Ladies World Championship No-Limit Holdem

It was a beautiful Sunday morning in the valley, just like the all the others. This Sunday, however was special, for today was the Ladies World Championship No-Limit Holdem event at the Rio!

I wake up before the alarm goes off, get ready, and by 11am, I'm $1,000 lighter and registered for the tournament along with 1,190 other women!

The first day is pretty gruelling: 2 solid hours of play, a 20-minute break, 2 more hours of play, a 20-minute break, 2 more hours of play, a 90-minute dinner break, 2 more hours of play, a 20 minute break, and then... you guessed it; another 2 hours of play! For the fans at home, that's a 12pm-2am work day in the high-stress environment of TV cameras and crew, photographers, journalists, all here to capture the biggest ladies-only tournament in the world!

Looking ahead at that solid six hours of play, I headed to the sushi shop around the corner to stuff myself (literally, it's all-you-can-eat) with raw salmon, cucumbers, avocado, and cooked eel. Afterwards, I enjoyed a fag with Shirley Williams (if you watched the WSOP 2007 on ESPN, you've seen her).

Oh, I forgot to mention the crowds... here's what the card room looked like minutes before the first event,

and here's the view captured from my table as I sat down minutes before the cards were dealt.

Lots of people, most of them watching! Most players found the environment a bit intimidating; pushing through the large crowds of spectators is frustrating, the noise can be disturbing, and the media attention can be distracting, but I never felt so at home in a poker room. All the poker rooms I've played at in Vegas, this one, this day... the best so far by a long shot! I felt like this is where I belonged!

The Beginning - Level One
You've heard me talk about how fast the tournament is... it's just like the WSOP main event, but you get 1/10th the chips to begin with. In case you're wondering, here's what that looks like:

I'm in the #10 seat, right next to the dealer. You can see what the rest of the table looked like here. The blinds are $25 and $50. I don't get a playable hand (or a decent hand without a preflop raise) the first 25 minutes, and then finally, in the big blind, I'm dealt Queen-Six. The flop comes with a Queen and a Six and I end up winning a $1,000 pot.

A few moments later, I have Ace-Jack in the little blind, and this lady raised me $150 to make it $250 preflop. You know me and blinds, so I call. The flop comes Ace Nine Ten, giving me top pair. She's first to act and bets $150, I raise $500 making it $650 and she calls. Hmm. Turn comes a Seven and this time, she checks, I bet $1,500, and she calls. What could she have, I wonder? The river comes a Jack giving me two pair. Nice hand, you'd think, ay? She checks and there's no way I'm betting now. I check and she shows me a pair of Eights giving her a straight. She expected me to bet! Haha!

Of course, we start with $2,000 and I just lost $3,400 to a lady who called 3/4ths her stack on an inside straight. I looked forward to putting her out, but in the meantime, here it was not 40 minutes in the tournament and already I was crippled... I only had $400! Time to steal some blinds!


Changing Gears
I changed gears so fast, I almost got whiplash! My choices were down to two: fold or raise all-in!

I go all-in with Ace-Queen from middle position with two callers and pick up 2 and 1/2 big blinds. Now I have $525.

I go all-in with pocket tens from late position and pick up the blinds. Now I have $600.

The next hand, with just three minutes to go in the level, I have King-Eight in the big blind in a pot with 3 other callers. The flop comes King-Six-Three, I push all-in, they all fold, and I pick up their blinds. Now I have $750.

Level Two
Blinds are now $50 and $100. The first hand into the second level, I have Ace-King suited from 5th position and just call. There is a raise to $250 from that same lady who called me with pocket eights, everyone folds and I raise all-in. She folds and now I have $1,150. Getting better!

A couple of rounds go by where I can't play because the cards are bad, the position is bad, or someone else is showing strength. The blinds take me down $850, and somewhere in there, I make one loose call (which then becomes raised, so I fold) making my total $750.

18 minutes into the second level, I have pocket Kings and call an all-in $600 bet from the lady in the 6th seat. Everyone else folds, she gets a Queen, Eight, Ten on the flop but her queens are no good. The turn comes another Ten, and the river Nine keeps my kings the winner! She's upset, so I get up, head over there and hug her. That hand, I picked up her stack up some blinds. Suddenly I have some breathing room with $1,600!

My table breaks up and I get moved to another one. Guess I'll have to wait to put out that lady with the Eights. Guess I have to learn how people play all over again too.

24 minutes into the second level, I have pocket Queens from 1st position, I raise to $300 and the big blind calls me, the flop comes Eight high, I push all in and she folds her Ace-King. Total now is $1975... 84 minutes into the tournament and I've clawed my way back to even!

