Santhosh Suvarna’s Poker Journey: Indian Poker Sensation

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Few people have made such a big impact on the world of poker as fast as Santhosh Suvarna, the Indian businessman who broke into the high stakes poker scene in 2022.

Unlike many poker players who come up in the game, move up the stakes, and only reach high stakes games later in their careers, Santhosh Suvarna became a staple in the high stakes Texas Hold'em Poker community almost immediately.

While he has clearly played poker before in his native country of India, his appearance in the Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and international poker circles was abrupt and quite impressive.

But who exactly is Santhosh Suvarna, where did he come from, and how does he fit into the world of high stakes poker today?

Let’s find out!

Santhosh Suvarna’s Business Roots

Little is known about Santhosh Suvarna’s upbringing and history, as the businessman has kept somewhat private and has not spoken too much about his life up to this point.

What we do know is that Santhosh’s base of operations is in Dubai, the international business hub for the eastern part of the world.

His roots, on the other hand, are in India, where he was a successful businessman long before he became an international high stakes poker legend.

Santhosh owned the successful Rockets Poker Room in Bengaluru in the past, and recently opened the Cadillac Casino in a hotel in Goa, expanding his reach in India.

While gambling is somewhat controversial in India and only allowed in some provinces, Suvarna has had plenty success in this line of business in his native country.

Since then, he has been spending a lot of time overseas though, as the allure of the green felt has often been greater than the allure of the business world of Suvarna.

Santhosh Suvarna’s Tournament Poker Career

If you have been keeping track of the poker world over the last three years, you have probably gotten to know Santhosh Suvarna as a high stakes cash game player. However, he has had plenty of success in tournaments as well.

His first recorded tournament poker cashes come from 2017, when he was playing low stakes events in his native India.

Over the period between 2017 and 2020, Suvarna recorded a few minor cashes on local poker tours, but that all changed in 2022.

Suvarna’s first notable result comes from September 2022, and it was at a $75,000 event in Kyernia, Cyprus, where he came 8^th for $245,000.

Ever since then, Suvarna has been a staple of the high stakes poker tournaments scene, amassing over $7,000,000 in cashes in about two years.

This impressive run comes in part from the fact Suvarna plays all the high roller events he can, including the $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop he played at the WPT World Championship in 2023.

Santhosh has been busy traveling the world to play poker, recording cashes in Cyprus, England, Vietnam, USA, Monte Carlo, Caribbean, France, Taiwan, and South Korea.

In May 2023, he won his first Triton Poker Tour event, the $25k GG Super MILLION$ in Cyprus, for $700,000, besting a field of seasoned poker professionals.

The biggest cash of his tournament poker career, worth $1,772,000 came for his 3^rd place finish at the $125k Triton Main Event in Monte Carlo in October 2023, where Matthias Eibinger eventually won the title ahead of Adrian Mateos.

Just a month later, Suvarna added the first WSOP bracelet to his cabinets, winning the €50k High Roller at WSOPE in Rozvadov for €650,000.

At EPT Paris early in 2024, Santhosh took down the €25k High Roller event and cashed for €348,860, once again showing his prowess in playing against high rollers.

We are likely to see plenty of Santhosh Suvarna in the biggest poker tournaments in the months and years to come, as the Indian businessman quickly continues his march towards the top of the all-time money leaderboard.

Santhosh Suvarna in High Stakes Cash Games

It is not every day that we see a new face emerge in the world of televised cash games, and it is even more rare for such new faces to stick around for a period of time.

Santhosh Suvarna made his first appearance in such a game in September 2022, playing in a Triton Cash Game during the Triton Poker Series event in Cyprus.

Suvarna played a number of NLH and PLO games over that festival, with stakes going all the way up to $1k/2k, and millions of dollars changing hands.

It was immediately clear that Santhosh was the kind of player who would give plenty of action and put players in some difficult spots in high stakes poker games.

In the summer of 2023, Suvarna made his first appearances on Bally Live Poker and Hustler Casino Live, two popular live-streamed poker shows.

