In February, Nevada’s Christina lindeyloo22Lindley (pictured) brought home the win in a Venetian Deep Stack event for $71,000, defeating a field of 317 entrants. That score came just a few months after a final table in a World Poker Tour event in Paris, a score that was worth $112,000. We caught up with her to gab about the World Series of Poker Main Event and her life away from the game. Visit PocketFives’ Nevada poker community for the latest news and discussion from Nevada players.

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PocketFives: How pumped are you for this year’s World Series of Poker? What are you looking forward to playing the most?

Christina Lindley: I’m prepared. I have worked more on my game this year than I ever have before. Studying has become my favorite pastime when I’m not grinding. I put together a very different schedule for myself that will include more of the deeper-stacked events at the WSOP as well as the extremely good value tournaments such as the Venetian Deep Stacks and Wynn Summer Series. I have really found that I am extremely comfortable deeper-stacked after touring the WPT this year and playing deep-stacked cash games over the last year.

By focusing on cash games on my days off, variety and a steady income when not in tournaments will help relax me for longer tournament days. Psychologically, when you are winning more consistently, such as in cash games, I think it starts a culture of winning within you that carries momentum to tournaments.

PocketFives: You had a big win at the Venetian earlier this year for $71,000 (pictured with trophy) over a final table that included guys like Matt All In At 420Stout. Talk about that tournament and whether it gives you any momentum leading up to the WSOP and other events.

Christina Lindley: The Venetian $1K I won had a rather large field. All of the Vegas regs, and a few non-Vegas regs who happened to be in town for March Madness, and several tourists were all there. The final table had several live cash game regs whose games I was unfamiliar with. There was a lot of variety in the styles of play within the field, as in any other tournament.

Three-handed, we were all pretty evenly stacked and the structure was really Turbo-oriented at the end. Running hot in high equity spots and being super-aggressive once I got heads-up were the keys to taking it home. I feel like momentum from that tournament has definitely propelled me to work even harder leading up to the WSOP this summer.

PocketFives: Did the WPT event in Paris you final tabled play any differently than other WPT events you’ve been part of? And how has it felt to be the highest scoring players featured as part of the WPT’s “One to Watch”this season?

Christina Lindley: I had never played poker in Europe in my life until the WPT event at the Aviation Club in Paris. I really wanted to commit to the WPT and play as many of their televised events in Season XII as possible. I had always wanted to go to Paris my entire life and this seemed as good a reason as any to go.

Months before, I began learning French through Rosetta Stone, which is still one of my hobbies to this day. The poker players at the Aviation Club de France (pictured) played very similar styles to Euro online poker regs. Because of playing online for so long in the beginning of my career and intermittently sprinkled in the last two years, I feel like I am very familiar with how to adjust to that style.

There was one point on Day 3 when I had a really crucial hand that I won against Martin Finger, an amazing German whose game I really admire, and I was really happy that I had studied all of the PokerStars EPT replays.

When I was originally chosen as a “One to Watch,” I knew I had a lot to prove. I hadn’t played much on the live circuit compared to online and wanted to produce tremendous results to show how far my game had come. Cashing a few times this season and making the final table in Paris have been very rewarding. I’m super-competitive, so to be at the top of the “One to Watch” leaderboard so far is really just a bonus.

PocketFives: What are your thoughts on a shot clock in poker? Should one be implemented and, if so, how?

Christina Lindley: I am not a fan of the idea of a shot clock. Anything that discourages amateur and recreational players from coming out and playing events is not good for the game. In addition, I am of the opinion that if someone knows they have a certain amount of time on each street to make a decision, that might even increase the amount of time they take when they see a clock, whereas otherwise they would have decided quicker.

PocketFives: What do you do away from poker nowadays? How else do you keep busy?

Christina Lindley: I have a great group of friends in Las Vegas and enjoy different adventures with them on a weekly basis. Art, culture, traveling, fitness, hiking Red Rock, going to wineries, painting, scary movies, and watching sports are among my favorite pastimes. Traveling for fun in between poker tournaments has been the most rewarding experience in the last year. Aceplay and the Stratosphere keep me pretty busy as well with fun events, TV shows, photo shoots, etc.

PocketFives: Speaking of Stratosphere (pictured), you signed with the casino’s free-play site, Aceplay Poker. How is that going?

Christina Lindley: Aceplay Poker is a really fun, free website for anyone in Nevada. They give away tickets to big events such as concerts, NASCAR, sporting events, hotel stays, shows, and dinners in free promotions that run year-round on the site. They also give away seats into the $15k Guaranteed at the Stratosphere every month. Aceplay intends to eventually launch real money gaming in Nevada.

PocketFives: Do you get to play any real money online poker in Nevada?

Christina Lindley: I play online in Nevada, which is a really nice option to have for the first time in forever. Cash games online are pretty decent and there are usually several $1/$2 to $5/$10 games running across the board. There are usually enough games going on that you can play multiple tables of cash at once.

The tournament guarantees are still way lower than I would like to see, but occasionally there are good MTT events online in Nevada with solid guarantees. A nice added benefit to having online poker in Nevada and Jersey is that they are running satellites online for big live buy-in events like back in the old days. More people who cannot afford to play in big events like the WSOP Main Event or the WPT Borgata will be playing because of the satellites these online poker sites are offering.

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