The blinds continue to eat my stack when I call with Nine-Ten from the little blind in a pot with 3 callers. The flop comes Ten, Six, Two and I bet $500 and they all fold. $1,950... back (again) to even.

Third Level
Blinds are $100 and $200 and they keep eating my stack. 12 minutes to go in the third level, I have pocket Kings in first position, I raise to $400, everyone folds, the big blind calls me with pocket deuces. The flop is Jack-Eight-Six, I push all-in and she folds. I sit through my blinds and now am still treading water with $2,200.

I also got moved to another table!

Fourth Level
Now there is a $25 ante from each player along with a $100 and $200 blind. This means there is $550 in the pot before any betting, making it more worthwhile to try to steal the blinds (and antes). Of course, you have to pick your spots wisely, and the trouble with playing with a lot of good players, is the same spot that is good for you to steal is also good for them, so often times, when the time is right, someone else beats you to the punch. Back to the game...

5 minutes into the fourth level, I have pocket Sevens and call. The flop comes Ten, Five, Two, she bets $500 from the small blind. I stare her down, figure her for a Ten, and fold. She shows me Ace-Ten. Phew! I'm down to $1,600.

With $1,300 left, I get moved to yet another table.

As soon as I get there, I'm dealt King-Jack hearts in the big blind, get raised by the 3rd seat and call. The flop comes Jack, Nine, Five. I push all in and she calls! She's got my Jacks beat with her pocket Queens, but I get a King on the river and now have $2,600!

The very next hand I get Ace-Queen and call from the little blind. Five other people call too. The flop comes Ace, Jack, Nine and a lady in front of me bets $600. She's got massive amounts of chips... like $30,000 at least... and I try to figure out what she's got. I finally conclude she's just got an Ace, raise all-in, and she calls me with Ace-Eight. The board pairs my Queen and now I have $6,525 with 26 minutes remaining in the fourth level.

Finally... 3 and 1/2 hours into the tournament, in just two hands, starting with just $1,300, I get above the starting stack! Yay!

10 minutes later, I limp with pocket Kings and 4 other players call. Oops. The flop is King, Queen, Ten. A lady across the board bets $1,000 and I raise all-in. She calls with King-Ten, but her two pair is utterly dominated by my trips. She's drawing dead to win with only a runner-runner straight chance to split the pot. I put her out and am up to $11,000 with 12 minutes left in this level! At this point, I'm more than twice the chip average of $5,200.

(She was devastated... who wouldn't be? I rushed over and hugged her too.)

Level Five
Blinds are $150 and $300 with a $25 ante. It's almost been an hour since I played a hand! Finally, with 12 minutes remaining in the level, I get King-Queen in a six-handed pot. The flop comes with a King, I bet $1,500 (the pot) and everyone folds. The chips help make up for the blinds and antes I've lost.

Level Six
Blinds are $200 and $400 with a $50 ante. I go the entire level without playing one hand when on the last hand before dinner break I'm dealt pocket Queens. I call and it's just me and the blinds. The flop comes Jack, Seven, Seven. The little blind checks, the big blind- let's call her ATL cause she looked like she came from there- bets $800. I put her on a Jack... very, very rarely do people bet trips on the flop. My queens are good, I reckon, so I call and the little blind folds. Turn is a Six, she bets $700, I call; I want her to keep betting. River is a Three, she bets $500, I call. I don't raise, cause I figure she won't call and she might, maybe, have a Seven. She shows Jack-Five and now at dinner time, I'm up to $12,675!

Level Seven
Here the blinds are $300 and $600 with a $100 ante. Preflop, then, there is $1,900 in the pot! That's the initial starting stack!

The table really tightened up after lunch and the players were dropping much more slowly now. We were down to around 170 players at this point, or just 70 to go until the money. The effect of the tight play was to change the game into one of stealing blinds. We hardly saw a flop; every hand was raised preflop and taken down. As a result of this, the blinds went around the table faster, and the $100 antes really started to take their toll. Here's the effect of not getting playable cards during this portion of the tournament.

About 30 minutes into the seventh level, Miss ATL and I get into it again. She was still sore with me for beating her Jack-Five with my pocket queens. I tried to bluff her earlier (semi-bluff) but she put in a big raise, so she got back a few chips, but she still had no love for me.

Unfortunately for her, I had pocket Queens when she got Ace-King. She raised a lot preflop and I re-raised all in. She called, and the flop was Nine-high. The board paired and stayed low and I doubled up through her to get my highest yet chip count, $14,350, seven and 1/2 hours into the tourney!

