Yuri Ishida Conquers the International Poker World

Sep 28, 2018

Yuri Ishida

The World Poker Tour would be a fitting name for the travel exploits of one particular participant in the Day 1B field and that is Yuri Ishida. Ishida hails from Osaka in Japan and has accumulated $365,000 in cashes thus far. Her passion for poker matches perfectly with the opportunity to travel the world and play cards for a living.

How does a Japanese woman randomly appear in the north of Africa for the WPTDeepStacks Marrakech Season 2018-2019 Main Event? The answer is rather simple.

“I was in Barcelona and the next I played the WPT in Portugal. I like to travel a lot. My friends live in Belgium and Germany, and I visited them. After that, I saw the event in Marrakech and decided to come here.”

Despite not being full legal in Japan just yet, poker is gaining more momentum and all the card lovers travel to pursuit their passion, making a name for themselves.

“We have to travel abroad. Poker is still small in Japan, but it is getting bigger. I think it will take five more years and poker will become more popular when casinos open.”

After Marrakech, Ishida already has her sights yet on more poker trips.

“I haven’t decided yet. Maybe to Asia next and then come back to Europe and I want to go to Prague for sure, maybe some more small tournaments.”

With many countries already crossed off her to-do list, a few of them in particular have left a very positive impression on Ishida.

“I really like Spain and Portugal, and here (Marrakech) also. It is so nice, and I sent some pictures to my friends, Japanese poker players. They said they want to come for sure next year. It is a very different culture between Japan and Morocco. Many things are brand new for me and the hotel is so gorgeous.”

Ishida has been playing poker since 2012 and many more years are to come. In level seven, she was playing a stack of around 40,000, which is just under the average with 165 players out of 230 entries remaining.

 

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