Vivek Rajkumar – Vivek Rajkumar

Vivek Rajkumar already has over $2million in live prizes, a WPT Title & a Full Tilt sponsorship deal under his belt – not bad for someone who only turned pro in 2006!

Indian born Rajkumar moved to America to complete a degree in Computer Engineering and Applied Mathematics at the University of Washington but soon after left the industry to fully concentrate on poker. It’s fair to say he made the right decision.

Throughout 2006 & 2007 he built a fearsome online reputation, playing as ‘Psyduck’ on Full Tilt & ‘Psyduck101’ on PokerStars, before an astonishing live run which catapulted into the realms of poker celebrity. Rajkumar cashed 5 times at the 2007 WSOP (including a final table in the $3,000 Limit Hold ‘Em Event) and also earned some TV time by falling foul of a Chris Moneymaker bluff in the Main Event! See below:

Deep runs in the Caesars Palace Classic (9th, $54,564) & WPT Doyle Brunson Classic (26th, $57,815) followed before the 2008 L.A. Poker Classic, where he took down the $2,000 NLH Event for a cool $113,425. But this paled in comparison to his achievements at the 2008 Borgata Open in September, where he emerged through a 516 runner field to collect a first prize of $1,424,500. In doing so, he also set the record for the shortest WPT final table in history, taking just 48 hands to settle matters (albeit with more than a few suck-outs in between). This brought his exploits to the attention of Full Tilt and shortly after became a ‘Red Pro’ on the site, now playing under his own alias of ‘Vivek Rajkumar’.

His hot streak has even continued in 2009, with victory in the L.A. Poker Classic $10,000 Heads-Up Event for $350,000 & he has even found time to log onto PokerStars and place 3rd in the Super Tuesday for a further $43,680.

After all this success in just 2 years of full-time play, does he have any ambitions left in the game? “I want a World Series of Poker bracelet. I never want to relax on how much studying and work I put into the game. Also, I want to get much better at heads up and 6-handed pot limit Omaha”, he recently said in an interview. Well, you know who to look out for at the 2009 WSOP.