Baumann Leads Final 117 as Day 1 Concludes
A wild Day 1 of Event 51, the $1,000 buy-in Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship is in the books. And all of those who bagged up chips are in the money, too, as the original field of 936 managed to play all of the way down to 117, meaning everyone who returns tomorrow will be sharing in the $842,400 prize pool.
There were a number of familiar faces among that huge field that nearly filled the spacious Brasilia ballroom to capacity, although most would leave us before we reached the night's exciting, bubble-bursting conclusion.
As the day wore on, Monica Hinojosa, Rae Rocco, Lara Boutros, and Delia Jones all took turns at the top of the chip counts as the field continued to winnow away. Then late in the day, Gaelle Baumann of France surged ahead to claim the lead, and more or less kept it right until the night's final hand.
In that final hand, it was J.J. Liu adding considerably to her stack after flopping a flush versus Halli Pinson, with the latter getting all of her chips in on the turn with two pair. The river provided no help for Pinson, and play concluded.
With that one Liu joined Lara Boutros, Anna Lundholm, Myra Thompson, Sofia Lovgren, and Erica Schoenberg in the group just behind Baumann at the top of the counts heading into Day 2.
Players will be returning at 2 PM tomorrow to continue the quest to find who among them will be earning the next WSOP gold bracelet. Come back then to follow along.