It was at this point I had to make a decision: go for the money or go for the final table. The former mean a very conservative strategy where I basically fold my way into the money, letting the other players bust out until everyone is in the money. My calculations indicated this plan could work... but it would be close. Going for the final table was risky... very risky, considering I had now invested eight hours of time into this thing. Going home empty handed would be very hard to take.

If I went for the money, I would most likely have no chance to finish higher than the first or second payouts. As these were practically the same (in fact, one had to get into the 3-4% before the payouts increased significantly) I opted to go for the money. $2,000 for the bottom of the payout was $2,000 more than I had in my purse!

Level Eight
The blinds are now $400 and $800 with $100 antes. I didn't get much opportunity to play at all! Finally the end of the level comes, but and the effect on my chip stack was brutal. (The small stack of black to the left are for my blinds about to hit me.)


Level Nine
The blinds are $500 and $1000 with $100 antes. Ouch! Now that we were down to around 120 players and only the top 100 cashing, I was reluctant to play with anything but a premium hand.

104 players left... 5 to the money! The blinds are coming fast and my chip stack is quickly vanishing!

At this point in the tournament, 1/2 way into the ninth level, I really irritateted some players at the table. You see, the lady to my left had massive amounts of chips. I had pocket Fives in the little blind and everyone folded to me. I was faced with a very, very tough decision! If I called, she would raise me all-in with anything. If I raised all-in, she would call with anything. (This is basic tournament strategy and this girl was a good player.) She's probably got two cards higher than a Five which means at best I'm a 54% favorite to win. In other words, it's a coin flip for my tournament life with just 5 places to go until the money, but if I won, I'd definitely make the money.

Or, I could just fold my Fives and pray that 5 more people would not have the same patience and bust out. I only had enough money to see another 20 hands... it was going to be very close.

So I think about it. And I think some more. And some more. Finally, the lady to my right throws a hissy fit and calls the floor over to call time on me. Giggle. I don't care. I decided to fold long ago, but with that decision meant stalling as long as I could. I wasn't hurting the table or costing them money by this tactic, but it really pissed off a few ladies. Oh well. When they start clocking me, I just let them count... until they declare I must fold, then I fold. Two people went out during that time! ;) Just like internet poker.

I've got enough money for 10 hands left with 102 players left.


I'm about to go through the blinds when we start hand-for-hand mode. Great! This saves me from having to post my blinds because each table only starts the next hand after all tables finish the current hand. This is to counteract people doing what I had done earlier and also for some tables (like mine) that deal more hands per hour (= more money in antes and blinds) than other tables. It's just fair when the field is one person away from everyone being in the money.

The blinds go through me. I'm down to $2,500 when the annoucer booms, "Congratulations, ladies, you're all in the money!" Yay! The whole room applauds. For a second, I felt awful for the girl who just got put out before, but then I celebrate. Yay!

Next hand, I'm dealt pocket Nines on the button and the lady in first position raises to $3,500. I call all-in, knowing she's got to overs on me and that I'm only a 54% favorite to win. Now I'll gamble! :)

She turned a King and with 2 minutes remaining in the Nineth level, my tournament ended. I was escorted to the payout counter where I was given a voucher to claim the $1,949 prize for 96th place.

Look for me on the prizes and payouts list!

Afterthoughts
96th place. Maybe it doesn't sound all that impressive all by itself, but this is the World Championship event for ladies... I finished in the top 8%... yeah, I wish my coinflip (99 versus AK) went my way and I could have made it past the first day... but I didn't have the kind of luck which gave you silly stacks of checks and a final table finish. Maybe I didn't put myself in enough situations to be lucky like that, but I know for a fact I avoided a plethera of ones that would have had me hit the door with nuttin' but a bad taste in my mouth! Pocket Queens beat by Eights... Pocket Jacks beat by AQ... most players would have been sent home packin' as those hands played out, but I was able to accurately read the situation and bail as soon as I was beat.

In fact... outside those three hands, I can only remember losing one other hand, and that was just $1000 to Miss ATL on a semi-bluff when I folded to her raise. I think I only lost one showdown (the hand that crippled me)! I took one bad beat, I gave one bad beat when I two paired pocket Queens.

Plus, it was a tough starting table; there were two well-known pros there. Normally, you'd expect to see one person from each starting table to make the money... I saw at least three others from my table still in the tournament when we reached the money!

So... my first WSOP bracelet event and I finish in the money... yeah, I'm okay with that!

I met some people there who made a living playing in tournaments. They were sponsored to play, (like I was for this one) and they split the payouts with their sponsors (like I'll do with mine). That, to me, seems the opportunity. I mean, if you keep putting yourself in situations to win millions of dollars with good odds... eventually, you win!

A girl can dream, can't she?