It just seems redundant to say that Vanessa Selbst won another poker tournament. She did it, though, in Las Vegas, and we’ll discuss that in a bit. A lot of other women won online poker titles in October, and we’ll talk about them (and talk to two of them) in this monthly wrap. And with PokerStars Caribbean Adventure satellites for PS Women Live finally underway, we have a lot to talk about. Let’s get to it.
Women’s Tournaments
The $11 Women’s Tuesday has become a staple on the schedule for many women in online poker. The $1K guarantee and the six-max setup bring players to the virtual tables every Tuesday. This month, the winners of the weekly event were pro.julia, oO’Kisko, Divana21, pafitisa, and blazeol.
The $55 Women’s Sunday offers full nine-handed tables and a higher buy-in, but there is a $10K guarantee in exchange. And players have opportunities throughout the week to win their seats in satellites. Another perk of the Women’s Sunday is the chance to play with members of Team PokerStars, as there are usually two or more in each week’s event, and each has a $50 bounty for anyone who can eliminate them.
October’s Sunday winners were:
October 7
Players: 231
Prize pool: $11,550
Winner: NotKillBears (Russia) – $2,362.08
October 14
Players: 237
Prize pool: $11,850
Winner: ZlyKurczak87 (Poland) – $2,423.43
October 21
Players: 253
Prize pool: $12,650
Winner: janet167 (Canada) – $2,342.26
October 28
Players: 233
Prize pool: $11,650
Winner: timeofbells (Russia) – $2,382.53
The October 21 Women’s Sunday was one of the most exciting ones, as the final two players had quite the battle, even after chopping the remaining prize money to play for the title alone. Janet167 ultimately beat Zuzik87, but they both gained valuable experience from the tournament.
Janet167 was born Janet Wilson. The 51-year-old Irish native has lived in Canada for 25 years now, currently calling Whitby, Ontario, her home. She began playing poker about seven years ago as entertainment, and she continues to play, watch it on television, and play online and live in casinos when she finds the opportunities. As a full-time nurse in the mental health field, poker has to take a back seat oftentimes to her career, though there always seems to be time for poker.
Zuzik87 is better known to family and friends as Iuliana Romanova, a current resident of Denmark but native of Ukraine. The 25-year-old only began playing poker two years ago but dedicated more time to it over the past two months. The game that started as a fun side activity changed when she started to make money doing it. “I decided to continue and see how far I could go.”
Both players were fairly new to the Women’s Sunday, as October 21 was the first time Janet ever entered the $55 buy-in event, and Iuliana only played it several times before. Janet only recently started playing ladies tournaments, and her Women’s Sunday strategy was to gather chips at the beginning and then play conservatively yet aggressively. Iuliana stayed aggressive during most of the tournament when she had good hands, but that wasn’t as often as she would have liked. “When I got to the final table, I had a very short stack,” recalled Iuliana. “I saw that these girls were very aggressive, but I was able to read their game.” She took her short stack into the chip lead rather quickly, while Janet maintained her stack and had to get more aggressive toward the latter stages.
Iuliana finished second, despite one memorable mistake. “I tried to steal with Q-10s, and JJ and KK called me, but I was lucky to hit a full house on the last card.” As for Janet, she didn’t recall any particular hands as being vital. “The whole tournament was memorable in itself.”
Expect to see both women at the tables as time permits. Iuliana wants to continue to play for fun and “see how far my bankroll lasts,” she said with a smiley face. And Janet wants to build her skill in order to reach her bigger goal of winning a major tournament. We wish them both the best of luck and look forward to seeing them at more final tables.
Selbst Wins, PCA Excitement Begins
Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst has been dominating in 2012. She began the year with first and second place finishes at L.A. Poker Classic events, then cashed in five events at the World Series of Poker, one being a fourth place finish and the other a gold bracelet (her second one). She had a cash at the WSOP Europe in Cannes, and then the Festa al Lago series happened at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. She took second place in a $1K NLHE event, and five days later, she won the $5K NLHE tournament, beating a tough final table that included fellow Team Pro Daniel Negreanu. Selbst won $90,693 for that victory, bringing her 2012 winnings total to $839,369. Her lifetime earnings now exceed $5.5 million.
Details of the 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure have been released, and the PS Women Live festivities are set for January 12-13. A number of players began sharing their memories of past PCA fun, and a chat with Vanessa Selbst revealed her belief that the PCA Ladies Event is the “best women’s event of the year by far.”
Women are already beginning to make arrangements for the Bahamas in January, and satellites are already giving away 2013 PCA prize packages. Every Sunday, at least one player will win a $3,250 package in the $215 Weekly Final, but players can get into that satellite on the cheap, as free and low buy-in qualifiers run all week long. Check out the PS Women Live page for more information.
The first of the Weekly Final events took place on October 28, and there were 17 entries, including Team Online’s Adrienne “talonchick” Rowsome and Xuan “xx23xx” Liu. But it was jamjars69 who led the action most of the time, ultimately defeating benmar in the final heads-up match to claim the first PCA PS Women Live seat and prize package for the Bahamas trip. Jan “jamjars69” Combes is no stranger to ladies events, as she won the 2011 PS Women Live in London.
November will be filled with tournaments on the UKIPT, APPT, and LAPT tours, and the much-anticipated return of the MicroMillions will happen on the virtual tables. It’s going to be a busy month!
For all information pertaining to PokerStars Women, visit our website and links here .
Jennifer Newell is a PokerStars freelance contributor.
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