No surprises from there and Zajmovic had the chip lead. Mekhail had raised pre-flop to 225,000 with A-J suited, Zajmovic raised over the top with Kings and, pot committed, Mekhail made the reluctant call. She doubled through Eric Afriat on that hand and then ten hands later knocked out Mekhail in fifth place to grow her stack to 5.160 million chips. It was the 100th hand of the final table that Zajmovic began her run. The flush came on the turn and Savard was out. Savard called, putting himself all-in, with Jacks. With A-4 suited, Bouchard had hit top pair (Fours) on the flop with the nut flush draw and ended up all-in. Savard was the first one to be eliminated when it was down to six players, knocked out by Jean-Francois Bouchard. Zajmovic dropped a chunk early at the official final table as she doubled-up Mekhail Mekhail, but that still left her in the second spot. Tam Ho was the chip leader at that point with 3.570 million and nobody else was over the 2 million mark. She didn’t add many chips by the time the six-handed final table began, having climbed to barely over 3 million, but that still left her in good shape. Of her opponents, just Jean-Pascal Savard had over 2 million, 900,000 chips behind. When Tuesday’s action began, our champ was the chip leader of the remaining ten players with nearly 3 million. He added that she is a “combo of Phil Ivey and Vanessa Selbst.” That is some serious praise. We’re going to be seeing a lot more of her in the future. Poker Hall of Famer, “Ambassador of Poker,” and WPT television analyst Mike Sexton, who won WPT Montreal at the Playground Poker Club, said of Zajmovic, “I have the greatest respect for her. Now it has evolved so much and it is nice to see I had support from older women, younger women.” It was hard to be good and be supportive of each other. When I started playing poker, there was so much competition between girls. “The funniest and nicest part of this experience was all the women who came and were so supportive of me. “Honestly, I am really happy that I proved women can do it,” Zajmovic told WPT.com afterward. As the word “invitational” should indicate, that was not an open event only those invited to participate could buy-in. Only one other woman, Van Nguyen, has ever won a WPT title, but that was in the 2008 WPT Celebrity Invitational. By winning the WPT Playground Main Event, Ema Zajmovic became the first woman – the first – to win an open Main Event on the World Poker Tour. While the victory was a milestone in Zajmovic’s poker career and her greatest accomplishment to date, it is arguably a more significant moment for the history of poker in general. Her first major live tournament title was worth CAD $241,500 (USD $183,789). She got another shot at a final table a couple months later and didn't waste the opportunity.Ema Zajmovic came close in November, finishing fifth in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Montreal Main Event, but now she got over the hump at the same venue, Montreal’s Playground Poker Club, as she won the WPT Playground Main Event Tuesday night. Although Zajmovic busted in fifth place, Mike Sexton showered her with praise for her skills. Mike Sexton pulled off a sick comeback and shipped that title. Last November, she final tabled the WPT Montreal. Zajmovic made back-to-back final tables in Montreal. ![]() ![]() The funniest and nicest part of this experience was all the women who came and were so supportive of me. In a post-victory interview, Zajmovic told the crew at WPT, “I am really happy that I proved women can do it. Ema Zajmovic won $261K in Canadian Dollars, or roughly $200K USD. The final day of the main event started with 10 players. The main event buy-in at the WPT Playground was $3,500 CAD. The French-Canadian cash-game specialist made her second- straight WPT final table. Alas, Ema Zajmovic etched her name in the history books with a victory at the WPT Playground. Although Nguyen was the first woman to win a WPT title, it was a freeroll. In 2008, Van Nguyen (who was married to Men the Master at the time) won the invitation-only WPT Invitational. Yes, it's a technicality, but in the poker world, everyone is a stickler for details. On Valentine's Day, Ema Zajmovic became the the second woman to win an event on the World Poker Tour, but she also made history by becoming the first-ever female to win an open event. The Playground is one of the coolest card rooms in Canada and the heart of poker in Montreal.
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