Sunny Mehta is a professional gambler, bestselling author, and musician.
Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Sunny grew up in Wyckoff, New Jersey with a passion for music. He graduated from the University of Miami School of Music with a degree in Jazz Guitar and Studio Music. After moving to New Orleans, Louisiana in 2002, he began playing and recording with notable local acts such as Umami, Sista Teedy, Electravibe, The Funkin’ Horns, Jerry Jumonville, The New Orleans Funk Project, Lani Ramos, and others.
Sunny happened upon poker in 2003 and found a strong inclination for No-Limit Texas Hold ‘em. Within a year he was playing professionally. He finished third in the New Orleans WSOP Satellite Tournament in May 2004, and by 2005 he was playing in the biggest no-limit hold ‘em cash games in New Orleans.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Sunny fled to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he became a fixture in the local high stakes cash games. He met noted poker author Ed Miller (a New Orleans native) as well as Mason Malmuth, owner of Two Plus Two Publishing. Sunny also cashed in 13th place in the $1,500 Buy-In No-Limit Hold ‘em Tournament at the Jack Binion World Poker Open in Tunica, Mississippi in January of 2006.
Despite the success in Las Vegas, Tunica, and elsewhere, Sunny missed the idiosyncratic charm of New Orleans. He returned to the Big Easy in early 2006 and started playing high stakes online poker and writing Professional No-Limit Hold ‘em
Sunny, Ed, and Matt left Two Plus Two to self-publish their second book. The highly anticipated Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em
In recent years Sunny has additionally turned his attention to Bayesian statistics, the quantitative analysis of sports markets, and equity options trading.