The badly burned remains of a woman’s body have been identified as high stakes poker player Susie Zhao.
A local resident discovered the 33-year-old Asian American’s body on Monday 13th July while out walking near a state land parking area in White Lake Township, Michigan.
Wow I'm shook, this is so sad. RIP. https://t.co/7eOnyuJ6j8
— Christian Harder (@realcharder30) July 21, 2020
Shocking News
Susie Zhao was a popular figure in the poker community, and well-known in many different US poker rooms such as the Commerce and Hollywood Park. She was a regular on the Live at the Bike stream only a few years ago.
Many names from the industry immediately took to Twitter to express their sorrow at this terrible news.
“She was one of the bubbliest and most vivacious opponents I’ve ever had. She was a very strong player who also liked to have fun at the table.”
There were other messages from players sharing memories from the 2015 World Series of Poker. Zhao clearly touched the hearts of many poker players who were lucky enough to have met her.
“Played with her a tonne at commerce. she was always upbeat and talkative at the table, def made the hours fly by. Super sad stuff”
Here is a short clip of her in action in a $5/$5/$10/$100 no limit texas hold’em game on Live at the Bike.
Was Susie Zhao Targeted?
The police have already requested that members of the public contact them with any information regarding the matter.
They specifically want to talk to anybody who may have seen Zhao between July 11th and July 13th, and also said this was already the tenth murder in the county this year.
It’s a horrible thought, but could Zhao have been targeted because of her status as a poker player?
High stakes poker players are known to have plenty of cash at hand so a robbery makes sense but there is little known right now. The HendonMob website shows her as having won $224,671 from live tournaments.
There have been plenty of recent stories about poker players being targeted as an easy mark.
High stakes tournament player Daren Elias won a tidy $473,280 at the 2019 L.A. Poker Classic main event to take his career earnings over $7.1 million.
This didn’t go unnoticed and police think he was later targeted by a robber who held his babysitter at gunpoint expecting cash to be in the house.
We would like to send our condolences to the Zhao family, and hope the police can bring the perpetrator to justice.
Don’t forget to check out the latest poker news to keep up with what’s been happening in the poker world.
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