Chess Grandmaster Jennifer Shahade Wins €100k in OFC Poker Event

Exclusive interview, courtesy of TonyBet.com

The two-time US women’s chess champion, Jennifer Shahade rushed into the event hall of the Corinthia Hotel Prague to join the 22 other Open Face Chinese poker players for the first-ever Tonybet OFC Poker World Championship High Roller event. Thirteen hours later she lifted the champion’s belt celebrating her carrier biggest cash prize of €100,000 and smiling for the cameras.

However, the path to glory was not an easy one. Jennifer flew into Prague from London, just a few hours before the tournament, she wasn’t sure if she’ll be able to collect the buy-in in such a short notice and had no clue who she was going to play. However, her chess skills and years of Open Face Chinese poker practice was the key to success.

“It was the biggest buy-in event I ever played, and I'm really happy I won,” said Shahade right after earning the victory. “I loved it and had a great time. I almost busted several times, and I wasn't so happy with how I played in the beginning, but then as I got more tired, I got to play better.”

A star in the world of chess and a poker prodigy Jennifer started playing mind games at a very young age. “I learned chess when I was really young,” Jennifer says. “My brother and my dad are both chess masters, so I was taught when I was six or seven. I was pretty bad at first, especially compared to my brother, but then I got back to it in high school and that was the beginning of my chess career.”

“Then a lot of my friends from chess got into poker in the “boom years” and eventually I picked it up as well. At first it was the same as with chess – I was dabbling at it at first and then a few years later I got more serious about it.”

And so she did. Jennifer made her debut in the live poker scene at the 2007 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas where she finished 17th at the No Limit Hold'em World Championship Ladies Event collecting a cash prize of almost $8,500. However, her biggest win came seven years later in Prague at the OFC Poker World Championship.

“I’ve been doing a tone of OFC in the past two years. I play Open Face poker all the time – waiting for a train, waiting for the plane, in bed, all the time,” Jennifer explained her obsession with the game. “Right now it’s gaining popularity throughout the poker community, but I think that to keep the pace it needs to keep evolving by introducing new variants and new formats.”

“When it comes to playing online and live Open Face Chinese, I’m way more used to playing heads-up because there are just so many apps where you can play one-on-one. Meanwhile the recent Open Face Chinese World Championship featured three-handed play where the math and strategy is really different, so I feel like we were all noobs there in a certain way. “

“I have played regular Open Face Chinese poker in live tournaments before, but never Pineapple. It was fun. I thought it was great and hope there will be more tournaments like this.”

The first-ever OFC Poker World Championship in Prague was organized by Tonybet, the UK-licensed online gaming site. On her way to the High Roller title and the €100,000 first place prize Jennifer Shahade outplayed the field of 22 players who generated a record-breaking €218,500 prize pool making it the richest Open Face Chinese poker event in history.