Estonian chess Grandmaster claims nearly $500,000 in poker tournament
After reaching the final two of a Super High Rollers poker event, 23-year old chess Grandmaster Ottomar Ladva and second-place finisher Mairus Gierse cut a deal to share the final prize pool of the tournament. The Estonian came out with $446,446 of the tournament's total prize pool.
Ladva made out with $446,446 of the total $2.125 million prize pool. In February, the 23-year old Estonian won $525,089 in an online tournament.
Ladva is the youngest Estonian champion in chess and also holds Grandmaster rank after winning a round-robin tournament in Riga in 2015. He gave up chess some years ago and has focused on poker.
Speaking to portal Jokker.ee in 2019, Ladva said: "The large sums in chess start moving once you reach the world top 20. At one point, I realized that is just not possible for me because I would have been better even younger. /.../ My main goal in poker is to make enough money, titles do not interest me too much."
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Editor: Kristjan Kallaste
