Interview With NiceAndSunny Vlogger Christin Maschmann - Part 2

The confidence which comes across in Christin’s vlogs is somewhat surprising to me, with women in the poker world still often treated as an oddity facing certain daily battles which male players tend not to, but she explains that it’s barely an issue.

“I grew up around boys, playing boys' games etc.. I've never been into dolls, fashion and make-up and these kind of things. So, throughout my life I was used to being in male-dominated territories. I played in bands, worked in the video/TV industry etc... Poker was just another thing. And as puzzling as it is to me, that not more women play, it feels good, being a minority and something out of the ordinary here.  When playing, it can have a lot of advantages, once you get over the obvious disadvantages of rude and condescending behaviour.” 

Riding the blows

Poker, as we all know, can be a cruel mistress – something which Christin found out herself when she bust out of the 2016 Irish Open, telling me:

“That one stung more than any other somehow. I had been to the Irish Open six times before and had never played the Main Event. In 2016 it was a $1k, so I could finally play it and had big hopes. I made it deep into day 2, busted before the money and was devastated. I almost cried during my walk of shame.”

Despite having a decent cash in a side-event at the 2012 Irish Open, it seems that her adopted city of Dublin might be a place she loves, but the ‘Irish cards’ haven’t truly started smiling on her yet.

A year later, however, she was back again – controlling your emotions and living with the bad beats is the only way to treat the game and not go crazy!

An Irish girl

Christin Machmann isn’t the most Irish of names, of course, but Dublin’s Fitzwilliams Card Club, where she started playing 10 years ago, is the place she considers her “spiritual poker home”.

“It was amazing to final table their FitzFest Main Event last November and have Padraig Parkinson in the TV show say 'Christin keeps telling me she's German. But she's been around long enough, she's more Irish than I am!'" she recalls. “This meant a lot to me, because that's another beautiful thing of the Irish: they just welcome you in their circles so easily. I am part of the Irish poker scene, more than I am of the German one.”

And as for the poker scene in Ireland, Christin tells me it is “thriving” and “one of the main reasons for me to move back to Dublin from the Isle of Man after six years living there (besides a better dating scene and more music). There's no weekend here without some poker event going on in some corner of the country.”

The dating scene isn’t something I wanted to pry into of course, but perhaps this vlog from a few months ago will enlighten us all…

Christin the Storyteller

It’s not all poker in Christin Maschmann’s life, as you will see from some of her other excellent vlogs dating back to Las Vegas in 2011, but it’s a running theme as you would expect from someone who works and plays in the poker world for a huge chunk of her days.

“I enjoy telling my stories,” Christin explains of her vlogging, which isn’t only the ‘Nice and Sunny’ content.

“It's actually not a poker vlog, but a vlog about my life!  Generally I have a full and interesting life to talk about, luckily. For which I am very grateful.”

“Whenever I can I love to produce content, be it photos, videos or text” - a “shameless plug for my upcoming book ‘StripNit’ in a few weeks” she says, but there’s no shame in sharing what you love to do with others!

So, with Christin’s next few poker stories planned around the summer poker hotspots in the UK and Barcelona, and a lot else besides, there’s little doubt that August will be just as ‘Nice and Sunny’ as the rest of her fascinating life, so subscribe and join her on her next 10 years of adventures!