One of the great features of poker is that it attracts people from all walks of life. You may find yourself sat next to a professional poker player, a solicitor, or in the case of Cat \u201cmisscat87\u201d Winch, a teacher.<\/p>\n
By day, Cat is a performing arts teacher who mostly teaches music. By night, Cat transforms into an avid poker player, one who has to shuffle the inflexibility that teaching creates with her passion for cards. Recently, Cat won the $109 buy-in $50,000 guaranteed Uppercut for $9,625 and followed that up with a sixth place in the same tournament a couple of nights later.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to bed at 4:30am and had to be back up at 6:00am! I couldn\u2019t sleep because I was really excited, but I survived thanks to lots of coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cat was introduced to this crazy game while she was studying at university. Her housemates were all males, with one in particular being fond of poker himself, which sparked Cat\u2019s own interest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was at university all my housemates were lads, and one of them played online poker<\/a> so I started playing. He\u2019d play in one room and I\u2019d play in one of the other rooms and see who could last longer in tournaments. I went to poker nights at the university and then got involved in Redtooth Poker (a pub league) and won a trip to Vegas by winning the West Midlands regional.\u201d<\/p>\n Like most poker players who head to Vegas<\/a>, Cat wants to return to \u201cSin City,\u201d but being tied to her school\u2019s term times restricts her ability to do so, so her wish of playing at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) is on hold for the time being. However, Cat does have plans to take poker even more seriously over the next couple of years and make her dream become a reality.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I can do two good years online then I\u2019m hoping to go part-time with teaching, perhaps do supply teaching, and then I\u2019d have the time to go to Vegas. Build enough bankroll to go to Vegas and also support myself if I wasn\u2019t in a full time job so I\u2019d have more control over my holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n Until she can get out to Vegas, Cat is content with grinding online at partypoker and playing live events such as the Grand Prix Poker Tour (GPPT). At the Old Trafford leg<\/a> of the GPPT, Cat finished 20th, narrowly missing out on a big payday, one that could have been huge as she had a Golden Chip in her possession.<\/p>\n \u201cI got so close and had a Golden Chip too so wanted to reach the final table, but I literally had 10 big blinds all day. Each time I got more chips, the blinds went up! The tournaments are great value though, you get almost a Vegas-style tournament except it\u2019s only \u00a370 to enter, and the number of Day 1s makes it easy to play. As I\u2019m a teacher, I can\u2019t always get to play so the Players Choice are great, that\u2019s how I got my Old Trafford seat. I definitely want to play at Leeds.\u201d<\/p>\n Until the Vegas dream comes true, perhaps after winning GPPT Elland Road, Cat plans to continue grinding on partypoker where she is a sponsored player through the staking site Bankroll Supply.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I\u2019m part of Bankroll Supply. It takes pressure off in relation to my bankroll, but I don\u2019t really do it for the bankroll side, I do it for the support and the mentoring; it\u2019s a really great team of people. Sylvia Hewitt is my mentor, and if she\u2019s not available for coaching then one of the other guys will do it. They\u2019re really supportive if you\u2019re running deep we all rail each other, I really enjoy that, plus if you\u2019re running bad and feeling down they\u2019ll pick you back up.\u201d<\/p>\n If you play any tournaments at Dusk Till Dawn or are online at partypoker on an evening, you may bump into Cat at the tables. She tries to play The Jab<\/a>, Contender<\/a>, and Uppercut<\/a> three nights per week, and is a regular in the satellites to the $109 tickets. Make sure you say hi to \u201cmisscat87\u201d at the felt because she is up for a bit of banter, just don\u2019t underestimate her abilities as a poker player just because she\u2019s of the fairer sex.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are some who think you\u2019ll be easy to play against because you\u2019re a woman, I\u2019ll hopefully show them that that\u2019s not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019re sure you will, Cat.<\/p>\n Get all the latest partypoker updates from your favourite social media outlets. You can Follow us on Twitter<\/a><\/strong> and Like us on Facebook.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the great features of poker is that it attracts people from all walks of life. You may find yourself sat next to a professional poker player, a solicitor, or in the case of Cat \u201cmisscat87\u201d Winch, a teacher. By day, Cat is a performing arts teacher who mostly teaches music. By night, Cat<\/p>\nKeep up to date with the all things partypoker!<\/strong><\/h3>\n