Praz Bansi, 32 has been playing poker professionally for five years and already earnt well over $2,400,000 in live tournament winnings including 2 WSOP gold bracelets.

After graduating from Queen Mary University in London, Praz settled down in a job as a recruitment consultant. He often visited his local casinos and sports traded online but he did not discover poker till 2005. He started playing online cash games at Tribeca and live tournaments around London, mostly at the Gutshot Poker Club and the Grosvenor Victoria casino. He started winning frequently right from the start and quickly grew his bankroll whilst crushing the games online.
 
Even though Praz had visted Las Vegas previously it was not until 2006 where he made his first trip to the WSOP. Poker was going very well for Praz and soon after leaving his job he won a package online for the WSOP main event. He flew to Vegas with his friend Chaz Chattha and had small success in events prior to the main event. The main event did not go too well for Praz but his trip was not finished yet. After busting out of the main event Praz decided to enter a smaller WSOP event with a buy in of $1000 and here he captured a coverted gold bracelet by outlasting 1099 players and bagging himself $230,000 in the process. Maybe quitting his job wasn't a bad idea after all.
 
2007 got off with a bang for Praz as he took down the first ever GUKPT in Bolton and then captured another title a few weeks later in Birmingham. These two victories increased his bankroll by $200,000 and gave him the confidence to match and surpass his first year in poker. After busting out of a GUKPT in Manchester, Praz toyed around with with the idea of playing the $25,000 WPT Championship in Las Vegas which began the following day. He decided to flip a coin to declare his fate and luckily for him the coin landed on the more profitable side as Praz proceeded to win 3 seats for the $25,000 event and then finished a very respectable 50th out of 639 of the best players in the world to win a further $62,000. He visted Vegas again a few weeks later for the WSOP and even though it was not successful as his first, he still picked up 2 WSOP cashes along with $35,000.
 
In 2008, Praz decided again to visit the Bellagio to enter the $25,000 WPT Championships. This time he managed to win 2 seats for the most prestigious event of the poker calender and showed another strong showing finishing 88th out of 545 for a $40,000 payday.
 
2009 has been Praz' best year in poker earning himself over $930,000 in live tournament earnings and making numerous final tables all over the world. This incredible run began in March where he final tabled the $10,000 Wynn Poker Classic finishing 8th for $26,000. A month later at the Bellagio he had success in two $5000 buy in tournaments finishing 1st and 3rd respectively for a combined $175,000 payday. His year was not finished yet though as he came tantalising close to his 2nd WSOP bracelet in Vegas finishing 7th out of 1459 entrants for $43,000. His biggest result of his career happened a few months later in his hometown of London at the WSOPE. After getting through one of the toughest fields of poker players ever, Praz finished a impressive 3rd out of 334 in the £10,000 World Championship event. With this he picked up a tidy $595,000 and a reputation as one of the most feared players in the world.
 
Praz is sponsored by Full Tilt Poker

View Praz' results database here

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