Gutshot May 2022

8-9 10-11 16-17 18-19 20 22-23 24-25 26-27 28-29

DPT Apr 2022: From The Organisers' Lens

Adda52 Big Millions: Online Poker Adds Offline Charm

Cash Games To First Live Ti tle: The Vaibhav Shah Story So Far

How To Earn Big Bucks? Ask Anant Purohit

Aayush Arya Enters The Big League With High Roller Win

Amit Kaushik: The Bounty Hunter

Tushar Bharti: Texas Hold'em Pro Conquers PLO Title

Kanchan Sharma: Agra Girl Slays The Women’s Special Nishant Sharma Scores A Colossal Win

ears to the Real Money Gaming industry.

eyes and ears to

As a part of our journey to develop into a world-class publication the highest reputation, we happily present Gutshot Magazine’s

ADVISORY BOARD

As a part of our journey to develop into a world-class publication with the highest reputation, we happily present Gutshot Magazine’s Editori al Advisory Board members. These thought leaders in their areas of ex pertise will vitalise the editorial scope and focus of the magazine and will be our eyes and ears to the Real Money Gaming industry.

Advisory Board members. These thought leaders in their areas will vitalise the editorial scope and focus of the magazine and eyes and ears to the Real Money Gaming industry.

As a part of our journey to develop into a world-class publication the highest reputation, we happily present Gutshot Magazine’s Advisory Board members. These thought leaders in their areas will vitalise the editorial scope and focus of the magazine eyes and ears to the Real Money Gaming industry.

Roland Landers

CEO, All India Gaming Federation (AIGF)

Amin Rozani MD, Spartan Group

Amin Rozani MD, Spartan Group

Amin Rozani MD, Spartan Group

Muskan Sethi

Professional Poker Player

Karan Vig Head of Production, Mind Sports League

Roland Landers CEO, All India Gaming Federation (AIGF)

Roland Landers CEO, All India Gaming Federation (AIGF)

CEO, All India Gaming Federation (AIGF)

Responsible Gam ing Ambassador

commentator Player Responsible Gaming Ambassador

Muskan Sethi

Professional Poker

Amin Rozani MD, Spartan Group Richard Haridasoham

Richard Haridasoham

06 GUTSHOT OCTOBER 20 21 Poker expert and commentator

06 GUTSHOT OCTOBER 20 21 Roland Landers

Roland CEO, Federation

commentator Player Responsible Gaming Ambassador

Poker expert and

Ramesh Rao Thotapalli

Karan Vig Head of Production, Mind Sports League

Karan Vig Head of Production, Mind Sports

Ramesh Rao

Casino Pride Room

Casino Pride 1 Poker Room

Muskan Professional Player

Managing Editor

Sameer Rattonsey

Editor-In-Chief

Peter Abraham

Content

Manthra Koliyer

Donna Amo

Mrinal Gujare

Amarylisa Gonsalves

Graphic Designer

Maheswar Gauda

Sales & Advertising

Raunaq Pinto (raunaq@thegutshot.com)

Marketing Head

Dwayne Fernandes (dwayne@gutshotmagazine.com)

Business Head

Ashvin Rao (ashvin@gutshotmagazine.com)

Editor’s Note

The resurgence of poker in this country is well and truly on! While the entire world went through the misery of the pandemic, live events came to a complete halt. Even when restrictions started to ease off, gatherings were limited to very low numbers. And of course that severely impacted all kinds of sporting events, whether you wanted to sit in the stands and cheer your favourite cricket or football team or move chips into the pot at your favourite poker tournament.

But that is in the past and 2022 is well and truly on its way with tournament events once again drawing pre-COVID 19 turnouts. It's been three months of back-to-back poker action already. Starting with the Baazi Poker Tour (BPT) in March followed by the Deltin Poker Tourna ment (DPT) in April and most recently we've had the India Poker Championship (IPC) do its Megastacks event in a new country, Nepal. All these events were a success and no surprise that players are now looking forward to playing tournament events more regularly both within and outside India.

