LIVE EVENTS

Here in level 17, we’re down to 13 players, one elimination away from the money.

With a chip average of 200,000 and 2.8 million total chips spread over the final two tables, you would expect quite a few players to be sitting pretty. However, two players are truly head-and-shoulders above the crowd, and the rest are fighting for their lives. The player at the top of the heap at the moment is Marie-Claude Grondin, with 707,500 chips, and close behind her is Debra Ann Holman with 549,500. The closest player to them is Helene Dufour, with a comparatively paltry 243,500 chips.

We’ll be in the money soon, the only question is who will finish in unlucky 13th…

After eight and a half hours of play, the WPT Ladies Event is now down to its final 17 players. Although the number of players dropped from 25 down to 17 in the span of only 20 minutes about an hour ago, we’ve stayed at 17 for a good while at this point. With only the top 12 players receiving a payout, play has understandably slowed down, as the five or six shortest stacks play it (very) safe and wait for their spots.

That said, the blinds wait for no one, and at a certain point those short-stacks will either bleed out or be forced to shove with something less than ideal. We’ll see what happens. With one more elimination, we’ll move down to two full tables of eight.

The prizes for the top twelve players are as follows:

1st: $5,177

2nd: $3,455

3rd: $2,340

4th: 1,645

5th: $1,205

6th: $915

7th: $725

8th: $600

9th-10th: $520

11th-12th: $470

After 12 levels and six and a half hours of play, we have a new chip leader. The honor goes to Denise Mignault, who has collected an impressive 298,000 chips and finally pushed Giuseppina Sferlazza out of the top spot. However, while at the moment Denise is eating everybody’s lunch, Giuseppina is still in the top four.

As we move towards the final table, the pressure is only going to mount!

With only 32 players remaining, we’re down to only four tables. The building is literally heating up as hundreds more players file in to play in the various other WPT tournaments tonight, and so is the metaphorical temperature at the Women’s Event. At this point, every play is crucial, and any mistake can be fatal.

On table 63, we just noticed an example of that spirit as Yuanli Shi put Cindy Martineau’s feet to the fire with an all-in shove with a flop showing on the board. Yuanli put in all of her 80,500 chips, and it took a full two minutes of hard thinking for Cindy to make her decision.

Ultimately, Cindy decided upon the path of caution, folding her cards. Yuanli was kind enough to show Cindy an after she mucked. However, there’s no telling if that made Cindy feel better or worse, since we didn’t see what she folded.

Play continues…

Over on table 62 just now we witnessed a triple all-in. The players in the mix were Lori Sanderson ( ) Stephany Ouellet ( ) and Sivajini Kathiravelu ( ). Sivajini is beginning to make a habit of this. Luckily for her, the strategy is paying off. So far.

Although Lori was ahead before the cards were dealt, she quickly found herself on her way out. The board was dealt and somehow the worst statistical hand took it down. That’s the thing about poker. It’s not just about psychology, math and skill, it’s also about luck and timing! With the win, Sivajini tripled up and now finds herself in a much more secure position. Considering the fact that she shoved for her final 7,000 chips not more than 90 minutes ago, it’s quite an achievement.

With Lori’s elimination, we moved down to 39 remaining players. And while this post was being written, we lost a further two players as well, Jennifer Hargreaves and Burnadette Burgess-Stege. With the tables now playing 8-handed and the blinds on the rise, the poker is starting to heat up in the Ladies Event. We move ever closer to a final table…

Giuseppina Sferlazza only managed to accumulate a net total of 1,000 chips over the last two hours, but her early dominance was such that she didn’t need to do much to maintain her overall lead. At 152,500 chips, she’s still more than double the chip average, and well placed to make a deep run.

However, her competitors were not resting on their laurels, they were busy playing catch-up. There are now six players nipping at Giuseppina’s heels, all of whom have more than 100,000 chips. And they’re getting closer all the time. With registration now closed and the blinds up at 1,000/2,000, the number of players can only go down from here.

Once we’re down to nine players, it will be final table time. But that won’t happen for a few more hours. Stay tuned!

The Ladies Event here at Playground will enter level eight in 15 minutes, meaning there is just under an hour left for any ladies interested in taking a shot at the trophy (and prize money) to get down here and register.

