New York Times Bestseller Maria Konnikova Goes From Books To Bracelets

Maria Konnikova first recorded a live tournament poker cash in 2017, which was around the time that the Russian-American author was immersing herself in the poker world as part of her research for her New York Times bestselling book The Biggest Bluff, which was published in 2020 and saw her commit to playing poker professionally for a year with some help from poker legend Erik Seidel. The book’s tagline on the front cover reads, “How I learned to pay attention, master myself, and win.”

Konnikova scored one of the most important wins of her career this week when she emerged victorious in the 2024 World Series of Poker Online $888 buy-in crazy 8’s event, topping a field of 468 entries to earn $68,478 and her first WSOP gold bracelet.

Konnikova, who is now an ambassador for PokerStars, took to social media in the early hours of Oct. 14th to celebrate her triumph.

We did it!! @WSOP Bracelet #1 pic.twitter.com/KhDnMCQBeD

— Maria Konnikova (@mkonnikova) October 14, 2024

With this score, Konnikova now has nearly $938,000 in recorded tournament earnings. Her largest score came just over a month ago when she finished fifth in the €3,000 mystery bounty event at the European Poker Tour Barcelona festival for $141,858.

Full real-name results in the $888 event have not yet been posted. Konnikova won under the screen name ‘versperlynd’, a reference to the love interest from the first James Bond novel Casino Royale.

Earlier this year, Konnikova took down a WSOP Online Circuit event for her first gold ring. She beat out a field of 504 entries in the $525 buy-in main event, earning $57,531 for that triumph.

To learn more about how she got into the poker world, check out Card Player’s interview with Konnikova that ran back in 2020.

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