Coming back to DPT, we have Main Event champion, Sumit Lalchandani featured on the cover as we speak to him about his road to victory. We also profile the other DPT title winners who had a fantastic time at this poker festival. Now an event of this magnitude takes a lot of effort and we speak to key personnel behind the scenes including Deltin's Praveen Dwarkanath and Krishnendu Guha about the challenges involved in pulling off a successful series like the DPT.

Volume 3

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Gutshot Magazine is not responsible for the opinions or views expressed by individ uals or writers that may be included in any part of Gutshot Magazine. The views expressed are for encourage - ment and entertainment purposes only.

By being an author on this site all writers transfers copyright ownership of the man uscript to Gutshot Magazine. for publication in print, on line and in downloadable form. Permission is also given to publish all subsequent electronic media, reprints, and any other subsidiary print rights worldwide of this article for Gutshot Magazine.

The author(s) will have the unrestricted right to reuse this material on condition that credits are included for prior publication in Gutshot Magazine, to include the issue and date of publication. Interviews are the personal opinions of the interviewee and are not necessarily the views of Gutshot Magazine or it’s Publishers Gutshot Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. take no responsibility for any of their answers or comments.

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Gutshot Magazine reserves the right to change, update this disclaimer and policy at will without any notice.

Till next time, stay safe and keep crushing!

PETER ABRAHAM Editor-In-Chief

DPT Apr 2022:

From The Organisers' Lens

By Amarylisa Gonsalves

Famous American track and field athlete Allyson Felix, once said, “Everyone sees

we were hoping to crush previous DPT num bers, the current situation around us all meant com about his key the series. Guha tration and

Moving on to the unique selling proposition to be a stupendous success, we were curi

Adda52 Big Millions: Online Poker Adds Offline Charm

By Mrinal Gujare

Those who played and followed the Deltin Poker Tournament (DPT) April 2022 event will surely know about the Adda52 Big Millions tournament, since the final table (FT) was played live at the Deltin Royale in Goa. Well, then you know who won it too. Avinash Koneru, a Bangalore-based IT professional who enjoys poker as a side hustle shipped this mega ₹2 Crore GTD event.

Koneru, who has been working on building a startup was one among the 1,287 entries who fought for the top spot in the Big Millions event. Not much is known about this player, who was introduced to poker by his friends and has been grinding on Adda52 for the last eight years. In a media interview, Koneru said, "I love winning. I can take losing, but more than that there was a lot of thrill, excitement and

hope in the long journey of ups and downs of Adda52’s Big Millions Tournament which gave me an enriching experience, which I will cherish as a good memory for the rest of my life. Thanks a ton to Adda52 for providing me such an amazing and thrilling experience." He further added, "In my opinion everyone should try playing poker. If you want to play as a pro (professionally), that’s a great career with a good life and freedom. If you want to play in your free time, that’s a great side hustle. You could still make money in your free time along with having a lot of fun. Re gardless of the result, if you win or lose in the game of poker, you will have at least some moments of great experience, fun, a mixed set of emotions and subtle life lessons to take away from the table. Just know and stick to your budget if you are for pure entertain

Krishnendu Guha, Chief Revenue Officer, Adda52 with Avinash Koneru and Bulusu Venkat Ram Narayana

ment; instead of a movie ticket, play poker within the same budget which is more inter active, fun and more exciting."

This event was a mix of online and live poker. The FT of the Big Millions event was live streamed and the poker fanatics who weren’t in Goa, could watch the action un fold from the comfort of their homes. It was quite interesting to observe how Adda52 was able to host an event which was virtual and live, in equal measure. As live poker resumed steadily in India, players were eager to hit the live felts once again. The 11K buy-in event which paid the top 197 players was one of the biggest tournaments ever hosted by Adda52 and we must admit that the poker brand did a fine job of plan ning and executing the event in a hybrid format.

