kolkata kings Team | kolkata kings

Kunal Gupta – Team Owner

Born in Kolkata, Entrepreneur Kunal Gupta of Met Group of Technologies is a complete self-made business tycoon where he started building his fortune through his BPO startup and has ventured into many diverse businesses ever since. With over 7 years of experience in on shore management, team leadership, finance, business strategy management etc, he decided to set another milestone in his journey of success by investing in the ever growing industry of Poker, adding another feather to his hat.
He is now the Owner of Poker Sports League’s Kolkata Team titled “Kolkata Kings”. Kunal understands the potential this game has and wants to give it wide acceptance especially among the Indian Crowd.

Shardul Parthasarathi – Captain

An electronics engineer by qualification, Shardul has been playing the game since his college days but recently made the switch to playing professionally right before the pandemic. A passionate MTT player who loves the intricacies the game has to offer, he is also, a coach at pokerbootcampindia.

Ankit Wadhawan – PRO

been playing poker professionally for 3 years! ranked 4 all india pokerguru cashes online (2021)
shipped FTS main event, 2nd in BPT HR, 4th in APT vietnam main event, 4th in IPC highroller are a few notable finishes among other accolades.
also a part of punjab bluffers in PSL season 2

Ashish Ahuja – Pro

Ashish is one of the pro’s for Kolkata Kings this season. He is 34 years old and was born and brought up in Chandigarh. A lawyer turned professional Poker player, he has been playing poker professionally for 8 years now. He has also been a part of PSL Virtual (Charity event) where he played for Chennai Troopers and PSL season 3 for Bengaluru Legends. He has ranked no. 3 player in online events as per PokerGuru cashes annual leader board for year 2020 and ranked no. 6 in online ranking in 2021. He is one of the three players who has cashed in for over 10 crores across all Indian Poker sites as per record by PokerGuru tracking software. He also ranked 35 in India all time ranking list for live events by the Hendon mob. He has made 10 cashes in WSOP events and even to the final tables an WSOP event telecasted live on POKERGO and ESPN US where he finished 5th for 50k$. He has won BPT kick-off event in January 2020 and DPT bounty event in February 2018 and finished being the runner up in DPT high roller event in August 2019. He also made it to the final tables at the IPC main event in September 2019 where he finished 6th.

Niharika Bindra – Woman

Niharika was born and brought up in Delhi and learnt poker 18 years ago. Poker has changed her life and her love for the game has only grown over the years. She was the Woman of the Series for PSL last year and have won at least one tournament in each season that she had participated in the PSL. She is primarily a cash game player but over the years, she has been playing tournaments on and off and have won a few including an apt event. She is excited and is looking forward to being the part of this new team full of crushers!

Vinayak bajaj – Qualifier

Vinayak has a Master’s degree from IIT Kharagpur and that is where he was introduced to Poker and have been playing the game for almost 4 years now. This is his 3rd season with Kolkata Kings in the PSL, so that actually makes him the most experienced player in the team. He is mainly an online MTT player. He finished being in the list of top 10 MTT players in India in 2021 as per PG Rankings.

Mohit Bohra – Qualifier

Mohit is an online MTT player. He fell in love with the game from the time he was first introduced to Poker in his school days. Over the years he has managed to keep in touch with the game. He got into family business with a desire to retire early and play Poker. But during the pandemic, with all the extra time in hand, he took this opportunity to learn Poker under a mentor and decided to go All-in. He is now investing full-time in learning and mastering the Art of Poker! Now he desires to be a beast on the felts and never retire!

Ashish Mudgil – Qualifier

Ashish has been playing poker since 2012. He started playing online on Spartan Poker since 2015 and have been grinding ever since. He also shipped a few IOPC tournaments on Spartan and a few more flagship events. He recently also moved to playing cash tables 10/25 NL on Pokerbaazi. He hopes that the much awaited PSL season 4 will be the kick-start to more good things in the field of Poker for him.

Payal Sharma – Qualifier

Payal is the Poker Sports League qualifier from season 3 & 4 and joined Kolkata Kings team this year. Staying in Delhi, she works as a HR Head in an MNC. She has got the chance to learn Poker from her husband and has played several online tournaments. Being a part of the new team of Kolkata Kings to her is like the grand beginning in the Poker world. For her, Poker is passion and strength.

Rishit Kumar – Qualifier

Rishit is a final year engineering student and his fascination of reading people drove him to Poker. He has been in touch with the game since childhood but started playing with real money as he began his college journey. He has numerous College MTT wins in his pocket and has been slaying in cash games.

Shane Oswald – Qualifier

Shane has been playing Poker for 6 years. He did get through to PSL Season 3 but did not get selected. He had also made to the final table at the Indian Poker Championship and has also won quite a few online tournaments.

Pulkit Pandey – Sub

An IIT Bombay third-year undergraduate student was introduced to poker in December 2019 by Mood Indigo (a college cultural fest). His intense passion for Poker prompted him to actively engage in this game, and approximately 2 years later, he is qualified for the PSL and will be adding a lot of value to the Kolkata Kings team.

Team