When low-stakes sit n’ go player Tuffy Cat used 450 FPP to win a satellite seat into the Sunday Million, she almost didn’t register. But finally, during late registration, she bit the bullet and signed up. Many hours later, she clawed her way to victory over a field of 7,133 players and purred as she curled up around a $184,500 prize in September 28th Sunday Million. We caught up with the cat who ate a bunch of canaries a few days after her biggest online cash ever.

Coming from a family that loves games, poker became a natural outgrowth of that. Tuffy grew up playing cards with her late father, her brothers and more recently her nephews. Once she got the live poker bug, she built a library of books, CDs and DVDs to learn the game. Since her retirement in June from the IT world, Tuffy has taken the time to focus on her game, with obvious great results.

Tuffy Cat plays only on PokerStars, and had been a fixture in the low-stakes sit n’ go tournaments for the past four years. “There is nothing like practice and thousands of hands at low stakes games online really helps [to learn the game]. I have found that once people start playing for money, even .02/.05 tables, they play really hard.” She has played the Sunday Million several times before, but never cashed for significant money. This satellite entry was her biggest cash by far, with her biggest tourney win before coming in a $1 tourney with over 1,700 players. The field this Sunday was a lot deeper, and a lot more expensive, but Tuffy Cat applied the same basic strategy that won her the seat and took down the top prize with no deal at the final table.
This cool cat is no stranger to live tables, either, making her WSOP debut this year in the Ladies’ Event.

“Even though I didn’t cash, the experience of playing with some real pros was amazing and inspired me to work on my game. I finished around 170 out of 1190 players. I even got to play at the same table with Kathy Liebert for several hours. Not only at the same table but right next to her (on her left). In fact Kathy was the person who knocked me out of the tournament. I was low stack and Kathy had raised the pot. I had AK and went all in against her pocket pair of 9’s. Her 9’s held up and I was out, but what a great time and experience!!!! Part of my [Sunday Million] winnings will go to playing the main event next year.”

Congratulations to Tuffy Cat on her great run, turning 450 FPPs into $184,500!

When Aryan “avkid86” Virabi won a satellite into last week’s Sunday Million, he never imagined that his second try at online poker’s biggest weekly tournament would end with him in first place and taking down $138,101.00 for his evening’s work. The top prize was the result of a four-way deal at the final table that left $30,000 for the eventual winner. In last place when the deal was struck, Virabi displayed patience and tenacity in outlasting two opponents to get to heads-up play.

It only took a dozen hands or so for Virabi to take the lead, and then he flopped top two pair on the final hand to grab the brass ring that every online player dreams of – a Sunday Million win on PokerStars. For a college student whose previous biggest tournament win was about $1,000, this was a heck of a jump. We caught up with Virabi this week and got a little bit of the skinny on his background.

A college student, Virabi uses poker “to get away from all the work.” He plays a lot with friends at local casinos and some home games, but discovered online poker about three years ago. Once he found PokerStars in the beginning of 2007, he was hooked ever since.

This was only his second shot at the Sunday Million, as he only plays when he can satellite in. A fan of the big MTTs, Virabi also enjoys the multi-table turbo sit n’ gos on PokerStars. He’s mostly a hold’em player, but sprinkles in some Omaha Hi/Lo for an occasional change of pace.

Living in the UK has given Virabi the chance to test his skills in some local casinos and tournament series, including the GUKPT last year. He made the final table in a GUKPT side event last year and cut a deal at the final table to net nearly $12,000.

Virabi said that the big turning point for him came late in the tournament when he was able to put together a streak of five hands in a row where he tripled his short stack and moved back into contention for the final table. When the idea of a chop came up with four left, Virabi happily accepted a deal that guaranteed him at least $100,000. With the deal in place, he thought “I’ve come this far may not get another chance so let’s make the most of it.” He certainly did, outlasting three opponents with bigger stacks to claim his first ever Sunday Million victory and the lion’s share of the prize money.

Congrats to Aryan “avkid86” Virabi for a spectacular final table performance!

Chris Sparks has played as GoMukYaSelf on PokerStars since 2004, and logged an impressive 46 final table finishes in that time, in everything from $11 MTTs all the way up to his win in this week’s Sunday Million for $135,334.75. Chris took a little time out from his summer to talk with us about his game, his plans for the future, and how he has translated online skill into live success.

Like many college students, Chris started playing small tournaments in his dorm at Ohio State University with his friends, then made his first deposit onto PokerStars in 2004. His first major success came in 2005 when he parlayed the last $11 in his PokerStars account into a $1,400 win in a multi-table tournament. From there, he began to move up levels and perfect his tournament game, eventually taking down the Nightly Hundred Grand in November 2007 for his largest cash at the time. He looks forward to continued success in online tournaments, remarking “With the WCOOP coming up soon, hopefully I will be able to top this finish.”

Nowadays, Chris plays mainly cash games, transitioning his focus to the mid-stakes no limit hold’em cash tables on PokerStars. He can be seen multi-tabling up to 24 tables at a time and he believes that while “there is nothing like the thrill of playing in a large tournament, but I feel like the long term earning potential for a skilled cash game player is much higher on average.”

Chris plays mainly no limit hold’em, but has been branching out into Omaha to broaden his horizons. With five wins in his first 60 Omaha tournaments, we’d have to say that he has a bright future in multiple games! Another transition for Chris this year was into the live arena. He recently made his first trip to Las Vegas following his 21st birthday, and celebrated in style by winning one of the Caesar’s Deep Stack tournaments for a $28,000 first prize! His first major live tournament was the LAPT Rio, which he enjoyed greatly and has plans to play more live events as his schedule allows.

What the future holds for Chris is undecided so far. He graduated with a degree from Ohio State University this June with a degree in Marketing and Psychology, and has a job lined up with a Fortune 50 company in September. That is, if he doesn’t go pro. According to Chris, “The plan was that this summer was going to be a "trial period" where I give the professional poker lifestyle a shot for a few months. Worst case scenario, if things did not go well, I would just start earning a steady paycheck in a great job for a great company. Obviously, the summer is off to a pretty decent so far, but I still haven't made up my mind either way yet.” It’s great to have options like that in front of you!

On his way to first place in the Sunday Million, Chris outlasted a field of 6,520 other players and played top-notch poker for over ten hours. When asked about his success in that event, Chris said “It is no secret that to win a tournament of this size you have to both play at the top of your game and get a little bit lucky. I was fortunate to have both happen on Sunday as I was able to be selectively aggressive while staying patient and minimizing mistakes. At the same time, I was able to win a couple of key coin flips along the way; which helped me accumulate chips.”

When the field reached the final three, Chris suggested a three-way chop that locked up $105,000 for each player and left $30,000 remaining for the winner. He said “I thought that chopping would give me a psychological advantage. From my observation of previous Sunday Million final tables, I saw that many players would play somewhat careless after the chop even though there was still $30,000 on the line. Also, one of the other players mentioned that he was also playing [another final table], so I thought that if he had already locked up $100k in this tournament that he would probably shift his focus more towards the other tournament. From the way that the final two hands went down, I think that my strategy worked.”

Chris’ psychological strategy left him with a $30,000 edge over his remaining foes, and put him on the road to great success in the future, no matter if he decides to go pro, or take a great job and remain a recreational player. Congrats to Chris “GoMukYaSelf” Sparks, and the best of luck with whatever the future holds!
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