Apart from just the format, Adda52 made it quite lucra tive for players to enter the Big Millions event. The brand offered satellite tourna ments and step sattys to this high-value tour nament. This worked out well for Koneru who had qualified via the ₹ 1,100 buy-in satellite. For the unversed, the finalists of the Big Mil lions tournament were also offered free stay and travel to DPT April 2022, which was host ed from 14th to 18th April. Guessing why the organisers were trying to get more partici pants into DPT? We’ll tell you why.

DPT is one of the most highly anticipated events of the year in the poker industry. If you have followed the DPT April 2022 coverage across across poker media platforms, then you will know who came, who played and who slayed the live felts with their exemplary poker skills.

But why are we talking about the event all over again? Well, DPT was not just about participating and winning. It was a lot more than that. The resumption of live poker events brought back the much need ed steam onto the live poker felts. And the results were out there for everyone to see. Coming back to the Big Millions event, the hawk-eyed folks who track online tourna ments know that the event followed suit when it came to host ing FTs of big ticket tournaments live. The FT was live streamed on Adda52’s YouTube channel and Face book page. The trend of live streaming FTs could soon become a norm and trust us when we say nobody is complaining.

Finally, for live poker pros, enthusiasts and recreational players, the Big Millions event was just a teaser of what lies ahead when it comes to poker operators opting for online-live hy brid format. Sharpen your poker skills and be ready, a strong wave of live poker tourna ments is about to hit the shores.

Sumit Lalchandani

The Overnight Star

By Manthra Koliyer

How often do we plan a vacation to Goa and spend hours on the beaches, getting tanned and clicking a million pictures? While this is how a majority of the population spends their time in the sunshine state, Goa did not mean just chill scenes for Sumit Lalchandani; it meant grinding and winning.

Lalchandani’s story is like that of any other individual who decided to unwind in Goa until he ended up in Deltin Royale, played the Day 1A, 1B and 1C flights to finally reach Deltin Poker Tournament's (DPT) Main Event (ME) and ship it like a boss too!

Grinding among the likes of World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Nikita Luther, Final Table Series (FTS) 3.0 ME winner Ankit Wadhawan, Lalchandani was quite star-struck by the live poker action.

The DPT April 2022 ME winner is one of many who started playing poker during the pandemicinduced lockdowns.

Although he has an online profile, he prefers to grind in live tournaments. After attending DPT, this player is now a fan of the brand and of Adda52. With much glee, Lalchandani said, “Any Deltin event, I will surely try to attend. Thanks to Gauravjit Singh, Naresh Kundaikar, and Praveen Dwarakanath who helped and supported me."

“It is truly special because it gives a great playing field to all poker lovers to come out there and have an amazing experience of playing live MTTs. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Deltin and Adda52 for pulling off such a huge event and giving everyone out there, an amazing experience. Of course, it has been the most special for me because I won the DPT title” he added.

Talking about his experience at the tournament, this Pune-based player said, “I went with zero expectations but it was really fun. I did not have a great start. I lost twice (Day 1A and 1B flights) but I made it to the ME by playing in the last flight. I told my wife that if I make it to the top 8, I’ll just

He further added, “Well, it was a roller coaster. I was actually the short stack in the top 3 and then had a couple of full double-ups from both the players and became the chip leader. Then Ankit went all-in with A3 and I called with A9. Sandeep did get a double up and won a couple of pots to chip up. Finally, it all ended with me winning it with Kd 5h.”

A little backstory

Lalchandani reveals that he is into construction business, and only visited Deltin Royale when he was on a vacation in Goa.

Lalchandani said that he was always intrigued by the skill element in the game. Talking about his pre-game rituals, Lalchandani added, “Stay calm, don’t try to change your game by looking at others. Be honest. Keep it simple and hopefully, you will make it. I kept it simple and I survived it.”

Although this Pune-based player talks about poker being a skill game, there’s surely a luck element that he believes in. Talking about his pre-grind rituals, Lalchandani said, “I have a lucky stone that I kept with me and used it while heading into the tournament. I kept it with me throughout my journey.”

