Las Vegas, NV – Ukrainian-born Arkadiy “Kamsky” Tsinis won the World Series of Poker’s 38th event. The event cost players $1,500 to enter. With 2,192 entries, the prize pool was a huge $2,959,200. Kamsky took home the bracelet and a $540,136 first prize. Tsinis is the third Ukrainian player to win a gold bracelet this year (with no Ukrainian players ever winning a gold bracelet in past World Series of Poker events).
Tsinis is of Ukrainian blood, but has lived in the United States for quite some time. He resided in New York for many years where he graduated from Baruch College, part of the City University of New York, with a degree in finance and economics. Tsinis is ranked in the top 40 of best backgammon players in the world competing in tournament and “cash” backgammon games. He is also a master chess player. Tsinis believes both backgammon and chess provided the background needed to build his poker game. When asked about his chess and backgammon play impacting his poker game, Kamsky commented:
Oh, it’s huge. Chess is not so much a gambling game but backgammon is so just being a gambler gives you a huge advantage over a normal player.
Kamsky, now a Las Vegas native, chose to play Ukraine’s national anthem as a protest to the United States’ policy against online poker. Hopefully the government is listening.
New York's own Arkadiy Tsinis with his new gold bracelet. Photo courtesy of Poker News.
Congratulations to Arkadiy Tsinis for his WSOP win! Stay tuned to FlopTurnRiver for more WSOP news.