When Julien Martini was winning a bracelet in the Omaha $1500 eight-or-better even, he didn’t know that he was also winning someone’s heart. Kate Hoang, a poker star from Washington was in the contest where Martini bagged $239771 for finishing first. The American didn’t only lose on the table, but her love also escaped her grip. Martini and Hoang’s love affair has nourished from love to engagements, and are now a wedded couple.
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) on their Twitter account on Wednesday congratulated Julien Martini and Kate Hoang for their wedding. A section of the Twitter statement read:
“They are all in. After meeting two years ago at a WSOP final table.” The tweet ended with a short phrase of congratulation to ‘the newlywed.”
The union proved that love doesn’t come easy as it took the new couple four days to battle it out on the poker table. Martini was a massive winner in the tournament that he also won $134587 for finishing third in the $10000 entry event. Besides, Martini secured the runners-up spot in that year’s version of European Poker Tour and won a further $377910.
In January, Martini must have felt that he made the right decision by deciding to be a poker professional. In that month, Martini was the second-best conqueror after adding to his pocket $2974000 in the $25000 buy-in option.
Despite losing to her would-be husband in such a prestigious contest, Hoang has equally made some achievements in the poker ring. The American is considered as a specialist when it comes to Omaha eight-or-better championship, and that explains how she met her husband. In 2016, Hoang was the first runners-up in $3000 pot-limit edition of Omaha eight-or-better event to claim $182281. The following year, Hoang went for the $10000 buy-in where she went to the final of the event.
Hoang and Martini aren’t the first love birds who nourish in Poker
Unlike other sports, poker is one game that exercises gender equality by allowing ladies and gents to fight it out for prize pool. In the year that Hoang was enjoying her greatest period in poker, Marina Lampropoulos and Ivan Luca and tied the knot at the main event in Eureka Poker Tour. The April 2018 saw a domestic contest make its way on the poker table with Tim Reilly dismissing his wife Ness from the main event of WSOP Circuit. However, the best part was that Ness Reilly was already in the money bracket.
In a separate scenario, Kristen Bicknell and her husband Alex Foxen made headlines by securing the first two spots in the Venetian DeepStack Championship event. Coincidentally, the same year saw Igor Kurganov bundle out his girlfriend, Liv Boeree from the main event of WSOP. With several events lined up before the end of the year, could we witness more engagements in the poker ring? Another event that observers are waiting to unfold is the first time that the newly wed will challenge each other on a poker table
