It was fun to watch. The two players took the match seriously, though neither was going to earn a dime from it. They were playing for charities that meant something to them, however. And the spirit of the match is what carried it. Both women dressed to the nines for the heads-up Twitch-streamed game. And a few hundred people turned out to watch it live on a Saturday afternoon (night in the UK). Vanessa Kade and Alexandra O’Brien played a best-of-three match with $10K on the line for good causes.
The ending was better than what it was supposed to be.
As a quick refresher, O’Brien won a massive freeroll on GGPoker in December 2020. It was a $100K freeroll to celebrate the birthday of GGPoker’s newest ambassador and resident misogynist, Dan Bilzerian. O’Brien won the tournament, which was worth $10K and a spot in a heads-up match against Bilzerian himself for an all-expenses trip to Las Vegas if she won.
Unsurprisingly, GGPoker was never able to convince Bilzerian to play the heads-up match against O’Brien. She was disappointed and tweeted about it on the one-year anniversary of her victory in the freeroll. When it became very apparent that Bilzerian was not man enough (understatement) to play poker against a woman, Americas Cardroom stepped in.
ACR offered to host a heads-up match on its site between O’Brien and any one of its ACR team pros. The site would put up $10K to be donated to the charity of the winner’s choice.
O’Brien was excited about the prospect and chose Vanessa Kade. Considering Kade was an outspoken anti-Bilzerian voice and lost an affiliate deal because she spoke up for women in late 2020, and considering she soon after signed on with Americas Cardroom as a sponsored pro, the match-up was ideal. Kade gladly accepted.
https://twitter.com/obrientweet/status/1468579460513468426?s=20&t=f60Z-awvcRiIVHeZ8f1nWA
Prepared for Competition
Many poker players can barely be bothered to put on sweatpants to play in a poker tournament. On the other end of the spectrum, Kade and O’Brien showed up to the Twitch match dressed up, hair and makeup done, and spirits high. As if the duel wasn’t already a class act, the women classed it up even more.
It should also be noted that O’Brien took the match very seriously. She obtained coaching from poker pros Fedor Holz and Olivier Busquet. And she played some practice matches against Ian Simpson. O’Brien had only been a recreational player and only became more interested in poker recently while researching the game as a part of her writing career. Her primary focus was science, but she became interested in poker as a tool for critical thinking. Thus, she didn’t have the experience of Kade, so she obtained coaching to improve her game.
ACR pros Drew Gonzalez and Jon Pardy were on the stream as commentators, and a few hundred people tuned in to watch the action live. Even after more than 30 minutes of setting up the game for the stream, people were patient and awaiting the action.
It didn’t hurt that the women were playing for some great charities, Kade for the SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) of British Columbia, and O’Brien for Strong Minds for mental health services in Africa and Jen Shahade’s US Chess Women’s Initiative.
Best of Three
O’Brien started strong, playing aggressively and opening quite a few hands. Kade took a few rounds to try to figure out O’Brien’s strategy and style. The structure was fast, blinds increasing fairly quickly, but O’Brien maintained the lead until Kade came back with a strong bet on a T-K-4-Q-J board. O’Brien used all of her time bank and then called, only to see that Kade had A-2 for the win. O’Brien was frustrated and couldn’t seem to recover. Kade applied the pressure. O’Brien finally gave in with pocket threes to Kade’s J-T, but the first card on the flop was a jack, and it held up to give Kade the first match.
Kade 1 / O'Brien 0
O’Brien was frustrated, but Kade complimented her play. They didn’t take long before starting the second game.
And O’Brien started out very strong again. She took a big pot early with 6-4 on a 6-5-T-6-A board despite the pained look on her face at making the river call. Soon after, O’Brien had Kade down to fewer than 30 big blinds, as the recreational player had more than 200BB.
Kade didn’t waste time before shoving with A-K, and O’Brien called with 10-9. The board of 6-2-9-5-6 brought a potential flush for Kade but failed to get there. O’Brien and her nines won the match.
Kade 1 / O'Brien 1
O’Brien was thrilled to win, saying, “This is good now. I won one. That was my goal. … I wanted to at least win one.” Her husband even entered the room and delivered a glass of champagne to her, as visible on her cam. She also noted that she was grateful to her coaches. After a week of intense study, she said, “Anybody that comes and says to me that poker is gambling, come at me.” Kade and O’Brien toasted the latter’s win. Then, they brought up the third and deciding match.
Yet again, O’Brien came out of the gate strong. Kade slowly got more aggressive, but not before she was down to about 50BB to the 90BB of her opponent. But with escalating blinds, Kade took a big pot with some confident betting on an 8-7-6-8 board and then again on a 3-T-4 flop. Kade then took over with strong pre-flop bets and raises. When blinds increased again to leave O’Brien with about 20BB, she moved more freely. O’Brien nearly evened the stacks, but Kade took advantage of the big blinds to put her opponent to the test on nearly every hand.
It didn’t take long for them to build a big pot on a 7-A-J-8-2 board. O’Brien bet big into the pot, leaving fewer than 2BB behind. Kade raised her, prompted O’Brien to fold. The last chips went in with Q-5 suited, but Kade called with Q-6 suited, and the board of 7-9-T-6-Q gave it to Kade.
Kade 2 / O'Brien 1
Kade acknowledged O’Brien’s strong play, and O’Brien talked about how much fun she had. When her daughter came on camera to hug and congratulate her mother, hearts melted. Compliments abounded to end the show.
https://twitter.com/VanessaKade/status/1487625334816051204?s=20&t=31AbX3uOvsWEoNK3SkvfsA
https://twitter.com/obrientweet/status/1487951257151156226?s=20&t=wWcdJrAAo2FgqXKjTUvEbA
https://twitter.com/obrientweet/status/1487951274138087425?s=20&t=wWcdJrAAo2FgqXKjTUvEbA
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