Shundan Xiao Hails Wife's Poker Influence: "It's All Because of Her"
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Heading into Day 7 of the 2024 WSOP Main Event, there were undoubtedly many eyes on two names: Kristen Foxen and Shundan Xiao.
Foxen, the four-time bracelet winner, started the day on the feature table alongside the only other female player still in the largest Main Event of all time.
Xiao started the day second in chips, and by the time the first break rolled around, she was still one of the contenders for the chip lead and sat on a healthy stack in excess of 80 big blinds.
She spoke to PokerNews about how she was feeling, her tournament experience and how important her wife Yongqing — who's on the rail today — has been in her poker journey.
Paying the Tuition Fee
Xiao says she is only one year into her poker career, having been introduced to the game by her wife. Despite feeling nervous in the morning, she said that once she sat at the table, she felt much calmer.
"I never expected to run this deep," she told PokerNews. "Especially in the Main Event. I'm excited and just enjoying my game. I really love poker and I really enjoy the opportunity to play with the best players in the world.
"My expectation [coming in] was to pay the $10,000 just to get the experience playing with the pros, and just treat it like a tuition fee. But now I've already got everything I wanted, so I have no regrets no matter what happens."
With a background in tech, the software engineer says she loves everything about poker.
"It's a probability game. It's a strategy game. And it's about deception. I love having to adjust according to your opponent's style. My job is definitely logic-focused, but poker has even more. It's talking to people, it's observing people - just using every sense to try and make the right decision."
Her first cash came in last year's WSOP Ladies Championship, but she says that the poker journey she has been on has seen her learn more about herself while at the tables.
"It feels really good when you trust yourself and make a good decision. I tend to be indecisive, so it's also helping me to trust my instincts more. Even if it's wrong, I can summarize later and try to find out which part was wrong."
Foxen and Xiao at the Feature Table
Both ladies started Day 7 under the lights of the feature table here in the Event Center at the Horseshoe Hotel & Casino, with poker fans able to follow their progress here on PokerNews and on the PokerGO live stream.
Xiao says that female representation in poker is especially important, and says it was "huge" for her to be this deep in the Main Event.
"Women are definitely underrepresented in poker. Coming from a computer science background, it's similar. But poker is maybe even worse, in a sense.
"I think it's really important to have female figures in this field to try and bring more female players. Poker is super great, because you don't need physical strength or to be young — you can play until you're 90! So regardless of age or gender, you can always play, and you can always enjoy competition. And it's that competition I really like."
Wife Provides Rail Support
Throughout Day 7, Xiao has been supported on the rail by her wife. Xiao, who identifies as "95% lesbian", has been married for about a year, having met her wife Yongqing Yuan through her work.
"It's been hard for me," admits Xiao. "Especially [coming] from a country where it's not super accepted. But I feel very comfortable now after just telling everyone. I really want to express myself in a way that is true.
Xiao admits Yuan (pictured) has much more poker experience and says it was her wife who pushed her to get more involved in poker.
"We never really talked too much until two years ago. I started playing home games, and we reconnected. She's really obsessed with poker. She took me to the casino, and she really just wanted me to try to play tournaments."
Yuan finished 18th in this year's WSOP Ladies Championship, the event in which Xiao notched her first tournament cash last year. However, Xiao wasn't always destined to play tournaments.
"Originally, I wanted to play deep stack cash games because there's more thinking [involved]. You don't just push all in. But in tournaments, you have a lot of time to play 20-30 big blinds or even less, and you have to go all in.
"I thought that wasn't fun, but after playing, I definitely changed my mind. I only play tournaments now. It's all because of her."
