Jennifer Lin returned to the Horseshoe in Hammond, Indiana for Day 2 of the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event with one of the shortest stacks in the room. She looked down at a pair of eights and a few moments later she was walking out of the room.
It's not the story of an epic Main Event spin-up, at least not in a traditional sense. Sometimes you have to lose to win.
Lin found herself with four hours before the next tournament running, which forced the eternal debate: go across town to play somewhere else or stick around at the Horseshoe. She eventually thought better of the trip and decided to stay, hopping in one of the cash games in the poker room.
Cash game saves the day
The cash game yielded a winning session and a poker room promotion provided a special twist: a $400 ticket to the ring event being held in the conference room.
Lin cashed in her ticket and six hours later she was wearing her second WSOPC ring. It was a new high score of $17,416 over a field of 230 entries to win the $400 No-Limit Hold 'em 8-Max.
"I made the best of the rest of my day," she told us moments after winning. "I had a lot of fun, made a lot of fun plays that I can't remember right now because it's been a long few days and I haven't slept in a while."
'I am all up in your ear'
Lin is a talker. It's part of her strategy. During the final table, especially the heads-up match, Lin was tossing banter with her opponents — something she very much enjoys and attributes to the success of her game.
"It's always fun," she said of her table talk. "I like being the opposite of what someone would expect of me from the get-go. I am how Jeff Boski would say: a 'Young, Asian female.' But once we start playing, I am all up in your ear, aggro, trash-talking. People are sitting there like 'Who the **** is this?"' The other day Maurice (Hawkins) came over to the table and tried to run us over with his trash-talking, but needling is my thing."
'Needling is my thing,' says an unintimidated Jennifer Lin. Lin won her first WSOPC ring at Elgin two years ago and it led to a 19th-place finish in the WSOP Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas.
"I had just started playing tournaments and I made it into Day 3 to finish in 19th place. It was the best time of my life and it will permanently be the best time of my life. Better than any future weddings, better than any future kids. The great thing about having it in Las Vegas at the beginning of the series is that when I flew home after, they really roped me in. I flew back every other weekend that summer and tried to play everything else. They have got me for life."
While she is going to go play Elgin in April, Lin plans to take a slight step back from poker in the coming weeks.
"There are some other series coming up in the future like Wynn and Seminole, but I think I have been focused on poker too much in these past couple of weeks. I've got to go hang out with my friends again. Also, sleep."
WSOPC Hammond $400 NLH 8-Max final table results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jennifer Lin | $17,416 |
| 2 | Robert Moldovan | $11,300 |
| 3 | Joshua Reichard | $7,549 |
| 4 | Vance Essak | $5,199 |
| 5 | Imran Sajwani | $3,694 |
| 6 | Daniel Meyers | $2,711 |
| 7 | David To | $2,057 |
| 8 | Rosmel Munoz Cedeno | $1,616 |
| 9 | James Cohen | $1,316 |
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