Once again, a lady joined today's ESPN TV table. Stephanie Klempner qualified online and is looking for her first major cash. She joined a stacked featured table including Randy "The Dreamcrusher" Jensen and the always-volatile Phil Hellmuth, Jr.
Top online player Amanda Baker of Boulder, CO has been active early, building her stack up to 16,000. I witnessed Baker make an amazing read when her opponent bet the river with A-7 unimproved and she made the call with only bottom pair. Amanda has won seats online to a number of $10K tournaments and cashed the WPT Foxwoods event last November.
Tracy Phan has more than doubled her starting chips and currently sits on 23,500. She busted the one other lady at her table when her K-K held up against her opponent's Q-Q on a 2-4-9-5-J board. Tracy appeared on the ESPN broadcast of the 2004 Ladies limit hold'em event in which she finished third.
David Williams must be giving his mother, Shirley some lessons, as she's up to 15,700. Though Alexandra Vuong had over 25K at one point, her stack has dropped to 5100. Vanessa Rousso was down all the way to 200, but has made quite the rally and built her stack back up to 9300. Vanessa showed up this afternoon believing it was her day to play, but discovered that she wasn't supposed to start until tomorrow. She was able to get in as an alternate at the very last minute. I saw her racing for her table decked out in a faded denim miniskirt, knee-high black leather stiletto boots and a fitted grey pinstripe jacket.
Annie Duke took a huge hit and mucked her cards when her opponent showed K-K on a 10-7-9-6-3 board. That pot took her down to 2700, though she has since rebounded to 4875. Her "Che Guevara" jacket hung off the back of her chair. Evelyn Ng sits at 7800 chips while Wendeen Eolis has 11,000. Early casualties today included Carmel Petresco, Shannon Elizabeth, and last year's top female finisher Tiffany Williamson.
I'll keep you updated on all these ladies throughout the evening.
UPDATES:
8:20 PM- Coming back from the dinner break, Vanessa Rousso is up to 12.5K. Wendeen Eolis and Evelyn Ng slipped to 10,200 and 6800 respectively. Alex Vuong is hanging on with 4500 and Annie Duke has 5500. Amanda Baker is cruising with an above-average stack of 18,500.
11:40 PM- Evelyn Ng busted when her jacks ran into queens on a flop the came all baby cards. Shirley Williams is en fuego with over 30K in chips, only 5K less than her bracelet-winning son. Actress Robin Tunney (above left) has 20,600 and Annie Duke has rebounded to 14,500. Vanessa Rousso slipped to 3500 and Wendeen still has about 10K. Amanda Baker has 14,700 and Alex Vuong is still on the short stack with 6100.