When Lalchandani got news of being featured on Gutshot Magazine’s DPT Special Edition, he was all smiles. Talking about making the cover of India’s number 1 poker magazine, he added, “It feels great to be recognized and I hope and wish this will be the first of many more to come.”

Next time someone asks you what to do in Goa, your reply will be?

Do visit Deltin Royale and have fun there. It will be a life-changing experience, just the way it was for me.

What was the first reaction or what did you first do with the money? I haven’t decided what to do. But, I will surely go on a vacation with my family and get them gifts.

Three reasons why you knew you would ship this title. Three? I don’t have one. I will be lying completely if I say I knew I would be winning DPT. As Day 2 of the Main Event progressed further, my confidence kept growing as I felt I am playing good and I

Rapid Fire With Sumit Lalchandani

DESCRIBE PLAYING POKER IN A WORD Splendid

HOW IS SUMIT OFF THE POKER FELTS? He is a cool and chilled out guy. Loves to party on weekends.

LOVE TO PLAY HEADS-UP WITH? Phil Ivey

DESCRIBE YOURSELF AS A POKER PLAYER

Well this is a tough one. I would say simple yet effective and beguiling.

YOUR FAVOURITE POKER PLATFORM? Adda52

kept setting small targets, first of which was to get in the money (ITM) and then get into the top 25, then top 10, and further in the top five. When I reached the top three, I knew then I had a real shot at winning. I am so glad that I achieved all my small targets which ultimately led to the DPT title.

Would you recommend poker to your friends and family?

Of course I definitely would. It’s an amazing game. My only advice will be to start small, learn the game, always play responsibly and may the odds be in your favour.

Cash Games To First Live Title:

The Vaibhav Shah Story So Far

By Amarylisa Gonsalves

The Deltin Poker Tournament (DPT) April 2022 edition was indeed a hit and why would it not be?! Following a pandemic lull, the event kick-started with the much anticipated 11K Warm-up event, which set the stage for the rest of the DPT events, in style. The event was no less than a Hollywood flick which had a house full board with 344 entries locking horns for the title.

The event finally concluded in a three-way deal between the last three men standing, namely Vaibhav Shah, Avadh Shah, and Kshitij Kucheria. Eventually, Kucheria busted at the third spot, leaving the final two for heads-up. Avadh (A6) shoved all-in and Vaibhav (A5) called from the big blind to see the board reveal 5, 7, 8, 7, 7,

giving Vaibhav a full house to clinch his first DPT April 2022 title for an impressive ₹4,28,000.

But it wasn’t just a regular win for the 43-year-old. Vaibhav won his first-ever live tournament title at this event and we can imagine how over whelming this victory must have been. Sharing his excitement about the victory, he said, “It felt surreal! Winning my first live title is just an amazing feeling. I am predominantly a live cash game player, so winning a tournament was special. I always dreamt of winning a title in live tournaments, to achieve that was something exceptional.”

Vaibhav who resides in Goa is originally from aamchi Mumbai. The poker pro cum real es

tate consultant has been associated with the game for the past seven years. However, it was just three years ago that he decided on taking up the game of skill professionally.

Being a ring game player, making it to the final table of such a notable event was an incredible feat in itself. When asked about what strategy did he stick to while on the FT, he adds, “I have been playing live tour naments for a few years now, and have evolved as a player, learning from my mis takes. So when I started this event I just want ed to focus and not repeat my mistakes. This helped me run deep in the tournament and once I had a significant stack, I played a little aggressively in the right spots and ended up picking a lot of dead pots which always made sure that I have a healthy stack.”

Sharing his experience of playing at the DPT, which was hosted after a gap of two years,

Vaibhav enthusiastically added, “I am a live cash game player based in Goa. So I often play live cash games at Deltin. Playing the DPT after a gap of two years was really exciting since the pandemic really made it impossible to play live games. Hopefully, live tournaments are now a regular feature in Goa. I wanted to play all the events at DPT and run deep in them, and I managed to run good and played fairly well to win the Warm-up event. I even ran deep in the Main Event and finished at the 12th place. I’m looking forward to playing more live tournaments in the coming days.”

