The Girls and the World Series of Poker

The ladies in the $10,000 main event at the World Series were outnumbered, as usual. Less than 4 percent of the players were members of the fairer sex, but the number of ladies who made the money and in fact made it deep into the tournament was impressive. It is true that none made it to the final table, but many of them gave the boys a serious run for their money.



Who were these ladies who did so well? First off, there was Allyn Jaffrey Shulman. I wish to discuss her first, not because she made it so far in the main event, but because I had to do battle with her for all of day two and half of day three. She pounced on anything that appeared to be weakness, never gave an inch, built up her stack on day two to more than $50,000, and then added to it on day three. She cruised into the money, and I felt fortunate that we did not have to play a major pot, only small pots, during those two days.



Next up was my good friend Susie Isaacs. You might recall that Susie not only won back-to-back ladies World Series titles last century, but also finished 10th in the main event once. Well, the last century includes the 1990s, so she was not that far in the distant past. She has not played in the main event every year, so given the chance to play this year, she made the most of it. She hung on with a small stack for a very long time, and made it into day four before falling by the wayside. She collected $30,512 for her efforts. I always tell people that I am a great short-stack player because I have had so much practice with them. The same can be said for Susie, but when she gets chips, she knows how to use them to bully the table. She has become perhaps the most prolific poker author among all the ladies, with three new books that just came out.



Kathy Liebert is now a very famous player among both men and women. Twice, she came in 17th in the main event. This year, she also lasted until late on day four. She finally went out 275th. No matter how high you finish, if you don't win it, you are not happy. This applies to the ladies as well as the men. She definitely did not have a happy look on her face when she bit the dust, and neither did Annie Duke, for that matter.



Annie at one point had amassed more than $900,000 in chips. She suffered some tough beats and eventually went out in the No. 88 spot. She is another lady who almost made the final table one year. She had to settle for 10th. The year she made this remarkable run, she was eight months pregnant. Phew, try playing poker in that condition for long hours. You men out there would never make it. It is a very good thing, indeed, that women have the babies. If they didn't, there would be far fewer people in the world today.



Last but certainly not least, we have Sabyl Cohen, who outlasted all the ladies and finished in 56th place. What a job! Sabyl is now a regular at such events as BARGE and ATLARGE, which feature Internet bloggers, brilliant people like Bill Chen (he won two bracelets this year), Lou Krieger, Andy Bloch, and Chris Ferguson, to name a few, and others of multiple talents and abilities. To describe what goes on at BARGE and ATLARGE would take another column all by itself. Suffice it to say that they enjoy themselves, and tight play will not get the money.



All the ladies and I can hardly wait to do it all over again next year. For those of you who are interested, I finished 371st and also went out on day four. I collected $34,636 and then had to face the ESPN cameras. I put on a brave face, but inside, I was not happy. I did get a large round of applause when my demise was announced to the crowd. Defending Champion Joe Hachem was the only former main-event champion to outlast me. Joe finally went down when he held pocket aces, was up against A-Q and pocket jacks, and a jack came. Joe finished in 238th place. It is ironic that for the second year in a row, the defending champion outlasted all of the other past champions in the main event.



Well, if our aces hold up and we don't get run over by the ladies, I hope to meet you soon in the winner's circle.



Tom McEvoy is a representative of PokerStars.com. He also is the voice of ProPlay, a new and innovative way to learn winning poker strategy. Find out more at www.ProPlayLive.com/tommcevoys.