The first female player to win the championship, a beautiful dealer from Russia

News Date: 2025-01-12

Although two weeks have passed, Kristina still feels excited when she talks about the moment of winning. When communicating with people, she is used to adding some small emoticons in her texts, and the joy is also conveyed to the people she talks to through these emoticons, just like a child who can't let go of a gift after receiving it, innocent and naive.

"Poker is a game of chance," she said, recalling how the story began. "Since it doesn't require any financial investment, why not give it a try?"

Seven days after registering for MTT Sports, this attempt brought Kristina a New Year's gift - a bonus worth $35,000.

1. Action trumps all doubt

In 2014, Kristina entered the poker industry through an invitation and became a professional dealer. Due to her love for the game and the demands of her career, she has always paid close attention to poker games.

Around December 3, Kristina happened to see a discussion of a poker event in the group. Out of curiosity, she asked her friends in the group for basic information about the event and then registered an account on the platform.

In the fast-developing Internet society, many new things are met with skepticism. Faced with these doubts, most people tend to just fantasize about it instead of verifying it. Kristina's approach is very direct and effective: "Since participating in the event does not require any financial investment, why not give it a try?"

Sometimes the answer to a problem is just that simple.

On December 9, Kristina won the 10th week of the MTT Sports tournament, becoming the first female player to win the championship since the tournament was launched. It is worth mentioning that it took Kristina only 7 days and 30 games from registering an account to winning the championship.

Two days later, on December 12, Kristina received a transfer notification of 0.35 bitcoins. "For all the skeptics and disbelievers, the money just fell into your wallet." She cheered in the player group, "When I received the transfer notification, I screamed with joy."

While most people stay where they are, taking a brave step forward can open up a different world for you.

2. Enjoy yourself and do your best

With so few matches and the title of the first female champion, many players believe that Kristina's victory was purely based on luck. However, it is almost impossible to stand out from 16,000 players by luck alone.

"Poker is not a lottery. Relying solely on luck is very risky." Kristina believes that the key to success lies in the comprehensive use of skills, strategies, mentality, discipline, intuition and other aspects.

Judging from the matches in the tournament, Kristina was once on the verge of elimination.

In the second half of the final, when there were only 22 players left, Kristina got ♠9, ♥K in the button position (BTN). Except for the Thai player "Phadzz" in the big blind, all other players folded.

Before the flop, Kristina chose to tentatively raise 2BB, forcing "Phadzz" to fold, but "Phadzz" chose to call. The two sides entered the heads-up stage.

The flop was ♠2♠10♠Q, both players checked, and the turn was ♣K. "Phadzz" continued to check, while Kristina saw that she had a pair of Ks and decided to raise 3BB.

However, "Phadzz" chose not to call, but raised to 10 BB.

From Kristina's perspective, after eliminating the possibility of a bluff, if the opponent chooses to raise a large amount, he may have a pair of A's, a flush, a pair of K's, or a twopair. There are many situations where the opponent's hand is higher than hers. In this case, Kristina's chances of winning with a pair of K's are not high, and she can only hope for the river card.

From a rational point of view, folding might be a more reasonable choice, but Kristina chose to call 10 BB.

The actual situation is: "Phadzz" had ♠A and ♠J in his hand, and had already completed a flush on the flop.

Then the river card ♦Q, "Phadzz" chose to go all-in, and Kristina chose to fold. In this round, Kristina lost nearly half of her chips and fell far behind other players.

Recalling this round, Kristina admitted that she was "a little frustrated and almost gave up", but this also made her realize that her past playing style was too casual and aggressive, and she made big mistakes.

After that, Kristina adjusted her strategy and became more stable. Although her hand was not good, she lost her antes and small chips in 13 consecutive rounds, but she still waited patiently for the opportunity.

Finally, at the BTN position, Kristina got ♥Q♣A. After the bets from the previous players, the pot reached 4.5 BB. Kristina chose to go all-in and put all the 18 BB chips in her hand into the pot.

All other players folded, and only the old opponent "Phadzz" was left on the field. After using TimeBank twice, "Phadzz" thought for 45 seconds and finally chose to call 18 BB (accounting for 3/4 of his total chips).

At that time, "Phadzz" held a pair of 8s, and his investment cost was only 1BB before Kristina went all-in.

"At this stage, it's not appropriate to call like this, after all, it's just a 50/50 situation." Kristina recalled after the game. From the results, Kristina successfully reversed, defeated her old opponent, and successfully advanced to the final table.

Kristina was lively and playful at the final table, frequently giving her opponents friendly compliments and showing almost all of her hands, including some that she bluffed.

“I don’t want to put psychological pressure on my opponents, after all, they are already under pressure from the prize money.” Kristina explained seriously, “I just want to do some demonstrations to let the audience and other players outside the venue understand the progress of the game and enhance their viewing experience.”

3. Poker is a game of chance

"I plan to buy a new car, but I'm still in the search stage," Kristina said with happiness and satisfaction, "I'm really happy to receive this New Year's gift."

She said that poker has given her a lot. In addition to making many friends, she has also learned a lot of knowledge such as mathematical analysis and psychology.

At the end of the interview, Kristina reiterated her views on poker:

“Poker is a game of chance.”

“MTSports offers the opportunity to win big prizes without any financial investment.”

"Why not give it a try?"

Who will be the next champion? No one knows the answer. But if you don’t try, you will never be the next champion.

From MTT Sports official News