Generation Next -- Vanessa Peng

Life is strange, just ask Vanessa Peng. The effervescent, petite brunette grew up with big dreams. For Peng, life wasn’t about playing with dolls. It was more likely that her Barbie was a lawyer for the people, defending a client against an evil corporate attorney named Ken. So, it came as no surprise when she enrolled in Virginia’s prestigious law school, Washington and Lee University.

So far, so good, right? But life threw her a motion that she couldn’t deny, a boyfriend who played poker. Peng was fiercely competitive while growing up, engaging in intense video-game battles with an older brother. Poker appeared to be a fun video game, and seemed easy. So, she couldn’t wait to deposit $25 online. But just as fast, she watched it disappear.

Not one to give up easily, she persevered. She scoured the Internet and found sites that taught poker theory and bankroll management. She quickly improved as she fell in love with poker, playing when classes and studies allowed. Seven years of burning the midnight oil over law journals came and went, and graduation followed. Offers for jobs began to pour in. So, she stuck to her life plan and took one. Then, she felt the real world of practicing law rattle her childhood dream.

“After graduating from law school in Virginia, I took a job at a small firm in Charlotte, North Carolina,” said Peng. “They wanted me to focus on divorce cases. It was depressing. At the same time, I started to make some serious money playing poker. It was actually close to what I was making at the firm. I realized then that law was not what I wanted to do with my life. So, I quit.”

Known as “PrincessDonk” online, Peng raked in the cash in the medium-stakes cash games, until the grind became too boring. In early 2009, a poker friend, tournament ace Jason Koon, introduced her to tournaments. She immediately thrived on the competition and the winner-take-all mentality.

Peng ran hot the first week, winning an UltimateBet $80,000-guaranteed event and a PokerStars $10 rebuy event, for a combined total of $35,000. She was sold on tournaments, and to date has cashed for more than $500,000. Since then, she has moved to Las Vegas to create a new life and nurture a new dream, to be the best poker player she can be. Life is good.

Craig Tapscott: How did the transition from cash games to tournaments go so incredibly smoothly for you?

Vanessa Peng: I’m much better at deep-stack play early in events than a lot of tournament regulars. And any player coming out of a cash-game background will be better at post-flop play, in general. That really helped me early on. I learned to take that skill and use it with a stack of 20-30 big blinds and not let it get too short. I definitely think that a lot of tournament players wait and wait, till they get down to a stack of 20 big blinds and can reshove. My deep-stack skills enable me to accumulate chips in other ways.

CT: What else do you do well?

VP: I think a lot of regulars take too many pot-control lines when deep-stacked. They don’t value-bet enough. Value-betting is a skill that I learned in cash games.

CT: What other things did you struggle with in the beginning?

VP: In cash games, you have to make sure that you balance your ranges and mix up your lines. I soon realized that most tournament regulars don’t do that. I also realized that I gave too many regulars credit for thinking on a higher level than they actually were. I used to be pretty tight, and tried to emulate certain players’ games. I’ve evolved. Now, my game is all about figuring out what works for me. I don’t just follow some hot trend that other players may be following, not understanding why they’re following it.

CT: As a woman in a man’s world, what has been the reaction to your success?

VP: Great. But I don’t play live very often. When I do, I notice that people give me either way too much respect or none at all.

CT: What are you trying to improve in your game?

VP: (Laughing) I call way too much. What’s great about having poker friends is that they’re always asking me, “Why did you do that?” I ask myself that all the time. And I’m always trying to adjust my play preflop, as I know that my skills need to improve there. I truly want to be one of the best players in the game.