Home / Poker News August 2013 / The Poker Grapevine – Marat Sharafutdinov’s Life after WCOOP Win
The Poker Grapevine – Marat Sharafutdinov’s Life after WCOOP Win
Posted by: Jo Martin - Sat, 2013-08-31 04:06
With the 2013 WCOOP looming on the horizon, the time has never been better to take a look back at last year’s World Championship of Online Poker, the Main Event of which saw the historic victory of one Russian cab driver named Marat Sharafutdinov, whose rags-to-riches story has inspired countless of other
online poker players since.
Besides making history by grabbing the full $1,000,907 top prize of the 2012 WCOOP Main Event, Sharafutdinov launched an internet meme by typing “I wont million” into the chat-box during the deal-making stage of the event. The Russian, who had satellited his way into the Main Event for a mere 40 FPPs, eventually got his wish: he went on to win and a few days later, he found himself a rich man.
Word has it that now he’s looking for a job. Unlike some of his peers though who find burning through that much money ridiculously easy, Sharafutdinov is apparently a practical man. He took none of that money back to the green felt, live or virtual, and he didn’t make a goal out of becoming a poker celebrity either. Instead, he invested most of his winnings, living quite comfortably off the interest and he’s now looking to learn languages and to land a dream-job as a guide for Russian tourists abroad.
Sharafutdinov doesn’t actually need to work, he just wants to. He says that a person “deteriorates” without a job and he may actually be right there…
He also said he did not like playing live poker, because many of the players were unfriendly and it is generally “not a situation” for him.
He has used some of his money to travel around the world a bit and he plans to travel to South America in 2014 for the World Cup.
Play at PokerStars and earn your way into the WCOOP Main Event the way Sharafutdinov did in 2012.
