Seat 1: Jen Shahade, 44, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (3,015,000)
PokerStars Ambassador Jennifer Shahade has been one of the leading forces to help women get into poker. Shahade has a strong mind-games background, having competed at the highest level of chess. She won the US Women’s Champion title twice.
But Shahade was also used to competing against men from her teenage years and demonstrated that by becoming the first female U.S. Junior Open winner.
As a NYU comparative literature graduate, Shahade has also professed her skills as an author. She wrote or co-wrote several books and numerous articles, mostly about chess.
It’s common for chess players to transition to poker and Shahade exemplifies that. Since 2014, she’s partnered with PokerStars and continued to work on opening the door for more players.
Her own poker achievements include cashes worth north of $500,000, with the best result coming 11 years ago in an Open Face Chinese Pineapple event in Prague. That victory earned Shahade and even €100,000, but the NAPT run will allow her to celebrate a new career high.
Player bios courtesy of Jan Kores/PokerStars
Tournament Progression
Day 1: 108,500 (39/107, 1b)
Day 2: 190,000 (54/84)
Day 3: 928,000 (7/40)
Day 4: 553,000 (13/16)
Day 5: 3,015,000 (2/6)
Career statistics
Career earnings: $523,181
EPT/NAPT cashes: 1
Best result: 31st, 2014 PCA
Key hands
Shahade was down to just five big blinds at one point on Day 5 as she was all in with king-seven against Abdullah Akbarpoor's king-nine. Shahade was dominated and at risk, but she ended up making a runner-runner flush to double up.
Shahade then picked up two tens to double against Michael Berk's fours. Once the final table was reached, Matthew Beinner committed most of his stack preflop and Shahade called. Beinner then called all in on the flop with a straight draw, but Shahade had woken up with kings to bust Beinner in ninth place.