Heidi May Leads Final Five in Event #70: Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship
Day 2 of Event #70: $10,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship ($1,000 buy-in for ladies) is in the books. After two days of play, only five players remain from the original 718 entries. They all have their eyes on WSOP gold and the top prize of $135,098.
Australian Heidi May finished the day leading the final five with a sizeable lead. May steadily chipped up for most of the day and went into the final table second in chips behind Deborah Worley-Roberts. These two both built big stacks at separate tables with two tables left, and tangled in many pots at the final table. May chipped up drastically in the final level and a half, picking up several pots and then eliminating Alexis Sterner late in the night.
Deborah Worley-Roberts finished the night second in chips with 861,000, and the next biggest stack is Julie Dang with 458,000. Dang survived with a short stack for the last few levels of the day, mostly by shoving and getting folds without having to show down. Jana de la Cerra and Katie Ansorge ended the day as the short stacks with 280,000 and 250,000, respectively.
The day began with 85 players returning, all in the money, and the bustouts were rapid throughout the day. Three-time bracelet winner Vanessa Selbst busted in 56th place ($2,040) early in the day after coming into Day 2 sixth in chips. Lynn Gilmartin was eliminated not long after in 49th place ($2,301). Last year's second-place finisher Amanda Baker hit the rail in 43rd place ($2,647) and Oanh Bui followed in 40th place ($2,647). The start of day chipleader Parm Mehmi was eliminated in 31st place ($3,104) when she four-bet shoved with ace-seven suited and ran into Katie Ansorge's pocket aces. Ansorge went on to final table and bagged chips today.
The unofficial final table was reached shortly after the final break of the night when Karen Sortin busted to Worley-Roberts in 11th place ($7,066) with ace-king against Worley-Roberts' pocket tens and couldn't improve. The next two levels were played at a feature table in the Amazon room, and they lost five more players before play concluded for the night.
The first casualty at the final table was Allison Schultz ($7,066), who busted in tenth place after turning a set of eights and losing most of her chips to Alexis Sterner. Sterner had flopped a set of nines and won that pot. Schultz busted the next hand, and the official final table was born.
Karen Hodge was the next one out when she got all her chips in preflop with pocket queens against Tiffany Lee's pocket aces. Hodge flopped a set of queens, but Lee found a jack on the turn to give her Broadway to eliminate Hodge. Hodge finished in ninth place for a payout of $9,075. Meg Zampino was the eighth-place finisher ($11,858). Zampino three-bet shoved with ace-four suited in the big blind and was called by De la Cerra who had ace-king. Zampino flopped a flush draw, but could not get there.
The next one out was Tiffany Lee. Lee was all in several times with two tables remaining and kept doubling up. She continued that trend at the final table as well, until she ran ace-queen offsuit in the small blind into Sterner's aces on the button and couldn't find a miracle to stay alive. Lee earned $15,760 for her seventh place finish. Sterner was the last elimination of the evening. She finished in sixth place after getting her stack in with king-queen in the small blind against Heidi May's ace-queen in the big blind. They both made a full house but May's queens full of aces was best and Sterner hit the rail, taking home $21,298 for her deep run.
The final five are guaranteed a payout of at least $29,256 and will return Sunday at noon to play down to a winner. They will play 30 more minutes of Level 21 with blinds at 6,000/12,000 and an ante of 2,000. The seating and chip counts to start Day 3 are as follows.
| Room | Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Gold | 7 | 1 | Julie Dang | United States | 458,000 |
| Amazon Gold | 7 | 2 | Deborah Worley-Roberts | United Kingdom | 861,000 |
| Amazon Gold | 7 | 3 | Jana de la Cerra | United States | 280,000 |
| Amazon Gold | 7 | 4 | Katherine Ansorge | United States | 250,000 |
| Amazon Gold | 7 | 5 | Heidi May | Australia | 1,752,000 |
| Jogador | Fichas | Progresso |
|---|---|---|
|
1,752,000 | 207,000 |
|
861,000 | -24,000 |
|
458,000 | 88,000 |
|
280,000 | -90,000 |
|
250,000 | -110,000 |