Summer Heater: Anuj Agarwal Looks for Another Major Win at WPT Gardens

By Sean Chaffin

Only a few days after winning his first bracelet at the World Series of Poker, Anuj Agarwal is right back in the poker action here at the WPT Gardens Poker Festival – and hoping the big run continues. 

Agarwal took down one of the final events of the series, the $10,000 Six-Handed Championship for $630,747. He also ran deep in the $10,000 Main Event, finishing 123rd for $59,295. It was a huge run for this 35-year-old player from Los Angeles.

“I play cash games 99 percent of the time, so it feels good that there may be another avenue for me to play poker seeing how I’ve done in multiple tournaments,” he said during the second break in the day. 

Cash Gamer Turned Tournament Crusher

The scores bring Agarwal’s career live tournament winnings to more than $1.1 million with his previous best cash coming last year at the L.A. Poker Classic in the $1,100 Double Stack event, where he finished third for $169,700. 

On the WPT, Agarwal has two cashes including a 12th-place finish in this same event last season for $43,930. Agarwal now has his eyes on a WPT title.

In Las Vegas, Agarwal stuck to cash games much of the summer. He plays high-stakes Pot Limit Omaha in the $100-$200 range, but began playing more tournaments toward the second half of the summer. That came to about 15 events at the WSOP, Wynn, Aria, and Bellagio with six cashes including two more for nice five-figure finishes.

“Over time as those went on, I started realizing that I was making some good decisions in tournaments and making consistently deep runs,” he says. “It’s stressful playing those cash games stakes. So I was like, ‘Let me just enjoy playing tournaments where my buy-in is set and I’m not losing multiple five figures and swinging so much.’”

Agarwal is a regular at the Commerce, the Bicycle, and Gardens. The tournament success has motivated him to play more tournaments and that includes on the WPT.

“I’ve never even traveled for a tournament outside Vegas or L.A.,” he says. “At this point though, I feel like I’ve got to play the rush. When you see results, it helps your game –  you play without seeing monsters in the closet.” 

Law School to Stacking Chips

Like many players, Agarwal began playing poker while in college. He attended the University of California, Berkeley and mixed in online poker between studies. Black Friday brought an end to that, however.

After graduation, law school beckoned and he headed to San Diego to the Thomas Jefferson School of Law. The poker scene also beckoned.

“I just started playing cash games and playing bigger and bigger, and found some success,” he says. “I started realizing poker could be a career for me.”

Unlike some players, his poker career didn’t sidetrack him from earning a degree. He finished law school and moved back to the L.A. area in 2017. His poker life also began to include some tournaments occasionally.

“There’s a huge gap where I hardly played any tournaments,” he says. “I’ve really only been playing live tournaments consistently since 2017. In that sense, hopefully, I have a big curve also to improve and see how far I can really go.”

While he may not have ever practiced law or even taken the bar exam, Agarwal hasn’t completely ruled it out.

“I think I will at some point,” he says. “I’m still relatively young, but I want to see how far poker will take me, especially since I’ve played a lot and have the experience. Maybe in five years, I’ll start practicing as a lawyer.”

“I’d specialize in immigration and human rights, especially being in L.A., that seems pretty pertinent. I do see that in the future at some point.”

Until then, the court is in session at the poker table for Agarwal.

A Mistake to the Master

While the Gardens Poker Festival brings back some nice memories for Agarwal after last season’s big run, his elimination still leaves a bad taste in his mouth. In the later stages of the event, Men Nguyen struggled at times just to stay awake.

But in a critical hand, “The Master” woke with a huge hand against Agarwal.

“Last year I made a dumb mistake because I was playing with Men next to me,” he says. “I had 50 blinds and thought I had 20. It was just a total miscount.”

After Nguyen raised from the small blind, Agarwal moved all-in with . Nguyen made an easy call with , send him to the rail and then going on to finish third for $270,430.

“I would have never done that with 50 blinds,” he says. “Even with my run last year, I lost a lot of value by doing that. I feel like I could have easily made the final table. But I feel good in tournaments and want to ride this streak out and see where it takes me.”

Now that includes pairing a WPT title with his new bracelet.

“I’ve thought about that a lot since I decided to play this,” he says. “Getting a WSOP title and a WPT title together would be great. Those are the gold standard for tournaments. Not to get greedy, but if I could go from the $10,000 six-max to making a run at this I think that would show something to myself and the whole poker community that I really know what I’m doing.”

Sean Chaffin is a freelance writer in Crandall, Texas, and his work appears in numerous websites and publications. Follow him on Twitter @PokerTraditions.