Ema Zajmovic Wants to Help Girls Manage Social Media Pressures

(Photo: Worldpokertour.com)

Ema Zajmovic is a poker star on the rise; she’s had a charmed couple of months at the poker tables taking down a WPT main event for a cool quarter mill Canadienne in February, not long after final tabling in the WPT event in Montreal for another CA$102,010. She also managed to slip in a 4th place finish in the UK’s Party Poker Millions 6-max event.

She worked on Justin Trudeau’s political campaigns in the past, and as a result know’s how to handle her public image, interview well and play for the cameras. And now that she is the only female champion of an open WPT event, she’s in a perfect position to put those skills to use.

But it sounds like the publicity circus just isn’t her priority at the moment.

In a recent interview for CalvinAyre.com she said:

“I enjoy the strategic aspect of it more than being a spokesperson.” Adding later, “When I was young I had a bigger ego and wanted to be sponsored and wanted to be the best female poker player, etc. Now I just want to be the best at my table.”

She does recognize that a bit of fame gives her a platform, but rather than wanting to leverage that into profitable sponsorship deals she’s much more interested in helping young people deal with the psycho-social pitfalls of living their lives on social media.

“I want to do something for younger girls,” she says. “In social media, there are so many insecurities [...] I want to help people feel empowered. To feel good about themselves and know themselves better.”

That sense of self-respect and respect for others also entered into her views on the poker world’s ongoing battle with its occasionally regressive sexual politics. When asked whether she’d felt discriminated against in poker she noted:

“When I started playing poker, I didn’t think so, but then I started noticing some incidents that lacked respect. It’ all about respect for me and you have to start by respecting yourself.”

It will be interesting to follow her in the next few months as she works out exactly what being the only female WPT champion means to her. And how she applies her own advice for people trying to carve out their roles at the table. 

“I see a lot of girls who are being more masculine, aggressive, vulgar and I don’t think it’s the right way to prove a point. If you want to respect yourself you have to be feminine, and that doesn’t mean being all girly; I am talking about self-respect and authenticity.”