He took part in the high stakes PLO games in July, before showing up in the Million Dollar Cash Game on Hustler Casino live as well, where he won nearly a million dollars over two days of play.

Suvarna continued playing in the biggest TV poker games out there, playing for millions of dollars on Triton Poker and Hustler Casino Live streams on a regular basis.

To make his face known to the casual poker fans as well, Santhosh joined the Season 12 cast of High Stakes Poker, historically the most popular poker TV show.

To date, Santhosh Suvarna has been one of the most active and action-giving players in high stakes poker games, and has lost close to $4.5 million playing in these highly volatile games.

While some would say that Suvarna’s inexperience is getting the best of him in these difficult lineups, it is likely that he has also been running bad and not hitting the cards he needed at key moments.

In either case, Suvarna’s cash game poker career continues without any interruptions, as he is already planning his appearance in the 2024 Million Dollar Cash Game on Hustler Casino Live.

Suvarna Plays the Biggest Pot in High Stakes Poker History

Season 12 of High Stakes Poker, the game’s most popular TV show, has been absolutely off the chains, with stakes higher than ever and an impressive lineup of characters and poker players sitting down at the table.

In a lineup that included Andrew Robl, Nik Airball, and Brandon Adams, Santhosh Suvarna has been getting in the mix and doing reasonably well.

On episode 9, Suvarna ended up getting involved in the biggest pot the show has seen to date, worth just under a million dollars.

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In this epic hand, high stakes legend Andrew Robl opened the pot to $16k with 5c4c and called a $54k re-raise from Suvarna before the flop.

The board of 4s4h2s gave Robl a disguised monster hand and it seemed like he was once again on a path to scooping up a big one.

Suvarna c-bet for $45k, and Robl quickly called, not wanting to scare of his customer. Sadly for Suvarna, the Kd hit the turn and it seemed like he was about to lose more money, as he held AcKh in the hole.

Robl checked, and Suvarna checked behind, but was certainly happy to call a big river bet with his two-pair, one of the best possible hands he could have given the situation.

However, the dealer rolled off the Ks on the river, giving Santhosh the nuts, as his top full house was now better than Robl’s hand.

With “just” $202k in the pot, it didn’t seem like this pot was going to swell to a million dollars, but Robl decided to make a massive bet of $300k on the river.

Andrew was likely looking to get value from a hand like TT or JJ or a flush, all of which were definitely possible holdings for Suvarna.

When Santhosh pushed all-in for just under $100k more, Robl felt committed to the pot and added the chips needed to make the call, only to see the bad news.

This crazy hand became the biggest pot in High Stakes Poker history, but we may see this record broken very soon as more episodes of the show come out with stakes just as high.

Santhosh Suvarna’s Net Worth

Little is known about Santhosh Suvarna’s business empire and his success away from the tables, apart from the details revealed earlier on this page.

Suvarna is an owner of multiple gambling-related businesses that seem to be doing quite well, but it is hard to say exactly how far his wealth reaches.

We have seen Santhosh win and lose millions at the poker tables, which clearly tells us that Santhosh Suvarna’s net worth is in the high millions, but it could possibly be even much higher than that.

Yet, it seems we won’t find out the exact truth about Santhosh Suvarna’s net worth just yet, apart from his poker numbers.

What we do know from poker is that he’s won just over $7 million playing tournaments, but that’s excluding the buyins which get pretty big at the level he plays.

On the other hand, Suvarna has also lost about $4.5 million playing TV cash games, which amount only for a fraction of his overall play, where he might have won it all back or lost just as much.

Where Is Santhosh Suvarna Today?

If you are wondering where is Santhosh Suvarna today, the answer is he’s probably at a poker table somewhere playing huge million dollar pots.

Suvarna’s passion for poker has been hard to quench lately, as he seems to be around every major poker event out across the world.

Santhosh continues to appear in major poker games on TV and live streams, and is set to play the Million Dollar Game on Hustler Casino Live later this month.

Past that, expect to see more of Santhosh at various Triton, WSOP, WPT, and EPT stops in all corners of the world as he continues his quest for poker greatness.