Poker is more than a side hustle – an inspiring story of Saurabh Ramola

The Internet is full of numerous inspirational stories of poker players who have traversed their way from playing poker for fun to playing it professionally, a typical rag to riches story. But, Saurabh Ramola, winner of Pockte52’s leaderboard, Ship-It 1.0, has really gone big – both as a poker player and a responsible son.

For somebody to start playing online poker for a living, there are a lot of things required, like dedication, skills, talent, strategy, time, money, etc. for a successful and promising career. For Saurabh, it was just his passion for the sport to kick start his professional poker journey.  Circumstances made it difficult for him, but he triumphed by earning 30 Lacs in 2 years. Saurabh has always been passionate about playing poker. He has been playing this game of skill for the last 10 years and has shipped a lot of tournaments too.

Flashing back to a few years, after completing his MBA in Marketing, Saurabh Ramola moved to Dubai with great dreams in his eyes and a well-paying job waiting for him. But who knew, he would witness the worst of adversities before making it big. While Saurabh’s father was already under a paralytic attack, his mother got diagnosed with cancer. Born to a middle-class family, Saurabh and his brother decided that one of them will continue to work, and the other one will go back to India to take care of the parents. Saurabh immediately flew back to Delhi to live with his parents. Owing to the constrained income, he started playing poker online. A friend and mentor, Gaurav Sood, helped him improve his game strategies for good. Saurabh says, “One thing that I haven’t done like other professional poker players is managing my bankroll. Most of the money I won in the last two years was used in the treatment of my mom and dad. And I am glad, the skill I thought was good for side hustle actually helped me in the most difficult time of my life. My mother is no more. We lost her to cancer. But I am happy that I was around her during her last days. Poker is more than a sport to me.”

Saurabh believes this is just the start of his poker career. He wants to fly high with his successes at the green table. His aim is to get international recognition by getting ranked among world-class poker players.