Our guest for this week`s ‘Women in Poker’ feature is one of the more active poker players from the live poker circuit in Goa, Pooja Doshi. The Goa resident is a cash game enthusiast with a flair for playing tournaments. Last month, Doshi made it to the final table of the Deltin Poker Tournament ₹10K Women’s Special event, where she placed fourth for ₹21,400.

All of 40, Doshi has completed her Master’s in Commerce and spent over 15 years as a Fashion Designer before poker happened. Everything changed for Doshi after she met her partner, Vijay Handa, who introduced her to poker. Doshi began spending more time on the tables and soon took the most significant step of her life – she quit her store and decided to devote her complete time to the game!

Doshi has been playing full-time for the past two years now. A player with a keen sense of the game and an equal go-getter attitude towards life, Doshi is quite abashed about her choices in life. Poker pushed Doshi to shift from Pune to Goa, where she has been a frequent visitor to Casino Majestic Pride for cash games and tournaments.

Doshi finds the poker industry to be a beautiful industry, a highly sportified environment sans any gender bias. She follows Maria Ho, and while she admits she still has a long way to go in the game, Doshi dreams of playing high-stakes cash games at international venues someday.

But we don’t want to give out too much. Here is Pooja’s poker story, as narrated by her!

How Poker Happened

A few years back, Doshi, running a fashion store for nearly 15 years moved to Pune. Cupid struck as Doshi met the love of her life, Vijay Handa, who introduced her to poker. Intrigued with the game, Doshi soon picked up the basics first by watching her partner play.

“In a few days, I got really interested in the game. I began to watch hands and was very motivated to play. I started playing myself in about a year,” she told us, adding that she has been playing poker full-time for the last two years.

Like most players, Doshi moved to online poker during the pandemic but now as live poker has taken off again, she’s become a regular fixture at poker rooms in Goa, where she plays almost daily.

Reminiscing how things moved, Doshi said, “We – me and my partner were mostly playing online in Pune. But later, a friend suggested we come to Goa to see the live-action. When we first stepped into the casino, I was simply watching as my partner played. We visited a couple of times and then finally decided to move to Goa to play. After about 15 days, I felt I was ready to play, so we started to play in Majestic Pride. Incidentally, during one of our visits, the casino was running a Freeroll tournament, and I ultimately finished runner-up in that, which was a big confidence boost for me.”

Giving Up Business For Poker

Doshi ran a very successful fashion store for 15 years before deciding to make a change in her life and give it all up for poker. And no, she doesn’t regret it at all.

“I was an excellent entrepreneur, but poker has changed and vastly improved the quality of life. It has helped me gain a sort of balance of the personal and professional fronts.”

Improving Poker Skills

Doshi credits her partner for teaching her the game and walking beside her through her poker journey. She has picked everything, she says, the study, the strategy aspect, etc., from him.

“I incorporate whatever he teaches me. We do combined studies, discuss hands, the strategies we adopt when playing, etc. Poker has truly bonded us strongly.”

She continues, “Then, of course, we have a few subscriptions for the learning…he follows them, and I do too.”

Every day that Doshi plays poker is memorable for her, but if you ask if there’s any special memory, Doshi says it’s yet to come. Only last month she made a fourth-place finish in the DPT ₹10K Women’s Special event.

Cash Games or MTTs?

Doshi explains that since she has been playing live cash games regularly, she found it very easy to play the tournaments at the DPT.

“I just stuck to my game, with a little bit of adjustment.”

But while she hopes to win a tournament title someday, Doshi has her poker hands set on cash games.

“I’m not looking at the possibility of making a switchover to tournaments right now, but I’m open to playing both. The DPT ₹10K Women’s Special was a good experience, and overall I learned a lot about tournaments playing the series.”

Women in Poker

Many women are stepping into the erstwhile male-dominated field of poker, and Doshi finds the environment very gender-friendly and sports-oriented.

“There’s no gender in poker, so frankly, the context of gender inequality doesn’t make any sense in poker. I’ve been playing for the last two years, and I don’t feel any different.”

She adds – “Poker is a sport that everybody can learn and play. Anyone can learn the technical things and then just bring a little bit of your confidence level, and then you can just go on. I think our community is very welcoming as well. There’s no bias or anything.”

Poker Aspirations

If there’s one thing that Doshi would like to achieve, it’s to be seated among high-stakes poker players in an international setting. The cash game regular dreams of growing her game and poker skills to an extent when she can compete against the world’s most aggressive and renowned players playing high-stakes cash games.

Word of Advice

To all the aspiring women poker players out there, Doshi has this to say – “Learn the technical things, watch, observe the surroundings. Poker is a sport, so you have to mentally and physically maintain yourself to be a part of it. Even if you want to give it a shot or play as a recreational, it’s a beautiful platform, and the industry is very welcoming, so it is very good for anybody who wants to try.”

She points out that poker is challenging, and to grow in the game, you have to pursue it with passion! On a parting note, Doshi announced that she is available to help anyone who wants to explore the game, or seek answers, to improve their game.

Kudos to Doshi for her unrelenting passion for the game and her drive to keep improving! We hope Doshi continues to grow as a poker player and wish her all the best!