2008 WSOP Event 15 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em World Championship

Individual Event Reports

Event 15 -- Ladies No-Limit Hold’em World Championship Day 1

In what could be called the largest gathering of women for a round of poker this year, 1190 entrants each paid $1000 to play in Event 15 for a beautiful gold WSOP bracelet that you can't even buy at Tiffany's. The top 91 will see cash from a $1,082,900 prize pool.And whoever becomes the new champion of this event will receive $224,702 for her efforts.

Names in the field like actress Camryn Manheim, Kathy Najimy, Mimi Rodgers, Cheryl Hines, Kathy Liebert, Vanessa Rousso, Anna Wroblewski, Linda Johnson, Maureen Feduniak, Katja Thater, Wendeen Eiolis chariman of the World Poker Association, Jennifer Tilly, Erica Schoenburg and Shirley Williams, mother of David Williams. It is different with the ladies than it is with the men as women will talk and sometimes explode in cheering. In fact, one player was threatened with expulsion if she continued with her loud outbursts. The WSOP is trying to enforce a new rule that cuts down on excessive noise.

But some of the ladies as worthy as they are of being seen, have to be busted out like anyone else. Camryn Manheim went out after her pocket K's ran into WPT's Linda Johnson who had pocket A's. Jennifer Tilly also busted out early along with Anna Wroblewski. Following them for a powder were Shirley Williams, Clonie Gowan, J.J. Liu, Angela Brunson, Beth Shak and Lily Mizrachi. But in another difference between the mostly male and mostly female events, when the money was reached, cheers went up and ladies hugged each other...at least from those that were left. At the end of the day when all the action was declared at an end, 61 will come back for Day 2 in order to compete for a final table seat.

1. Shavonne Mitchell -- 94,000
2. Alice Talbot -- 92,700
3. Roslyn Quarto -- 86,100
4. Olga Varkonyi -- 83,800
5. Christine Priday -- 82,900
6. Lisa Ahumada -- 74,100
7. Hoa Nguyen -- 71,800
8. Nancy Ricks -- 68,700
9. Tina Dubowy -- 67,900

Event 15 -- Ladies No-Limit Hold’em World Championship Day 2

Payout Schedule for Event 15 Final Table:

1. $224,702
2. $144,567
3. $87,715
4. $73,637
5. $60,101
6. $47,106
7. $36,277
8. $28,155
9. $20,034

1. Svetlana Gromenkova 553,000
2. Christine Priday 448,000
3. Patty Till 312,000
4. Debbie Mitchell 224,000
5. Sue Porter 211,000
6. Yesenia Garcia 210,000
7. Anh Le 191,000
8. Marla Crumpler 163,000
9. Roslyn Quarto 73,000

Event 15 -- Ladies No-Limit Hold’em World Championship Final Table

Here is an event summary as given by the WSOP:

The winner was Svetlana Gromenkova, from New York, NY. She was born near Moscow, Russia and immigrated to the United States about six years ago. "I want people to know I'm a good player," Gromenkova said afterward. "And they will know it now."

The second-place finisher was Anh Le, from San Jose, CA. Le has been the runner up in this event before. In 2005, she finished second to actress Jennifer Tilly. After the tournament ended, Gromenkova who was aware of her opponent's two second-place showings in this event, approached Le and said, "Nice job. I'm really sorry." Le took the gesture well and responded, "No – you played fantastic." Gromenkova collected $224,702 in prize money for first place. She also earned her first WSOP gold bracelet. The winner was also presented with a custom-designed gold and diamond ladies watch, exclusively designed by Corum USA. WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack made the official presentation to the new champion.

The final table lasted about six hours. On the heads up between Anh Le with 890,000 chips and Svetlana Gromenkova having 1,477,000 chips there were only 27 hands played. The winning hand for Svetlana went as follows, Anh raised and Svetlana went all-in of which Anh called. Svetlana has pocket K's to Anh's A 6. The flop has 10 9 7, turn card a K and river an A giving Svetlana her first World Series of Poker bracelet and the title of champion!

1. Svetlana Gromenkova $224,702
2. Anh Le $144,567
3. Patty Till $73,637
4. Christine Priday $87,715
5. Marla Crumpler $60,101
6. Debbie Mitchell $47,106
7. Roslyn Quarto $36,277
8. Yesenia Garcia $28,155
9. Sue Porter $20,034