8 Year Old Wins Half Million Playing Online Poker

Aashish Nanak with his (apparently wireless) keyboard.

It’s a few weeks to go before April Fool’s Day, but questionable poker stories seem to be flying around like crazy today. First there was the discovery of isildur1′s blog, and now, there’s the tall tale of an 8 year old poker prodigy who won half a million dollars in India.

His name is Aashish Nanak, and he is apparently a poker whiz. He started playing when he was just six years old and has already won a few smaller cashes. He was even using earnings as a poker affiliate to pay his family’s rent. But after recently winning $500,000 USD playing on his uncle’s account, things started to go sideways. The unnamed online poker company is refusing to pay out the winnings. As of this writing, the case is set to go before the courts in New Delhi.

Why the family chose to go public and admit it was an 8 year old playing, before claiming the half million dollar jackpot, is still a mystery. Of course, there are a few other details that call the entire story into question. Like, what online poker site offers jackpots of $500,000 for tournament winners? And exactly what kind of keyboard is that in the attached photo, and is it wireless?