World Poker Tour (WPT) has finally got its first open event’s female winner. The Canadian player Ema Zaimovic managed to break trough and emerge victorious from the CA$3,500 Buy-in WPT Playground Main Event that took place in Montreal from February 10th to February 15th.
Nearly nine years have passed since Van Nguyen has become the first female champion in a WPT event, but finally, the festival got Ema Zajmovic, whose winning was a personal achievement. Until now, the young Canadian player had total live earnings amounting to a bit over $100,000 with best live cash estimated to $76,108. The latter was generated in November 2016, when Zajmovic ranked at the fifth position of the partypoker.net WPT Montreal Main Event, which crowned Mike Sexton as a winner.
The last year’s champion Mike Sexton praised Zajmovic for her play in this year’s event, saying she got something from both Phil Ivey and Vanessa Selbst in her, and projected that the Canadian’s path in the world of poker would be marked with great success from now on.
The victory of Ema Zaimovic not only made the Canadian the second female WPT champion, but also the first female who has ever managed to win an open buy-in event. This year, the partypoker.net WPT Playground Main Event gathered a total of 380 entries, who generated a total prize pool of CA$1,179,520 ($907,323). Zaimovic outlasted them all, taking home a prize of CA$261,000, the special WPT Main Event belt, as well as a seat into the $15,000 Buy-in Tournament of Champions that is to take place in April 2017 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood and that accepts only players who got invited to it.
Commenting on her success, Zajmovic explained that she really wanted to win the WPT Main Event belt, so she remained focused on her goal until the end of the event. She also said she was really thrilled with the fact he had proved that women are just as capable as men to win the title.
Only ten players made it to the last day of the event, with the play happening at fast pace at the beginning. Henry Tran was the first who got eliminated, quickly followed by Ryan Yu. The rest of the players dropped out one by one, until only Ema Zajmovic and Jean-Francois Bouchard were left at the final table, fully ready to start the heads-up battle. At that time, it was Bouchard who got the advantage, but Zajmovic soon got the chip lead and pushed the game into the best direction for her, finally making history for both WPT and herself.
With Ema Zajmovic on the first place with a guaranteed prize pool portion of $200,769, Jean-Francois Bouchard remained second, taking home a prize estimated to $130,208. Eric Afriat got third, cashing in with a prize amounting to $83,608.
The fourth position was reserved for Tam Ho, who scooped for a $55,131 portion of the guaranteed prize pool. Mekhail Mekhail remained fifth, followed by Jean-Pascal Savard who got on the sixth position of the ranking.
- Author
Harry Evans
