If you’ve watched any high-stakes poker cash games in recent years, the chances are you’ve seen Nik ‘Airball’ Arcot.
With a style that sees him play a lot of pots, for a lot of money, and often a lot of attitude to go with it, the former investment banker can be a polarizing figure among viewers.
From tanking for 20+ minutes and playing drunk, to needling opponents with ruthless enthusiasm, he’s not always been everyone’s first-choice opponent. But for many it’s that same enthusiasm and commitment to keeping a game talkative and dynamic that has made him one of the more entertaining players to watch.
Many of Arcot’s biggest moments have taken place on the Hustler Casino Live stream, but he’s been notably absent from HCL for a while, thanks to a year-long ban imposed last spring.
“I passed some chips to other players, loading chips, and that was against the casino policy,” Arcot shares with PokerOrg’s Craig Tapscott in an exclusive chat, also featuring HCL co-owner Ryan Feldman. “I received a one-year ban for that. I was on the sidelines for a year. That started at the end of last March, but it’s ending this week.”
Or, this Friday, to be precise. Arcot will be back on the HCL live stream, playing in a line-up that all-but-guarantees the action will be suitably intense.
“It's been a long year without him,” says Feldman. “We're at a good place with the show right now, a lot of action, a lot of new faces and it's great timing for him to come back. I think it's just going to take our show to the next level.
"He makes the games bigger and crazier and he brings that personality to the game that fans want to see. I couldn't be more excited to have him back.”
‘Super gambly and fun’
With players such as Alan Keating, Peter, Charles and HCL debutant Humboldt Mike, will Arcot’s characteristic loose aggression have met its match when he returns to the live-streamed $200/400 game this Friday?
“When I play, I like to feel like I'm the table captain,” says Arcot as he looks over the competition for the upcoming game. “I'm the most aggressive. But when you're playing with Alan [Keating], that's just not an option. He's the one pushing the action, he's the most aggressive, it all runs through him. So it's definitely challenging."
“Alan’s tough and dangerous. I think what he does really well is, as he pushes the action, he gets other people to gamble with him. So I think he's going to make the game super gambly and fun. There's going to be a lot of crazy action with loose hands and big pots.”
Another player known for an always-on aggressive approach is Humboldt Mike, who will be appearing on HCL’s high stakes Friday game for the first time. Mike will be no stranger to viewers of shows such as High Stakes Poker and No Gamble, No Future, where — in a game that also featured Arcot — he managed to tilt Phil Hellmuth all the way out the door.
“He's a good buddy of mine,” says Arcot of Mike. “He is super aggressive, super action, plays huge. He's a huge personality so I think he'll be a fan favorite. I'm excited. I think me, him, Peter, and Alan are going to play some big pots, and I think that'll make for some crazy moments and crazy hands.”
The rest of the Friday line-up doesn’t look to contain any particularly easy spots, but it does feature some of Arcot’s favorite opponents, such as the player known as Peter.
“I really like playing with Peter. He's just a battler, Peter really doesn't care about anything other than battling and I love that. He's thinking a lot during hands — the most fun people to play are those who are really thinking, and trying to understand what they're thinking and out-think them is kind of the fun of poker to me.”
Also sitting down in Friday’s game is Arcot’s favorite player to face: Charles.
“I think Charles is probably my favorite person to have at a poker table, we've just played infinite high stakes poker together: home games, casino games, PLO, hold‘em, mixed games, everything. Vegas, LA, Texas… it's just always fun with Charles.
“He's so capable and he can really push the action as well. He knows the game's gonna be big and swingy and I think he's ready to come match the action. And I think when Charles decides that he wants to match the action, he is very special.”
A year is a long time in poker
So, what’s changed in the poker world since the last time Arcot joined the action at HCL in LA?
'Plenty', is the answer. To name a few significant changes, the WSOP brand was acquired by GGPoker, HCL co-owner Nick Vertucci left under a cloud, GGPoker bought his share in HCL, and Arcot recently became a co-owner of The Lodge cardrooms in Texas.
Regarding the change in ownership at HCL, Arcot is excited to see what the future holds, both for the streams and his friend, Feldman.
“I think it's a huge win for Ryan and for HCL. Having a big site [GGPoker] partner with you just adds a ton of legitimacy, and also opens up the doors for a lot of fun players to come play, like Daniel Negreanu, who I think is the biggest person in poker and the most fun person to have on stream.”
Another undoubtedly ‘big person in poker’ is Doug Polk, a player with whom Arcot has crossed swords on many occasions, but who he can now count as a business partner. Polk — along with Brad Owen, Andrew Neeme and, recently, Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau — is the owner of The Lodge poker clubs in Texas.
“I love Doug's personality,” says Arcot of his new partner, “He's so talkative like I am, and joking all the time. He can take a needle and he can give a needle, and I enjoy all that. And then there's the added thing that I learned how to play poker watching Doug's videos.
“When you get into gambling and poker and stuff, you never really think you'll have a piece of a cardroom or something like that. So that's pretty exciting and fun.”
With Arcot’s new position as a stakeholder in The Lodge, we’re expecting to see more of him on their regular streams, too. But his new responsibilities don’t begin and end at the poker tables; one other change since last year is Arcot’s new role as a father, having welcomed his first child to the family in December 2024. Can we expect an older, wiser Arcot to bring a little more chill to the streams?
“Post-baby Nik Airball...” ponders his friend Ryan Feldman, with a smile, “Maybe he’s a calmer guy? I don’t know, what do you think?”
“Probably not,” replies Arcot.
‘High Stakes Friday’ takes place this Friday at Hustler Casino Live, with action expected to start around 4:30pm PT.
Additional images courtesy of PokerGO/Antonio Abrego.
