Ladies at the WSOP Kickoff party at Nikki Beach by Maria Ho, Vanessa Rousso, and Tiffany Michelle.
Let’s start off with some WSOP facts. The WSOP has been hosting ladies only events, now known as the Ladies World Poker Championship, annually, since 1977. Poker is still highly dominated by men, however, more women seem to be taking an interest in the game. Online gaming operators are starting to cater for this market by organising women’s online tournaments.
Marsha Wolak – WSOP 2011 Winner of Event 53
This year’s $1,000 buy-in Ladies No-Limit Hold’em World Championship, began with 1,055 entrants, just 1 more entrant compared to last year’s 1,054 players. Marsha Wolak from the Sarasota, Florida in the United States who has been working for several years as a real estate investor won this event after a tough battle against Katrina Jett.
Marsha Wolak raked in a whopping $192,344 Pot as well as a Gold Bracelet she described as “beautiful” in her interview. It’s also a good job she decided to turn up in the end as she confessed to the interviewer that she was thinking of not coming after her bad experience last year when she was knocked out by a man dressed up as a woman with lipstick and all! Congratulations Marsha!
The top ten finalists of the 2011 Ladies Championship are:
- Marsha Wolak winning $192,344
- Karina Jett $119,010
- Carol Tomlinson $74,459
- Valerie Mccolligan $54,045
- Peg Ledman $39,897
- Katherine Stahl $29,909
- Jennifer Cowan $22,750
- Gloutnez Genevine $17,537
- Jonathan Epstein $13,701
- Amanda Sizmore $10,843
Praise also goes to Maria Ho and Kim Nguyen who both finished in 2nd position at two separate open events at this year’s WSOP. Maria Ho finished second in the $5,000 buy in No-Limit Hold’em. Kim Nguyen finished in second position in the $1,500 buy-in Six-Handed Limit Hold’em.
Should one of them have come first, they would have broken the three year streak since the last female player to win a bracelet was Vanessa Selbst in 2008. Better luck next time!
