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!