And then, there were two.
Early in today's action, Debra Lalor was eliminated from the Main Event in 117th place. A floor manager at the Garden City Casino just outside San Jose, CA, Lalor entered Day 5 of play with 372,000 chips, a little more than half of an average stack. After losing a race with pocket sevens vs. K-Q, Lalor found herself severely shortstacked and busted shortly thereafter.
Two women remain in the field that currently stands at 106-- a seasoned semi-pro and perhaps the top female tournament player in the game.
Oakland, CA's Sabyl Cohen may not be a household name in the poker world (yet), but she's been an active member of the rec.gambling.poker internet news group for years, winning numerous events at the group's annual tournament series known as "BARGE" (Big August Rec Gambling Excursion). She also has 3 final tables and one win in tournaments at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles in limit hold'em, S.H.O.E. and stud hi-lo. Applying to law school for Fall 2007, Cohen's top choices are Harvard, Yale, and Stanford after scoring in the top 2% on her LSAT...though perhaps her plans will change if she ends up $12 million richer.
After a roller-coaster Day 4, where she began with 309K, Sabyl saw her chip count crest to 1.6 million around midnight last night, and then dip back down to the 398K she starts with today. Sabyl's own updates on her progress in the Main Event can be found on her blog, and all of her virtual railbirds continue to cheer her on at rec.gambling.poker.
Annie Duke begins Day 5 with a very comfortable stack of 919,000. After a stellar 2004 in which she won her first WSOP bracelet, took 1st in a 2500 limit hold'em event at the Bellagio Five-Star and bested a table full of the game's top pros in the WSOP Tournament of Champions, Duke directed her energies more toward the business side of poker in 2005 and 2006. She developed a TV pilot for NBC based on her life story, starred in a poker game show for GSN, wrote her autobiography and took a leading role in fighting the World Poker Tour player release form, culminating in the lawsuit that was just filed against WPTE in which she and her brother Howard Lederer are plaintiffs. A mother to three daughters and a son, Duke recently moved her family from Portland, OR to the Hollywood Hills where she lives with her boyfriend, actor-director Joe Reitman. She also has a brand-new tattoo-- the words "say yes when nobody asked" appear above a floral vine that wraps all the way around her waist. I wonder how long that took to ink? Ouch!
I'll keep you updated the best I can today on both women. Media restrictions are getting tighter and floor access for red badges like myself is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain, but I'll do my best.
UPDATES:
1:45 PM - With blinds at 6000-12000, Cheng Yu raised from under the gun to 50K and Annie Duke re-raised to 300K. Yu called and they saw a flop of Ac Jd 7d. Yu checked, Duke bet 100K, and Yu instantly pushed all-in on her. Duke folded and Yu raked in the 700K pot. The hand crippled Annie, who is now on the short stack at 250K.
2:00 PM - Sabyl Cohen doubled up with A-A vs. A-K, increasing her stack to 960,000.
2:30 PM - Players are back from the first break of the day. Blinds have increased to 8000-16000 with a 2000 ante. At this level, it costs players 42K a round just to see their cards. Annie's M** is down to 6, while Sabyl's is at a comforable 23.
(**=Popularized by Dan Harrington's "Harrington on Hold'em," M is a player's means of calculating how many rounds they are able to last before being blinded off. An M above 20 is a nice stack to work with. An M below 5 means push and pray).
3:25 PM - Sabyl has 900K and Annie appears to have a little over 300K. Boyfriend and pigtail aficionado Joe Reitman is sweating her from the rail.
I also spotted WPT Champion Martin DeKnijff wearing a red press badge with some other dude's name on it so he could get a better view of some of his countrymen remaining in the Main Event, including Mikael Thuritz.
Remember this guy (right)? One of my potheads is still alive and is sitting two to Duke's left!
3:30 PM - Annie Duke just busted. Details forthcoming. Sabyl Cohen is 2006's top female finisher in the WSOP Main Event.
3:42 PM - Twelve minutes after Duke's bustout, CardPlayer has yet to record it. They have, however noted the addition of 25K chips into play because that news is so much more important.
