An Emporia woman who went to Council Bluffs, Iowa, for a poker tournament returned this week with more than $5,000 and the title of Horseshoe Casino’s 2009 World Series of Poker Women’s Champion.
Toni Haggard has been playing poker for four years, and although she has played in a few tournaments, she said this one was her biggest win yet.
“It was a really big deal,” Haggard said. “I won my first trophy for anything.”
Haggard said she had read about the tournament for some time, and this year she finally decided to enter.
“I thought, ‘Well, you know, it’s $235 to enter. I’ll take a shot at it,’” she said.
The tournament started with 73 women on Sunday, and play at the final table finished up on Monday.
The game was No-Limit Texas Hold ‘Em, and Haggard’s aggressive strategy took her to the final table as the leader, with 46,400 chips.
The final table had nine players, and after seven went out, Haggard went heads-up with Kim Strong for an hour and a half.
“Kim was last year’s runner up, too, and she didn’t really want to be second place again this year,” Haggard said.
Haggard won with pocket 8s against Strong’s pocket 6s. The five cards on the board came up 8-Q-3-J-2, giving Haggard the set of 8s and the championship.
Haggard said she was different from the other players in the group.
“There were a lot of girls there that travel with the circuit,” she said. “They come in with handlers and masseuses and stylists. It was awesome. And I just came in with my T-shirt and jeans and didn’t really worry a lot about my hair.”
Many of the other players were playing for player-of-the-year points and sponsorships, Haggard said.
“I just wanted to play poker,” she said.
Haggard learned a lot of poker particulars that she previously wasn’t aware of.
“I learned a lot of things you can and cannot do,” she said. “Trivial things, like make sure your chips are stacked in stacks of 20, big chips in the front so everyone knows what you have and stuff like that.”
She learned another rule early in the game when she received a warning from the dealer.
“The dealer was dealing and I said, ‘Oh come on, girls, any two cards can win,’ and the guy gave me a warning because you can’t coerce other players into a hand.”
Haggard said her competition was daunting.
“A lot of the girls have stellar achievements in the poker world,” she said. One of the other players had been at 12 different final tables, and another one had won a tournament at Binion’s.
“They felt pretty competent,” Haggard said. “I was just happy with any position I finished at on the first day, because I knew going into the second day I had at least doubled my investment.”
Despite her enjoyment of the game, Haggard said the most difficult thing about the tournament was a matter of endurance.
“They played 40-minute blinds, and my gosh, that’s a really long time to sit there,” she said.