Industry Talk: CardRack Poker Room`s Sampath Kumar on Poker Giving Him Everything in Life – Monetary & Otherwise!

Sampath Kumar
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  • PG News January 21, 2017
  • 3 Minutes Read

If Bengaluru has emerged as the gen-next poker hub in India, it is mostly due to the dedicated poker entrepreneurs who set shop way back, when there were none. One such passionate businessman was Sampath Kumar (SK) (cover image), who turned his love for poker into a means of living, besides providing aspiring players a great platform for poker in the Garden City.

Coming from a textile business background, SK began by playing poker and soon became a partner at a poker room, to finally set up CardRack on his own. The poker room has an expansive space and under SK’s rein has become highly popular with the tournament and cash games playing crowd.

In this edition of our PokerGuru Industry Talk, SK shares the journey with us, as well as his plans for the room and for extending his venture online and more….

Please share a bit about your past background?

I hail from Bangalore and am a basic B.Com graduate. I was into textile business before venturing into poker, I had garment factories.

How did you come across the sport? Were you primarily a player before turning operator?

I got introduced to poker through Zynga Poker. At that time, only Golden Aces room here used to host poker games. Then I met KN Suresh who was running two clubs at that time, so I started playing those games with low buy-ins. This was around 2009-10 when I started playing.

After playing in the clubs here, even we wanted to open one hence I ventured into poker. I was hooked on it completely so I left my textile business and got fully involved in poker. We started the club four years back and it was the third club opened in Bangalore. That was in partnership and we named it Royal Turf Poker Room. After one year, I ventured alone and opened CardRack. My friend circle was big and I knew 90% of the live game players in Bangalore. I knew that if I opened the club everyone would come.

Please tell us about the room. About the setup, tables operating, the response to tournaments and high stakes festivals organized by CardRack? How many entries do you expect on average and what stakes are hosted?

We have a table open 365 days in CardRack. If anyone wants to play, he will always get a seat in my club.

We have six tables, very spacious place with professional dealers. And the best part about our club is on the spot cash-outs. No credit system whatsoever. Even if some regulars take credit, CardRack instantly pays to the winners if they cash out. There are no dues at CardRack till date. Cash-outs were a big issue in Bangalore, people used to play for hours and due to credit system, no one used to get paid. That has never happened in CardRack.

We organized the biggest cash game festivals in Bangalore. The response of the players was amazing and they flew from across India. We provided them return tickets, accommodation and all the amenities. Except that we organize weekend tournaments every week. The response there too is amazing, tournament lovers in Bangalore will always choose to play at CardRack and we get 55-60 entries at least in all the events. Cash table action is also always active and we are the first club to start cash tables early mornings too.

Sampath Kumar
Sampath Kumar

Please shed some light on the floor managers and key personnel of CardRack team.

In the initial days I brought the team from the casinos, but they weren’t constant. They would come here only for a couple of months and went back after getting hefty tips. I was always against this, so I trained people locally myself. The floor managers, cashiers, dealers everyone was trained and they have been with us since then, they are my permanent staff. They are very loyal to the club; they are working with us for at least more than two and a half years now.

How do you look at CardRack in future, like 5 years down the line?

CardRack is going to grow a lot in the next 5 years, wherever poker will be legal in India CardRack will be present. We are planning our room in Ahmedabad and we plan to host big guarantee events like Deltin Poker Tournament and Baazi Poker Tournament. We are also planning to launch our online website too.

What are your plans in the future? Any set goals?

Yea, we want to make Bangalore’s poker industry one of the topmost and give great players to the country.

Any parting words or anything you would like to add?

Poker has helped me immensely, whether in good or bad times. Poker helped me a lot to divert my mood when I suffered a tragedy a couple of years back. I used to play poker and only at that time I was relaxed. It was the only change. Poker has given me everything I could hope for whether monetary or not.

CardRack Poker Room contact details:

CardRack Poker Room, #433/30/1, 3RD floor, 28TH A Cross, 10TH Main, 4TH block, Jayanagar. Bangalore- 560011

Contact Number – +91 78990 52526, +91 99021 78186

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