Duke's 88th place finish of 8773 entrants is her best finish in the Main Event to date when it comes to the percentage of the field she outlasted. Coming in 88th this year, Duke beat out 99% of the field. In 1994 she finished 26/268 (top 9.7%), in 2000 she came in 10th out of 512 (top 2%), and in 2003 she was 47th of 839 (top 5.6%). Money-wise, she earned $51,129, only $1000 less than she earned in 2000 when she finished one off the final table.
3:55 PM - Finally, details on the hand. Annie moved in preflop with A-3 offsuit and Jeffrey Lisandro called with 8-8. The 9d-9s-3h flop gave her a small ray of hope and six outs to win, but the 2c and the 4c on the turn and river didn't bring her the help she needed.
4:02 PM - You wouldn't know it since the "official" media outlets aren't giving it a lick of coverage, but there's another $1500 bracelet event underway today. I saw 10 women seated at it's 13 tables including Barbara Enright, Michele Lewis, Jennifer Tilly, Vanessa Rousso and Shannon Elizabeth. Barry Greenstein and 2002 Main Event champion Robert Varkonyi are also still in action.
4:07 PM - Some of my European colleagues in the media room just reported that Duke is having "a bit of a cry" in the Ultimate Bet suite next door. Dude, if it were me I'd be having a bit of a cry, a bit of a valium, and a whole lot of vodka before calling my weed dealer and ordering up an ounce of Super Skunk.
4:24 PM - Sabyl has 994K. 83 players remain on 10 tables. The average stack is 1.05 million.
5:31 PM - Sabyl Cohen moved in on her opponent with the Ks-Js on a Kc-2h-9s-Kd board and her opponent called with Q-Q. The 5h didn't help him and Sabyl doubled up. She had about 600K before the hand began and though they're still counting the chips as I write this, she looks to be up to around 1.4 million.
5:57 PM - Sabyl has 1.3 million and has been quiet in the last half hour of action. I joined 2006 double-bracelet winner Bill Chen on the rail behind her table. Chen and Sabyl are both from the Bay Area and became friends through BARGE.
Chen was telling a spectator that the new black chips with yellow flecks that have been added to players' stacks are worth 10K. He paused and remarked with a laugh, "Each one of those black chips represents one person's whole buyin and now they're throwing them around the table!"
"One donkey for each black chip, right?" I remarked.
"Exactly!!" he replied, chucking. "I bet three donkeys. Well I raise you six!"
6:05 PM - With the elimination of our 73rd place finisher, the players just earned another money jump and all are guaranteed at least $90,713. The next money jump will be into a six figure payday of $123,699 once we hit 63 players.
This is unconfirmed, but the buzz on the floor is that play will go for five levels tonight or down to 54 players, whatever comes first.
6:52 PM - We're now on dinner break with 65 players remaining in the field. 11 more and we all go home for the night. Sabyl is still going strong with 1,020,000 in chips.
8:52 PM - Only 15 minutes after returning from dinner break, Sabyl saw her stack cut in half on a killer of a hand. On a 9s-6s-4c flop, Sabyl's opponent Raphael Doromal bet 300,000 and she reraised all-in, having him covered. Doromal called and showed the 4s-5s to Cohen's Ts-Td. Sabyl was slightly ahead on this flop-- about 53% to win. The 5c on the turn gave Doromal the lead and the 7h was of no help to Cohen. She's got about 500K left.
With 62 players remaining, we're into six figure payouts.
9:28 PM - Sabyl Cohen just ended a brilliant run in the 2006 WSOP Main Event, busting in 56th place. When I came back into the tournament room after dinner break, I didn't see her and I feared for the worst, but she had just been moved to the TV featured table. Never losing her cool, Sabyl was the shortest stack in the tournament when she got moved, and ended up pushing in with the Kd-8s. Eric Frieberg called her with the Jd-Th. The board came As-Th-Qh-4d-8c, sending her home with $123,699.
Sabyl was both gracious and dignified in defeat, shaking hands with the entire table and embracing her boyfriend, who had been sweating her from the stands.
"I got in with the best of it. But it was the hand with the tens that really killed me" she said, as she was escorted to the payout line to receive her winnings.
The last woman standing in the WSOP, Sabyl outlasted 8718 players, or 99.4% of the field. Though I'm sure she's disappointed right now, she has a helluva lot to be proud of.