We asked Vaibhav what he likes the most about the game, he said, “I love the amount of skill the game requires, which is unfortunately underrated in our country. The fact that you can never master it, there’s always so much more to know and all this makes sure you keep learning poker, is what keeps me hooked to the game.”

How To Earn Big Bucks? Ask Anant Purohit

By Manthra Koliyer

Priya Agarwal (9th, ₹ 75,000) and Swaati S (10th, ₹ 72,000).

We spoke to Purohit to know more about his DPT April 2022 experience and his win at the ₹15 Lakh Freeroll event.

Congratulations on shipping the DPT April 2022 ₹ 15 Lakh Freeroll. Tell us more about the victory.

The tournament was very shallow and one definitely needed a lot of luck to win it and it seemed like it was my lucky day.

Anant Purohit isn’t a newbie on the felts of Deltin Poker Tourna ment (DPT). In 2019, during the third edition of DPT Xpress, Purohit clinched the Main Event title for over ₹ 7 Lakh. This was not just any victory, it was his career-best title in live poker.

Three years later, Purohit shipped yet another DPT event, the ₹ 15 Lakh Fre eroll, which took place on 19th April. The former DPT Xpress Main Event winner over came a field of 81 entrants to win ₹ 3.30 Lakh in prize money. The other two players who secured podium finishes were Puneet Tandon in 2nd position for ₹ 1,91,000 and Rajasekhar Puttamsetty in 3rd spot for ₹ 1,91,000. This event witnessed the top 10 players getting paid which included wom en players like Katya Joule (7th, ₹ 1,05,000),

Most players were eyeing this event. Your thoughts on shipping it?

I would not say most people were eyeing this one but yes, most players who bricked the se ries were eyeing it. It seriously felt great to win. But to be honest there is no feeling of a big achievement as it was a hyper-turbo event with a very basic field.

You are a reg on the DPT felts. Tell us more about DPT and why it attracts you?

DPT is a super cool tournament series with well-structured events held in the super com fortable Deltin poker room. I really love it and wish to attend it almost every time.

Other than poker, what are you doing these days?

Apart from poker I also work at a startup which is currently just taking off. In future, I might

Rapid Fire With Anant Purohit

DPT TO YOU IS .... DPT to me is my favourite tourney series.

A PLAYER YOU WISH TO GO HEADS UP AGAINST

A player I wish to go heads up against is Aditya Sushant. I’ve always admired him.

OTHER THAN POKER, YOU LOVE ....

Other than poker, I love poker, poker and poker. On a serious note, I love taking some time off for swimming and snooker.

A POKER TERM/WORD YOU ABSOLUTELY LOVE

Poker term? I love to say “flopped it.”

have to increase my engagement for the same.

In the next five years, where do you see yourself?

I see myself as an established and successful player in the international field.

What are some of the reasons that would compel you to attend DPT again?

I would definitely love to visit Deltin and DPT again for the well-structured tourneys, good poker room set-up and super comfortable experience.

Aayush Arya Enters The Big League With High Roller Win

By Vijayalakshmi Narayanan

Every event held at the Deltin Poker Tour nament (DPT) April 2022 had an inspiring story to tell. But the largest buy-in event of the series — DPT 65k High Roller — will be remembered for its final table (FT) action. With 281 entries and an astonishing prize pool of ₹1,65,86,025, the High Roller witnessed 36 players finishing in the money with the min-cash paid being ₹1,12,800.

Emerging victo rious and out shining everyone else to clinch the coveted prize was Delhi’s Aay ush Arya. The young poker play er walked away with a whopping ₹36.63 Lakh, which proved to be his career-best performance. Arya survived three intensive days of grinding and high-volt age drama to grab the top spot. Finishing second after him was Meerut’s poker sensa tion Paawan Bansal, who walked away with ₹25,70,800 and Bhavesh Patel took ₹16,53,600 for his third place finish. What is worth noting is that the organisers had planned the High Roller as a two-day event. However, due to the over whelming response received, the scheduled event duration was extended by another day.

