Nikhil "Nik Airball" Arcot delivered a huge result during Friday's Hustler Casino Live Mega Cash Mania stream, turning an early $100,000 stack into a profit just shy of $1 million by the end of the session.
The strong finish came at an ideal time ahead of the upcoming Million Dollar Game in Las Vegas during the 2026 World Series of Poker. He was already expected to play, but this result effectively covers at least one buy-in.
While Airball surged, Alan Keating moved in the opposite direction. After winning $818,000 the previous day, he gave back a significant portion of those gains and finished Friday down $524,000 in the $500/$1,000 no-limit hold'em game.
Airball takes control of the session
Airball entered the second day of Mega Cash Mania already showing a $240,500 profit from the prior stream. That mattered because he had been running below expectations on the show over the past couple of months, making this back-to-back turnaround especially notable.
His session did not begin smoothly. He lost his first buy-in to Keating when middle pair ran into two pair. But after that, most of the major pots went his way.
The defining hand came against Phong "Turbo" Nguyen, who ultimately lost more than $600,000 in the game.
In the hand, Airball opened from under the gun with A♦7♦ to $3,000. Keating called from the small blind with Q♥10♥, and Turbo defended the big blind with K♠3♠. The flop came 4♠7♠A♥, giving Airball top and bottom two pair while Turbo picked up a flush draw.
Keating led for $15,000 despite missing the flop, Turbo called, and Airball raised to $60,000. Turbo then shoved for $369,000, and Airball called immediately. They agreed to run the board once for a pot worth $764,000.
The turn and river did not improve Turbo, and the full pot went to Airball.
A near $1 million win on the night
By the end of nearly eight hours of play, Airball had booked a $995,000 profit for the session. Combined with the previous night's result, his two-day gain reached $1,235,500.
That run also boosted his lifetime profits on Hustler Casino Live to $2,523,085. With that figure, he moved narrowly ahead of Keating on the show's all-time money list and into second place overall. Only Mariano Grandoli remains ahead of him, according to HighRollPoker.com.
What it could mean next
The rankings on the show's all-time leaderboard may not remain stable for long. The Million Dollar Game next month is expected to reshape the standings, with many of the stream's biggest winners likely to take part at Paris Las Vegas.
For now, however, the story belongs to Airball. After an uneven stretch on the livestream, he put together two consecutive high-profit sessions and reestablished himself as one of the biggest forces in streamed high-stakes cash games.
