Amit Varma

Amit Varma is one among the several poker players who holds an impressive profile. He is not only an avid poker player but also a novelist, blogger who has won admiration for his literary works.

Personal Life

Amit Varma is a pro poker is a writer who is based in Mumbai. Apart from his passion to play poker he also works in television and advertising. He is also a journalist by passion and wrote for reputed publications like The Wall Street Journal,The Guardian and Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.

For many months he worked as a Managing Editor of Cricinfo India and currently he works as a consultant for them.

His contributions are not only limited to this. He also used to write the weekly column Thinking It Through for the business newspaper Mint.

In 2005, his blog, India Uncut won the Best Indiblog Award at the Indibloggies which was again nominated in the following year.

In October 2007, for his works, Amit Varma won the 2007 Bastiat Prize for Journalism, which usually is awarded to honour writers “whose work cleverly and wittily promotes the institutions of the free society”.

Amit Varma’s first book, My Friend Sancho, was published in May 2009. His book became the biggest selling debut novel released in 2009. The plot of My Friend Sancho usually is a contemporary love story set in Mumbai. For this book he had earlier been longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2008.

In April 2009, the BusinessWeek magazine has named Amit Varma in its India's 50 Most Powerful People 2009 list.

Amit Varma’s passion toward poker heighted and took a serious turn in 2010 when he won seven out of fifteen final tables held at the Casino Royale in Goa.

Tournaments

Amit Varma in his poker career has won many tournaments. However, despite his efforts he could not make it to the top positions in several tournaments but he never lose hope and continued to play poker with immense passion.

In 2012, he participated in the PokerGuru Tour Season 2 Feb, 2012 in the 5K Rebuy and finished 2nd position winning cash INR 1,65,000.

In the year 2011, he played in the APT Asian Series Goa 2011 in the 10K Freezeout but eventually finished 8th position. The same year, he won the APT Asian Series Goa 2011-15k Head Hunter event and won cash Rupees 2,93,500.

In October, 2010, he won the India Poker Championship Oct, 2011-12K Headhunters alongwith a cash prize of INR 2,14,000. In October, 2010, he won the India Poker Championship Oct, 2011-12K Headhunters alongwith a cash prize of INR 2,14,000.

The same year in the month of September he won the India Poker Pros (IPP) September Edition-5K Turbo Freezeout and Re-entry and the cash reward amount Rupees 1,07,000.

India Poker Series seem no too lucky for Amit although he made several efforts to win the tournaments. In September, 2011, he played in the India Poker Series-Chapter 8 (5K Re-Buy Tournament) but finished 9th position. His another attempt was the India Poker Series-Chapter 8 (6.5K Re-Entry Freeze Out) and was close to winning the title but eventually he finished 2nd position.

In made his first entry in the India Poker Series 2011 in the IPS-Chapter 2 (10K Freezeout) and finished 7th.

In the year 2010, he played the India Poker Championship (IPC) Dec, 2010 (5K Freezeout) but could not make it to the top and finished 8th position.