Poker Newbie Takes Gold at the WSOP

WSOP bracelets are the most coveted rewards in a poker player's career, and some great players have tried all their lives to win one and failed. For 28-year-old Safiya Umerova, however, 18 months of playing poker was all it took for her to grab her first piece of gold!

Barely a day after Kristen Bicknell had become the first female bracelet winner of this summer’s annual pokerfest in Vegas – and the first Canadian female ever to do so – Umerova scooped the $1500 NLHE Shootout title, winning $264,046 in a field of 1050.

“I guess I deserve it,” Umerova added, “because I wasn't sure if I even deserved to have one. I've only been playing poker seriously for a year.”

It’s a remarkable story for the Russian woman who moved to Los Angeles 6 years ago and, until recently, only played cash games at local LA casinos such as The Hustler. Her decision to switch to tournaments has paid off big time.

“I went really deep and almost made a final table in the first tournament I played,” said Umerova. “That’s when I realized how much I liked it. It’s a different game. I liked it much more than cash games. I don’t want to play cash games anymore.”

The talented Russian’s decision to switch has paid off handsomely, a 2nd spot in the 2016 WPT L.A Poker Classic being quickly followed by a $76,144 payday for her 5th spot in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.

“I thought next step was coming to the WSOP,” Umerova said. “This is a little bigger buy-in than I normally do, but I started building up my bankroll so I could afford playing this event … then I ended up winning a bracelet.”

Umerova explained her preparations for the summer biggie: “I studied the game almost every day. I read a lot of books. I had people help me. I worked very much on my game to get here,” she said. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t work hard on my game.”

The fact that Umerova and Bicknell won back-to-back bracelets for the female of the species didn’t pass the Russian-born LA pro by.

"It’s just so inspiring for women out there,” she explained. “ A lot of female poker pros out there are actually very good and underestimated. It happens to me when I’m at the table.”

Umerova’s goals won’t stop now that she has taken down her first piece of poker jewellery, the 28-year old stating:

“I dream big. I want to be the best poker player in the world. I know I am not there yet, but I want to have the most gold bracelets anyone has ever had. That’s the goal. That’s what you are supposed to go for -- right?"

Not that she has gotten big-headed with her victory, confessing:

“I mean, this wasn’t that big of a deal, it was just one bracelet. It’s not like five. One is just one.”

Umerova’s victory wasn’t won against a field of ‘nobody’s’ either. Vanessa Selbst, the three-time gold bracelet winner in 2008, 2012, and 2014 made Day Three and finished in 10th place, while Sam Greenwood, a gold bracelet winner last year, finished in 12th place.

Among the notable players who won their first-round matches but were eliminated on Day Two were – Brian Hastings, Ryan Welch, Nick Jivkov, Svetlana Gromenkova, Phillip Hui, James Dempsey, Steve Gross, Eli Elezra, and Konstantin Puchkov.

For such a newbie to the poker tournament scene to win a bracelet is very unusual and one things seems fairly certain - this won’t be the last time you hear the name Safiya Umerova in poker circles!