PokerPlasm.com

Ching Brubaker is working towards her dream of playing in the world of professional poker. The soon-to-be MBA graduate has been playing tournament poker at the local casino for several years and has accumulated the knowledge and expertise that can propel her to the next level. She shares her poker stories on her (and husband’s) website, Life After Marriage, detailing every aspect of their lives. In addition, you can keep up with her daily tales on life and poker on her twitter account.

Can you give us a bit of your background growing up? Family card games?
I grew up in the Philippines and didn’t move to the US until 1993. Growing up, we played mostly 41 and Pusoy Dos. I learned to play poker in 2003. I picked it up quickly because I was familiar with the different hands from playing Pusoy Dos as a child. In the beginning, I mostly just played poker online (UltimateBet) with playchips. It wasn’t until 2004 that I started playing live poker. There was a bar called Fingers around the corner from our house that hosted poker on Monday nights. My husband, who wasn’t really into poker, went with me just because he didn’t want me going by myself. It wasn’t until a year later that he started really getting into it. Now, he is just an avid poker player as I am. We played poker in a casino for the first time in 2006. He took second place and won over $400. He was hooked ever since.

What was your first experience playing poker in a casino? Positive/negative?
My first experience playing poker in a casino was really intimidating. My husband and I signed up for a $50 buy-in poker tourney at Harrah’s in North Kansas City. Many of the players who were there knew each other. It seemed that they’d been playing together at Harrah’s on a regular basis for a really long time. I felt like a total noob in comparison. I got knocked out of the tourney early, but my husband did really well. He took second place and his winnings ended up paying for our hotel stay. Overall, I’d say my first casino tourney experience was a positive one.

Any family members/friends who played poker for residual income?
We had a couple of friends who played poker online for extra spending money. We don’t know anyone who actually plays poker for a living, though.

What is your current level of activity with poker? Do you play both live and online? If so, which do you prefer? What percentage of your time is spent in each?
I used to play quite a bit on UltimateBet but I stopped funding our UB account after the new online gambling laws went into effect. We are straight-laced, law-abiding citizens and are afraid of getting in trouble. LOL. Actually, I tried ePassporte for a while. It didn’t last, though, because my husband is really paranoid about that stuff.

Nowadays, we just play the Blue Collar Poker Tournaments locally. Since gambling is not legal in our region, the entry fees are collected in the form of “chair rentals.” There are tournaments twice a day, but we are only able to play once a week (occassionally twice a week whenever there’s a $1500 monthly tourney) because of our busy schedules. Most of the people we play with at the BCPT are retired and play several tournaments a day at various venues.

Every few months or so we manage to sneak off to Kansas City for our fill of casino poker. We prefer to play the BCPT because it is local and the stakes are low. Besides that, it’s less expensive than going to Harrah’s. Whenever we go to Harrah’s in Kansas City, it gets pretty expensive because we end up staying at the hotel, eating at several restaurants, and shopping. So no matter how well we do on the tourneys, we somehow always end up behind.

Do you believe women have an advantage in live poker? And if so, why?
I think women have a slight advantage in live poker because we are often underestimated. Guys sometimes make bad decisions and end up paying us off because they fail to give us credit for clever plays. We can play dumb and be believable and get paid off because the male players think that we don’t know what we’re doing. Plus, we have the option of dressing really provocatively and distracting the male players.

Which professionals have you learned the most from? What about any specific writers/book/articles?
I have Caro’s Book of Tells and Harrington on Hold ‘em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments Vol. 1 but I have finished neither because graduate school is keeping me busy with plenty of school work. I can barely keep up the required reading.

I have learned a lot from Annie Duke. Her articles on Bluff are very informative. I really enjoy watching Daniel Negreanu play poker. He’s my favorite. As far as learning, I have picked up some knowledge from the poker commentary.

What is your biggest poker pet peeve? Any pre-game rituals?
My biggest pet peeve in poker is when someone (usually an arrogant male player who thinks female poker players are inferior) goes, “I’ll put you all-in. How much do you have?” That is so annoying. First of all, you can’t put me all-in. Only I can decide to push all of my chips in the middle.

I don’t really have any pre-game rituals. The only thing I can say that my husband and I always do (without fail) before a poker tournament is kiss and wish each other good luck. We always do that before proceeding to our respective tables, no matter where we are.

Do you aspire to be one of world’s great women players? Is poker likely to be more of a past time or will you gradually increase your playing time?
I would love to be known as one of the world’s greatest women poker players. I have a long way to go, though. Currently, poker is more of a hobby but I would definitely like to start playing more poker. Increasing my playing time will be easier to achieve after I graduate in May. I dream of playing in the World Series of Poker someday.

What do you believe is the best facet of your personality that has suited you to poker?
I would have to say my patience. Tournament poker requires a lot of it.

Do you have a nickname at the table? How did it come about? If not, what nickname would best suit you? Why?
I don’t think I have a poker nickname; although, I really have no idea what other players are calling me behind my back. My husband says I am well-liked by our fellow poker players so if I had a nickname, it would probably be “that nice Asian girl.”

What would be the one piece of advice you would give to someone to improve their game, specifically to live poker?
Many times people go nuts after a bad beat and get knocked out two hands later. So my advice would be to not take bad beats personally. It can be challenging to remain calm and stay focused after a bad-beat, but doing so will help you make it to the final table (or at least last longer).

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