This summer, I worked at the Venetian as a poker host and had the pleasure of meeting Joey Ingram (or Papi, as his fans call him to my absolute delight).
He let me know about a cool opportunity to play in the PokerGo Studio, because Rare Evo (a blockchain convention) was holding their second annual Poker Classic presented by Midnight (a blockchain).
It was my understanding that there was a cool crypto convention happening and there was an invite-only turbo poker tournament that was going to run for a reasonable buy-in.
Considering I know nothing about crypto, I figured this could be my only chance to taste some of that sweet crypto money, but only if I could win it. I applied, was accepted, and booked my flight and lodging, excited for a chance to play in such a cool poker arena.
Although I spent all of June and July in Las Vegas, when I stepped out of the air-conditioned airport, the August heat punched me in my face. I spent the day before the tournament running some errands, enjoying some tacos with Ariel Heart, and toking some of Vegas’s finest herb.
While I could have studied, I wanted to enjoy my trip and go in relaxed. Mission accomplished.
On August 10th, the day for the tournament arrived. Ariel came and picked me up and we arrived at the studio a little before the networking hour was to begin.
By 1 p.m., people were starting to fill up the lobby, slinging their merchandise, talking about a wild party the night before, and hugging old friends. The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly. That made me even more excited to play.
If you’ve never been in the PokerGo studio, let me paint you a picture with words.
When standing at the entranceway, there’s a sleek, small bar to the left with glowing red lights highlighting the glassware. When facing the bar, the control station containing recording equipment and a single poker table are in a soundproof room.
To the right of that is a comfortable sitting lounge with a large screen television to watch the ongoing game.
However, the most important room of all for me was the one to the immediate right of the entrance. That room, where the magic was about to happen, was filled with recording equipment, two groups of four poker tables with brown chairs and one feature table with black leather chairs in the center of the room in front of a big screen.
The energy during the networking hour was palpable as players began fraternizing, swapping drinking stories from the night before, eating the complimentary pizza, and sizing one another up.
As the time to play got closer, I got in line to buy into the tournament and watched as the dealers arrived. About 13 of them came into the room, walking in a single file line, and wearing clean and crisp, maroon long-sleeved collared shirts displaying Aria’s name and black pants.
They huddled up around a table for the pre-tournament rundown as more players started lining up at the cage to place their buy-ins. The clock clicked towards and then past the 2 pm start time as the final players trickled in. People started moving to tables and sitting down.
I was ready.
The tournament had been advertised as a freezeout (i.e., a tournament where you could only buy in once), but when I arrived, it was restructured to allow unlimited re-buys up through level 6.
I didn’t mind this, because I wanted the prize pool to grow. And grow it did from about $20,000 to just over $40,000. Levels 1-6 lasted 20 minutes with subsequent levels only lasting 15 minutes. At the end of level 6, you could do a $250 add-on for 100k in chips.
At each chair, two stacks of chips, one stack comprised of 90k worth of 5k chips and another comprised of 10k worth of 1k chips, lay in wait for their future claimants.
The time to play crept ever closer until AJ Pleasanton announced, “In the words of Doyle Brunson, ‘When luck shuts the door, break in through the window!’ Shuffle Up and Deal; let’s go!“
And away I went!
To say I catapulted to an early lead is a bit of an understatement. Skylar Lawniczak dealt two key hands in less than twenty minutes that helped me gather a massive amount of chips early. Lucky me.
In the first hand, I was dealt pocket sixes (the six of hearts and six of clubs). Much to my coach’s and my dismay, I’m terrible with poker hand histories, so all I remember is that I raised and (I think) had three callers.
I flopped a set, as the jack of spades, the four of hearts, and the six of spades appeared. I bet and had at least one caller. I no longer needed to worry about the flush, because the turn boated me as Skylar dealt the four of clubs.
I bet and was called. As if my hand couldn’t get any better, the last card was the glorious six of diamonds, delivering me quads. I went all-in and was paid.
In the second hand, I was dealt two black jacks. While some players bemoan this hand, I love these rascals. If memory serves me, the flop came five, seven, seven. The turn boated me by delivering a third seven. The river was an inconsequential brick.
