Look Out - Ana Marquez

Ana Marquez is a 24-year-old professional poker player who currently lives in Washington, DC, while she finishes work on her history degree at American University. She is originally from Malaga, on the southwestern coast of Spain, and intends to move back there after she finishes school.

“I was very excited to see that the European Poker Tour Grand Final is going to Madrid. A lot of my family is from Madrid. When I go back to Spain, the EPT Grand Final in Madrid is May 7-12, so it is perfect.”

The subject of her thesis is a good representation of her two favorite interests, poker and the world history of warfare. “Everything involved in war, strategies and economic history and development, I love studying,” said Marquez with a smile.

“I actually wrote my history thesis on the history of poker,” she said. “I focused on the social development of poker from the 1970s up to now — how it started with Doyle Brunson and all of the legends, and how the American public saw the game, and now, how it has become a media revolution with a worldwide audience. The social trajectory of poker was fun to write about.”

Her combined interests have made Marquez an increasingly successful and tough opponent on the felt. She first started playing with friends four years ago in DC, and then began playing in $1-$2 cash games in casinos. After that, she played in small online tournaments before jumping to the tournament trail about a year and a half ago. Now, she plays in big buy-in live tournaments, and in the major Sunday online tournaments.

Her breakout performance came this year at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, where she stormed to the chip lead at certain points of the tournament, and turned heads with an eventual 10th-place finish, which was good for $155,000.

“It’s like I finally made it. I have been playing for a few years, and winning majors is what I have always wanted, so that showed that my work is starting to pay off,” said Marquez. Her biggest online win soon followed in February. She won a $1,000 Monday event on Full Tilt Poker to take her career tournament earnings to more than $500,000.
She has learned that experience and patience are important assets to have as a player, and as she accumulates more of each, she should be a threat to win a major tournament in the years to come.

Here is her take on both: “I have learned that you change your game every single day. One day, I play more aggressively than on another, and at other times, I have to adjust. It’s always changing. Practice gives you the experience that you need in order to know how to adapt to certain situations. You also have to be patient and keep learning. The goal is to make money, and you can make money in small tournaments and in big tournaments. You can try to take a shot in big tournaments to get to your goal faster, but you should focus on the ground level first; be patient.” ♠