Taking the hot seat in our second “Monday Motivation” interview of the year is the true-blue rockstar Kanchan Sharma from Agra. 28-year-old Sharma blasted past the biggest guns in the game on Sunday when she ran past a reg-laden 2,397-player field in the ₹1.50 Crores GTD IOPC – Blaze on Spartan Poker for all the glory, following a five-way deal. Having brought two qualifying stacks to Day 2, she cashed through both, collecting a personal-best ₹18.59 Lakhs (cumulatively) in the process!

Sharma, our Young Gun – the first and only female poker player we have accredited this title to – says it’s always good to win an event but was keen to get back to the IOPC grind!

We prodded her on her reasons for making the 5-way deal. She said, “The tournament was quite shallow towards the end, so I thought a deal was a good option to cut down the variance.”

She is an online regular who puts in decent volume, and IOPC is one of those stops she eagerly awaits, like the rest of the poker community. Sharma fired bullets in all six flights in the IOPC – Blaze and managed to carry two decent stacks to Day 2. She modestly added that she was lucky to win the tournament but called out one particular spot on the final table where she hesitated in making the decision. “There was this one deciding hand on the final table where I got nines. I wasn’t sure if I should jam because I’d become the last in chips if I lost that flip. So I think that hand was crucial; I decided to just call and play passively. I haven’t run the hand through the latest software to see what the best strategy should have been used. But apart from that, the run was pretty smooth, no big spots, so I was just trying to play my game and leverage the skill I have.”

Sharma was a Learning Designer when she was introduced to poker in 2017 by her friend and poker pro Utsav Sharma. As her fascination for the game grew, she sidestepped everything else to learn more about it. She was briefly coached by Sharad Rao and has been a part of the India Poker Pros (IPP) stable since 2019, where Abhishek Rathod and Danish Shaikh mentor her.

Her rise in the game has been nothing less than phenomenal. When we spoke to her in June 2020, she had less than ₹1 Crore in tracked online winnings. In under two years, this number has touched ₹4.46 Crores, with a corresponding ₹1.77 Crores in lifetime profits! Explaining the secret behind her success, she said, “I don’t really focus on the numbers…It shouldn’t make a difference, but it does feel amazing… It’s been a good journey. I am enjoying the process. If I have done well, a lot of credit goes to my coaches. Huge credit goes to Danish (Shaikh) and other people who have been helping me around…”

Speaking of her work to improve her game, Sharma said she tries to stick to the process. “My process hasn’t changed. I put in at least an hour daily to mark hands, study, and review my own or someone else’s hand history. I also try to meditate every day for 10-15 minutes and work out…that really helps me.”

Sharma used to subscribe to many training programs earlier but realized too much content was confusing her. She recommends Patrik Leonard’s ‘Pads on Pads’ on Run It Once (RIO), which she finds very useful.

For Sharma, the key to success is studying and playing while maintaining consistency in the game. You have to stick to a routine diligently. “I just try to build good habits and stick to them.”

Sharma might be a formidable player on the table, but she is as accomplished off the felts as well! She was featured in the poker-docu series Poker Mantra and juggled a few commentating gigs for major events like the Final Table Series (FTS) and IOPC, exuding confidence in the commentary booth. Looking back, she acknowledges it was a good experience. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I should go for it, but later I realized that it actually helped me a lot. Commentating made a lot of difference in my game. When you talk about the game aloud, it gives a lot of clarity on the game… It’s a very good way to become a better poker player!”

The IOPC – Blaze win is a perfect start to 2022 for Sharma. As for her plans for the rest of the IOPC series, she said, “I just plan on grinding five days a week, nothing changes much, really looking forward to the IOPC. Now I’m thinking if I should start chasing the IOPC Leaderboard or not. That’s not easy, but I’ll take a call soon.”

Moving to the topic of live events, she wasn’t too sure about attending the 2022 WSOP in the summer. Still, she seems to be eagerly awaiting attending a major domestic series or even a decent Asian stop, provided the COVID-19 situation improves.

Sharma finds it enthusing to see the domestic community growing and new poker events like the National Poker Series and the FTS coming up. “The IOPC is crushing numbers for sure, and the fields are full of regs and recreational players. It’s definitely a good sign. Even players are trying to get better. There is so much software, and everyone has access to everything. But it also means that you can’t stop working on the game, you really need to work hard and get better at it.”

But tournament structures need to improve, she says, at least in the bigger tournaments. “We can have deeper structures, especially for the big tournaments. You want to play; you don’t want it to become a flip fest so that you get a chance to see who won the tournament in the end.”

She was clear in her advice to up-and-coming players – be consistent in your efforts! “Do your thing, be consistent, you can’t depend on motivation, you have to define your own process, the process is different and very personal for everyone. Learn from that, and you’ll get where you want to be.”

A big SHOUTOUT to this firebrand young player for her relentless energy and drive for poker!