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From Online Freerolls to the Live Felt
To say Dayanna Ciabaton is passionate about poker would be an understatement. Describing herself as a recreational player for 25 years, Ciabaton’s poker journey started shortly after the poker boom, where she built her first bankroll from freerolls online in her free time while raising four children.
“I was first introduced, probably in a way that a lot of the ways other people were. When my oldest was a baby, right at the beginning of the 2000s, they had all the poker shows. You’d have High-Stakes poker and all the late-night poker shows. I would put my babies to bed and watch. And then the online poker ads started coming out. I was an at-home mom; I didn’t have a bankroll. I would literally play freerolls on Full Tilt Poker. I built a bankroll of a few hundred dollars, just from freerolls. I did very well on Full Tilt, starting from a $0 bankroll. And then Black Friday hit, and it was over”.
Now residing in Denver, Colorado, Ciabaton explained transitioning more towards live poker tournaments over the last five years. Ciabaton has also been involved with the all-woman poker study group Pocket Queens for roughly the same length of time, now serving as the group’s Vice President.
“Once the kids were going off to college is when I started for the first time travelling for poker for the first time. At the beginning, it was just a few tournaments a year. Now, I usually travel to one series every month”.
Earlier today in Day 1d of the Main Event, Ciabaton was faced with a tough decision, holding two pair on a four-flush board and facing an all-in raise from her opponent. Ciabaton described how having the clock called on her by another player in that hand actually ended up working to her advantage.
“It was interesting. I checked to my opponent on the turn, and there were three to a flush. He checked back, and this guy was aggressive. The first thought I had on the river when the fourth diamond came out was that if he had a high diamond, he would have bet the turn. But he checked back. I did a teeny blocker bet, and when he jammed over the top, my first instinct was that this was just BS. But then I have to think, is it BS that beats me? Is it a two of diamonds, and he’s trying to get my ten of diamonds to fold?”
“I just had to look at him. I’ve been working on my live reads. He kept it really cool, until the clock was called on me. As (the tournament director) was counting down, he just started looking really nervous, so I made the call.”
Ciabaton's instincts were correct, as her opponent had been turning third pair into a bluff, leaving Ciabaton's two pair good for the double despite the four diamonds on the board. Her hopes of a deep run in the RGPS Atlantic City Main Event are still alive, with her stack currently at 101,000 at the third break of the day.