Nik Airball Explains What Went Wrong In $1 Million Heads-Up Match

Nikhil Arcot, better known as “Nik Airball,” has become one of the best-known regulars on the high-stakes cash game circuit. Brash and loquacious, Airball is not afraid to mix things up and get involved in massive pots, bringing guaranteed theatrics to shows such as High Stakes Poker, No Gamble No Future, Poker At The Lodge, and Hustler Casino Live.

The former investment banker originally from West Linn, Oregon recently joined the Table 1 Podcast to discuss his life in poker and numerous other topics. The conversation included his well-publicized $1 million heads-up match with Matt Berkey and how the beef began. The polarizing Airball also talked about being seen as a poker villain and his mixed feelings about how he’s now perceived.

And when it comes to poker coaching, this high-action player offered some interesting takes on how that kind of help can affect one’s skills at the table. Listen to the full interview below. You can also watch or listen to the entire episode on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or any podcast app.

Nik Airball: People don’t have this impression in the high-stakes circles, but in reality I’m a winning professional poker player. Professional poker players aren’t always invited to games. For me, I worked hard to secure a seat at Hustler by being social, by doing other things that were good for the game, good for the ecosystem – giving a lot of action, gambling hard, but ultimately positioning myself to get into these private games.

A lot of it for me was focusing on getting a seat every time I wanted to play on Hustler. Because when I first started playing, it was like, ‘Hey Ryan (Feldman, HCL founder and owner), like, I want to play on Tuesday.’ He’s like, ‘I’ll let you know if there’s a seat.’ Because you’re trying to get in the door and add value.

A big part of adding value was being a big character on the stream. I was kind of a villain in a lot of ways. I think some of that was intentional, some of that was unintentional. Some things that people don’t like that I did, I think are great. Like calling the clock on everyone, that shit’s f***ing amazing.

I f***ing saved poker by calling clock on everyone. All you f***ing nits taking 18 hours to call with the biggest hands I’ve ever seen. Yeah, I’m going to just clock your asses all over the place.

I got so much hate for that, or just talking shit. Whatever… we’re having fun, we’re trying to play poker. I’m trying to create a dynamic with another player so that when I have it in the big spot, I can stack their ass. All this stuff comes across as very villainous. I got a lot of hate, especially leading into and throughout the (Matt) Berkey heads-up match. There was just an egregious amount of hate and that was very frustrating for me. I know you guys have a relationship with Matt.

Justin Young: I want to get into that at some point anyway.

Nik Airball: I have very low respect for Matt. I just don’t think he is very smart. I think he runs his mouth way too much, which is fine for me because I run my mouth. I felt like I was in the right when we were playing. I was fighting for the good guys, (laughing) but obviously there was a lot of hate.

Ever since then, I’ve been focused on trying to be more positive. I want to put out more positivity. It’s more fun to be loved than hated.

I don’t ever get any hate in person. People always are just super happy to chat, want pictures, whatever. I just enjoy that a lot more. And even though social media is kind of a toxic place, I would like for my social media interactions to be mostly positive. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve drafted up a response to someone, just motherf***ing the hell out of them and then I just delete it. I’m just like, ‘Take a deep breath. Let it be.’ Let them talk shit.

(Airball went on to explain exactly how the million-dollar match with Berkey came about.)

Justin Young: How did the Berkey thing get kicked off?

Nik Airball: It all started with the Garrett-Robbi (Garrett Adelstein and Robbi Jade Lew’s infamous J-4 hand on Hustler Casino Live) stuff. Garrett accused me of cheating, which pissed me off. Matt and his friends are attention whores, and they jumped on their podcasts and just complained and talked all this shit about Hustler, about all the regs, about Ryan. A lot of my friends were getting dragged in the mud.

I was like, ‘This is gross. You guys don’t actually know anything. You’re just speculating on your platform to a bunch of people that don’t know better. They’re just being spoon fed misinformation. You’re using a tough situation that me and my friends are going through to get clicks.’ So it kind of started with me being like, ‘I’m going to teach him a lesson and talk shit back on my platform, which was Hustler.’ So I’m like, ‘Yeah, Berkey’s a scammer.’

