PokerStars SportsStar Fatima Moreira's Blossoming Poker Career

After retiring from her prospective sport, glamorous Dutch hockey player, Fatima Moreira de Melo, joined Team PokerStars SportsStars in September 2009.
Throughout her hockey career, the thirty-two year old’s list of accolades include winning the Women’s Hockey World Championship in 2006, and an Olympic gold medal in Beijing in 2008.
The top sports woman also achieved a  Masters Degree in Law in 2006, making her a formidable combination of high intelligence, stunning good looks, as well as a highly competitive nature.
These traits have obviously served Fatima Moreira de Melo well in her new chosen career as a poker pro and soon after joining Pokerstars, she placed 12th at the 2009 Dutch Poker Open ($4,799) and 9th at the €6k Lido International Dutch Open for €32,832 ($48,772).
Since then Fatima has gone on to win a further $72,973 in live tournaments throughout 2010 taking her live poker earnings of just over a year to an impressive $126,544.
However, Fatima also plays online and one of the tournaments she won on PokerStars this year was none other than the PokerStars Nighly Hundred Grand. When asked how her year went, she replied:
“Up. About $130,000. A lot for me…I made some final tables, won some tourneys online, and cashed in three events at the WSOP. Loved the traveling and meeting new people.”
Always the consummate professional, when Fatima Moreira de Melo joined PokerStars in late 2009, she told the site that she loved the game of poker but “if I want to do something good, I have to do it right” and so insisted on plenty of proper training to raise her game to a high standard.
 
As well as receiving top coaching from Dutch Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis, Fatima said she also endlessly debates tactics with her poker enthusiast boyfriend Raemon Sluiter.
The end result is turning out to be a well-rounded player, who is already carving out a successful poker career for herself. Looking ahead to 2011, Fatima said she intends to play all the PCA, EPT, and WSOP events, but when asked what results she was expecting, replied:
“I’m not the type of person that likes to predict things in life, because I love surprises.”