For anyone who closely followed the live updates of the game, it can be observed that when Arya entered the FT, he held mar ginally lesser chips in comparison to his op ponents which also included popular players like Goonjan Mall, Siddhanth Kripalani and Rajasekhar Puttamsetty. As the FT progressed, Arya kept elim inating his op ponents and building his chip stack steadily. In the final hand of the tourney, he secured a Kingpair on the turn which led to his eventual victory.

With an impres sive 61 online titles (as of July 2022) in his kit ty, Arya is a strong-minded young man of a very few words. He prefers to let his game do the talking and clear ly, the statistics speak volumes about him. As per Hendon Mob, Arya's total live earnings stand at ₹ 70,27,013. He ranks 155th in India's All Time Money List. Although many members of the poker fraternity swear by the young man’s eagerness to continue learning further nuances of the game, he is also ever-ready to review hand histories or discuss spots with other poker pros.

Amit Kaushik: The Bounty Hunter

By Donna Amo

shift. Given that most of his poker ca reer was online, it was a big moment for Kaushik when he clinched his first DPT trophy.

“It felt good to win the event. I was extremely excited but also tired as I had been playing for close to 16-17 hours by the time the tournament ended,” said Kaushik.

The fourth event in the Deltin Poker Tournament (DPT) April 2022 schedule was the 15K Bounty event. There were a total of 282 entries and the event generated a prize pool of ₹25,23,900. Emerging as a winner was Amit Kaushik who cashed ₹5,57,000 and took home his first live title.

Hailing from Kurukshetra, a city in Haryana, Kaushik is an avid on line grinder who has won multiple online tournaments since going pro in June 2020. However, being a professional poker player was not always a part of his plan as he worked as a data scientist for four years before making the

The player had entered the final table with the lowest chip stack with only six big blinds. However, according to Kaushik, there was a moment before the FT that was a critical one for him. “Before reaching the final table, I had a decent stack but then I got

a bad beat which put me down to only two big blinds. Thankfully, I wasn’t tilted when that happened otherwise, I wouldn’t have won. Looking back, that was a crucial moment for me,” explained Kaushik.

“By the time the FT started, I had six big blinds. I did well because winning a title with just six bigs was nothing short of a miracle. I was happy with my play and there were only a couple of places in the game where I thought I could have played better,” said Kaushik.

Given that it was a bounty tournament, we asked him if there were any changes that he made to his gameplay compared to other events. Kaushik replied, “Your gameplay does change a bit at the beginning. But if you’re deep in a tourney, the bounty doesn’t matter because you can’t risk your stack just for the bounty. Your stack be

comes more valuable. For me, it initially changed but towards the end, it wasn’t very different and didn’t affect my decision.”

When asked about his overall DPT experience, Kaushik said, “I really liked the space, it was not congested. It was also managed well and the tournament directors were good. I think they were giving around 15-16 hours each day which was very commendable. It was fun to play live poker again.”

Introduced to poker back in 2015 by his friends in college, Kaushik always wondered if poker play ers really earned money by playing the game. Once he got tired of corporate life, Kaushik gave the game another shot and the rest is history. Now that he’s a pro and has already clinched his first live poker title, it’s safe to say that this won’t be the last we’ve seen of Kaushik.

Praveen Dwakanath, Poker Head, Deltin presents the trophy to Amit Kaushik

Tushar Bharti: Texas Hold'em Pro Conquers PLO Title

By Donna Amo

The Deltin Poker Tournament (DPT) April 2022 opened its doors for Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) enthusiasts in the country. DPT 15K PLO event wel comed a total of 212 entries into its fold. The event generated a prize pool worth ₹ 19,01,700. Battling his way to the top, was Tushar Bharti who shipped the title and pocketed ₹ 4.85 Lakh in prize money. This was also Bharti’s first DPT title.

The poker pro currently resides in Goa and is an ardent poker lover like all players we've seen on the felts. Bharti first started playing poker in 2010 but only became a

pro in 2016. Despite his love for the game, he left the poker felts to start his own busi ness. However, he eventually made his way back to the game and continued to play on the live felts.

