Just a few hours ago, Mumbai-based pro Kunal Patni announced the end of his five-year long collaboration with India’s no.1 poker site – Adda52.com. He shared the news via Facebook, saying that all good things come to an end and it is time for him to part ways with the poker site.
Followed and looked up to by numerous upcoming players in India, Patni is a well-respected name in the Indian poker circuit and holds an impressive resume with $469,948 in live earnings. While the talented player has several notable live scores and wins to his name, his best score came when he finished runner-up for a whopping $115,819 prizemoney in the the 2018 WPTDS Berlin Main Event.
Currently ranked 10th in ‘India All Time Money List’, Patni is as good online as he is at the live felts. He has plenty of online cashes to his name and happens to be one of the few players in India to have won Adda52 Millions three times. Some of his other major online scores include a win in DPT 5K Warm-Up, DPT 7K Warm-Up, Maverick, and plenty of FT finishes across various marquee events.
The banker-turned poker pro entered the world of poker back in 2014 and went on to win a Spadie at his maiden international outing at the ACOP Macau NLH Rebuy Championship. That win brought him huge popularity in the poker community and also attracted the attention of industry giants, such as Adda52, which roped him in as their Team Pro. Since then, he has been travelling all around the world for his passion – poker, wearing the Adda52 badge promoting both the game and the site.
Patni is the longest-serving Adda52 Team Pro by far but this long association came to an end just a few hours ago when he himself announced that it is time for him to part way with the site.
Talking about his long journey and experience with Adda52, Patni said, “I have had a wonderful 5 years with Adda and I leave with only fond memories from my journey in the last 5 years. Grateful to Anuj Gupta and team especially Roopal for having faith on me when I was a complete outsider in the poker world. They took a real leap of faith and I hope I lived up to their expectations.”
When asked about the biggest highlight of his journey and things he will be missing after leaving Adda52, he said, “Just being able to represent the largest poker website in India for 5 long years is itself the biggest highlight of the journey. I will definitely miss the chance to wear the pro badge that I used to wear and show off at all events proudly.”
Talking about what led him to this surprising decision, he said, “It was a mutual decision. I guess Adda is discontinuing with the pro program and Naveen Goyal (Adda52 CEO) was keen if I could continue as an advisor or some other capacity but unfortunately I am not able to take out much time beyond my play time and study time and I had to decline that offer after much thought”.
When asked if his decision of parting ways with Adda52 will impact his poker career, he said, “I was extremely proud and fortunate to be associated with Adda as a pro and people did look up to me to an extent for that reason. I will miss that. I don’t think it will affect or impact my poker career otherwise.”
Sharing his future plans, the pro said, “The plan is just to continue playing the game I love so much and keep striving hard to get better and better at it by continuously working hard on my game. My utmost love for the game remains as it is :)”
Adda52 pro team roster has boasted of big names like Madan Kumar, WSOP bracelet winner Aditya Sushant, India’s first female poker player Muskan Sethi, banker-turned poker pro Kunal Patni, WSOP bracelet winner Nikita Luther, software engineer Tarun Goyal, and Bollywood star Minissha Lamba. With Patni leaving the site, the pro team roster now only features Lamba, Luther, and Goyal.
