One evening in 2015 changed everything, and Jaiswal became a poker genius. He attended Adda52’s Mega Satty and won an all-expenses-paid package to the DPT in Goa.

He says, “So, I went to Goa for the first time and was genuinely amazed to see a poker player's massive reach and scope! Playing live poker for the very first time was an epic experience. I didn’t even have ₹1 Lakh in my bank account, and here I was, playing the Deltin Poker Tournament (DPT) High Roller with a ₹1 Lakh buy-in. I still remember that 27 places were paid in the High Roller, and I went deep but busted 41st! So I was obviously very disappointed. Incidentally, I finished third in the Bounty event, and I got ₹1.50 Lakh, which was my first live cash and a massive pump to my bankroll!”

His next turning point was in 2017 when he made two deep runs in Spartan Poker and won ₹9-₹10 lakhs. After this win, he realised he wanted to pursue a career in poker. He shifted to Bangalore with two other poker friends and set up a grind station.

The years 2018 and 2019 were career-defining for him. He won his first-ever millionaire title and also won a package to Prague. Though his package was for The Indian Poker Series (TIPS), he played German Poekr Days and cashed at both stops.

He has won several poker tournaments, but his win at the Poker Dangal still stands out. In February 2020, he won a Las Vegas package worth ₹3 lacs. However, he was unable to travel due to covid. In 2021, he topped the Race to Ace 2.0 leaderboard and won over 15 lakhs, and to top it up, he raked in a profit of ₹20 lacs.