Ecstatic about his win, he said, “I thought it was long overdue and was very happy when I won. I have been trying for a long time to win a live title and I’ve finally done it!”

While it would be safe to assume that every player at the event was a PLO enthusiast, it wasn't actually the case for Bharti. “I am

actually a Texas Hold’em player and have not played a lot of PLO games. So, you can imagine my surprise when I won the event,” said Bharti.

“I entered the event late. I was playing the Main Event before but got busted in the 45th place. I entered the PLO Bounty event when the late registration was going on as I wasn't looking at cash games that day. I had just entered the tournament for fun,” he said.

While talking about his opponents on the final table, Bharti said it was always advan tageous to know your opponents but that wasn't the case in the PLO event. “I don’t remember anyone on the FT. I was keep ing an eye on a Punjabi player who had a good stack. It helps to know a player and I was playing against people I didn’t know, so it was difficult to adjust for the first hour but then I played well later on,” he ex plained.

Along with his win, Bharti also had a mem orable time playing in DPT. “It was a good experience. I played in three events and cashed in all of them! I was hoping to make it to at least one final table but did not ex pect it to be in a PLO event,” he admitted.

If you’re wondering why you’ve not seen this 28-year-old pro on the online felts, then it’s probably because Bharti is not an online reg. Yes, he is a live pro and spends most of

his time playing in live events in Goa. When asked why he keeps his poker career to the live tables exclusively, Bharti said, “I just prefer playing live more than playing online. I may play online, once a year.”

Well, he may not be an online pro like most players but he sure can hold his own on the live tables. As Bharti heads to World Poker Tour (WPT) for his next poker con quest, he’s one player who certainly plays to win it all.

Kanchan Sharma:

Agra Girl Slays The Women’s Special

By Mrinal Gujare

Remember Villanelle from Killing Eve?

If you do, then you know how swift ly she got the job done (read kill). That’s how seamless poker pro Kan chan Sharma slayed the live felts of Deltin Poker Tournament (DPT) in April 2022. The DPT event made a thundering comeback after the pandemic hiatus and the winners were crowned with equal parts of pomp and zeal. One among them was Sharma. This

decide to play poker professionally in India. Sharma jumped into the pool in 2017 and has never looked back since then.

When the COVID-19 pandemic brought live poker to a halt, Sharma made sure her online poker was going full steam. If you’ve been tracking the online games, then you know Shar ma has clinched some of the most sought-after titles. And when live returned in 2022 first in the

Agra girl won the DPT 10K Women's Special event and took home a cool ₹ 92,400 in prize money. We know you’ve heard and read about this. But do you know what goes into making a pro? A lot!

You think it’s easy to quit a day job and hop on to the poker bandwagon. It’s not. Believe it or not, the transition is life-altering when you

form of Baazi Poker Tour (BPT), Sharma made sure she hit the live felts in Goa. This Learning Designer turned poker pro was one among the 107 survivors in the 100K Highroller event which Zarvan Tumboli shipped. Then came DPT April 2022. Here, Sharma made sure she clinched a title and boy, did she. This diva slayed the live felts mercilessly to grab the Women’s Special title.

Sharma emerged victorious from an entry field of 24 players. The pro’s pocket kings continued to hold solid ground for her amidst all the betting, calling, raising and re-raising. After the board opened to 4c Td 7h Jc Th in the final hand, Sharma had better two pairs as compared to her heads-up rival Katya Joule who had JJ,TT. This victory was all the more sweet as it was Sharma’s maid en DPT title.

We asked Sharma what it felt like to ship the Women’s Special event. The pro said, “As a tournament player, I am pretty much trying to win each day of my life and of course the feeling of winning is very special. Winning this tournament was even more special because I got to win a trophy.” The next obvious question we threw at Sharma was about her prep for this event. She responded, “I have been studying poker since a while now and the prep that went into this tournament was pretty much similar to what I was doing for all other tournaments.”