The number of players at the tables has stayed relatively steady over the last hour, holding in the mid-fifties. But the number of entries (or re-entries, to be exact) has jumped by about fifteen, for a total of 89 entries on the day. That means that there are about half a million extra chips floating around the tables, allowing some players to accumulate a nice stack heading into the day’s denouement.

With a chip average hovering just above 46,000 at the moment (and a new player’s starting stack being 30,000), all it would take is a couple of small wins to find yourself right in the middle of the action if you began right now.

So if you’re not already here, it’s time to get down to Playground and show us what you’re made of. May the best woman win!

On table 65 just now, Sivajini Kathiravelu (below, left) was all in two hands in a row. One time it went against her, and the next she doubled up. Although the end result of this high-risk play was a net negative for her chip count, at least she’s still alive and kicking.

In the first instance, Sivajini faced off against Louise Francoeur (above, right) and chose to shove on a flop holding top pair as well as a flush draw. It was Louise however that had it sewn up as she called Sivajini’s all-in shove with her pocket twos already matched. The turn and river didn’t help Sivajini at all, but fortunately for her, Louise had fewer chips than she did. Sivajini was able to stick around with about 7,000 left in her stack.

Very often when a player’s stack is crippled, the next hand usually involves a second consecutive shove. This is exactly what happened here, except this time Sivajini’s preflop shove resulted in a win. Only one player decided they wanted a piece of the action, this time it was Lisa Powell. Lisa’s stack size almost required her to call, which she promptly did.

Sivajini’s outlasted Lisa’s in this case, as her ten made her a straight on the turn. She lives to play another day…or at least another few minutes!

After two hours of play, the Ladies event is rocking along. It remains a relatively intimate affair, with only 59 players still at their seats out of a total of 75 entries on the day. And with a chip average of under 40,000, there was one clear and uncontested leader after four levels: Giuseppina Sferlazza.

With over 150,000 chips in front of her, Giuseppina has quadruple the chip average and more than double her closest competitor. But poker is full of ups and downs, so she won’t be able to coast along, she’ll have to use every ounce of her chip stack to her advantage as the levels go by.

The women have just returned to their seats after the break. Good luck!

With a name like the Ice Queen, the moment we saw (real name redacted) walk in with a bright yellow dress and sparkling jewelry, we knew we had to keep an eye out for her during the day. It didn’t take too long for us to catch her in a hand. And lucky for her, she took it down! She may have a bit of a mean look at times, but she was all smiles after this hand.

It began with a mid-position raise from the Ice Queen to 1,500 which was raised in turn to 4,100 by Huifang Zhang (below, right) and called by both Elaine Rawn (below, left) and the Ice Queen. The flop was a , and Huifang checked to Elaine, who bet 5,500.

The Ice Queen, inscrutable behind her large dark glasses, shoved for just over 20,000 chips. That was all Huifang needed to see, folding quickly. Elaine, however, had a think. After a minute or so she called, and both players flipped over their cards.

Elaine had a and was mostly likely hoping to catch a flush (or the Ice Queen in a bluff). And a semi-bluff it was, as the Ice Queen ended up only have an ! Lucky for her, there were no diamonds on the turn and river, which were dealt a . She took down a healthy pot for this point in the game.

So far so good! But with a moniker like that, she’d better be.

Margarete Kasper (below, right) took down a nice hand just now on table 64, with the chips floating her way via her opponent Murielle Viau (below, left). The hand began with a flop, and although she didn’t know it then, Margarete had already won the hand.

At every step, Murielle raised, and at every step Margarete called, never revealing the hidden strength of her pocket sixes. The turn and river were both kings, which might have boded well for Murielle (who was holding and ace-jack) in any other position. After all, two pair with a jack kicker is a fairly strong hand.

Alas, Margarete didn’t even need the boat she ended up with, able to take it down with what she saw on the flop. Murielle took it well though, smiling and congratulating Margarete on her win. We’re all friends here at Playground – until the final table that is!

Here at the Ladies Event, the day is starting off well.

The women have settled into their seats, have ordered their first drinks, and the energy appears to be a mix of deadly serious and amiably chatty. Overall, the vibe is of a bunch of good friends taking part in a fun competition – a fantastic feel!

We’ve only had a few eliminations so far, with two of the four buying back in immediately. It promises to be a really great day of poker ahead of us. Below are some photos of our competitors as we move into level three.