Safiya Umerova, a Russian-born poker pro now residing in Los Angeles, has become the second female player to win a WSOP gold bracelet this year. Umerova emerged victorious over the field of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout for her first WSOP-related gold piece and top prize of $264,046, the biggest cash she has scooped since the beginning of her short poker career.
Umerova started playing poker about a year and a half ago. At first, she took part in small stakes cash games in poker clubs around LA. It was this year when she started entering tournaments. Hooked on the excitement these offer, she has taken part in a number of events over the past months.
Shortly after her victory last night, the player revealed that she has invested a lot of time and effort in learning the game. She has read a lot of books and has been helped by many experienced people. Umerova attributed her triumph last night mainly to the fact that she has worked very hard on her game.
As mentioned above, the Russian-born player, who came to the US about six years ago, has become the second female player to win a tournament on this year’s schedule of the Series. Only two days ago, Canada’s Kristen Bicknell took down the $1,500 Bounty No-Limit Hold’em for her second-ever gold piece.
When asked about what it was like to be a woman in the manly world of poker, Umerova said that female players were often underestimated. She added that it had happened to her quite often when at the poker table.
Nevertheless, Umerova proved that women can play equally well and can take down massive fields of players. Speaking of this, the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em attracted as many as 1,050 entries this year. The generated prize pool of $1,417,500 was distributed to the top 120 finishers.
The tournament was played over three days at Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. The event’s final day kicked off with 12 players returning to set the official nine-handed final table and to play down to an eventual winner. Of all 12 survivors, Vanessa Selbst and Sam Greenwood were the only two players to have formerly won gold bracelets. However, both of them did not make it to the final table.
Nine-handed play began with UK player Niall Farrell as the chip leader, followed by Umerova. The two players eventually faced each other heads-up. It took 59 hands for one of the two to emerge as the tournament’s winner. Hand #152 was the last one played last night.
Umerova raised to 200,000 on the button and Farrell moved all in. Umerova called and tabled [Ah][6h] against her opponent’s [Qs][9h]. The board ran out [Ad][Kh][5c][5h][2h], securing the female poker pro with the title. Farrell collected a total of $163,158 for his second-place finish.
Michael Mixer from E Greenwich, Rhode Island finished 3rd for $118,109. Bulgarian Yuliyan Kolev took 4th place for a payout of $86,513. Damian Salas from Argentina collected $64,129 for taking 5th place. Raymond Ho from Cerritos, California finished 6th for $48,115.
Daniel McAulay from the UK took 7th place, good for $36,543. Daniel Tang, yet another UK player at the final table, scooped a $28,101 share of the prize pool for taking 8th place. Russian Alexander Lakhov finished 9th for $21,881.