On the river, two players went all-in and I called, figuring if someone happened to have a better boat or a seven, I’d simply rebuy. Because no one re-raised me pre-flop, I figured I was good.
Ultimately, one villain had flopped a boat (fives with sevens), but was counterfeit by my better boat on the turn (sevens with jacks). The other villain didn’t have a seven or a higher pair so, again, I got paid. Marvelous start.
In comparison to other tables, mine seemed to be filled with quite a bit of action and a lot of rebuys. I think that helped me amass more chips than other players at other tables; there was simply more money moving where I was playing.
At one point, I was featured on the live stream as the chip leader. Not going to lie, that felt pretty cool!
During the first break, I surveyed the room, scooping out the competition’s stacks and sizing them up. I listened to “Call Me Daddy” by Ruby Darkrose, “Butterfly” by Crazy Town, and “Already” by Beyonce. I loved how sexy and powerful these songs were and how they made me feel by association.
I realized I was still chip leading by around 200k-300k. Despite this, I wanted every advantage I could get, so I splurged and bought the add-on jumping my chip stack to a little more than 1.2M.
An incredibly entertaining dealer named Clyde caught me scooping out everyone’s chips and asked me if I was going to win this thing. I said I was trying!
This might sound cheesy, but I wanted to and was having a ton of fun. That was more important to me than winning.
Of course, that’s easy to say when you run hot in a tournament and find yourself out ahead of the competition, but this group of players were a genuine delight to play with.
Almost no one wore headphones, everyone was kind and respectful, and the atmosphere was competitive yet relaxed.
Now, I wish I could say I remembered key moments from the middle of the tournament, but nothing really stands out to me other than a gentleman to my immediate left showed off his prominent NFT monkey tattoos on his chest, one on each side.
All I remember is that new players kept getting added to my table, and they kept busting. Before I knew it, the 93 player pool had chopped in half.
At level 13, we started getting a rail around our table and the neighboring table with 27 players left. Sometime between level 13 and 17 is when I believe I became the last woman standing.
By level 17, we were hand for hand on the stone bubble with blinds at 100k-200k and only 13 people left. My table agreed to pay the bubble, but at least one person on the feature table said no, so the bubble didn’t get paid.
While I had really wanted to make the money (and who doesn’t want that), what I really wanted was to make the final table.
You see, I had purchased a hoodie in honor of Alex Cooper’s podcast called “Call Her Daddy” that was a beautiful shade of purple and had one word on it – Daddy. I promised myself that if I made the final table, I’d wear the hoodie because I wanted to bring and feel Daddy energy.
Before I knew it, the competition whittled down to nine, and I was still in it to win it! I unzipped my bookbag, put on my hoodie, and prepared for battle under the bright lights of the final table.
Unfortunately, by that point, I only had 625k in chips, which amounted to a mere 2.25 blinds. Fortunately, that meant that despite the added pressure of being on camera, I was going to have easy decisions to make.
While I’m a little disappointed in hindsight with two folds (once when I had queen/jack offsuit and flopped middle pair and the other time when I had king/five suited on the button), I was more than happy to let the bigger stacks battle each other and ladder up while I waited for my moment.
While I had a feeling around level 10 that I was going to get sixth, a double elimination right before I busted meant that I ended up busting in 5th place. Honestly, I couldn’t be more proud.
This was the first time I had a live rail (shout-outs and big thanks to Ariel, Joey, and Doug!) and other people in the crowd also cheered for me. When I left the stage, a few people even chanted, “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!” What a ride.
I cannot thank Rare Evo and Midnight enough for putting on such a fun and great event in the incredible PokerGo studio. Jeff Platt and Brent Hanks did a fantastic job announcing.
Of course, big thanks to Joey Ingram for letting me know about the event. Finally, congratulations to @CashAnvil for taking home the trophy and $15,000.
If you have never gotten to play in the PokerGo studio, I hope this article has given you some insight into the wonderful experience you can have there. No matter where you play, good luck on the felt, be kind, and run good!
