Vanessa Kade bests Alex O’Brien in $10,000 charity heads-up tourney on ACR

Haley Hintze
Published by:
Posted on: January 30, 2022 7:01 pm EST

Americas Cardroom pro Vanessa Kade topped British author Alex O’Brien in the high-profile heads-up tourney on Saturday sponsored by ACR. Kade, the Canadian pro selected by O’Brien to be her opponent in the match, with $10,000 put up by ACR to be donated to charity, won the best-of-three battle that took all three rounds to decide.

Visitors to ACR’s online stream of the special event, which was available Saturday on ACR’s Twitch channel, saw Kade win the first round. O’Brien came back to win the second round to force a deciding Round Three, which Kade claimed to win the affair. ACR posted a brief video of the duel’s final hands, which overall drew thousands of viewers:

Both players came up winners with regards to the $10,000 to be donated to charity. Each player selected a favored charity to receive $5,000. O’Brien chose the Campaign for Female Education (@CAMFED on Twitter), which empowers girls and young women through education, with a focus on Africa.

Kade, a native of Canada, steered her $5,000 to the British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (@BC_SPCA on Twitter), a non-government, non-profit organization that offers emergency care to animals in need.

After winning a huge pot to take command in the third and final round, Kade closed out the win when her Q-6 made two pairs against an all-in O’Brien’s Q-5. “Could’ve easily gone either way,” Kade later stated on Twitter. “She played great and should be proud ❤️. I feel lucky to have found a new friend in this smart, fun, vivacious lady.”

Kade also noted the immense strides O’Brien, a British amateur, had taken in improving her own game, with the aid of numerous prominent players. “Really appreciate everyone involved – offering their time to make this happen from setting up the stream, to commentary, support setting up the games, other players and pros who coached and played Alex leading up to today, and of course @ACR_POKER for giving us $10k to donate.”

Kade added, “And of course @obrientweet for winning the freeroll that set this in motion, the hard work she put in, and positive energy she brings. ❤️” ACR stepped in to create the $10,000 freeroll after a sponsored pro for another site, Dan Bilzerian, ghosted O’Brien on a similar heads-up duel that was supposed to have been the prize for a different promotional freeroll that she won.

The match, which lasted nearly two and a half hours, can be viewed in its entirety here.

Featured image source: Americas Cardroom