Arkadiy Tsinis Wins WSOP Bracelet

Poker, stripped to its bone, is a mathematical game just like chess. That’s why it’s no surprise that professional chess players are switching jobs and turning into professional poker players. Arkadiy Tsinis is one of them. He was a World Class Chess Player before he switched to Poker in 2004. As such, Tsinis has been joining the WSOP for six years now. He has had 11 cashes, but it was the most recent one that was most significant. At the WSOP Event 38, Tsinis won his first ever gold bracelet and also a grand prize of $540,000. That brings his total poker career winnings to an impressive $800,000.

“It’s cute to be a chess player and be broke when you’re in your 20’s but when you hit 30 you’ve got to switch” – Tsinis pretty much summed up the driving force behind the great chess to poker migration. He also said in an interview that chess players are pretty much trained to sit, study, and memorize, and that all these skills can be used in poker, so the transition between the two games is not exactly difficult. He also said that chess is much more difficult than poker and it’s much easier to earn a living in poker is easier than making a living in chess, unless you’re in the top 20 chess players.

Tsinis pretty much proved his point by winning the poker tournament and earning himself a nice shiny bracelet. However, he had to beat a pretty tough final table in order to do it. All the players seemed pretty intent on keeping themselves in the game for as long as possible. But then, as the first elimination inevitably came, people were surprised to see that it was actually a double elimination. Eliminated in 9th place was Christopher Homan and in 8th place was Ryan Laplante. They were both eliminated by Tsinis himself. Next to go was David Rounik, courtesy of Randolph Langosa. He was followed by Perry Lin, also eliminated by Langosa. At fifth place was Paul Nash, this time eliminated by Tsinis. Then it was Pim De Goede eliminated at 4th place, eliminated by Lanosga again. Next, it was Randolph Lanosga himself who had to duck out, caught in a clash with Michale Blanovsky, the eventual runner up. Tsinis had the lead as he entered into heads up against Blanovsky.

This 3:2 lead would eventually balloon into a 3:1 lead, and Blanovsky managed to take the lead at one point. But Tsinis was relentless and doubled up as soon as this happened. Then, at the final hand, Blanovsky went all in with AH 10D. Tsinis had QCJD. The board was revealed to be 10S 9H 5S 8C 8H. The straight was enough for Tsinis to win the pot and to send Blanovsky packing.

Casino Research