Mesha James Bags Day 1 Chip Lead in Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship
Event #57: $10,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship (with a $9,000 discount for women), drew a total of 696 entries. The bubble burst at the very end of the day. 104 ladies made the money for a min-cash worth $1,497 and are still in the run for the top prize of $130,230 and the WSOP gold after 10 levels of play.
The bubble lasted for over 40 minutes and Tiffany Michelle and Karen Xiyo busted at the same time to split for $748 each.
Several players were vying for the chip lead in the last couple levels of the night, but it was Mesha James who finished the day at the top with a stack of 130,200. James stayed with a comfortable stack for most of the day and grabbed the chip lead during the hand-for-hand stage, winning a massive pot with pocket eights. With $70,072 total in live tournaments earnings, James has locked up the third WSOP cash of her career and put herself in prime position for a deep run.
She is followed by other big stacks, such as Alexis Sterner (85,700) and Tara Snow (81,400). Some notables names made their way into Day 2 such Danielle Andersen (56,500), Lacey Jones (50,700), Melanie Weisner (47,000), Kristy Arnett (38,500) and Gaelle Baumann (37,000).
Heidi May, the reigning champion, was left with crumbs after an unfortunate hand after the beginning of the day. She managed to climb back a bit but got eliminated after the dinner break. Other familiar names were spotted in the field but didn’t find a bag at the end of the day. Among them, Jamie Kerstetter, Oanh Bui, Jennifer Shahade, Carol Fuchs, Ana Marquez, Samantha Abernathy, Sofia Lovgren, Muskan Sethi and Vivian Saliba.
The 104 remaining players will restart on Friday at noon local time to play ten more levels. There will be a 15 minutes break every two levels and a 60 minutes break after the sixth level (≈ 6:30 p.m.).
The PokerNews live reporting team will be providing coverage from the tournament floor until a winner is crowned on Saturday, so stay tuned for updates.
, against 
for Iaquinto, but the 
board gave the latter a straight and the double up. 
when Lacey's Jones opponent first checked and raised all in after Jones made a bet, putting Jones tournament at risk. The latter quickly called with a stack of 21,400 to create the following showdown:
and river 
brought her no help and Jones doubled up to 43,000.
. The original raiser checked again. Arnett continued for 7,000. Her opponent check-called.
for a set. The big blind tabled 
gave the winning hand to Leddy, who sent Saliba to the rail.
, as Facey announced all in, putting May into a difficult decision. "Not on the first hand," said May, before she ended up calling with 
. 
river brought no help to the defending champion, May fell down to 800 chips right after the tournament started.
