DJ Sharma has been close to a trophy on the PPT before, and he’s won a variety of other tournaments, but one thing he’s been wanting since he started playing poker was a trophy from his hometown poker tour. Tonight, he ticked that goal off his list by taking down the Little NLH in his typical boisterous fashion.
There are few, if any, people who enjoy the game as much as Sharma does — he brings it all every time he sits at the table, and he’s never afraid to mix it up. When he’s running hot, everyone in the casino knows it from his loud, infectious laugh and frequent shouts of “SHARMA TIME!” when he wins an all-in.
Tonight was a textbook example of Sharma Time poker. He was all over the map in terms of his chip stack, but that’s pretty normal for him. He was almost out with play eight-handed when Brad Stevens got there for a huge double with a dominated ace, but in typical Sharma fashion, he was all in a couple of hands later with eight-three suited and hit the running flush, sending Daryl Roberts out in 7th for the start of his respin.
After runner-up Zachary York got there against Stefan Maloney to make it five ways, Sharma was once again on his way out the door. In a massive hand, Stacey Diederich shoved her short stack with a suited king-seven and Sharma woke up with pocket sevens to her left, reshoving for more. It folded to York on the big blind, and he snapped with the most and pocket queens.
Somehow, Sharma found the case seven on the flop, even as Diederich hit two pair. York’s queens were left twisting in the wind as the board ran bricks that kept the set of sevens in the lead. That gave Sharma the huge lead 4 ways, and he extended that by sending Pat Wilson home in 4th when he won a race.
York then sent Brad Stevens to the cage for 3rd, but was still about 2:1 down against the McDonald’s magnate. He managed to double back to even, but in the end, couldn’t find what he needed against the hot-running Sharma. He got the last of his money in with a flopped open-ended straight draw, but couldn’t find the cards he needed to complete. Sharma was on a flopped pair of nines, and held for the win.
Last year’s API runaway winner, Mike Malm, made a bet with play still seven-handed where he took Sharma to win against the rest of the field. Rob Lothian took him up on it, and happily paid out the bet at the end. As Malm said when he made the bet — “I’m not betting because I think he’ll win. I’m betting because I KNOW he’ll win.”
This was his seventh win, but his first actual trophy. His motivation isn’t really the prize money; he’s here for the love of the game and the desire to win. He mentioned that he’s wanted a trophy in all of his previous wins, but they’ve all been in series that didn’t award hardware, just money. Getting his first tangible proof of a poker win, something he can put on his bar at home, was something pretty special for him tonight. Doing it on his hometown poker tour was just the icing on an already delicious cake.
