The WPT finally has a female champion in an open event

Perhaps the longest unclaimed accolade in modern poker finally has a victor, as Ema Zajmovic triumphs in the World Poker Tour.

Poker has had many a great accolade it seemingly has waited a long time for, including the first ever Triple Crown winner and the first ever Double EPT champion (both at the time nobody thought we would ever see).

Last night it finally shook off one of the longest outstanding accolades in the modern game when Ema Zajmovic won the WPT Playground Championship for CAD $261,000.

We have had female WPT champions before in closed events, like Ladies Only events, but Zajmovic is the first female champion in an open World Poker Tour Main Event. Clearly it was just a strange anomaly for the tour, which has been going since 2002, had 14 seasons and hundreds of Main Events. 

"I proved women can do it"

380 players entered the CAD $3,500 Main Event and Zajmovic triumphed when she defeated Jean-Francois Bouchard heads-up. This was her second recent attempt at a WPT title as she also made the final table of the Main Event Mike Sexton won in Montreal last year.

She commented after the win:

“Honestly, I am really happy that I proved women can do it. The funniest and nicest part of this experience was all the women who came and were so supportive of me. It was amazing. When I started playing poker, there was so much competition between girls. It was hard to be good and be supportive of each other. Now it has evolved so much and it is nice to see I had support from older women, younger women.

This result also puts her 4th on the WPT Player of the Season standings. 

What is the next great unclaimed accolade in poker? Let us know in the comments: