In today’s World Series of Poker Review, we bring you news of two bracelet wins in the $10,000 Ladies Championship and the $1,000 WSOP.com online event, as well as a big swell of players in the $10,000 Main Event.
A casino dealer from Detroit is the latest winner of the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Ladies Championship.
Courtney Kennedy defeated a field of 819 entrants to earn her first gold bracelet during the first event she had ever cashed in at the World Series of Poker (WSOP).
The event created a prize pool of $745,200, and Kennedy picked up $149,108 for her win, after seeing off a late charge from Amanda Musumeci, Amanda Baker, and Ebony Kenney. Both Baker and Musumeci are World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) winners. Kenney is a former World Poker Tour (WPT) Ones to Watch.
Kenney’s attempts to win her first gold bracelet would end in 11th position. Both Musumeci and Baker would make the final table. It was the second time Musumeci had been under the spotlight after coming runner-up to Ashkan Razavi in a 2012 $1,500 buy-in event. She would ultimately bow out in the fifth position.
Baker pushed her case all the way to heads-up where she faced an uphill battle to overcome a 5:1 chip lead. Baker did manage to double up once during that little scuffle, but it didn’t even make a dent in Kennedy’s stack. The tournament ended when Baker moved all-in holding [Kc] [8s], and Kennedy woke up with [Ac] [Kh]. The board remained devoid of a magical eight, and Kennedy was declared the newest member of the gold bracelet fraternity.
‘It’s all about spark.” Kennedy told WSOP officials after her win.
Final Table Results
1. Courtney Kennedy – $149,108
2. Amanda Baker – $92,121
3. Xiu-Xian Deng – $64,401
4. Natalia Breviglieri – $45,683
5. Amanda Musumeci – $32,889
6. Shelly Johnson-Ochoa – $24,037
7. Wendy Frredman – $17,837
8. Nicole Schwartz – $13,443
9. Yaxi Zhu – $10,292
Clayton Maguire Wins the $1,000 WSOP.com Online No-Limit Hold’em Event
A Las Vegas cash game grinder is the winner of the second-ever WSOP.com Online Poker bracelet, after beating the former WSOP bracelet winner, Simeon Naydenov, in a titanic heads-up tussle.
1,247 entrants created a prize pool of $1,184,650, and that dwarfed the field of 905 competitors who participated in the first online poker bracelet that took place last year.
When the play boiled down to the final six players, the online action was halted, and the players came to the Rio to play down to a bracelet winner in a live setting.
It was a heads-up battle that spanned seven pages in WSOP.com live update space. The scales tipped one way and then the next, and at one point, Maguire was down to only two big blinds with the Bulgarian looking odds-on to become a two-time bracelet winner. However, Maguire was able to find the double ups required to get back in the match and finally overpowered Naydenov to capture his first bracelet of his career.
Final Table Results
1. Clayton Maguire – $210,279
2. Simeon Naydenov – $150,569
3. Marc-Olivier Carpentier-Perrault – $110,172
4. Spencer Taylor – $82,926
5. Richard Tuhrim – $59,233
6. Park Yu Cheung – $46,201
Other online sharks who swam pretty deep were Thiago Nishijima (9th), Chris Hunichen (29th), and Benjamin Zamani (30th)
WSOP Main Event Sets a New Record
The 47th Annual WSOP Main Event set a new daily attendance record after 4,240 entrants sat down to compete on Day 1C. 764 players entered Day 1A, 1,733 players decided to try their luck on Day 1B, and that means the combined three flights produced 6,737 players making it the largest event in five years, and fifth overall.
The total prize pool was $63,327,800, and the winner will walk away with $8 million. A record 1,011 players will receive a cash payment this year. Notable celebrities who played in the event included Hoodie Allen, Brad Garrett, Kevin Pollak, John Arne Riise, Shane Warne, and Jennifer Tilly.
