Ladies Night - Recap

WPT Ladies Night

It was an historic night at the Bicycle Casino as the World Poker Tour hosted the largest women's tournament in history. 354 women entered ‘Ladies Night’ with hopes of winning the $11,000 grand-prize and a coveted seat into the WPT 'Ladies Night Invitational', airing on the Travel Channel during Season 3.

The 4th Street Poker Tour was represented and represented well in this tournament as two of our own ladies, Jennifer and Carrie, threw down the $120 entry fee for a chance to compete with the pros...

...Nervousness was in the air as this was both girls’ first non-4SPT tournament. It didn't help matters to notice that Evelyn Ng, "Clonie" and several other recognizable pros were playing as well. "My stomach was in knots all day leading up to the tournament, but once I flopped that full house I felt like I was back on 4th Street" said Jennifer, who won her first hand when she limped in the small blind with 6-4. The flop came 4 6 4 giving her the full house. She led out with a bet and the rest of the table folded around to her for the win.  After picking up a couple more wins from the small blind, Jennifer was able to make it to the break after the first hour with a little less than the amount of chips she started with.

But things took a turn after the break when Jennifer was reseated to a new table with several “chip rifflers.” The blinds were escalating rapidly and the cards just weren't coming. When Jennifer looked down to finally see a good hand, 10-10, she raised $300 pre-flop hoping to pick up the pot right there. Unfortunately, the short stack came over the top and raised All-In. Jennifer was pot-committed and decided to call the remaining $150. All hopes were dashed when her opponent showed pocket Queens. Jenn's hand didn’t hold up. Definitely the short stack at the table, she eventually had to pick two cards and go - A-6. When the lady who called hit the straight on the turn, Jennifer's night was done but not before she outlasted about half the field and several tournament regulars.

Over at table 36 Carrie was in a similar short stack position after the 1st break. Carrie quickly found herself down to the felt when she was dealt J-J and hit a third J on the flop. When two blanks came on the turn and river she moved All-In, was called, and her trip Jacks doubled her up. Later, using the hand that made her name on the 4SPT, Carrie "DJ Tanner" was able to take out 2 ladies in one hand (one of them a pro) when she made a full house.

Even though she was pulling down some nice pots, Carrie was in trouble when two monster chip stacks were reseated on either side, making it tough for her to play many hands. Finding her stack dwindling yet again, Carrie moved All-In before the flop and had two callers behind her – allowing the possibility of tripling up. The flop came K K 4. Since there were two callers, the cards had yet to be revealed. But we knew it couldn't be good when one of them (WPT’s own Kat Kowal) moved All-In only to be called by the Poker Babe. Kat flipped K J to make trip Kings and Poker Babe showed K Q to also make trip Kings but with the better kicker. It was about the only flop Carrie didn't want to see as she shook her head in disbelief and flipped her A-A. The turn brought a Q to give the Poker Babe a full house, essentially sealing the fate of Carrie and Kat. The river brought a 5 and Carrie slowly made her way out of the tournament still in shock that she held A-A with a chance to triple up but was unable to pull it out. So it goes in tournament poker.

Results
Jennifer - stayed alive for 1 1/2 hours outlasting half the field.
Carrie - stayed alive for 2 hours also outlasting a little over half the field. She was also able to bust out 4 people in total, two of them pros.
Nice work ladies!

After the girl's busted out, we made our way into the ‘Legends of Poker’ tournament to watch Doyle Brunson, Paul "Dot Com" Phillips and 11 others battle it out for seats to the final table. After watching the masters at work, we ran into the aforementioned Kat Kowal of the WPT, who busted out on the same hand as Carrie. It turns out she is second in command to Steve Lipscomb, the CEO of the World Poker Tour. She filled us in on the best poker scoop, gave us some tips of the trade, and even asked for Matt's resume to perhaps do some future post-production work on the WPT! Of course, we couldn't let an opportunity to plug 4SPT slip away - so we filled her in on all the latest and greatest of our own poker tour. She was thrilled to hear how the WPT inspired our home games and offered to send us official WPT chips and cards! She also said she would like to join the Tour when she has a Thursday night off.

It was definitely a great night all around. Keith, Matt, and I had a great time watching the girls in action and promoting the 4SPT with some of the greatest poker players out there. More importantly, Carrie and Jennifer proved that the ladies of the 4th Street Poker Tour are a force to be reckoned with. And be sure to stay tuned as the girls have already committed themselves to playing in another Bike ladies tournament on September 12th.

Comments

[Big Papa]

Great Job Ladies! Way to stick it to the pros! I'll be a little more hesitant to raise either of you on Thursday night. Also, awesome re-cap Jeff, way to the the 4spt out there.

[keith]

yes very good job ladies. eventho i felt like a highschool kid trying to sneak a peak into a strip club it was so fun and excited and I wasn't even playing! Saw sooo many poker pros. and got the picture with the lovely Miss Hiatt!!!

[Jennifer]

Thanks for all your support! It was so much fun and I'm glad you all encouraged me to do it.

[John Petro]

Good job ladies. Carrie, I feel your pain... I was knocked out with AA last Thursday, and it's not fun.

[Kristen McDonnell]

Jeff - Excellent re-cap! I've never played poker for money, but even I can totally follow your play-by-plays. Most importantly, your writing style makes the excitement palpable!

Jenn - Never thought I'd beam with joy and pride for you over poker experiences, but you've branched out and thrown yourself into something totally unexpected! Congrats!

[Carrie]

I had a blast! FYI the lady that took me out "Poker Babe" placed 16th in the tourney.