Shardul Parthasarathi

More about Shardul Parthasarathi

Hailing from Mumbai, Shardul Parthasarathi has been one of the nation’s most talked about poker pros. The Indian poker player has been making waves in the local and Asian circuits with excellent performances on poker tables and virtual felts. 

A story worthy of a Bollywood script, Parthasarathi was introduced to poker during his college days while pursuing his B.Tech in Electronics and Instrumentation at the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT).  After completing his studies, the Mumbai resident found himself working at CBRE South Asia Pvt. Ltd. This is when his story takes a massive turn as he met with a terrible accident along with his parents. 

While all three survived, it was a wake-up call for Parthasarathi. A subsequent toxic attitude from his employer following the accident led to this Chennai-born to pursue a career in poker after calling it quits his conventional job.

Parthasarathi did not immediately become a poker pro initially. While playing poker for quite sometime before the accident, he started out by working at PokerDangal before taking up the game full-time and becoming a poker professional at the beginning of 2020.

Parthasarathi’s first recorded appearance on poker’s big stage came in 2019 when he featured in the Deltin Poker Tournament (DPT) and participated in the NLH Deep Dive (Event #1) to register a 14th place finish to pocket ₹40,000 ($561) in winnings.

Despite multiple cashes across various tournaments, Parthasarathi ended his long-awaited drought by winning a major live title when he shipped the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Vietnam 2022 Main Event 2022!

Parthasarathi clashed against fellow Indian player Ashish Munot in an all-India heads-up duel to ship his first APT Vietnam Hanoi Main Event title and walk away with VND 1,929,250,000 (~₹64.82 Lakh/ $ 83,273) alongside an APT Main Event trophy in winnings.

Parthasarathi emerged victorious in his next APT outing again, with the Indian poker pro shipping the Single Day High Roller event at APT Hanoi 2023 and pocketed a pay cheque of VND 875,615,000 (₹30,63,425). 

The Indian poker pro was also seen participating in the Poker Sports League (PSL) where he captained the Kolkata Kings and led them to victory during the 4th season of the PSL. When he is not grinding hard on the felts, Parthasarathi is seen spending much of his time coaching players in the Poker Boot Camp India (PBCI).  

A football enthusiast and an Arsenal Supporter, this cat aficionado also plays poker online. He has pocketed huge rewards, citing his performances on various poker platforms using various screen names like, ‘duuurrrr’, ‘Vamos96, ‘merci999’, ‘isthat$o’, ‘Faucet Failure’, ‘Caribbean Flex’ and ‘fish2022’ One of his biggest online cashes came in 2020 where he played PokerBaazi’s ₹2 Crore GTD Game Changer and registered a 2nd place finish to win ₹26,48,983. 

With such an impressive poker resume, Parthasarathi has carved a name for himself as a standout poker player in the country. It remains interesting to see how he fares well in the future.