Now maybe scammer’s the wrong word, but I still stand by what I said, which is that the guy’s a losing live ring player. Everyone else likes to talk, but I pride myself on when I talk shit, I’m willing to back it up.

I put my money where my mouth is. I told him, ‘Let’s play heads-up.’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, well, I’m not going to come to L.A.’ To me, it was his way of saying he’ll play, but getting out of playing. So I was like, ‘Fuck it, dude. You can sell the action you need to sell. I’ll come to Vegas. I’ll play you in your backyard. Let’s play, it’s just to prove a point.’

That’s how it got started… and then I got ravaged.

Justin Young: All I took from that was you can make me a lot of money from options. (laughing) So just let me know where to put my money.

Art Parmann: NickAirballOptions.com.

Nik Airball: It was for sure my most challenging professional stretch. That match kicked off a big downswing I went through. Before and after that match, I’d never studied poker. I think one time Upswing Poker sent me an email offering to ‘Download some free preflop ranges.’ I opened it and I couldn’t figure out what the charts meant, so I just got rid of it. I just learned how to play poker by watching live streams, by watching Garrett crush people on Live at the Bike, etc.

I learned by watching, right? I had always played poker from the heart, just what I think is correct based on what I’ve watched and what I’ve seen work and doesn’t work, and my reads. I’m a big believer in, ‘Hey, listen, that guy’s sitting there with $200k and he’s not willing to put in $200k, but he bought in to try to look cool on stream. So, I’m all in.’

I’ve done that a million times on stream where I just ripped it all in on someone for an egregious amount compared to the pot. Just because this guy’s just trying to look cool, he doesn’t actually want to put the money in. I’ve been wrong, though. Sometimes they put it in, and it’s annoying.

That’s the way to play live poker. You don’t need to f***ing study ranges, you just need to understand people. I played some heads-up leading into this Berkey thing… so I had some experience with heads-up.

(Airball went on to play some practice sessions with a friend who is a skilled online heads-up player. Some coaching followed but he found it just didn’t suit his game.)
The very first session I remember vividly. I was in Palm Springs and we played $1-$2 and I lost $20,000. I was doing the math, and if I lost $20,000 at $1-$2 at $200-$400, that would be $4 million in one session.

I got kind of worried because of this and I think that was a mistake, to be honest. I definitely didn’t play the best. I think that created a little bit of a panic in me, and so I was like, ‘Okay, let’s get some coaching.’ I hired a bunch of coaches. I think throughout the match, I probably spent over $100,000 on coaching. I downloaded all the best software, solvers.

I probably spent eight hours a day doing coaching with someone and four hours a day playing and doing reviews. It was very in-depth, and it just completely fucked me up. This is not to say that coaching isn’t good, but I wasn’t playing poker. I was spending so much time focused on what the coach would think if I did something, I wouldn’t be trying to play. I’d be trying to do what I know will make the coaches happy when I send them the hand.

Art Parmann: Like reading poker books, every time you would try to implement a new thing, you would lose money.

Justin Young: I hate to compare myself to you, but every time I try to get good at poker the traditional way, I would go on a massive downswing for three to four months because I would try to apply these things that didn’t make sense to me.

Nik Airball: I think it’s kind of like golf. When I try to make a swing change, my first 20 rounds were just dust. I just couldn’t play. And then eventually it would work and I’d play much better. I think it’s kind of like that with poker, especially with heads-up. It’s so technical. I was trying to make big strategic changes and big shifts in how I approached the game. I was struggling to do it while playing massive high-stakes heads-up games against someone who I had a really big dislike for. So, there was some emotional aspect to it too. ♠

About The Table 1 Podcast

Hosted by high-stakes poker pros Art Parmann and Justin Young, the Table 1 Podcast is on a mission to make poker fun again. Tune in to see world-class pros talk poker, gambling, and all manner of life experiences on and off the felt. Visit the website for the podcast, newsletter, or even to get in the game. ♠

*Photos by PokerGO – Antonio Abrego