Barely minutes left in the first level of play and we've aleardy lost a couple of players, the first one being local pro Danish Shaikh.

On a flop of we saw Pranav Khandelkar from the big blind raise to 350. Bharat Naidu repops it 850 and is flatted by Shaikh from UTG and Rajesh Sitlani. Action to Khandelkar who is posturing a huge hand with a re-raise to 3200. Naidu gets out of the way and Shaikh now firing out 8600 into the middle. Sitlani too has enough and this Khandelkar goes all-in. Shaikh calls.

• Full details of the Asia Player of the Year Leaderboard, which tracks players over PokerStars Macau, APPT and other live poker tournaments.
• Poker Sports League concludes draft for maiden season New Delhi India, May 7: The 12 franchises for India's first ever Poker Sports League (PSL) on Saturday picked their players to complete.
• Not much since the poker world is kind of alien to those outside it. But by now, they know that they can never meet me on Sundays because Sundays are poker days, and are used to my massive swings in wealth. Anmol's Poker Idols. Fedor Holz and Phil Galfond internationally; Danish Shaikh and Adi Agarwal in India.

Khadelkar for a flopped set of Tens while Shaikh too has hit bottom set with his . The turn and river do not help the young Goan and that will do for Danish Shaikh's rather short stay in this Big Game.

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Coming a close second in the online poker tournament was Danish Shaikh aka ‘pagla’ with a payout of INR 5.64 lakhs. Surviving that heads-up battle and acing the gruelling felts to be crowned the poker champion was Vaibhav Sharma aka ‘WakhraSwagNi’. We managed to chat up the winner and talk to him about his poker tournament journey.

Anmol Srivats is just a regular nerd-on-the-block studying mathematics at the University of St Andrews in the UK. That is, until you dig a little deeper behind this nondescript, bright chap. Anmol just happens to be ranked in Top 5 of PocketFives India Top 10 (according to Online Poker News) with a net profit of over Rs. 60 lakh sitting in his bank account—poker matches that he’s won on sites, and live poker games.

AskMen caught up with Anmol over a quick e-mail interview, to find out more about the guy-next-door who partly self-funds his education with the world’s biggest gambling game—poker.

1. How old are you? At what age did you start playing poker?

I’m 21, I started playing online poker for money around the age of 15.

2. When did you realise that you can actually fund your education with poker money?

I have partially funded my education with poker money. I always had dreams of winning millions of dollars while watching episodes of WSOP on TV... while it's much harder to win that kind of money, I still worked hard--always trying to improve my game--trying to maximise my earnings.

I got lucky coming 1st in a tournament that had 20,000 participants with $11 entry fee. I won $20,000. And then I made some more money playing some high stake games. I had spare money sitting and I decided to pay my fees with it rather than spend it on something stupid.

3. Until now, how much money have you made from poker?

My net profit is around $90,000 (that's over 61 lakh!), some of which has gone to investors. This includes all online poker sites, and live ‘real poker’ games.

4. How many hours of poker do you play in a week?

When I play casually, it’s about 15-20 hours; on vacations, it can go up to 100! There are weeks when I'm either playing poker or sleeping, or playing poker even in my sleep!

5. Poker=gambling. What's your take?

Poker has a high luck factor in the short run, but poker players focus on long run outcomes. In the long run, skill is much more important than luck.

Danish Shaikh Poker Games

There are actually examples of poker players who haven't had a losing month over a period of 7-8 years. Such consistency is nearly impossible if poker was just about luck. Honestly, if people are more aware of how the luck factor disappears in the long run, and the complicated maths behind some of the decisions that professional poker players make, you won’t think of it as a gambler's game. It is a disciplined maths nerd's game that attracts gamblers.

6. Ever thought of playing poker full-time?

I have considered playing poker full-time, but at the moment I want to do it only for a few years. It's an extremely fun and fulfilling job, and gives you a lot of independence.

Danish Shaikh Poker Player

However, at some point in my life, I want to create something of value rather than just being a pure competitor. I haven't yet decided which career path to choose, but academia and business both seem great options.

7. Online vs offline game--which one do you prefer?

I prefer online because it's much faster, and it’s easier to focus on the mathematical aspects when you’re behind a computer screen. Playing live often makes you very result-orientated and wins/losses become more personal. Live games have the charm!

8. What have been your key milestones so far?

I won a tournament with 5,000 participants with free entry on Pokerstars. That's what got me started. My most notable win has been winning the big $11 on Pokerstars, with 19,700 players for $20,700--it lasted for 13.5 hours!

I started the tournament with 3,000 chips and ended it with over 59 million! Recently I've been playing a lot, and have won over 61 tournaments on international sites.

9. What have been some of your toughest challenges?

I often take too many risks with my bankroll. So my friends often joke about how I'm either very poor or very rich at any given time. The toughest period for me, however, was when I started out with no bankroll whatsoever.

Danish Shaikh Poker Club

I played the free online tournaments, which often had thousands of entries, and the top 50 would get $1-$10 depending on where you finished. It took me many, many hours to accumulate the money needed to play real money poker.

10. What do your friends have to say about you being the poker guru?

Not much since the poker world is kind of alien to those outside it. But by now, they know that they can never meet me on Sundays because Sundays are poker days, and are used to my massive swings in wealth.

Anmol's Poker Idols

Danish Shaikh Poker Rules

Fedor Holz and Phil Galfond internationally; Danish Shaikh and Adi Agarwal in India.