Zona de Azar Bahamas – Bestselling Author Maria Konnikova SCOOPS PCA National for u$s 84,600 and Platinum Pass

Bahamas.- January 10, 2017 www.zonadeazar.com Russian-American writer, Harvard and Columbia graduate Maria Konnikova has built her reputation in writing and psychology.

The 33-year-old author now has yet another thing to add to her impressive pedigree; she just conquered the world of live tournament poker.

Konnikova shipped the 290-entry $1,650 PCA National, taking home the $84,600 first-place prize along with a Platinum Pass to the 2019 PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship, valued at $30,000.

“It feels really amazing. I’ve been working really really hard and it feels so validating to achieve this,” Konnikova said.

Konnikova, who is a Friend of PokerStars, has produced two New York Times’ bestsellers, Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes and The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It… Every Time.

“My next book is about poker so this is how I got to where I am right now,” Konnikova said. She decided to experience a year on the live felt, approaching poker as a professional.

“I did start poker from scratch a year ago. I have the best coach in the world, Erik Seidel, so I’ve been very, very lucky to have amazing training to be able to reach this moment.”

Seidel himself had a final table to play today (he finished fourth in the $50k High Roller) but he still found time to support Konnikova. “He’s been giving me advice. I’ve been texting him and he’s been giving me a lot of mindset advice to kind of keep focused. ‘Keep going, you can do it’ and so.”

Mental support was extremely important to Konnikova, who experienced a rough start to the final table, getting her aces cracked early.

“I started the day second in chips and then I was a short stack for a really long time and really had to grind it out.”

Konnikova recovered from the hit and eventually emerged victorious, outlasting some of the world’s toughest competitors including triple crown winner Harrison Gimbel and online legend Chris Moorman.

“I was just very happy to be able to play well against them. And I’ve been actually working especially on my heads-up game,” she said.

That training certainly paid off today when she found herself battling for the title and a trophy in the final match against Alexander Ziskin. She was a three-to-one chip-favourite and never let his opponent catch a breath.

Konnikova profited from a hot deck for the whole day and ended the tournament with another prime combination. The final hand saw her pick up ace-king and the chips went in on the turn. Konnikova had a superior flush draw while Ziskin was looking for spiking one of his two undercards or a gut shot. The river was a king, eliminating Ziskin in second place for $56,250.

The table was surrounded by many railbirds, cheering for Konnikova who appreciated the atmosphere: “The PokerStars team has been beyond amazing. They’ve made this journey really wonderful. It was so great to see all of them on the rail. That made me so happy.”

With such an accomplishment, Konnikova certainly earned a lot of valuable material for her upcoming book. And there’s much more on the horizon as he’s now in possession of one of the first Platinum Passes awarded.

“I’m really excited because I would never be able to afford a $25,000 buy-in. It’s really great to just have that. I think it’s going to be a great event and so I’m just really excited to be a part of it,” Konnikova said.

She may have discovered poker only a year ago, but the taste of victory gets under one’s skin. For Konnikova, poker has become much more than just a source of data for another writer’s piece.

“I really love the game so I’ve really been enjoying it. I’m so glad it’s now part of my life,” Konnikova declared.

On her road to the title, Konnikova had to survive one critical moment in particular. During four-handed play, she ran with sevens into aces of Loek van Wely but turned a straight to double. Van Wely, a well-known Dutch chess grandmaster, eventually hit the rail in fourth place and Konnikova then took care of Kevin MacDonald and Ziskin.

Member of the elusive Poker Triple Crown club, former PCA Main Event champ Harrison Gimbel experienced a volatile run today. He had a great start, knocking out Chris Moorman in eighth place in a classic aces-over-ace-king cooler to take the lead.

But Gimbel lost several sizeable pots thereafter, mainly to Van Wely who eventually claimed the rest of Gimbel’s remaining chips as well, busting him in fifth place.

PCA National final table results:
1st – Maria Konnikova, USA, Friend of PokerStars, $84,600
2nd – Alexander Ziskin, USA, $56,250
3rd – Kevin MacDonald, Canada, $41,140
4th – Loek van Wely, Netherlands, $33,210
5th – Harrison Gimbel, USA, $26,040
6th – Ryan Smith, Canada, $19,710
7th – Marcos Carneiro Antunes, Brazil, $14,480
8th – Chris Moorman, UK, $10,640

The $1,650 PCA National drew 290 entries made by 230 players who created a $421,950 prize pool. The top 39 finishers were paid.

POKERSTARS TV FANS WITH A CHANCE TO WIN A PLATINUM PASS
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Editó: @_fonta   www.zonadeazar.com