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The recently announced Poker Sports League aims to create a thriving and structured ecosystem for national players to compete professionally on a regular basis. However, the primary goal is to push the legitimacy envelope for a sport which is still considered as a social ill in many parts of the country; the Indian government still deems poker as a ‘source of entertainment’.
Despite earning the tag of a ‘mind-sport’ in early 2012 and establishing itself as one of the highest paying sports in the US, dishing out over $ 80 million in prize money, poker is yet to garner widespread popularity within the sub-continent. But a group of dedicated youngsters from various parts of the country are looking to change the ‘elitist sport’ stereotype of the sport and help bring glory to India in the World Series of Poker (WSP), widely regarded as the mecca for top international poker professionals.
If you think these high stakes tournaments are attended by only multi-billionaires and the who’s-who of India’s financial hierarchy, think again! The story of Gujarat Acers Captain and national team representative Sumit Asrani is an exact anti-thesis to the sport’s image across the hinterland.
I was a spoiled brat with no vision: Sumit
Speaking to Sportskeeda, Asrani said, “There was a point in my life for whatsoever reason, I was in the financial doldrums, this would be around 2008. My family’s flourishing business came to a standstill and I was up to knee-length in debt. During that particular time, I had to take up a job which paid Rs 35,000 a month. I used to work Monday to Saturday, every day and on Sundays, I played poker on my PC.
“It was a game gifted by my father at a young age, something I could never stop playing. During this time, I had no idea that there were multi-crore tournaments; I just played the game and found pleasure in winning.
“It was not until 2009 that I came to know about these competitive tournaments. I found immediate success after winning my first tournament. I actually earned more than double my salary in just one sitting. So in many ways, poker helped me out during a very difficult time financially, whereas the generic thought process is that it's played by people with millions of dollars. There are people who earn that money through poker and eventually enter high stakes tournaments like I do now.”
A comfortable life without a care about anything in the world, Sumit partied his way through life and joined an MBA college, just for the sake of it. He said, “I grew up in Kolkata, my family business expanded to Mumbai that’s when I moved. I’ll be honest, I was a spoilt brat then, cared mostly about partying, playing pool etc. I wasn’t prepared for what was to come.
“My father passed away after suffering a brain haemorrhage, and we lost everything. From the business to everything else, I was forced to take up the responsibility of the household, something I wasn’t used to. After working 15-16 hours a day, I came to realise how much I had taken life for granted. However, there was one thing that always helped me through this difficult time – poker!”
From earning Rs 35,000 a month to Rs 3 lakh a month
While manoeuvring through his personal roadblocks, Sumit could only play poker on Sundays with friends. One of India’s brightest talents in the sport was working a full-time job and playing online poker as a hobby.
But in 2011, Sumit’s skills online caught the eye of many, with then existent professionals taking note. He added, “I had friends then, who are still professionals and they told me outright that I was one of the most talented players they saw. Financially also it made sense because I was making at least Rs 50,000 via poker on a monthly basis, which was more than my current job profile. Good months could go till around Rs 4-5 lakh, so if I could do this full time, I would easily make more money.”
Such decisions are easier said than taken though, and in this particular case, Sumit’s mother had a strong reluctance towards his latest career choice. He added, “Since my mother was comparatively more aware than others about poker, she was still open to the idea, but you know if you go and tell your parents today, ‘Hey Mom, I want to quit my job to play card games for a living,’ chances are that they will likely react negatively to it. And so did my mother. But I told her, ‘Give me six months; if it doesn’t work out, I’ll stop’.”
And what a decision it proved to be. After winning the Asian Poker Tour in 2012, Sumit would go on to lift titles at the Aces Unlimited and the Indian Poker Legend, with the prize money running into crores – something he would never have been able to achieve if he decided to play safe. He added, “I think after whatever happened in my personal life, poker truly taught me life values like no other human could. Making life changing decisions, knowing when to take a risk and when not to take a risk, focussing primarily on the wholistic target and not individual battles. A game of poker is like life; that's something I’ve always strongly believed in till this date.”
Life skills learned from poker
A move to India’s gambling capital Goa was imminent. With several players refusing to pay out their losses, Sumit’s goal was to now be a part of a more structured system which officially rewarded his hard work. Within a year of moving to the country’s smallest state, the Kolkata-born Acer pulled off his most successful coup till date.
With India’s top 200 poker players under one roof, Sumit destroyed the competition to win the Indian Poker Championship and pocketed a cool Rs 13.5 lakh. In other words, he won at least 10 years of pay from his previous banking job.
2016 proved to be even better for Sumit. He rubbed shoulders with the world’s best players at the World Series of Poker in their $10k tournament, reaching day 2, but narrowly missed out on a finals spot.
It’s difficult to fathom why someone of Sumit's caliber is yet to be considered a sportsperson, despite his impressive heap of achievements. According to the Indian government law, all card games winnings are considered gambling income and need to be subjucted to a 35% tax deduction, better know as entertainment tax. Effectively, the law reduces an act of intense physical and mental preparation to just a mere gambling game.
Now the captain and team mentor for the Gujarat Acers, Sumit’s life so far has mimicked the game of poker on any given table. From wallowing in sorrow to becoming India’s major poker success story, Sumit's success so far has given a path for future superstars in the sport to follow.
