Only a select few players in the closely-knit but intensely competitive Indian poker circuit can boast of having accumulated ₹8 Crores playing online MTTs. Last Friday, 36-year-old Anant Purohit joined this elite club on the back of his stellar run in The Ballers. Purohit took down the event, winning his first title of the year and ₹6.32 Lakhs in prize money.

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Speaking to us, Purohit, who hails from Rajasthan but is currently residing in Coimbatore, shared his delight at finally reaching this milestone. He tells us, “Had my volume not gone down drastically in the last one year, I would have achieved this about six months earlier, but it`s still a great feeling nonetheless.”

The engineer from Jaipur National University, who also holds an MBA degree from the prestigious IIM Ahmedabad, had started his poker journey by playing cash games before making a move to MTTs. The poker circle has turned 360* for Purohit as he is steadily returning to cash games. He explained that it was a conscious move to play fewer MTTs since he has been blessed with a new addition to the family and is also focussing on certain new business investments.

Anant Purohit’s key achievements include:

? Largest Online Score: ₹29.13 Lakhs?

? Lifetime Online Winnings: ₹8.06 Crores?

? Lifetime Online Profits: ₹2.97 Crores?

? Annual Winnings (2022): ₹ 13.44 Lakhs (so far)?

? Annual Profits (2022): ₹9.30 Lakhs (so far)?

? Recorded Winnings on @The Spartan Poker: ₹5.58 Crores ?

? Recorded Winnings on @PokerBaazi: ₹63.02 Lakhs ?

? Recorded Winnings on@Adda52: ₹81.69 Lakhs ?

? Recorded Winnings on @PokerStars India: ₹1.04 Crores?

Purohit is widely considered one of the more promising players on the domestic circuit. Like many others, he started with poker right from his student days in IIM Ahmedabad and just didn’t let go!

While it was in September 2010 when Purohit played his first poker hand, he says, it was only in 2011 when he started playing poker more regularly. Cash games were his forte early on, but Purohit decided to transition to MTTs in 2014 and hasn’t looked back since.

He has steadily added several accomplishments to his name in the past few years. His career’s biggest score dates back to July 2019, when he conquered the IOPC Super Highroller for ₹29.13 Lakhs. In September, the same year, he pulled out a massive ₹18.51 Lakhs payday for finishing runner-up in Spartan Poker’s The Millionaire.

Despite a palpable drop in MTT volume in 2021, Purohit posted some standout scores. In August, he came close to grabbing his third WPT title in the WPT India Super High Roller, eventually finishing third for ₹12.98 Lakhs. It was a breakout Sunday for Purohit since he also won The Summit for ₹3.38 Lakhs, adding an impressive ₹16.36 Lakhs in a single day!

But the BIG scores kept pouring in regularly for Purohit, who kickstarted 2021 with an FT finish in the IOPC Main Event in January. Winning a Destiny title and final table finishes in The Millionaire, and more recently, the Winter Celebration Series #72: High Roller helped Purohit reach where he stands today.

It was not easy, and Purohit maintains that managing poker and personal lifestyle boils down to support from your family. “I’m lucky that my wife also plays poker!”

Having tasted reasonable success in both cash and tournament poker, Purohit underlines the difference in how players approach each format. “Cash games require a different set of skills like analysis of the proper ranges and gameplay, whereas, in tournaments, it is a question of resource and equity management.”

He continues, “Usually there are no 5-bet, and 6-bet pots in cash games, a lot of hands go post-flop, so a lot depends on how you can perceive your opponents’ strategy and how effectively you can control the pot and position. But in tournaments, you are mostly playing around with equity.”

When asked about what advice he would share with newcomers who might get overwhelmed with the swings experienced in poker, he tells us, “Upswings and downswings are part of the game, and the sooner you get used to both, the better.”

For Purohit himself, the most significant upswing in his poker career was in 2014, when he went to Bengaluru to play live poker. That year, between July to December, he was unbeatable as he explains, “I moved from ₹5/₹10 PLO to ₹100/₹200 PLO in seven days. My bankroll zoomed from ₹2,500 to ₹1.25 Lakh in seven days. That upswing happened for 4-5 months straight, and I cashed out for ₹1-₹1.50 Lakhs every month. Then, after December onwards, I was on a downswing over the next two months and lost all the money I had made in those previous five months. That’s when I realized I was no poker God. It was just an upswing I had experienced earlier!”

The effervescent and bright player also makes sure not to miss out on any opportunity to play live poker. Purohit’s first recorded live score was in December 2014, and he got his hands on his first live title almost five years later in 2019, winning the DPTX ₹15K Main Event for ₹7.40 Lakhs.

Las Vegas and the WSOP were on his list last year, but COVID-19 dampened those plans. Now Purohit hopes things are better in 2022, so he can go. “I’d love any opportunity to grind some live poker, and WSOP, that’s a dream!”

Although enthused by the rapid growth of the poker industry and so many new players joining the game, he points out that until regulations come in, there won’t be much improvement in structures and transparency in games.

He is a strong advocate towards beginners becoming a part of a poker group or having a mentor as he feels it helps one better understand the different ways you could have played a hand. Recounting his own experience, he says, “Until 2017, I wasn’t playing poker. I wasn’t focused on strategy and was kind of trying to play just my cards. But once I took a session from Abhishek Rathod, I started realizing various aspects of the game. It switched my brain on – on the moves I was making in the game. From there onwards, my game started evolving. So once you have someone who can mentor you, a group of friends who can discuss hands with you, the brain-storming happens, that’s when the results start flowing in.”

Looking forward, Purohit plans to spend more time playing cash games in 2022. “My volume may remain the same, but I will focus more on cash games.”

He has already begun the transition back to cash games since tournaments take a lot of time, and with a baby at home and new business opportunities, he has his hands full to commit to long stretches of play.

As for advice to budding poker players, Purohit shares not to consider poker to be a game but as a business where you’re investing in every hand and strategizing on whether to make moves like a fold or call. “If you want to win in poker, take it as a business investment and play it with proper knowledge of strategy, mathematics, etc. So get onto it, study it a bit, get coached, play, realize your mistakes, improve upon them, and then return. This is the process which you have to repeat innumerable times.”

A BIG shoutout to Anant Purohit on his poker achievements, and we will be tracking him closely as he crosses many more milestones in the future!