10 Questions with PLON Ambassador Lavonne Zwart Schaafsma
First, tell us a little about yourself, including how you got started in poker.
Ironically, I found poker at the very same time that I didn’t have time to play poker, which was after the birth of my second child. My brother held a multi-table tournament at his house just after the poker boom of 2004. I’d never played before and learned the rules as I went along. After that first game I was hooked. Anytime I had a night out, I’d try to find a poker game. I played at charity rooms and then got connected with a home game and for the next decade while I was raising young children and building my career, I played recreationally with the little time I had for social activities.
Around 2015, when all three of my children were in school and my psychotherapy business was off the ground, I decided to get serious about the game. I paid for a course through the Poker Academy that took me through a series of videos on No Limit Hold ‘Em. Simultaneous to the release of these videos, the makers of the course, Rep Porter and Rick Fuller, also held a contest; top prize involved flights and lodging in Vegas as well as entry to a $1,000 NLHE tournament of my choice during the WSOP. I poured myself into learning poker and into the contest and was thrilled to win top prize. I credit Rep and Rick for helping me realize that I could take my poker skills seriously enough to attend my first WSOP in Las Vegas in the summer of 2016. I spent a week in Vegas, playing several tournaments, cashing in two events including my first WSOP Ladies Event. Since the summer of 2016, I’ve had the confidence to travel and play poker when I have the opportunity.
1. What’s on your poker bucket list?
Playing the WSOP Main event and/or spending the entire six weeks of the WSOP in Vegas (the most I’ve ever gotten to stay was 10 days).
2. One thing most people don’t know about me is….
I live in a cohousing development, one of over 200 in North America, built with an architectural design that puts neighbors at the center of the design and cars on the periphery. It’s also environmentally sustainable. No, we are not a hippie commune, but we do share meals, tools, a lawnmower, and our 23 households are built on one acre of land.
3. What is one of your most memorable hands?
My most memorable hand was at the final table of the Heartland Poker Tournament in September 2016. We were four-handed, and I held A5o. I raised from OOP. The opponent to my left raised all-in. We had comparable stacks. I had been watching him play for hours, and although he played a solid, tight game, I thought he was capable of shoving with a worse hand than mine. It was too early in my poker career to be thinking about ICM strategy. He turned over AJ and my heart sank. The flop paired my five and he didn’t improve his hand and was busted from the tournament. In hindsight, my calling his all-in was not the correct ICM move because the pay jump from 4th to 3rd place was considerable. But mistake or not that hand allowed me to take 3rd place in that tournament.
4. How has your involvement in PLON helped your game and/or benefitted your poker life?
First, having the support of women playing poker has been invaluable throughout the years. Second, during Covid when Lena Evans stepped up and offered online games for donor members of PLON, I was so grateful. The donor games gave me comradery with women I’ve grown to enjoy and respect, relief from the stressors during Covid, and the ability to continue playing a game I love when all other outlets for poker in my geographic location were shut off.
5. Do you have a funny poker story?
Super goofy story. During Covid, PokerStars introduced these little throwable icons. They continue to delight me, especially the Kleenex box. I think that one is hilarious and have no problem when my competitors throw it my way after a bad beat. One of the guys in one of my home games, however, used the throwable Kleenex box ad nauseum. The first time I played live in my home game after Covid started, I decided to buy little Kleenex boxes (the individual soft packages) which I hid in my purse. I then proceeded to throw them at him every time he hit a bad beat. I, of course, thought I was hilarious. And to his benefit, he had a good sense of humor about it.
6. Who is someone you admire in poker and why?
I admire Linda Johnson. I met her and Jan Fisher back in 2016 in Reno, NV. She is fun, charming, and has done marvelous things for poker in general, and specifically for women in poker. I love reading anything she writes, and I especially love her passion for mixed games (which I am also passionate about).
7. What is a favorite pastime or hobby outside poker?
Between working, family, and poker, I hardly have time for anything else but with the little time I have I enjoy reading (both fiction and non-fiction), and walking with friends.
8. What has been a highlight of your poker experience?
My highlight so far was getting 3rd in the Heartland Poker Tournament in September 2016. It was my one and only (so far) televised poker event.
9. If you won a free trip anywhere, where would you go?
This answer would change depending on my mood, how much energy I have, and what season it is in Michigan. But at present, I would go to any resort with a buffet so I don’t to have to cook, where I can walk on a beach and read in the sun. If the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure was running, I would choose the Bahamas so that I could not only be at a resort but also play poker while there. Monte Carlo would be a close second.
10. Who are your dream competitors?
My favorite competitor so far is Ari Engel. I’ve played with him twice, once in Chicago at the HPT and once in Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Poker Classic. Just watching him play is like an artist creating a portrait. He is masterful, confident, but also humble. I hope I get to play with him more often in mixed games. In general, I love playing with competitors who are beyond my level of play, so I can learn more about the game. But the majority of games I play (90%) are low-level MTT’s so that I am somewhere near the top of the field of folks I play with.
Who do you nominate to answer 10 Questions with PLON?
Linda Tremblay!