Nik Airball Poker Journey: The Story of the Self-Proclaimed King of LA Poker

The high stakes poker scene has been very active for many years, but has exploded even further with the success of live-streamed poker shows like “Live at the Bike” and “Hustler Casino Live”. Out of all the names that came up on the big stage of these shows, Nikhil Arcot, also known as Nik Airball, has been one of the most controversial and provocative players.

In his fairly short time in the spotlight, Nik Airball has managed to divide the poker public and bring thousands of people to support him and hate him at the same time. Airball proclaimed himself as “the King of LA poker” on Twitter, but his results at the felt so far have been less than spectacular, although he has managed to stay afloat in the presence of some amazing poker players.

If you haven’t heard too much about Nik Airball so far, or would simply like to learn more about this controversial poker figure, keep reading to discover the Nik Airball poker story so far and delve into the more intricate details of his life and career.

Nik Airball Poker Career Highlights

• First appeared on Hustler Casino Live in February 2022
• Surpassed Mariano Grandoli in July 2026 to become the all-time winningest player in HCL
• Accumulated over $5.6 million in total televised cash game net winnings across various streams
• Quickly climbed the ranks and started playing in high-stakes games
• Known for his abrasive language and trash-talking
• Challenged Matt Berkey to heads up duel and lost a million dollars in it
• Lost a million dollars in a single HCL stream
• Appeared on “Poker at the Lodge” and “High Stakes Poker”
• Served a one-year ban from Hustler Casino in 2024 before making a massive comeback
• Recorded a massive $209,457 tournament cash at the 2025 WSOP $100,000 PLO High Roller
• In 2026, Nik Airball joined CoinPoker as a team ambassador

Nik Airball’s Rise in the Poker World

Just a few short years ago, the name Nik Airball was completely unknown, as he only appeared on the poker scene in early 2022. Unlike most peers, Airball has virtually zero Hendon Mob entries, leaving his previous poker experience a mystery.

What we do know is that Nikhil Arcot first surfaced on LA live-streamed games in early 2022, playing much lower stakes than today. His abrasive style quickly brought him immense notoriety once he debuted on Hustler Casino Live.

His climb up the stakes has been astronomical. While his off-stream cash game results are difficult to verify, Airball claims his initial substantial bankroll came from a stint as an investment banker at KAL Capital Markets LLC, which he claims is the primary source of his seemingly substantial wealth.

Airball managed to be a part of several highly engaging poker sessions during his time on HCL, and his loose play and trash-talking quickly turned him into one of the stars of the show. All this, however, also got him into trouble with some other regulars in the LA poker scene, most notably Garrett Adelstein and Matt Berkey, both of whom got into serious feuds with the self-proclaimed King of LA Poker.

Nik Airball Takes in the Poker World

Unlike legends like Tom Dwan or Viktor Blom who let their chips do the talking, Nik Airball initially took on the poker world primarily through trash talk. The real drama began in early 2023 when Garrett Adelstein, one of HCL’s biggest winners, publicly called him out following the infamous Robbi Jade Lew cheating scandal.

In response, Airball appeared on Doug Polk's podcast to defend his character. He fired back at Adelstein and labeled “Solve for Why” founder Matt Berkey a scammer, brashly challenging both to a high-stakes heads-up match using 100% of their own money. Berkey accepted the challenge and ultimately crushed Airball for a cool million dollars in a highly publicized showdown.

Sensing blood in the water, Adelstein immediately jumped on X (former Twitter) to officially accept Airball's earlier heads-up challenge.

Nik later apologized for some of the trash-talking towards Berkey and claimed the challenge issued to Adelstein had expired in a clear attempt to get away from having to play one of the best live poker players of his generation in a match that would likely cost another million or two.

Airball did end up trying to compensate for the loss of money and face by appearing on the HCL Million Dollar Cash Game, but ended up losing another cool million dollars on the final day of play after some initial success.

While his clear willingness to gamble and give action are definitive upsides in the poker world, his overly aggressive and loose style of poker has proven costly up to this point.

Nik Airball in Tracked Poker Games

While his heads-up match with Matt Berkey has easily given him more exposure than anything else he’s done so far, Nik Airball has spent the majority of his short poker career playing at the green felt of Hustler Casino Live.

Nik’s first appearance on HCL came in February 2022, while his last to date has been his appearances in the massive games that included the likes of Tom Dwan, Doug Polk, Rob Yong, and several HCL regulars.

His early Friday night HCL appearances brought massive $300k wins, but extreme volatility soon followed. By mid-2023, TrackingPoker.com showed him sitting at a slight loss after back-to-back disasters: dropping nearly $1 million in a single week in March 2023, and losing another million during HCL’s Million Dollar Cash Game that May.

Beyond HCL, Airball booked a solid win at Doug Polk’s The Lodge in Texas, but stumbled during the first-ever live-streamed High Stakes Poker game. Playing against Polk, Berkey, and Eric Persson, fans widely criticized his overly drunk and loud behavior as he lost his buy-in. This turbulent era culminated at Resorts World, where he lost $1 million to Matt Berkey over just 60 hours of $200/$400 heads-up play.

While these highly visible downswings made the poker community severely doubt his skills back in 2023, Airball would soon flip the script entirely to orchestrate his historic, multi-million dollar comeback.

Joining CoinPoker and Transitioning Online

For years, Nik Airball was strictly known as a live poker specialist. Although there were never any signs or official records of him playing online poker previously, that narrative has recently changed.

In 2026, Nik Airball took a massive step in his career by officially joining CoinPoker as a team ambassador. Partnering with other prominent high-stakes crushers, Airball was brought on to represent the platform's rapidly growing high-stakes cash game ecosystem.

If you want to jump into the action and potentially share the tables with the self-proclaimed King of LA Poker, you can start playing today. Make sure to use our exclusive bonus code VIPBONUS when signing up at CoinPoker to claim a premium welcome package and unlock the absolute best rakeback deals available on the platform!

Nik Airball Net Worth

Most poker players who become famous enough to have their name show up in poker news are usually winning players with a proven track record. For a long time, the community doubted whether Airball was actually a winning player.

Those doubts have been put to rest. Not only did he crush the highest stakes cash games for over $5.6 million in public profit, but he also proved his tournament chops by finishing 14th in the prestigious 2025 WSOP $100,000 PLO High Roller for $209,457.

By his own claims, the foundation of Nik Airball's net worth comes from his work as an investment banker. However, given his massive recent upswings on televised streams, his poker bankroll is entirely self-sustaining. We estimate his net worth to comfortably sit well into the eight-figure range today.

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Article by

Bence Mitykó

My relationship with cards started thanks to my father. I was still in elementary school when he first taught me how to play Rummy, and I still remember the long evenings spent playing cards with my family. During the poker boom I was still underage, but the televised tournaments immediately captured my attention. I became fascinated with the game and started learning different poker formats whenever I had the chance. Later in life, as an adult, I was fortunate enough to spend four years playing poker professionally. During that time I mainly focused on Heads-Up Sit & Go games, where I found the format that suited me best. Even though my professional career was relatively short, poker remains something I’m grateful to have experienced as a major part of my life. Today I play mostly as a hobby, while writing has become my main focus. That said, my enthusiasm for writing about poker is just as strong as my passion for playing the game once was.