Nik Airball went from losing nearly $900,000 in December 2023 to accumulating over $5.1 million in profits. His performance on Hustler Casino Live and WSOP broadcasts has been phenomenal, and he is now poised to challenge for the title of highest-earning live casino player in history.
Over the past few years, many poker fans have had reservations about Nikhil “Nik Airball” Arcot’s card skills.
Some consider him a fish, especially after his heads-up match at Resorts World Las Vegas three years ago, where he lost $1 million to Matt Berkey in a short period. But since that one-sided game, Airball has been dominating the tables, at least on the live stream.
According to HighRollPoker.com According to the database, this player, who calls himself the "King of Los Angeles," accumulated nearly $878,000 in poker livestreams in December 2023. However, he not only erased these losses but also continued to rise in value. Airball had a strong showing this past weekend on Hustler Casino Live's "High Stakes Livestream" during the World Series of Poker (WSOP), and is now close to becoming the highest-earning player in history.Live-stream cash game players.
Is the Nik Airball becoming a star?
Regardless of opinions on whether Nik Airball's poker skills are good, bad, or just average, his numbers on live streams (mainly Hustler Casino Live) over the past two years are truly astonishing.
Airball lost $192,000 during Saturday night's WSOP HCL livestream. But tough tournaments have become rare for this high-stakes cash game veteran lately.
Airball has over 1,400 hours of live cash game experience, mostly from Hustler Casino in Los Angeles. He has also won over $1.3 million on High Stakes Poker, nearly $1.2 million on a live stream at The Lodge Card Club in Texas, and suffered minor losses on Bally Poker Live and No Gamble, No Future.
In the past 30 days, he appeared in 11 high-stakes live games, all on Hustler Casino Live. During this period, he won approximately $1.65 million. His biggest win during this time was $995,000 on May 15th. Airball also won $462,000 in the first WSOP high-stakes live cash game on Friday night.
This surge in popularity isn't a recent phenomenon for Airball. From a cumulative loss of nearly $900,000 in his streaming career in December 2023, he has now accumulated profits exceeding $5.1 million, a staggering increase of over $6 million. Airball's biggest livestream win—$1.295 million—was achieved in the Million Dollar Marathon game on Hustler Casino Live in December 2025.
Nik Airball's winnings could surge or plummet further this Friday as he participates in the Million Dollar Game. He is poised to challenge Andrew Robl (whose total winnings are $7.9 million) for the top spot on the live cash game leaderboard. Dan “Jungleman” Cates is the highest-earning live poker player of all time, with total winnings of $14.3 million, though $15 million of that came from a heads-up match last year against Ossi “Monarch” Ketola.
This year's Million Dollar Game, originally scheduled for May at Hustler Casino, will now take place Friday at 5 p.m. Pacific Time on the WSOP live table. Airball, Michael "Texas Mike" Moncek, Santhosh Suvarna, and Alan Keating are all registered participants, each with a minimum buy-in of $1 million.
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