Full story & fun fats about Artur Martirosyan
Haven't found any comprehensive biography of Artur Martirosyan, who is considered by many to be the strongest online highroller right now, in English, so did it myself.
Artur Martirosyan - 1st Place in the World GPI Score, World Heads-Up Champion & $30 Million in Prize Money: A Full Biography and Surprising Facts from the Life of One of the Strongest Poker Players Today
False Start
Like many other pros, Martirosyan first got interested in poker as a student when he was 17 years old. Unfortunately, as we know, online poker rooms prohibit underage players, but mandatory verification wasn't enforced everywhere back then. Artur had to lie about his real age when creating an account on PokerStars. After a few weeks of playing on micro-limits, the young man managed to build his bankroll up to $150 (a significant amount of money for an ordinary student in Russia at the time). But then a major setback hit him - his account was hacked, and all the money he'd won over dozens of tournaments was stolen. When Artur contacted support to recover his account, they suggested... verifying his identity.Of course, Martirosyan couldn't provide his documents since he wasn't 18 yet (the age of majority in Russia), and his account was banned.
Path to Greatness
Later on, Martirosyan resumed playing online. Up until age 20, by his own words, he didn't take poker seriously. But gradually, he dove deeper into the game, first becoming a regular in Spin & Go, and later switching to MTT NL10-20. (Yeah, you're not the only one who's just gambling in Spins for fun right now, but soon you'll for shure pull yourself together and get that well-deserved bracelet).
Despite PokerStars being Martirosyan's first room, he made his name as a high-roller on GGPoker. Playing under the pseudonym Alwayswithnuts, he became a regular in the Blade tournaments. The buy-in for events with million-dollar guarantees was $25,000 and Artur frequently made it into the money in these events, boosting his bankroll by more than $1,000,000 in just three days of play. By 2020, he had claimed two first-place finishes in SCOOP—one of the biggest online poker series.
Over time, the player's successes and skills only grew, and in 2025 (even though the year isn't over yet!), his winnings have already exceeded $10,000,000.
Today, Martirosyan is one of the most successful players in $10,000 tournaments in the Super MILLION$ series. He also holds first place in the Global Poker Index Ranking, making him the most productive MTT player over the last three years.
Live Events
Martirosyan started participating in live events back in 2017. For a long time, these sessions couldn't be called successful, but in 2020, he made it to several final tables at WPT Russia in Sochi. Then, right there in Sochi, he took part in the MILLIONS Super High Roller series, where in a $51,000 tournament, he reached heads-up against Nikita Bodyakovsky. After nearly an hour of battle, Martirosyan shoved on the turn with trips of sixes. The experienced player from Belarus made what was clearly a negative EV call with a flush draw and gutshot, and hit the flush. For second place, Artur received $495,000.
In 2021, during the European Poker Tour, Martirosyan secured his first win in a major live tournament—though the start of the event was rough, requiring him to re-buy four times. A couple of months later, Artur also got his first seven-figure prize. It happened at a high-roller series in Northern Cyprus. After outplaying David Peters in a heads-up duel, he took first place and a $1,400,000 prize.
In addition to his flawless MTT skills, Martirosyan has been intensely working on his heads-up game, and in recent years, he's become one of the best in the discipline. This year, for instance, Artur Martirosyan won his second WSOP bracelet in a heads-up tournament (and his third overall), earning $500,000.
Interesting Facts about Martirosyan
Artur believes it's impossible to determine the best poker player in the world, but personally, he's been most impressed by the play of Linus "LLinusLLove" Loeliger and Nikita Bodyakovsky, whom he's encountered at offline series.
Artur plays in an aggressive style that, as he says, developed naturally. He thinks aggressive players are generally more successful in poker than tight ones.
One of Martirosyan's main weaknesses is hookah - he even wanted to buy out his favorite hookah lounge with friends. Other hobbies include tabletop games, traveling (especially trips to poker series), karaoke, and playing FIFA on PlayStation. But reading books bores him terribly.
Artur considers tilt resistance and patience to be the key qualities of a poker player. He himself rarely tilts and has never smashed a mouse or monitor: "At most, once every three months I might punch the table." He claims he's never seen a therapeut.
Artur tries to maintain his physical fitness and goes to the gym. That said, he believes that on days when a poker player has an important game ahead, it's better not to push yourself physically.
Despite his smart approach to poker, Martirosyan still experiences downswings. One of the worst days in his career was April 7, 2021, when he went down $240,000 in a single online session.
Currently, the player lives in Mexico.
