Many fans of televised poker may have first become aware of Olga Iermolcheva thanks to her appearance on the 2023 series Game of Gold. Longtime followers of the game, however, might have recognized her due to a string of results going back more than a decade.
The Ukrainian’s first recorded tournament win was back in 2013, and her best result to date came in 2015 at the Latin American Poker Tour’s Panama City stop - a runner-up finish good for over $113K.
Iermolcheva’s story is not one of overnight success, then, but rather one comprising dedication to her craft, passion for poker and - as is often the way - a slice of luck.
As one of several players recently joining up with CoinPoker as an ambassador, her profile has arguably never been higher. But as she tells PokerOrg’s Craig Tapscott in our exclusive interview, she’s put in the time and the hard yards to get to where she is.
Watch the full interview above right now, or read on for some highlights.
Eugene Katchalov, Jesse Lonis and James Bond
How did you first get into poker?
The first time I heard about poker was from the James Bond movie Casino Royale. My first time actually playing was at university; my friend invited me to play online for play money and it was very fun. I remember that it was love at first sight.
I spent hours finding out information about the game, about the tournaments, about the people who play this game, the rules, everything. It was kind of a hook for me and I'm still there; I'm very passionate about the game.
Is it true that Ukrainian #1 Eugene Katchalov gave you some coaching sessions?
When I met Eugene I was already kind of a professional, because I didn't have any other sources of income, I was just playing poker. I was already a winning player. It's difficult to say that he was my mentor, but he gave me some coaching sessions.
He was a PokerStars ambassador and there was a promotion on the site. Four different people - Eugene, Vanessa Selbst, ElkY and Andre Akkari - each had students they were teaching. It wasn't for a long time, they were just giving us two lessons from them and one from Team Online.
How I was picked wasn't random; we had to first win a tournament online and then we needed to make some kind of video introduction to get people to vote for us. I'm happy that first I won the tournament, then I won the voting, and then I was Eugene’s student.
Of course, having lessons from poker players of this level is a gift. Even these two lessons gave me a big boost. Eugene is a legend of the game and having him trying to push me, it was great. I miss those times.
Are there any players you particularly like to watch?
I'm very inspired by Victoria Livschitz. Also Andrew Lichtenberger, her friend - I admire all the guys who are there on the top, I wish one day I will compete with them. When I watch them it’s just really entertaining for me and I'd like to be there one day.
I want to play like Jesse Lonis, he has these kinds of natural instincts, I think. There are so many players I'd like to be like, to take something from them. Like, I admire Jonathan Jaffe, he understands the game so well, and all the guys who are playing at Triton, they are also very good in technical stuff. There are so many role models.
Is there a point you consider a breakthrough moment in your poker career?
I remember that my approach became different after I won my first six-figure score in Panama [at the LAPT Main Event in 2015]. I finished second, and I was thinking that what I was playing before that was not serious, now I'm serious and from this moment I will be a real professional.
Of course, I was wrong - there were different stages in my career when I was playing less, when I was paying attention more to the entertainment parts of poker, when I was an ambassador for different poker rooms and I was doing a lot of media stuff, for example. But yeah, in 2014 or 2015 I think I started to take it really, really seriously.
What are your immediate ambitions in the game? Will we see you in Game of Gold season two?
December is my favorite month for poker because there are so many tournaments. At the moment I am having kind of a break - I had a really busy summer, I was playing every day during the WSOP, like literally every day. Then I went to EPT Barcelona, and now I have a small break.
In December first I'll go to Dublin because we have a tournament with CoinPoker. I haven't decided yet between the WSOP in the Bahamas and the WPT in Las Vegas, they are both so good, so I will decide probably at the last moment.
With Game of Gold, they told me that they will definitely make season two but as I understood it, I will not be there. They are going to change the format a little bit and they said that probably they will invite some people who were on the show [in season one], but who were only on for a really small time, for example Team Clubs with Daniel Negreanu and Jason Koon. By the way, I admire Jason a lot as well - he is the Cristiano Ronaldo of the game.
[Season one opponent] Charlie Carrel is challenging me to have a heads-up battle with him again, and I said to him, ‘Charlie, winning one time is not enough for you?’ He said, ‘Coolering you is not enough!’ He wants to prove his total advantage, so maybe in future we will have a heads-up match, I don't know.
What’s it been like joining CoinPoker?
I love the game a lot and I want to attract more players, and I think that CoinPoker is doing great things - I see the potential, I see the plans of the company, I see the people they attract, both for the technical stuff and also the influencers.
I’ve known Pads [fellow CoinPoker ambassador Patrick Leonard] for a long time and he's a great person with a perfect reputation, and also what I like about him is that he also has a big passion for the game. He wants it to grow, and he is doing a lot of things just because he's a nice person; he's not doing this to get any value from people, he's given so many tips, just free on his Instagram account, and he's doing a lot of educational stuff and I'm happy to join him - he is, like, one of the GOATS of online poker. That was one of the crucial things for me to join the team, because I wanted to work with Pads.
Crypto is very new to me, but let's be honest: crypto will be part of our life in the future and the better you understand it, the better for you, so we all need to go deep and study more about that.
Olga Iermolcheva is an ambassador for CoinPoker. Follow her on Instagram and X.
