Mary Jones Takes 2006 WSOP $1,000 Ladies' No-Limit Hold'em Bracelet

"This is Ladies' Night, oh what a night!"

The 26 female players left in the $1,000 ladies' no-limit event entered action knowing that at the end of the day, one of them would be wearing a WSOP bracelet.

Play began at 4 p.m. PDT with $2,000-$4,000 blinds and $500 antes. Anjela Brunson, the daughter-in-law of poker legend Doyle Brunson, busted out in 20th place ($6,672) and two hours later only 10 players remained.

The final table started in the normal tournament area, but after Allen Cunningham's victory in the $1,000 no-limit rebuy event, the action switched to the ESPN featured table set.

With the fans packed in the bleachers and the TV cameras rolling, Mary Jones provided the first bustout of the "real" final table. She eliminated Lorrie Scott in tenth place ($25,662) when her A 7 paired an ace on the flop and Scott's pocket threes failed to improve.

Jones narrowed the field even more when she busted Devi Ortega only 20 minutes later. Ortega took home seventh place ($30,794) after moving all in with pocket tens, only to have Jones, who called with A 8, make her heart flush on the turn.

Surviving on a serious short stack, Julie Allen pushed her final $24,000 in preflop. She received calls from both Jones and Shanee Barton. After the 8 8 5 flop, Barton also moved all in, and Jones made that call too. Barton's pocket fives gave her a flopped full house. Allen's K Q and Jones's K 8 never caught up. Allen hit the rail in sixth ($35,927), while Barton's double-up moved her into second place.

Only minutes later, Barton hit another full house, fives full of eights, and eliminated Sue Lockenbaugh in fifth place ($41,095).

Barton continued to accumulate chips with her third consecutive knockout. Instead of flopping a full house, Barton, holding K 10, made an ace-high straight with the first three community cards. Reka Hallgato, all in preflop with pocket fours, bowed out as the third-place finisher ($51,324).

The term "hot streak" seemed to be a bit of an understatement when Barton took out a fourth opponent. She called a preflop all-in raise by Beatrice Stranzinger. Barton flipped up Q J while Stranzinger turned over A 5. The K Q 7 6 3 board paired Barton's queen and Stranzinger's day ended with a third-place finish ($71,340).

With play heads-up, the 2006 ladies' $1,000 no-limit hold'em title came down to three dramatic hands. On the first, Jones spiked a queen on the river to make an ace-high straight and crack Barton's set of eights.

Jones's double-up made the chip stacks close to equal. She then called a Barton all-in raise on a J 9 3 board with A 10, when Barton had a pair with the K 9. The 2 turn offered Jones no help, and Barton stood one card away from crippling her opponent. But the 10 river gave Jones a pair of tens. The win knocked Barton's stack down to less than $150,000.

On the final hand of the tournament, Barton pushed all in preflop for her remaining $140,000. Jones, with over $1 million in chips, made the call. Her Q 6 made her a statistical underdog to Barton's A 4. When the board came J 9 3 3, Barton's chances continued to improve. The 6 river, however, paired Jones' sixes and she won a huge hand on the river for the third time in heads-up play.

Barton netted $123,178 for her second-place finish.

Jones received her first WSOP bracelet and took home a $236,094 first-place cash prize.

Stay tuned to CardPlayer.com for live updates, chip counts, photos, videos and for new episodes of "The Circuit" and "The Series."

For more information on bracelet winners and other WSOP news stories please visit http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/wsop/2006s.

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