PocketFives caught up with the Borgata Fall Poker Open $500,000 Guarantee Event #1 champion Stephanie stephhub31 Hubbard (pictured, image courtesy of the Borgata Fall Open Blog), who made history and became the first women to claim a title an open Borgata event. Hubbard collected $159,776 for the win.

Coming into Day 3 with only 10 big blinds, she displayed the patience and confidence it takes to win such a poker tournament. The poker playing pharmacist also has over $30,000 in tracked online cashes. Here’s what she had to tell us. Visit PocketFives’ New Jersey poker community for the latest news and discussion from New Jersey players.

PocketFives: Congrats on your win in Event #1 the 2015 Borgata Fall Poker Open. Tell us how you are feeling and what this win means to you.

Stephanie Hubbard: I cannot put into words how I feel. I’ve experienced so many different emotions over the past three days from being so excited, shedding tears of joy at the final table and relief that I finally had a victory to my name. This win to me validates all of the time and effort I put into grinding poker. I feel like I finally am able to justify all my trips back and forth to casinos on my days off of work. I remember all the days of functioning on little sleep from grinding late at night and now I will never doubt that I am meant to play this game we all love.

PocketFives: You started Day 3 with 10 big blinds. How were you able to remain patient and stay focused on you run to the final table?

Stephanie Hubbard: Well, I woke up Friday morning and took a look at my table draw and chip count. I saw that even with 10 big blinds, I was coming into the day 14/18 and only 6/18 players left were above chip average; many players were in that 10 big blind range. This helped me ease my stress about being short knowing that others were as well.

I drew the small blind to start the day. I opened the first two hands and immediately started to chip up. I got a timely double up with jacks. I then had KQ on a KKJ flop when my opponent 3-bet a flop against me and folded to my shove. I went from 10 big blinds to 28 big blinds in the first level of Day 3. I began to feel calm and now I knew I could open up my game.

PocketFives: Who was the toughest opponent at the final table and why?

Stephanie Hubbard: Matt Stout for sure. He had such a chip lead coming into the final table with 25% of the chips in play with 10 left. With his talent and chip stack, I knew I had my work cut out for me. He has a lot of big final table experience and an impressive career. I did, however, have direct position on him and I was wasn’t afraid to enter pots with him. I was an unknown to him and felt like he would usually give me credit when I played back at him.

PocketFives: Do any specific hands from the tournament win stick out?

Stephanie Hubbard: I doubled through Matt Stout with TT versus 99 with 6 left. I was playing 24 big blinds at the time. After an early position open, Stout flatted the button. I squeezed to 1.3 million out of the small blind with TT on a 4.4 million stack. The big blind tanked and folded, and the opener quickly folded. Stout re-raised me all in with 99 and I quickly called. My tens held and I quickly took off.

PocketFives: Do you have any plans for the money?

Stephanie Hubbard: Putting it in the bank for now. I am going to buy myself a Louis Vuitton bag that I always wanted. Also, I am going to start a college fund for my niece Ella that will be born in December. Other than that, a few gifts for my family and close friends. It will be a good Christmas this year.

PocketFives: What have your friends and family said about the win?

Stephanie Hubbard: My friends and family have been congratulatory and very happy for me. I have received so many tweets, Facebook messages, texts, and calls from everyone. I think everyone assumed it was only a matter of time before I had a breakthrough victory.

PocketFives: To what do you attribute your current success in the live arena?

Stephanie Hubbard: I feel I am more successful live than online. Live, people can see that I am a female as opposed to online. I use my perceived image well at the table. I feel I have good reading abilities in the live setting and a ton of patience. All these attributes are needed to be a successful live player.