Level 5 (400/200/400)
Total Entrants: 97
Debra Phillips (pictured) made the trip in from Ozark, Missouri, to play in the RunGood Council Bluffs. Poker has been a part of her family for a long time. She learned to play years ago from her father and is a regular on RGPS events and other events in the Midwest.
Phillips has $152,000 in tournament winnings. That includes several nice RunGood cashes, her best a runner-up finish in the $180 DeepStack Kansas City in May for $8,083. Her biggest cash came in 2014 in the $1,000 World Series of Poker Seniors event, where she finished 17th for $24,691.
Back in Missouri, Phillips is an entrepreneur with a pharmacy compounding business and a farming operation (corn and beans). Her son Jacob is also a poker player and has $290,000 in live tournament earnings including winning a WSOP Circuit ring here in Council Bluffs in 2016.
Phillips' husband is also a player, but she says: "He's back at home farming." As a mother of four and grandmother of three, what does her family think about her success on the felt?
"They get a laugh out of it," she says. "They think it's funny."
Her skills at the table are nothing to laugh at and by the beginning of Level 5 she was up to 28,000 chips.