“I think organising women’s tournaments is a great way of mobilising female talent into the game and more and more of such tournaments should be held,” said Sharma when we asked about poker operators organising women’s tournaments.

We couldn’t resist asking Sharma about women only tournaments and encouraging more wom en players to join the fold. The online reg said, “By default, poker is one of the few sports that provides an equal playing ground to men and women as it should since it’s a mind sport. How ever, such tournaments definitely attract more and more women to join the community.”

Those who keenly follow online regs and pros shipping tourneys, will surely know about Shar ma’s stellar growth in the industry. There’s no doubt that this female pro is scaling new heights in her poker career, both live and online. With live poker returning with all guns blazing, it would be interesting to see what Sharma does in the upcoming live events.

Nishant Sharma Scores

A Colossal Win

By Donna Amo

What happens when you listen to your better half? Well, you end up shipping a live poker title! That’s exactly what happened to Nis hant Sharma, who was on vacation when he decided to play the Adda52 Colossus Main Event and went on to clinch the prestigious title. He took home a lovely ₹33,15,000 in prize money.

Between 2nd to 7th August 2022, the Adda52 Colossus re turned for its third edition at the Adda52

LIVE poker room onboard the Deltin Royale. Of course, the crème de la crème was the Main Event, which welcomed 129 entries. Sharma emerged as the champion after an intense heads-up with World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet holder and Spartan Poker Pro Nikita Luther.

Sharma had no intention of playing the live series and was in Goa on a vacation after a good run at the Asia Poker Tour (APT) Summer Festival Hanoi Loyal 2022 in Vietnam. However, the poker player soon found himself tempted

to play live once again, and after a little en couragement from Mrs. Sharma, he entered the Main Event.

“I agreed to play after she told me to go ahead, and I began to run deep in the tour nament. I have played live events in India but could never convert it into a win. Luckily, I had my wife who was railing me from the start, and I was finally able to win a title,” said the Colos sus Main Event champ, who was grateful for the support.

Impressively, Sharma domi nated the final table as he knocked out four players. We were keen to know how he kept his focus throughout the game for such a good performance.

“Even though I had the second biggest stack when the FT started, there was a big difference between me and the chip lead. I focused on playing aggressively to build my chip stack, as that would help me run deep in the game's later stages. If I had not been aggressive at the start, it would have been difficult to reach the end. So once I took the chip lead, there was no going back,” explained Sharma.

Krishnendu Guha, Chief Revenue Officer, Adda52 with Nishant Sharma

Regarding his heads-up match with the WSOP bracelet winner, Sharma explained his experience, “We have played against each other before, and we know the other’s play ing style. We had some crazy hands between us since we're both aggro (aggressive) play ers. She played very well and took the chip lead from me at one point in the start.”

Moving from the game to some personal journey, it was quite the change for this poker pro. Sharma worked in events for a couple of years. However, as he got tired of his work, he decided to take a break and see what he could do. “I was exhausted with my job, and since I was good at poker, I began to discov er that people were able to take a career path in poker. I began playing on all the big poker platforms like Adda52, PokerBaazi, and Spartan Poker.”

During this time, Sharma also took poker coaching lessons from one of India’s best

MTT players, Danish Shaikh. “Whatever I am today, it's because of Danish,” said Sharma, who also calls Shaikh as his inspiration. “He not only taught me how to play poker but also how to live a better life.”

Since Sharma had been globe trotting, it wasn’t difficult to get his groove when playing at the Adda52 Colossus Aug 2022. In Vietnam, Sharma ran deep when he finished 2nd in the Super High Rollers event for approx. ₹ 10.66 Lakh. “When you play in the country, you know most of the people. However, when it's abroad it's quite differ ent. You come across all-kinds of personal ities which makes it more fun and engag ing,” revealed Sharma.

With a title in hand, Sharma is currently on vacation mode again. However, we might spot him at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Prime in Cambodia—grinding to clinch an other title!

Nishant Sharma winner Adda52 Colossus Aug 2022