Diary of a poker diva

	At 6.30am and after a marathon effort, I was having my picture taken with the trophy and prize money

I mentioned in my last article that I hoped 2007 would be a great year for me in which I could concentrate more on playing good poker. Well, what can I say? After a tough run at the tables in 2006, the new year has brought a change of fortunes and my wishes have turned to reality!

Ironically, the venue for my first taste of success in 2007 was where I last savoured victory: the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. Twelve months ago I won the $1,000 limit event at the LA Poker Classic, so it’s fair to say that I was gearing towards returning to my favourite card room and picking up where I had left off.

Going west

It all started in the third week of January when I received a call from a close friend, who reminded me that I needed to tear myself away from my computer and get over to the Commerce, where the action was hotting up. I went over and started at a $200/$400 game, but quickly became bored and asked one of my opponents to play $400/$800 with me. He gave in, but since I wasn’t very familiar with his play, I soon found myself down $20,000. But I hung in there; slowly but surely, I fought my way back.

During this session of play, a few players who are regulars at the Commerce came over to our table during heads-up play. They were considerate enough not to break up our game, but were anxious to gamble; they began playing war using our flops, were betting $100 per point and even doubling and tripling points for our mucked hands. It was crazy. Even through all of this, I managed Liz found the going tough at the LA Poker Classic, but came out on top in the end to come back and close the night on a high, $15,000 up.

A few evenings later, I was playing in a $500/$1,000 game when Frank Mariani joined the table. Frank is one of the owners of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team and a real gentleman. The table soon filled completely, and the action went nuts! Every pot saw five or six-way action capped before the flop. And one of the players, sat at seat No.4 (I was in seat No.3), was on a hot streak; he was running great and catching every card he needed. Here’s an example of the craziness: I was on the big blind with J-2 offsuit, and there were two raises to me. I knew that one of my opponents, called Ali, would cap it after me, so I mucked. There was eight-way action. The flop came 10-6-2, Ali bet, and it ended up being capped seven ways. The turn was a Jack, and with three bets, it was capped six ways. The river brought a Queen, the guy in seat No.5 bet, and everyone else mucked. See what I mean?

Victory at last!

So, after all this madness, I was up and running as the LA Poker Classic got into full swing at the beginning of February. After winning a limit event in 2006, I wanted to show my diversity and decided to enter the $1,000 nolimit hold’em event. It was certainly not going to be easy though – 450 players and the first prize was a very nice $148,370.

As the field dwindled, the players obviously got tougher to face. They may not have been well-known pros, but they were good, solid players and I was forced to adopt a somewhat tight – but aggressive – strategy. We played through the night and into the early hours of the morning as the final table loomed. Thankfully, at 6.30am and after a marathon effort, I was having my picture taken with the trophy and prize money. It was all very exciting!

As well as my victory, I am very proud to keep my promise to donate 20% of all tournament winnings to charity. This time, I’ve decided to give half to the children’s charity – Make-a-Wish Foundation. The other half will be split between the MS Society and some poor communities in Vietnam. Winning is great, but sharing is even better.