By Sean Chaffin
With Day 2 underway, six players remain in the field from the original 12 Gardens Casino Satellite Spectacular qualifiers. Linda Stockstill leads the way among those and hoping to keep the nice run going.
“I just stayed out of trouble,” she said before Day 2 commenced. “It’s easier to stay out of trouble than get out of trouble. I called three all-ins, and won two of them. There was nothing that was really over the top big. I just played steady.”
Stockstill (pictured), 68, works as a psychotherapist back in Anaheim, California, and enjoys the sense of individual accomplishment a player can derive from a nice finish at the poker table. She’s a regular on the Gardens tournament and cash game scene, playing about three times a week.
Plenty of friends and family back home in California have been following her action.
“They’re all excited,” she says. “My phone’s blowing up with people texting me and wishing me luck.”
On Sunday, she began the day with 158,000 in chips and was good spirits before the action got underway. What’s the plan for the second day in the field?
“The same game,” she says. “I have two big chip leaders to my right, so that I think is good.”
The Gardens Casino runs a promotion solely for tournament players, dubbed the WPT Satellite Spectacular. This is the third installment of the event, and players qualify by playing in daily tournaments. A $20 buy-in satellite tournament is then held with players’ chips determined by how much they play.
The top-12 finishers earned a complete WPT Choctaw package: six nights’ stay at the hotel; travel expenses; buy-in for the event; and a VIP meet and greet. The property also ran Satellite Spectaculars or the WPT Gardens Poker Championship and WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio.
During the tournament, Stockstill had a lower starting stack of chips than most but was able to work it into a Top 12 finish and now a nice stack here on Day 2.
The qualifiers still in the field now have a decent shot at getting in the money. The WPT Choctaw will pay around 72 players with play starting today at Level 11 blinds of 1,000/1,500 and a 1,500 ante.
Other Gardens qualifiers remaining in the field include:
Denny Tran (pictured) – 115,000
John Sygiel – 101,500
Lan Ly – 77,000
Jimmy Johnson – 47,500
Rene Borbon – 23,500
For Stockstill, the goal now is to make Day 3. If her big run here at Choctaw wasn’t good enough, she also won $25 playing Blackjack yesterday on her day off. That only added a little extra to the good time she’s had here in Oklahoma.
“I’m going to feel fabulous,” she says about the prospect of advancing again. “I feel fabulous right now. It’s going to be great.”
Sean Chaffin is a freelance writer in Crandall, Texas, and his work appears in numerous websites and publications. Follow him on Twitter @PokerTraditions.